This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Christie Hutchings will represent the west side on the new Mountainous Planning Commission — and not as an alternate.
The Salt Lake County Council unanimously approved her appointment as the final member of the planning commission created to handle land-use issues that arise in its recreationally rich, economically valuable and environmentally sensitive central Wasatch Front canyons.
But while Mayor Ben McAdams received plaudits for picking a qualified west-sider to serve on the new board, the council rejected his request to have her start out as an alternate.
His reasoning? Since its inception in December, this new planning commission already held several meetings on a 52-page staff proposal to make complex and potentially controversial revisions to the county's Foothills and Canyons Overlay Zone (FCOZ) ordinance.
McAdams and Councilman Jim Bradley, who was involved in creating FCOZ, thought it would be better if that process continued with the formal involvement of Holladay resident Jim Palmer, who is one of two alternates on the nine-member board.
Palmer knows the ordinance and the issues, they said, and it would be valuable to have him remain in place until the planning commission was done and forwarded a proposed ordinance to the County Council.
"It's not that you don't have the skills, but Jim [Palmer] has the history," Bradley said to Hutchings, a South Jordan resident and a planner for Lehi City.
Councilman Steve DeBry, who represents the southwest valley and had pushed McAdams to have a west-sider on the planning commission, took umbrage at the request.
"It's a little off-putting," if not disrespectful, he said, noting he did not dispute Palmer's qualifications "but I don't think he'd be more qualified."
Councilman Richard Snelgrove backed DeBry. "Doing what Jim suggested … would put us where the west side doesn't have the representation that I feel they deserve," he said. "We would be short-changing folks on the west side if we reversed course."
McAdams said he did not want to fight with the council over this appointment, but justified his request because of the need to "find consensus around FCOZ. You know how contentious that can be."
The administration had no interest in denying anyone representation, he said, "but the meetings are 75 percent done. Maybe it makes sense to have [Palmer] in the meetings through to the end?"
But, McAdams added, "if the County Council feels [the alternate request] is disrespectful or controversial, let's move ahead with it the way the council feels is most appropriate."
It did, voting to make Hutchings the new planning commission's final member and keep Palmer an alternate.
After being a city planner for 16 years, attending scores of planning commission meetings, Hutchings said "I wanted to sit on the other side of the table and be involved in making decisions."