Ivory Homes seeks Lost Creek municipality, 510-unit Browns Canyon development

Ivory Homes, working with Garff-Rogers Ranch and EBR Management, has filed parallel development applications that would create a new preliminary municipality called Lost Creek on roughly 490–491 acres in the Browns Canyon area near Park City and Hideout. The filings propose a multi-phase residential neighborhood with commercial space, parks, public infrastructure and a municipal building.

A copy of the state incorporation application shows the proposed town footprint as a rectangular hatched area straddling Browns Canyon Road about three miles from the state Route 248 intersection and lists the property as 491 acres. Other filings and public notices describe the project as 490 acres and note the land is about a mile from Park City and Hideout. The application lists ownership under two LLCs tied to the Garff and Rogers families - GRR - Lost Creek and EBR Management - and the broader filing names Ivory Homes, Garff-Rogers Ranch and EBR Management as applicants.

The state-level incorporation filing, submitted to the Utah Office of the Lieutenant Governor in the early minutes of Jan. 1, includes 510 housing units described as “a mix of homes, townhomes and ‘cottages.’” The same filing says half of the units would be nightly rentals and that 52 units would be designated affordable. A social media post circulating about the plan states, “Approximately 642 full-time residents would live in Lost Creek by the end.” The Summit County rezone and development application was submitted to the Summit County Planning Department the morning of Jan. 29; county planners are reviewing it.

The application materials describe plans for “a mix of residential unit types, including affordable housing, open space, park space and commercial/mixed-use” areas alongside “necessary public and private infrastructure” and a “municipal building space.” The developers are using the preliminary municipality pathway available under state law, which the filings note applies when “land that is privately owned by three or fewer people who intend to develop it with at least 100 people while meeting certain affordable housing benchmarks in the first five years of the preliminary municipality’s existence.”

Summit County Community Development Director Peter Barnes confirmed the county has received an application that proposes a code amendment to allow a new zone related to the Browns Canyon proposal. The county rezone process will involve a formal vote by the Summit County Council after staff review and public hearings. The state incorporation application had not been posted online at the time of reporting, though a copy has been obtained and reviewed.

The proposal raises immediate policy and neighborhood questions about housing availability, short-term rental impacts, infrastructure capacity along Browns Canyon Road and the SR-248 corridor, and the specifics of the 52 affordable units and how affordability will be measured and enforced. Ivory Development President Chris Gamvroulas has said the company’s hope “is to work with the county rather than pursuing incorporation.”

For Summit County residents the next steps are clear: county planners are reviewing the rezone request and the council will consider any zoning change, and the incorporation paperwork remains on file with the lieutenant governor. Residents should monitor planning commission agendas and forthcoming council hearings, and county records for the full filings contain the maps, legal descriptions and the detailed affordable housing, infrastructure and rental plans that will determine how Lost Creek, if approved, will affect traffic, services and the local housing market.