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Letter: Time to create a new county

(Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)

Thank you, Salt Lake Tribune, for two articles Sunday that clearly show why HB93 allowing residents of a county to create their own “Community of Interest” by forming a new county makes sense.

The article “Disgruntled S.L. County cities talking divorces?” outlines the issues the south end of Salt Lake County face — growth, transportation, economic development — and recent examples where Salt Lake County has not represented the interests of local residents — approval of Olympia Hills ultra-high density housing and killing the Facebook data center project.

The article “Ready to get to work” outlines the priorities of Shireen Ghorbani, elected to Salt Lake County Council by the Democratic Central Committee — affordable housing, with high density, using tax-increment policies that municipalities across the county must share.

Here is a clear contrast. Duly elected leaders of communities struggling to manage growth without equitable allocation of resources from Salt Lake County, compared with our newest Salt Lake County Council member who reflects the same Salt Lake City and East Bench bubble and utter lack of understanding what a large segment of her constituents care about.

Might I suggest we name our new county Jordan River, and can we get it done by 2020?

Troy Rushton, Riverton

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