By katie Drake

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Cottonwood Heights • Skiers should see more parking at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon as early as next year now that Cottonwood Heights has approved a plan to share tax revenue with a developer.

The City Council, acting as the Community Development and Renewal Agency, on Tuesday approved several interlocal agreements with other taxing entities to create a Community Development Area for the proposed Canyon Center.

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Entities such as the Canyons School District and Salt Lake County have pledged an average of 75 percent of future tax revenue they would gain over the next 25 years to the project, which will create two hotels, an office complex, several restaurants, a public parking structure, new park and trails at the site of the former Canyon Racquet Club.

Chris McCandless plans to develop the property with or without a CDA. But the development would lack public amenities such as parking and a park with an amphitheater without public funds, and instead would include an apartment complex.

"If we are going to provide public amenities, public participation should be there," McCandless said, adding that the development will add more than 1,200 parking stalls and a pedestrian bridge over Wasatch Boulevard, giving skiers easy access up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The 11-acre property would also feature several local restaurants — such as a brew pub and an Italian place — along with eight warming fire pits, plazas and a 200-seat amphitheater, in addition to the hotels and office buildings. Infrastructure work could begin in four to six weeks, McCandless said, with buildings under construction by the end of the year. The entire development would take five to eight years to build out.

"The nice thing about this is we are able to take tax increment that would otherwise not be there and use it for a public purpose," Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, Jr. said, expressing his support for the project. "If Chris is able to do everything he hopes to do, this will be an all-star development."

But while the project has appeal, many residents remain opposed to using public funds to develop the property, said Will McCarvill of the group CHVoters. Though McCarvill admits the current plans are better than the original development, which had no public amenities, he feels the property is a prime piece of real estate that doesn’t need public funds. McCarvill also objects to taking money away from the Canyons School District to give to developers.

But opting out of the CDA would mean apartments, which would bring more children — and require an estimated $62,000 to educate them, said Canyons District spokesman Jeff Haney. The district could expect about $153,000 a year in profit from the apartments, Haney said, as opposed to $122,000 under the CDA. But after paying the 70 percent increment for 20 years, the district would see its share of tax revenue jump to an estimated $394,000 each year, Haney said. The school board felt the long-term investment was worth the up front cost.

The development has proved popular with taxing entities, with only the Cottonwood Improvement District opting out. The CDA did not make financial sense for the district, which manages sewer collection and water reclamation for the city, said general manager Jim Faulkner. The development will require the sewer line on 7000 South to be enlarged to handle additional flow, Faulkner said, which will cost the Improvement District an estimated $1.5 million. Impact fees from the project are only expected to pay about one-third of that cost.

"That’s a significant amount for the district to have to pay out, plus give up our share of property tax as well," Faulkner said. "We felt like we’re doing more than our part."

Entities participating in the CDA include the Canyons School District, Salt Lake County and the Salt Lake County Library system, the Cottonwood Heights Parks and Recreation Service Area, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the South Salt Lake Valley Mosquito Abatement District and Cottonwood Heights City.