Powder Mountain Update: Commissioner Dearden Hints That Negotiations Near Completion

Keeping our fingers crossed Commissioner Dearden won't "negotiate away the store"

It's been a little over three months since the Weber County Commission tabled consideration of the "Powderville" town incorporation petition, and entered into negotiations with the Powder Mountain Developer to seek a compromise which would prevent the formation of a new company town, with the attendant political disenfranchisement of those Weber County citizens who are unlucky enough to reside within its borders.

This morning's Standard-Examininer reports a possible breakthrough in negotiations. We incorporate the pertinent paragraphs from this morning's Brooke Nelson story below:

EDEN — Powder Mountain officials have put their plans to become their own town on hold and will continue negotiating other options with Weber and Cache counties, the Cache County Commission learned this week.
Weber County Commissioner Craig Dearden attended the Cache commission meeting on Tuesday in Logan along with a representative from Powder Mountain.
“I was there to confirm information about the negotiations taking place,” he said.
Dearden asked the ski resort in March to hold off on its proposal to become incorporated and, instead, work toward a compromise with Weber County.
Since that time, Dearden said he has met with Powder Mountain officials five or six times.
To Dearden’s knowledge, Tuesday’s meeting was the first time the Powder Mountain group let Cache County know of the change in plans.
“As far as I know, nobody had talked to them,” he said.
Negotiations between the resort and the two counties the development would impact have been largely separate up to this point, Dearden said. As the groups get closer to an agreement, though, the three groups will have to work together more closely.
If things go well, negotiations between Weber County and Powder Mountain could possibly be complete in the next three weeks, he said. [Emphasis added].

Up until this point, the prospect of successful County commission-propelled negotiations have seemed anything but bright, inasmuch as the Powder Mountain developer's bargaining posture has been, shall we say, hard-nosed. For example, as we noted in an update to this this earlier article, the Developer, being on the brink of completion of it's township petition application, opened negotiations by demanding a near threefold increase in the number of residential units to be permitted upon the development site, over and above the earlier recommendations of the Ogden Valley Planning Commission:

To the surprise of nobody with functioning grey matter... the Powder Mountain people responded to the County Commission's negotiation overtures, by upping the ante from the initially-proposed 3700 units at Powder Mountain to 9000 units. So much for "good faith bargaining," we snarkily observe.

We did have an opportunity to speak briefly in late March with commissioner Craig Dearden, who, according to the most recent media reports, is in charge of the county's side of ongoing negotiations. Dearden told us at the time that he believed the county had substantial bargaining leverage in this matter. Although he was nonspecific, he did admit that the prospect of a citizen lawsuit was one of several factors which would keep the Powder Mountain Developer at the bargaining table, negotiating in good faith.

At the very least, we'll chalk up today's story as an indication that we're about to open the next chapter in the Powderville saga. Whether any negotiated settlement will even remotely resemble the original recommendation of the Ogden Valley Planning Commission is anybody's guess. Hopefully Commissioner Dearden won't negotiate away the store.

It's been a long and valiant fight for the beleaguered citizens of Ogden Valley. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed for an acceptable outcome.