The council approved the project in a 3-2 vote. Council members Ryan Dickey and Jeremy Rubell voted against the proposal.
Both voiced uneasiness about approving the project without a public safety review. Those reviews are typical in planning applications and include things like the Park City Fire District looking over the plans.
City planner Alex Ananth said the lack of safety review was an oversight and a result of the project changing several times. She pledged that the review would occur swiftly.
Dickey also worried about traffic congestion.
“We’ve created a whole bunch of new demand with the commercial that now has to be a similar amount of people now driving in, and your net effect is very small," Dickey said. "So that’s exactly what my concern is.”
Dickey’s concern was that any affordable housing that took cars off the road would effectively be canceled out by added commuters driving to work in new businesses at the studio campus.
He said he wanted to see more data from the developer showing how many workers the businesses would require.
Park City Affordable Housing Program Manager Jason Glidden countered that the waterfall provision for the affordable units would help combat traffic congestion. That provision gives workers in Quinn’s Junction and city limits top priority for affordable units. Developers also plan to construct a transit stop with a bus shelter, making travel to work without a car more convenient.
Film studio owner Gary Crandall already had approval to build a hotel and commercial space at the campus, but shifted the project to include more affordable housing after consulting with the city.
185 of the housing units will be affordable, and available to those making 80% or less than Summit County’s area median income, or AMI — which is roughly $75,000 for a single person’s annual pay. Crandall’s project will allow those making up to 120% AMI to stay in the affordable units, given that tenants may experience a pay raise.
The remaining 100 units will be market-rate and for sale; nightly rentals are also allowed in those.
Councilmember Max Doilney said the new project was a massive improvement from the original proposal.
“If we’re going down the road of a conversation of asking for more at this point, or potentially denying a project in this moment… that lends to a lack of credibility for the city, considering the arduous process that this has been through” Doilney said.
“That’s not to say that it should get a rubber stamp. That’s not to say that hard questions shouldn’t be asked, but this project has literally met every single bar and then some for any project I’ve ever seen come before this city.”
The council's approval included an exception for 89 fewer parking spots than what the city's code requires for the building density.
