The Park City Council finalized the ground lease for the parking lot located near the Kimball Art Center at its meeting Thursday.
The city will lease the land for $1 per year, for a total of 99 years, to developer J Fisher.
In exchange, the city will create 99 units of affordable housing for people making less than 60% of the area median income, or AMI - which is roughly $62,000 annually for a single person. A one-bedroom affordable rental will go for around $1,500 per month, according to a staff report.
The project also includes 24 market-rate units.
In order to legally give the land to the developer at essentially no charge, the city’s economic team had to draft a public benefit analysis to illustrate why the need for affordable housing in Park City is so dire.
Senior financial analyst Erik Daenitz found that 2007 was the last time someone making the area median income could afford to buy a single-family home in Park City. The median price of a single-family home in city limits is now nearly $4 million, according to the Park City Board of Realtors.
Additionally, more than 8,000 workers with an average salary less than $40,000 commute daily from outside Summit County into Park City.
But those that have been able to find a place don’t exactly have it easy. About one in five renters in Park City has an income below 80% AMI and is paying more than 50% of their income for
housing and utilities, according to a housing needs assessment.
The study’s author concluded demand for affordable housing in Park City could absorb as many as 1,000 units over the next five years.
While the mood was celebratory in council chambers Thursday, some are not supportive of the project, like Councilmember Tana Toly.
Toly was the sole councilmember to vote against approving the ground lease, due to concerns about the site’s proximity to a Rocky Mountain Power substation and the electric magnetic fields, or EMFs, to which future residents could be exposed.
“This is more than the substation, EMFs are everywhere, I’m not naive to this,” Toly said. “But I’m also not going to vote for something that, in my opinion, could be compared to building housing next to a cigarette factory. Or maybe an analogy closer to home - housing next to the mills where mining took place. We are more than blatantly aware now of the harmful deadly effects of those mining practices. It’s not up to the public to prove it’s dangerous. It’s up to the government to prove it’s safe, and we have not done this at any level of government. So I am not in favor.”
That echoed concerns previously raised by Park City Planning Commission Chair Laura Suesser, who sent a letter to Mayor Nann Worel in January. Suesser later said at a meeting that she has a conscientious objection to the project, because of the potential adverse health impacts on residents.
The EMFs emitted from the substation are categorized as extremely low-frequency, according to a staff report. The National Cancer Institute says that type of radiation is not known to cause harmful health effects, including cancer.
Worel hinted Thursday that discussions with Rocky Mountain Power about relocating the substation are moving along.
“I have the privilege of being on the little workgroup that’s working with Rocky Mountain Power, and I’m anxious to be able to bring forth some recommendations from that group in the not too distant future,” Worel said. “It’s just not quite baked enough to do that at this point in time.”
The developer plans to construct a 12-foot concrete wall next to the substation to act as a buffer.
Councilmember Ryan Dickey said no project is perfect. He praised the site’s location, which is in close walking distance from grocery stores and bus stops. He referenced when he and his now wife were forced to buy a car when they moved to Park City, after years of relying on public transit to get around in New York and Chicago.
“I would have loved to live in this place. I would have loved to not have a car. I would have loved to walk everywhere and ride transit like we’d been doing in a city. I’d have been excited to live in this neighborhood… especially if we fast forward in the future and there are arts and culture, amenities, and new restaurants. And a bunch of really smart people in our community, revisioning what that neighborhood is going to be, and I would get to live in it at an affordable price.”
Next summer improvements are planned along Homestake Road, including a sidewalk and a wider multi-use path.
City-owned land that has been envisioned as a future arts and culture district is located just east of the Homestake site.
According to the current timeline, the project will break ground in August, and complete construction in December 2024.
