Supporters of incorporation for Stansbury Park are getting close to gathering enough signatures to put the issue on a ballot.
“We are still collecting signatures,” said Wade Hadlock, contact sponsor for the incorporation petition. “We are getting close, but we still have plenty of time.”
Hadlock did not disclose the number of signatures collected to date.
The petition sponsors have one year from the last required official public hearing on incorporation to file the petition with the Tooele County Clerk’s office, according to state law.
The last legally required public hearing for Stansbury Park incorporation was on Feb. 5. That gives the proponents of an incorporation election until Feb. 6, 2016 to submit the petition to the county clerk.
To be successful at getting incorporation on a ballot the petition must have the signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters within the proposed incorporation area.
The proposed Stansbury Park City currently has 4,367 registered voters. The petition sponsors will need to collect 437 signatures to have 10 percent, according to Marilyn Gillette, Tooele County Clerk/Auditor.
State law also requires that the signatures represent 10 percent of the registered voters from 90 percent of the voting precincts within the proposed new city.
Once the petition is filed with the county clerk, the clerk has 45 days to determine if the petition meets the requirements of state law.
If the clerk rejects the petition, the petition sponsors have 30 days to correct the deficiencies and resubmit the petition.
Once the clerk presents the certified petition to the Tooele County Commission, the commission sets the date for an incorporation election.
State law allows the county commission to either put incorporation on a general election ballot or to schedule a special local election that is at least 65 days after the date they received the petition.
It is possible that Stansbury could vote on incorporation as soon as this fall, according to Hadlock.
“We could have the signatures collected in time for the commissioners to schedule an election this fall,” said Hadlock. “Or it could be on the ballot for the general election in November 2016.”
Hadlock said he prefers the election to be held in the fall along with another election, as opposed to a special election in June.
“A November election would attract more voters and that would be good,” he said.
Only registered voters that live within the boundaries of the proposed new city can vote on incorporation. If a majority of those voters vote for incorporation, then the area will be incorporated, according to state law.
In July 2014, Tooele County Clerk Marilyn Gillette presented the Tooele County commissioners with a certified petition that requested an incorporation feasibility study for Stansbury Park.
The proposed boundary for Stansbury Park City included the area around the Benson Gristmill and ran southwest along SR-138 and then headed south to the east end of Stansbury Park. The west boundary jogged to the east a few times before it reached Bates Canyon Road.
The east boundary ran north from Bates Canyon Road to a point north of where SR-36 joins SR-138.
The south boundary took in a 49-acre development in progress on the southwest corner of Bates Canyon Road and SR-36.
To be eligible to incorporate, state law requires the average annual revenue of the proposed new city to not exceed projected annual expenses by more than five percent.
The incorporation feasibility study for Stansbury Park, completed by Lewis Young Robertson and Burningham, a Salt Lake City-based firm that provides financial advisory and consulting services for local governments, found that the proposed incorporation area met the requirements for incorporation.
The study also found that if incorporated in 2015, Stansbury Park City would need to spend $2,229,518 to provide the same level of public safety, roads, general government, community development, and economic development that the area now receives from Tooele County.
The proposed Stansbury Park City would have revenue of $1,974,540 from sales tax, motor vehicle fuel tax, licensing and permits, and the existing municipal services property tax rate set by the county.
An additional $254,978 in property tax revenue would be required to balance the budget.
The additional property tax would amount to $61.36 on a $170,000 home for 2015, according to the study.
However, by 2019 property owners in Stansbury Park will pay the same amount of property tax that they would have paid if the city did not incorporate, according to Cody Deeter, vice president of Lewis Young Robertson and Burningham, who presented the study’s findings at two required public hearings.
The proposed incorporation of Stansbury Park is one of two incorporation efforts underway in Tooele County. The other is in Lake Point.
