The Park City Planning Commission will receive an update on Park City’s Visioning 2020 process Wednesday, with another at Thursday’s city council meeting and a visioning workshop at Friday’s Coffee with Council event.
Park City Planning Director Bruce Erickson says it’s the planning department and planning commission's job to take the community’s vision and put it into policy.
"We have the 2030 vision of the city; we have the general plan from 2014," Erickson said. "We need to sort out what the public is saying now relative to those two documents and come up with a cogent policy of moving forward."
Park City’s visioning process 10 years ago guided the city’s current general plan. Erickson says the planning department supports the latest visioning efforts, which include community surveys and listening sessions, and wants to hear what the planning commission thinks. He says the city is trying to engage community members that aren’t often at the table.
"We want to make sure we're more inclusive and respond to those folks that normally don't participate in the public process," Erickson said.
Good, thoughtful planning is necessary to execute a long-term vision, and Erickson says the city has erred in the past. The city is taking steps now to address issues with Old Town’s traffic circulation and access, a problem Erickson says has been exacerbated, in part, by a lack of foresight with rideshare companies. Erickson says the city also failed to anticipate the need for affordable housing. But he says the goal isn’t to craft a perfect community, but to balance the visionary ideas of the community with what the city can accomplish.
"Utopia does not exist," Erickson said. "What we're trying to do is manage change, to keep Park City Park City in those promises we made to the public."
The planning commission meets Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. for a work session on Vision 2020. The Park City Council will also receive an update on Thursday at their meeting. And Friday’s Coffee with Council event at 8:30 a.m. at the Park City Library will feature a community visioning session. Those interested in participating in Friday’s meeting can RSVP to Park City Community Engagement Manager Linda Jager at linda.jager@parkcity.org.
