The Park City Council accepted a land donation last week of about 158 acres of open space on Iron Mountain.
The Summit Land Conservancy initiated the conservation easement. Iron Mountain Associates, owner of The Colony, donated the land.
“Because they’re done developing The Colony, they were getting rid of their various remnant parcels and they agreed to donate that 158 acres to the city,” Summit Land Conservancy Executive Director Cheryl Fox said. “So what this does is it puts 480 acres altogether under the same ownership, which will be the city, and under the same conservation easement.”
The final step will come next week when the council moves to officially expand the existing conservation easement.
Fox said it ensures there will be no future development on that area of Iron Mountain.
“If the city didn’t put a third party conservation easement on it, it’s just land that the city owns,” she said. “At some point, somebody could come to the city and say, ‘Gosh, that’s a great place for something useful, something great,’ and they might be willing to give the city a lot of money to do whatever that is.”
The land donated includes property the Iron Mountain Trail traverses. Fox said access to that trail given recent construction still needs to be determined.
“The Iron Canyon Trail still goes up there. How that will be accessible is a different question… everybody’s trying to figure that out right now. I think they will figure it out. It’s prime wildlife habitat, it’s prime view shed.”
The deal increases Park City’s total open space to more than 10,000 acres.
