At its meeting Thursday, a majority of the council said they favor the idea of asking voters if they want to spend $30 million for new recreation facilities.
Those facilities include a new Quinn’s Junction sports complex with pickleball courts, a Nordic training area, and an outdoor ice rink. The bond would also pay for an expansion of the MARC, the city’s recreation center on Little Kate Road in Park Meadows.
The Quinn’s Junction facility would include eight indoor and 16 outdoor pickleball courts. It would also have 100 parking spaces.
The MARC expansion entails 14,000 additional square feet of fitness space added near the current lap pool. The space could be two stories, and would be used for fitness and other needs as suggested by the community, according to a staff report.
A primary homeowner in Park City would pay about $291 annually, while non-primary homes would pay around $529, per the staff report. Those payments would run through 2045.
Budget staffers with the city said the tax load for all Park City homes is set to decrease, even with a new bond. That’s because other bonds will be paid off in the next decade.
As part of the bond discussion, the council decided it wants to fund two separate recreation projects with city funds.
One is the replacement of both outdoor pools at the MARC, which were constructed more than 20 years ago. The other is a new 15,000-square-foot City Park building, which would expand summer camp occupancy and include a space for a year-round child care facility. The rebuild could include a relocation of the nearby playground, basketball court, and volleyball court.
Councilmember Max Doilney said he wants to fund those two projects with city cash because they rehabilitate existing infrastructure.
“My dad put the City Park building in when he was on city council in 1985 I think,” Doilney said. “I went to camp there, and the aquatics are just flat out failing. We’re just band-aiding that thing and trying to keep it together. So the reason that those things get funded is because existing infrastructure needs our support. And we’ve found that there’s been some pushback from the public on bonding for something that needs maintenance.”
Councilmember Jeremy Rubell expressed skepticism about the bond being approved by voters.
He noted the concerns of the National Ability Center (NAC). Representatives from the nonprofit have told the council in past meetings that they are worried about pickleball noise harming their clients who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Rubell also said the bond is a good deal for people living in the Snyderville Basin, who don’t have to pay for the bond but will benefit from the new facilities. He supported doing a $20 million bond, which would have delayed one of the projects.
Rubell said he hasn’t heard much support for the MARC expansion. Comparatively, Mayor Nann Worel said Thursday the council received 53 emails from pickleballers expressing their support for a bond ahead of the meeting.
Councilmember Ryan Dickey also said he wasn’t sure if the bond would pass.
“I think anything we build at this point, Park City residents will be a minority of the users,” Dickey said. “So if it doesn’t pass, I think it’s going to spark an interesting conversation about recreation, and how we think about it in conjunction with the Basin. Because it would probably tell us we’re never really going to build anything for recreation again.”
The next step for the council is to adopt a resolution next month, which would officially put the bond on November’s ballot.
