The Tooele County Planning Commission chairman pledged that the commission will step up and make sure the developer of Saddleback lives up to a 19-year-old development agreement.
“The county has not lived up to their responsibility,” said planning commission chairman Lynn Butterfield. “This planning commission is now standing up to fulfill their responsibility as volunteer citizens to make sure the county lives up to its responsibility to its citizens. We are taking a more active role to make sure the agreement is fulfilled on both sides.”
Butterfield’s statement came during the public comment period of Wednesday night’s planning commission meeting.
During the meeting, the commission approved the preliminary and final plat for plat 5 of the Pastures at Saddleback.
Plat 5 contains 37 lots. It also contains an extension of Cobblerock Road to Sunset Road. After the Cobblerock extension is complete, a portion of Lakeshore Drive will be closed, according to a road vacation request approved by the Tooele County Commission last week.
State code and county code do not require a public hearing for preliminary and final plats, so public comments on the Saddleback plat came during the public comment period at the end of the meeting.
Several Lake Point residents used the public comment period to register their complaints about the approved plat and the Saddleback development agreement.
Jim Willes of Lake Point commented that while the development agreement calls for Saddleback to set aside 50 percent open space on a phase-by-phase basis, three phases have been approved totaling 87 acres with no open space designated.
Willes also said that the development agreement calls for a buffer between Saddleback’s lower density homes and other Lake Point homes. Plat 5, as approved, puts Saddleback’s 8,000-square-foot lots with curb and gutter adjacent to Lake Point’s one-acre rural residential neighborhoods, according to Willes.
Lake Point resident Jonathan Garrard said the plat just approved by the planning commission did not meet the minimum setbacks required by the Saddleback development agreement.
One Lake Point resident offered a map showing an alternate route for Saddleback Boulevard, the main collector route through the development.
Another Lake Point resident expressed concern about the loss of ready access to the foothills for horseback riding.
“Your comments aren’t falling on deaf ears,” Butterfield said. “We have asked staff to work with us to review the agreement to help us fulfill our responsibility as a county to our citizens.”
Chris Robinson, managing director of Saddleback Partners, spoke near the end of the public comment period.
“I appreciate the public comment,” he said. “We plan to keep every jot and tittle of the agreements with the county. I look forward to engaging the county and the public.”
The Saddleback PUD includes 2,585 acres of land southeast of homes in the currently unincorporated area of Lake Point. It has an average density of one home per acre.
However, the Saddleback development agreement allows for homes on lots as small as 8,000-square-feet while requiring 50 percent of the total area be designated as open space.
Approved by the county commission in 1998, the terms of the development agreement run for 50 years.