Data was collected at an in-person open house in July and an online survey over several weeks.
Luis Calvo, a consultant working with the city on the public feedback process, said the community is supportive of the arts on the five-acre site at the intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. He said exactly what that looks like still needs to be figured out though.
“One of our key takeaways is that the community wants a mixed-use redevelopment that includes arts and culture uses,” Calvo said. “The way that takes shape or form - that’s something we want to figure out in the second phase.”
Park City Councilmember Max Doilney said the data seemed to reflect the previous plan for the site, which included permanent spaces for the Kimball Art Center and Sundance Institute.
“We had a relatively well thought out plan previously that was just too expensive, and quite frankly, I’m not seeing much in the results here that differ from that plan,” Doilney said.
Councilmember Jeremy Rubell didn’t see it that way, and said the community support for an arts district has waned.
“My problem is, we told the community we want to hear what they have to say, we heard what they had to say, and the way the data reads is… the answer to this question is actually no,” Rubell said. “The answer is we want a mixed use development that addresses our other community priorities, and we want to fit in arts and culture uses as appropriate.”
The next step in the process is for the consultants to come up with different concepts with different priorities and price tags.
Councilmember Ryan Dickey said he hopes those renderings will get them closer to a consensus.
“We could ask this question a whole bunch of different ways, and the community is never going to give us this really clear answer, because people don’t agree," Dickey said. "They don’t know exactly what they want and we have to paint the picture for them to really answer the question.”
Councilmember Tana Toly said the survey showed people desire restaurants and bars in the area. She emphasized that managing traffic needs to be part of the plan.
“Whatever we build here is going to increase a ton of traffic to this area,” Toly said. “So we have got to be really cognizant of what are we going to do to fix intersections, to have a transit hub, to make sure that we’re not causing more problems than we already have existing. I would say that’s probably the most broken intersection in this whole town.”
Park City Mayor Nann Worel said it’s clear people want to see a plan move forward soon.
Doilney said the city should change tactics.
“We’ve got to play to win the game,” he said. “We’ve got to throw a pass and get a touchdown or something. We’ve been playing not to lose for long enough.”
The consultants plan to host another community meeting this fall, which will include some initial concepts for the site based on the survey data.
