Last month, a moose made the news when it was trapped within the foundation of a Summit Park house under construction.
Last week, County Development Director Pat Putt discussed what his department does to guard against those kinds of situations—which can endanger not only animals but also people.
During the incident about three weeks ago, the moose was stuck in the site, in some five to six feet of water.
Putt said fortunately, the animal was spotted by neighbors, and rescued by personnel from the Park City Fire Department and the Division of Wildlife Resources.
He said this kind of mishap doesn’t occur often. Customarily, they will make sure that a building site is secured, under a construction mitigation plan that has to be formulated for every building permit.
Putt said the permit for this site was approved in 2017.
“When we issue a building permit, that permit is essentially good for 180 days. Once construction starts, as long as there is reasonable progress on the project, a permit can last until the project’s completed--theoretically, in a real extreme case, a number of years. This is a situation where there was work started, the foundation put in, there was a lapse.”
He said he doesn’t know the details about the site construction, but recalls that the Health Department stepped in last year.
“As far back as last summer, the Health Department was notified of this, and had been in contact with the property owner, and issued some orders to secure that property. The Health Department, with the help of the County Attorney’s Office, has issued what we call an Order of Abatement. And that order is requiring that that foundation be physically removed from the property, and the property re-graded, back to as close to the original conditions as it was prior to that construction work.”
The lot owner wants to move ahead on construction. As is often the case with Summit Park lots, access will be a challenge and the owner needs a plat amendment.
Putt said he will also appeal the county’s order to tear out the foundation.
“And I would suspect the reason he is doing that, is because he wants to retain that foundation that’s in the ground, and incorporate it into his revised plan.”
Development Director Pat Putt, who said they will work with the owner, but their first priority is public safety.
