Opposed to Dakota Pacific? The deck is stacked against you.

What a surprise. Summit County moved the Dakota Pacific meeting from November 17th to December 1st.

Why would they ever do that?

It could be because there was a problem with the meeting space or because a County Councilor couldn’t make it.

However, my bet is it’s because Summit County wants to hamper the campaign against the development.

Let’s take a step back and talk about who is FOR and AGAINST this development.

In my opinion, on the FOR side, we have Dakota Pacific, Summit County Planning Department, and most of the Summit County Council.

On the AGAINST side, we have the people.

What the County seems to be doing is an age-old tactic. There is a petition against the effort with more than 3,000 signatures. Countless letters have been written against the development. Over 500 people were likely to show up and speak against Dakota Pacific on November 17th.

So, if you are a government organization that doesn’t like the way things are going, what do you do?

Postpone and delay. Change the playfield. I can imagine the County Council saying, “How can we vote for a proposal when 500 people, over 3 hours, speak against the development on November 17th? What can we do?” Then someone says, “delay it.”

What Dakota and Summit County are likely doing is fivefold.

• First, they want distance between all the negative letters to the Park Record and the vote.
• Second, they want to line up their own positive letters in the Park Record that can be run right before the vote.
• Third, they are depending on Thanksgiving to remove the energy.
• Fourth, they need to line up people to speak at the meeting in December 1st.
• Fifth, Dakota is likely slightly altering their proposal with something that will “sound” better than the current proposal and will allow the County Council to say that they are voting for this proposal because Dakota is working with them and this new shining thing makes it worth it, even though the public is against it.

It’s all theater designed for them to find a way for the Summit County Council to vote for a bad development.

If you are against Dakota Pacific’s proposal, you have work to do.

• If you have written a letter to the Park Record, you need to write another one. There are so many reasons to oppose this devleopment. There have to be other points that you didn’t bring up the first time. Letters matter.
• If you haven’t written a letter, write one. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Three sentences that explains how you feel about this development is all you need. Here is how you do it. https://www.parkrecord.com/opinion/letters/
• Keep emailing the County Council. It probably won’t make a difference because, although they are supposed to represent their electorate, they don’t seem to be doing that here.
• Watch for changes in the last minute and don’t let those change the debate.
• Most importantrly… Show up on December 1st. Your voice matters.

It’s hard when the people are fighting against government interests. Government has all the power. We the people don’t have the power, but we do have the numbers.

Dakota Pacific’s development would negatively alter the corridor to Park City. It will negatively impact traffic. It will negatively impact water. It will negatively impact our schools. It won’t put a dent in affordable housing. The people have shown they are against this. We need to keep up the fight. We can stop Dakota Pacific. We can’t allow the powers that be to go against what people want and continue this horrible development.

They are trying, but we need to say no. Keep up the good fight.