Utah Legislature: Brief effort to annex Snowbird falls short

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News)  — After a brief legislative run, the bill that would have allowed Snowbird to join Sandy died Tuesday.

The Utah Senate struck the enacting clause of the proposal that would have paved the way for Sandy to annex the resort and instead referred the idea to this summer's interim for further study. The legislation's sponsor, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said the bill "is not ready for prime time."

Salt Lake County Council members didn't seem surprised about the decision and agreed the next step was a long conversation with Snowbird.

"We just need to go sit down and have a pretty open dialogue," said Councilman Michael Jensen. "Hopefully, we haven't gotten to the point where we can't have an open discussion."

Councilman Randy Horiuchi said he's pleased with the decision, especially after all the county has done for the resort, including building a fire station across from Solitude to service the canyon, approving construction and zoning plans, and implementing a huge canyon ticketing program.

"We have a good track record with them," Horiuchi said. "We just have to remind them."

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said he was glad the bill failed.

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