The developer hoping to build on the current surface parking lots at Park City Mountain Resort agreed to provide an eye-level view of the resort’s entrance and mountain views after claims of misleading images were raised by the planning commission and public.
September 29th’s Park City Planning Commission meeting was supposed to be all about the off-site parking and transportation aspects of Provo-based PEG Development’s plans to build up the base area of Park City Mountain Resort. Instead, the first hour of the meeting was dominated by the mountain views -- or lack thereof.
Commissioner John Kenworthy first asked project architect Emir Tursic whether the ridgelines represented in a rendering of the proposed buildings at the base area, presented from a point on Empire Avenue, were accurate. Tursic replied “yes,” and then clarified his response.
“We do our best and went through a great level of scrutiny to make sure that the backgrounds and the mountains are positioned as accurately as possible,” said Tursic. “The renderings are intended to be visual aids. I can assure you that the buildings are created at the accurate heights and ridge elevations that we have presented, but as far as the background is concerned, it’s always imported as a photograph and scaled down, so there might be a slight variation. It might be slightly bigger, slightly smaller, slightly off to the side. That is the only and the best answer we have.”
Tursic’s comments triggered several written responses from members of the public participating on Zoom, saying the images did not accurately represent the view from the street.
PEG Vice President of Development Robert Schmidt clarified that the rendering was depicted from a raised position on Empire, and offered to provide street-level views at a future meeting.
“There’s an infinite number of locations, possibilities, perspectives,” he said. “We can never -- unfortunately, in the design capabilities we have, we just don’t have the ability to show every perspective and every location. If you want one view from this location at eye level, that’s fine.”
Some community members also called PEG’s renderings of the base area misleading in April. PEG said then that they did not intend for the images to be misleading, but maintained that the scale of the buildings was accurate.
When asked whether PEG is presenting misleading images to the public and planning commission now, Kristin Kenny Williams, who works as a project consultant to PEG, told KPCW:
"Absolutely not; as we’ve said, depending on the perspective - where you are standing, where your camera is placed, etc., the perspective can change. What we’ve been showing is meant to show the massing and design of the buildings, and the perspective using Google Earth is very close to accurate. We will be showing car-level and aerial views on October 20th as requested by the planning commission.”
Planning commissioner Christin Van Dine acknowledged the views of the mountains vary wildly depending on where people are located, but added that details like accurate depictions of views from the street could help address some of the public’s concerns.
“It’s all about perspective, it depends on where you stand, but I also know that if you’re in that main corridor, right now, when you drive up to the resort, you can see that whole part of the mountain, and we’re all used to that,” said Van Dine.
“I’ve talked to so many people lately about Park City, we hate change, people here hate change because we love our town. It’s maintaining some of these important things that I think stand out to people that may make a huge difference.”
KPCW asked city hall about the allegations of misrepresentation. City officials declined to comment on whether PEG was presenting accurate images. Park City Communications Manager Clayton Scrivner said in a statement:
“Any question regarding the accuracy of information submitted by applicants is precisely why the planning commission has a transparent and public development review process. The planning commission, the applicant, and the public continue to vigorously review and debate such issues, and all interested parties are encouraged to follow and participate in this ongoing process.”
The next planning commission meeting on the PCMR base area is scheduled for October 20th. Details on future meetings, as well as archives of past meetings can be found here.
