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Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams emphasized continuity in his first group of nominees for seats on the new Mountainous Planning Commission.

Three of the five nominees interviewed last week by the County Council have been members of the county's Planning Commission, which had overseen planning and zoning matters in Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood canyons before the creation of the much-larger Mountainous Planning District.

This new district's boundaries extend from Little Cottonwood to Parleys Canyon and also include Mill Creek Canyon. Its formation is part of McAdams' effort to treat the county's central Wasatch Mountain terrain holistically, with land-use issues decided by a planning commission well-versed in mountain matters and balanced between competing interests.

The commission will have nine members and two alternates, all subject to County Council approval. The next group of nominees will be interviewed Dec. 8.

Providing continuity and historical knowledge of what's gone on in the canyons will be important in achieving the mayor's goals, county Planning Commission members had said as the proposed district went through its approval process.

McAdams concurred, nominating county Planning Commission Chairman Neil Cohen and fellow commissioners Tod Young and Bryan O'Meara for seats on the new board.

O'Meara, who owns Porcupine Pub & Grille and The Dodo restaurant in the Salt Lake Valley, also is a Big Cottonwood Canyon resident. The county's Planning Commission also had recommended canyon residents or property owners be given priority for seats on the new board.

"I bring to the table a balance between what's needed for business and also the ecology and the beauty of the Wasatch," said O'Meara, who moved to Salt Lake City in 1989 to attend the University of Utah, becoming a partner in Brackman Brothers Bagels.

Cohen has been on the county Planning Commission for 2½ years after wrapping up a 23-year career with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, where he was over licensing and compliance.

He spent 16 years before that at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort, running the food and beverage department, and is working again for the resort as a part-time customer-service representative and archivist.

A county Planning Commission member since 2007, Young said he "really enjoys the work. I've been acquainted with so many of the different issues. … I'd like to just be able to continue on with that until I'm satisfied everything is on a good track and will continue to stay on a good track."

Like Cohen and Young, nominee Catherine Kanter is a resident of Granite at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Kanter said she has done research for the Granite Community Council, tapping skills developed as a commercial real-estate attorney with a law firm in Chicago.

"I love the canyons very much and am interested in seeing them protected in an appropriate manner," she said. "At the same time, I'm a realist and I know growth and development are inevitable. I want us to be smart about that development."

The only nominee to receive pointed questions was Laura Briefer, deputy director of the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities since July and a longtime voice of the city's watershed-protection creed.

County Councilman Steve DeBry questioned whether Briefer's professional duties posed a conflict of interest to her membership on the new planning commission.

She does not believe they do because the city's "extraterritorial authority" in the canyons over watershed issues does not include direct land-use authority.

"I come as an individual with integrity," Briefer said, "and would definitely disclose a conflict if a conflict real or perceived arose."