Golfers, hikers and cross-country skiers have been parking along Thaynes Canyon Drive for years. Then in April, Park City staff notified the city council that parking along the street was unauthorized.
White Pine Touring Nordic Center has had a contract with the city for decades to use the golf course for Nordic skiing during the winter months. Nordic Director Richard Hodges said parking wasn’t part of the discussion until recently.
“The off-street parking has been there for nearly three decades for golf and for skiing and up until two years ago, it was what you would, I guess, call a non issue,” Hodges said.
Legally, parking is limited to a surface lot and garage with roughly 191 spots, which also serve Hotel Park City and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
In the fall, the city asked White Pine to come up with a short-term plan to use Thaynes for overflow parking in a way that would lessen the impact on the neighborhood. White Pine proposed limiting overflow parking hours to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on most days. But in a work session last month, the council chose not to adopt that plan.
Hodges said he hopes the new proposal, which includes 19 parking spaces along Thaynes Canyon Drive, gets the green light from the council this week.
“The basics of it from a customer standpoint are the spaces would be made available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week with three spaces designated for adaptive skier parking and the rest of the spaces marked for carpooling only. And then that would allow the youth programs to do pickup and drop off in the afternoons,” Hodges said.
The slope and pitch of the White Pine Touring trails make them ideal for people with disabilities to recreate.
Denise Gregg is a special events coordinator with the TRAILS program. TRAILS stands for Technology, Recreation, Access, Independence, Lifestyle, Sports. It’s the adaptive program through the University of Utah’s rehabilitation hospital.
Gregg works closely with the adaptive skiers and said the change in parking has made it very difficult for participants to utilize the trails.
“A lot of the people that we deal with got so many things to overcome, to try to add one more hurdle is really frustrating,” Gregg said. “So, you know, we provide the equipment and instructions, and as long as they can access it, it's pretty much available to them. But not being able to access it really limits the ability for them to use our program.”
For adaptive skiers, Gregg said, parking location can determine whether or not participation is even possible.
“They need to be able to access the trail and a lot of them are coming using a wheelchair. So if they can't even get to the trail, you know, going through snow banks of icy streets, if there's hills involved, then they can't get to the part where they can get on their ski,” Gregg said. “So they need to be able to transfer to their ski and get to the trail easily.”
Unfortunately, Gregg said, the three parking spots proposed for adaptive skiers just doesn’t meet the demand.
“Last Wednesday at White Pine, I believe we had six or seven cross country skiers of the week, and on the weekend, we had 10 people signed up,” Gregg said. “So that means 10. Unless they can carpool, sometimes they can carpool, but that's 10 accessible spots that we're trying to find in order for people to be able to participate.”
Park City Trails and Open Space Manager Heinrich Deters said the city is working on a compromise to meet the needs of all users and is encouraging people to come to the council meeting Thursday to weigh in on the issue.
“Mitigating impacts to neighborhoods is really important, obviously, to our community and to our council,” Deters said. “Trailheads and recreational facilities are oftentimes located in some of these residential areas. So striking a balance between, you know, access for the public, but then mitigating, you know, just parking noise, lights, etc., all the different aspects that may come with public access to recreational areas. And it's important that we understand our impacts not only on one another, but also on the environment when we're out recreating.”
The Park City Council meeting is Thursday, Dec. 8 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Those interested can attend in person or join virtually. Anyone wishing to make a comment virtually needs to register ahead of time.
