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Diane Foster Heads To Aspen After 20-Years In Park City

KPCW

Park City’s previous City Manager Diane Foster is moving to Colorado to assume the assistant city manager role in Aspen. She was selected out of a pool of more than 70 applicants.

Diane Foster has lived in Park City for 20 years and held the role of city manager from 2016 to 2019. She parted ways with Park City last fall and says her focus has been to find another cool place in a resort town to continue her career.

“I actually didn’t take time off. My job was to get a job. And that's just the way  I am as a person. You know, you always say oh it would be great to do X,Y and Z.  And, I will say, I did read more, I played my guitar more, I got in better shape, I slept more. But in general, most of my time was really focused on what was next for me.”

She says her 20-plus years in the private sector along with 11 years in local government may have helped to open doors.

“Particularly elected officials understand that business and government aren't actually that different. A local government does have a requirement for transparency in the public process that for-profit companies don't have but other than that, when I came to Park City it was the most mature business environment I had ever worked in, working for the city.”

Foster will be responsible for Parks and Rec, Downtown Vitality, The Kids First Program, The Wheeler Opera House and the COVID recovery. She calls it a dream portfolio and had met many of the Aspen officials during the 2016 city tour.

“Parks and Recreation will be an early focus. There is a longtime Parks, Open Space and Recreation Director, all those departments are combined in under one director in Aspen. He is retiring at the end of June and so fortunately I'll get to work with him for a couple of months but filling that gap is going to be part of my initial focus, iIn addition to being part of the COVID-19 recovery team.”

With 50 billionaires owning property in Aspen, Foster says the city has a strong financial foundation. She says the city is taking a serious position on COVID management by requiring 14-day quarantines for people coming into the area and a resolution recently passed requires everyone to wear face masks in public.

Home prices in Aspen are double that of Park City. Foster will be living in one of the city-owned properties.

“It’s a 1,500 square foot, I think it was built in the 1950s.  It's a Swiss Chalet style but it is right in the downtown core on the West side. And with regard to the Aspen housing program, you know, it started a whole lot earlier, so they've got over 2000 units in their program.”

Foster says she’ll be back to Park City eventually as she and her husband have spots on the cemetery wall. But she’s planning to come back to Park City before that. 

 
 
 

KPCW reporter Carolyn Murray covers Summit and Wasatch County School Districts. She also reports on wildlife and environmental stories, along with breaking news. Carolyn has been in town since the mid ‘80s and raised two daughters in Park City.
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