Summit County Hires Consultant to Plan Senior Services After Assisted Living Closure

Deputy County Manager Janna Young gave the Summit County Council a precise deadline last week: the consultant the county is hiring to rebuild its senior services framework must deliver findings by August 2026, the last window before budget decisions for 2027 are locked in. Behind that deadline is a 16-month absence of any assisted living care in a county where roughly 5,857 residents are 65 or older and where the only facility that ever served them shut down with barely six weeks' notice.

That facility, Elk Meadows Assisted Living & Memory Care in Oakley, closed December 1, 2024. Owner Gary Beynon of Colina Real Estate Partners notified residents on October 17 and 18, 2024, roughly 45 days before the doors closed, citing ongoing financial losses as the reason for selling the 42-room building. Families had organized protests outside the facility and at city council meetings in September 2024, before the closure was made official. Former residents were dispersed to care homes in Heber City, Holladay, and Lindon. Midway-based Chateau Recovery, an addiction and trauma treatment center, was reported to be looking to move into the building after the closure.

Young and County Manager Shayne Scott presented the senior services update as part of the county's 2026 work plan. The consultant, once selected through the county's request for proposals process, will be charged with producing a comprehensive assessment covering the level of programming Summit County needs for older residents, the costs of building that programming, and the feasibility of a continuing care retirement facility. A second phase involving a full feasibility study is not expected to begin before 2027.

The financial case for building anything is steep. The American Health Care Association reports that the average operating margin for a continuing care facility nationwide is negative 19 percent. Commercial developers have noted that potential operators prefer facilities with around 125 beds, a scale Summit County's population of roughly 43,500 may not support. Elk Meadows operated with 42 rooms.

Councilor Tonja Hanson has been the council's most consistent advocate for faster action since the closure. She pressed county staff to treat senior services as a priority, noting that the aging population would continue to grow older as the county worked toward a solution.

Young also raised the possibility of involving the Summit County Housing Authority in conversations about deed-restricted senior housing. The Housing Authority is currently piloting voucher programs and accessory dwelling unit incentives, and the agency is expected to meet with the County Council at some point this month to discuss options specific to older residents, offering a near-term opportunity for public engagement on affordable senior housing.

The county is also weighing physical space for senior programming. The PEAK Center in Kimball Junction, the county's government services building housed in the former Skullcandy headquarters, is being considered as a site for senior programs run through the library system. A new senior center for Park City is planned for the Mawhinney Parking Lot site along Park Avenue near the Park City Library, following a feasibility presentation to the Park City Council in May 2025. The existing Park City Senior Center has been staffed four days a week since March 2024 and expanded hot lunch service to all four of those days in January 2026.

Young acknowledged that the county's longstanding model of investing in a single senior center has limited access for residents on the East Side of the county and for those without reliable transportation. That geographic reality will be one more variable for the incoming consultant to solve, with the August 2026 deadline now set and the 2027 budget waiting on the answer.