A group of East Side landowners who formed a committee more than two years ago to create a plan for developing a new town may be one step closer to accomplishing their goal.

Representatives from the Cedar Crest Village Overlay Committee, which consists of 25 Hoytsville property owners, along with staff from the Summit County Planning Department, will present a draft for future land use to the Eastern Summit County Planning Commission on Thursday.

The committee, which started in 2019, wants to create a village using approximately 1,000 acres of land in the Hoytsville area to address concerns of growth and development on the East Side. The same year, the group submitted a village overlay application and has been working towards developing a future land-use map based on what they’ve determined as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

According to county code, the purpose of a village overlay is to revitalize and reestablish existing, unincorporated communities in eastern Summit County. The process helps ensure comprehensive, community-specific plans for land use and addresses how to implement ordinances that pertain to current and future community needs.

Local landowners are the driving force behind the process but receive support and guidance from county staff ahead of the village overlay’s possible adoption into the Eastern Summit County General Plan. They’re also drafting an ordinance that addresses topics like land use, density, development standards and infrastructure.

The group’s members have pushed for more freedoms with their land in recent years. Many of them wanted to be annexed into Coalville in 2017, which was different from an unsuccessful effort in 2018 to incorporate Hoytsville.

With the creation of a new town, members of the Cedar Crest Village Overlay Committee want to provide a safe street system that allows for movement between residential neighborhoods, the village core and surrounding land. They also want infrastructure like sidewalks and trails as well as housing opportunities for first-time homeowners and seniors and a space for local start-up or commercial businesses in the village core.

Committee members are also considering the need to reserve land and to plan ahead for institutional uses in addition to recreational opportunities and space reserved for the community. Future constraints and opportunities will be considered as they arise.

Based on the most recent map, the proposal includes 46 acres for mixed use, 391 acres for mixed residential, 303 acres for low-density residential, with the remaining acreage possibly designated as open space.

Although the buildout would be likely to occur over several decades, the Cedar Crest Village Overlay Land Use Plan helps guide certain growth and development on the East Side to the goals set by the landowners and community.

Members of the committee and county staff plan to continue meeting monthly to develop a written draft of the village plan, which will include guidelines and regulations to help guide the pattern of development that they seek, according to a staff report. The plan will then be presented to the public in a series of meetings and workshops which the group hopes will occur in late February or March.

Planning Department staff are also requesting that a public hearing on the proposed future land-use map be held. Other topics that require input from staff include infrastructure funding alternatives, ways to incentivize growth within the village and the concept of a growth area boundary and the best practices, policies and strategies for sustainable rural development.

The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m. via Zoom on Thursday.