With only three weeks left in the ski season, the big snow year has brought many skiers to the slopes—and with them, their cars.
The Park City Council took 40 minutes to address an item that wasn’t on its agenda Thursday. Complaints from the community about Deer Valley Resort’s overflow street parking on Deer Valley Drive have resulted in action by the city to prohibit cars from parking on the street near the Snow Park Lodge for the rest of the season. Deer Valley Real Estate and Resort Planning Director Steve Issowits says there have been 27 overflow days, far exceeding the allotment of days in the resort’s development agreement. That allotment is 10% of the days the resort is open in the winter—about 12 to 13 days per season.
Issowits pointed to abundant snowfall as a reason why parking has spilled into the streets. Twelve of the 27 days, he says, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons were closed, which potentially redirected people to other resorts. Issowits says changing the parking system so close to the end of the season has proved difficult, and when Deer Valley Drive was built, street parking for the resort was part of the equation.
“When we designed the road, we planned for on-street parking for those days that we needed it, and part of that was going to the residents in the community and seeing do we want more asphalt all the time, or are we OK with having street parking on certain days of the year?" Issowits said. "At the time it was, 'no, we’d rather not see bigger and bigger parking lots and we’d rather see some level of open space,' which we have, and park on the streets certain days.”
Park City Councilmember Tim Henney says the parking problem doesn’t only affect the neighborhoods around the resort.
“This is also an impact that bleeds out into the rest of the community--it creates additional traffic and congestion and cars on the road, and if we have traffic jams that last an hour, our transit system fails and goes down," Henney said. "So, there’s a broad impact to the rest of the community, and we’re trying to figure out how to align the goals of the community with the best interests of one of our bigger employers."
Issowits says he doesn’t know the answer to the problem—maybe it’s expanding the parking lot or strengthening public transit efforts—but Assistant City Manager Matt Dias says Deer Valley has offered to meet with the Planning Commission to discuss the parking terms in the resort’s development agreement.
Deer Valley Communications Manager Emily Summers says since Friday, the resort has posted on its Facebook page to tell guests when parking lots are full, directing them to alternative lots and public transit. For the weekends, Summers says guests can park at Treasure Mountain Jr. High, and Deer Valley shuttles will bring them to the resort.
