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Gas station, lumber company lease space near Brown’s Canyon

Patrick Parkinson, Of the Record staff

Politicians in Wasatch County were accused of snubbing commuters in South Summit when crews recently began realigning Brown’s Canyon Road near S.R. 248 to make room for development north of Jordanelle State Park.

The new road will force Oakley residents driving to Park City to climb an additional 1,200 feet on S.R. 248 before they can glide downhill to Quinn’s Junction.

Wasatch County officials this fall intend to connect the new Brown’s Canyon highway with Jordanelle Parkway where commercial development underway near Todd Hollow has already caught the attention of Parkites.

"We’ve recreated up here for years it is frustrating and disappointing and disconcerting and everything you want to say," Highland Estates resident Tony Winterer said while parked Monday near the project alongside S.R. 248. "They destroy habitat for mule deer and it’s a visual eyesore the way they’ve done it."

But two tenants Stock Building Supply and Maverick Country Store have already agreed to lease space at Iroquois, realtor Tom Flinders said, adding, "we’ve just been amazed at the interest."

"I could see some type of highway commercial going in there, like a convenience store, maybe some fast-food restaurant," Wasatch County Senior Planner Doug Smith said. "Eventually, the idea was that there would be kind of a neighborhood market."

Roughly 132,000 square feet of commercial development was approved at the S.R. 248/Jordanelle Parkway intersection, Smith added.

"I’ve told them, hey listen, this isn’t the standard deal where you throw up a metal building with a flat roof. They’ve got to do something that blends in," Smith said. "We’re concerned about the lighting and the night sky."

Housing and commercial development is planned on 210 acres around Iroquois, he added.

"Our plan was always to have a four-way intersection with Jordanelle Parkway and Brown’s Canyon," Smith said, adding that 271 condominiums are slated for construction north of Iroquois in the Black Rock Ridge project along both sides of Wasatch County’s portion of Brown’s Canyon Road. "We won’t allow any (condominium) building permits until Brown’s Canyon (Road) is done."

Summit County Commissioner Ken Woolstenhulme insisted he would not shop at the new businesses after commissioners begged the Wasatch County Council not to alter Brown’s Canyon Road.

Heavy truck traffic generated by rock quarries in the canyon should concern residents who plan to live along the highway, he claimed.

"We’re not happy with what’s going on there, but there is nothing we can do about it, evidently," Woolstenhulme said during a telephone interview Tuesday. "Because of it being in Wasatch County, I wouldn’t patron it when it gets built."

Woolstenhulme blamed what he sees as strict zoning laws in the Snyderville Basin for pushing new businesses away from Quinn’s Junction up the hill to Wasatch County.

"They’re going to gobble up all the tax base," he said.

Woolstenhulme concedes mistakes were made when county officials planned the Kimball Junction area several years ago. But Quinn’s, near the intersection of S.R. 248 and U.S. 40, could accommodate many of the businesses currently eyeing property in Wasatch County near Brown’s Canyon, he said, adding, "there is a lot that could happen in there."

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