Park City Municipal limits cut off at the McPolin Barn along state Route 224. That means areas like Canyons Village and Kimball Junction are not in the city, but rather part of unincorporated Summit County.
Residents in those surrounding neighborhoods are part of Park City School District boundaries, but they do not pay city taxes, and they cannot vote in city elections.
Park City Mayor Nann Worel referred to the confusion in her State of the City speech in March, when discussing the enthusiastic people attending her office hours.
“I’ve had many people that live in the Snyderville Basin that don’t know they don’t live in Park City come in and want to know how to serve on a board or commission,” Worel said. “So there’s great interest from our community, even larger than within our city limits.”
To help the Park City Council better identify residents giving public feedback at meetings, the council will now ask people to state their ZIP code before giving a comment.
Park City Manager Matt Dias said ZIP codes provide an additional filter for the council, especially as the Wasatch Back continues to grow.
“We’re just trying to find out where people are coming from and what their nexus is,” Dias said. “There are instances where we have people that are providing public comment, and they’re either not a resident of Park City, they don’t work in Park City, but they recreate here, or it’s the inverse. And I think all of that public input is valuable and valued. But just some additional context of where the public input is coming from, and then how to filter that and potentially appropriately apply it to public policymaking.”
The 84060 ZIP code is for Park City proper. 84068 is used for P. O. boxes at the Park Avenue post office, while 84098 is for the Snyderville Basin (not in city limits).
On topics from pickleball to child care, the council has heard in recent months from many people living outside city boundaries.
Despite being a town with a population around 8,300, Park City punches above its weight. On top of thousands of visitors each year, it’s the only city in the state of Utah with a workforce larger than its actual population, according to a 2022 housing needs assessment.
The University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute determined last year that nearly 43% of Park City’s housing is short-term rentals. Additionally, the median price of a single family home in Park City limits is nearly $4 million, according to recent data from the Park City Board of Realtors.
The lack of available and affordable housing contributes to the need for local stakeholders, such as business owners, to commute from surrounding areas, including the Salt Lake Valley.
