The Park City Planning Commission will take another look at the PEG development application at the base of Park City Mountain. The scope of the project is yet to be defined and the commission must determine if a new master plan approval is needed to proceed with construction.
Vail acquired Park City Mountain Resort in 2015 and with it the MPD for a mixed-use project developing the 10-acre parking area at the base of the resort. Last year Vail sold the land to PEG Companies, a commercial real estate investment group. In 1998 Park City Municipal approved the Master Plan Development and now, 22 years later, the new owners want to proceed with that same MPD approval in hand.
Many of the base operations and the resort upgrades remain under Vail’s purview. However, Park City Planning Director Bruce Erickson doesn’t believe Vail should be a co-applicant to the new project. He says the Planning Commission is leaning towards requiring a new master plan.
“You know, I think there are some complications in the issue with respect to how many obligations Park City Mountain resort has versus how many obligations the base area developer has, so you know while this may be a new master plan there may be some sort of blended development agreements between the two of them. Because transit for example kind of exists between both of the agencies. The parking--I think both of the operating entities as well. So, I think the Planning Commission is leaning towards a new master plan and I think that the scope of that master plan still needs to be considered.”
Erickson says the Planning Commission is striving for a decision on the master development plan during Wednesday’s meeting. The developer, PEG Companies, is obligated to provide the same amount of day parking during the construction phases which could begin in the spring of 2021.
Planner Hannah Tyler says this week’s work session also includes the discussion of accessory dwellings in Park City. The City Council asked Planning to evaluate current regulations on accessory units while keeping in mind the need for affordable rental properties in town.
“Currently accessory apartments are allowed in residential and most commercial zones. So, what we're going to be talking about is a specific [criterion] to have an accessory apartment and try to identify if there are any impediments to the development of these types of units. An example of an impediment might be the parking requirement. So, when you have an accessory apartment you have to park every bedroom. So, that's in addition to the existing parking that's required for your main house which is two. Alternately we see accessory apartments as yet another tool in the toolbox as we look at housing in Park City.”
Tyler says an accessory unit is a defined term in the Land Management Code. It’s when a portion of a home or portion of a garage is turned into an apartment. She says the requirement to have the apartment attached is another impediment to increasing rental units in Park City. She says currently detached structures, known as tiny homes, do not fit into the code.
“Expand the definition to allow these accessory apartment type uses in an accessory structure on the back that's not a garage. Because you know, the requirement to have it either attached to the garage or the house is also yet another impediment. And so, if they want to expand them to be just a freestanding structure on the site, we would need to change the definition so that we can expand that use.”
Some neighborhood covenants restrict accessory units. There are also some areas of town that don’t have enough available space to handle parking under the current requirements.
The planning commission meets Wednesday at 5:30.
A link to the agenda can be found onhere.
