With last winter’s record ski season and nearly record snowfall, Deer Valley Resort reached its parking capacity for almost 30 days this past winter. Limited by how often the overflow can park on the streets, the resort has come up with some mitigation efforts and presented them to the Park City Planning Commission last week.
Per Deer Valley’s development agreement, once its 1,250-space parking lots are filled, resort guests can only use street parking on Deer Valley Drive for up to 10% of its operating days—usually 12 to 13 days per ski season. If that allotment is exceeded, the resort is required to meet with the planning commission to revisit parking options.
This past ski season, which Deer Valley Real Estate and Resort Planning Director Steve Issowits points to as one of the snowiest in recent years, Deer Valley guests parked on the street near the Snow Park lots 27 or 28 days before the city prohibited it, prompting complaints from residents in the area. That triggered Wednesday’s meeting with the planning commission.
As a temporary mitigation measure, Issowits says the resort hopes to lay down asphalt on a one-acre lot near the ponds to add about 100 additional parking spots before the ski season begins. The pavement would only be a short-term solution, Issowits says, because it’s right where Deer Valley will construct its Snow Park Village base development. Issowits estimates, with planning, utilities work and potentially relocating Deer Valley Drive on the south end, the development could break ground as early as spring 2021.
“Our goal here is to give us a little bit of breathing room and expand the asphalt westerly in just lot five, so that would be the one that's furthest to the north as you get close to the ponds and roughly 65 to 75 feet, depending on the section,” Issowits said.
Issowits says Deer Valley has built out its parking incrementally. The consensus between the city and the resort has been that putting in large parking lots right off the bat wasn’t the preference, so occasional street parking for guests was the tradeoff.
When this issue was brought to the city council’s attention in March, councilmembers asked about the no-parking signs on Deer Valley Drive and why Deer Valley guests could ignore them. Issowits says that’s how it’s always worked.
“Back when that was all being figured out, we knew that people would park on the street every single day if they could. So, rather than park in lot four or five, it's a lot closer to park further to the south on Deer Valley Drive," Issowits said. "The answer for that was put up 'no parking' signs, so everybody stays in the parking lots, and if we need to overflow, we contact [Park City Police]. It goes into the log, and we have the bags from the police department to cover those up and people don't get tickets."
Planning Commissioner Mark Sletten asked what it would take to get people on the bus, an on-going conversation among city and county leaders which recently played out through discussion around the State Route 248 corridor expansion project. Issowits says he’s been part of a transportation task force with the city for three years, and what Sletten referred to is a long-term solution to transit and traffic—making the bus more convenient than taking a car.
“As we talk about what our solutions are available to us, paving is one, but that's certainly not our hope—we don't think we can ever build our way or pave our way out of infinity," Issowits said. "We do agree we need to get people on buses; we need to get people carpooling. There's a lot of stuff that we can do to try and reduce single-occupant vehicles, so we're working on that actively with the city.”
Issowits listed steps Deer Valley has taken to reduce traffic to the resort and the need for parking on the part of staff. The resort has 423 beds for employees at four different properties in Summit and Wasatch Counties, and Issowits says most employees who live there take transit or shuttles to work. For staff in the Salt Lake valley, Deer Valley provides them with a free Utah Transit Authority pass so they can take the PC-SLC Connect bus to Kimball Junction. The resort also runs buses daily from Heber City.
Issowits says the resort doesn’t see paid parking as an option for now—free parking is one of the amenities they offer to guests. But when the village development happens and they build parking garages, it’s a possibility.
“I'm not saying definitively, but I suspect when we build the village and we have underground parking, that we will need to morph into that type of situation,” Issowits said.
The planning commission supported Deer Valley moving forward with paving out the additional 1.1 acres for more cars, though Planning Director Bruce Erickson says it’s not yet a done deal—and the seasonal window for pouring asphalt is nearing its end as the weather cools. Erickson says the 10% day limit for street parking will remain in effect, and the city will continue to work with Deer Valley on parking through the winter.
