Deseret Peak Complex could soon be within Grantsville City’s limits.
A petition to annex roughly 3,200 acres east of Grantsville’s current city limits, including Deseret Peak Complex and Miller Motorsports Park, was filed this month and will be on the agenda for final approval from the Grantsville City Council on Nov. 5.
The plan to widen the boundaries to include the facilities has been in the works for years, said Mayor Brent Marshall, who noted he has worked on the project since 2010.
“There’s a list of rules you have to comply with, so it’s taken a considerable amount of time to do it,” he said. “It’s been quite an accomplishment to get to this point.”
In order to annex property, more than half of the property owners in the area must be in favor of the plan. The work to annex the parcel has also included a service agreement to the area.
The annexation would extend Grantsville City boundaries east to Sheep Lane and would include 37 acres of commercial property east of Sheep Lane currently being leased by Cabela’s and between SR-112 and north of Miller.
Beginning in 2015, affected property owners would be taxed under Grantsville City’s rate, and no longer pay taxes for the North Tooele County Fire District and new Tooele County Municipal Service taxes.
Marshall said, however, because most of the land is open space, it is unlikely governing bodies would notice much of a difference.
“The majority of the property is in greenbelt status, so a tax change is going to be very minimal,” he said.
Two residences are also included in the proposed annexation.
Currently, Tooele City provides sewer services to Deseret Peak and Miller Motorsports Park, while Grantsville provides water and sewer services to the Miller Business Park.
Marshall said the city’s plan is to take over sewer services for Deseret Peak and Miller by 2016. The city’s current and future service plans have spurred their plans to annex the complex, he said.
“There was an agreement that they would eventually annex into Grantsville City after a short time, and I guess that’s what the debate has been about, what was a short time,” Marshall said. “I guess we decided the time has been long and we should take those properties that we have been servicing because in the city [code] now we won’t extend our services outside the boundaries unless they’re being annexed into the city.”
Any tax revenue from those properties should go to the city, as well, to help defray the costs of that service, the mayor said.
“It would be a taxing benefit to the city, and if you’re providing the services to an area, you should probably receive the taxes from an area, and that’s all we’re trying to do,” he said. “It’s been quite a process to get there.”
Although the property has been on Grantsville’s long-term plan for the better part of the millennium, the area has also been in some of Tooele City’s future annexation plans.
The initial annexation petition for the Deseret Peak Annexation was filed at the Oct. 1 Grantsville City Council meeting, and notice of the city recorder’s certification of the annexation petition was given at the Oct. 15 meeting.
This is Grantsville’s largest annexation since roughly 7,900 acres were brought into city limits in January 2011. With that annexation, Grantsville became the county’s largest city, land-wise, with an area of 30.1 square miles — more than double the old area of 17.9 square miles.
The proposed new annexation would increase the city’s geographical size to roughly 35 square miles.