In Round Valley off state Route 248, a 26-acre parcel called Red Maple has been at the center of negotiations between federal, state and city government since the 2002 Olympics.
Decades ago, the U.S. Congress gave that land to the Air Force as recompense for a demolished 44-room ski chalet at Snowbasin, where members of the military received discounted rates. Snowbasin tore it down because it needed the space for Olympic venues.
A 2007 article by Deseret News said the Air Force initially wanted to build a new four-season resort for military members to use on the Red Maple property in Park City.
Since then, the Military Installation Development Authority has paved the way for a 400-room hotel at the base of the Deer Valley expansion, formerly known as Mayflower. The hotel will offer discounts to military members on 100 of those rooms, and the state gave resort developers crucial economic incentives in return.
Paul Morris is the Chair of MIDA, which is at the center of the tri-party land exchange. He called it a win-win because the city gets to preserve the land and the Air Force will get another piece of land near the hotel MIDA owns.
“Park City has been excellent to work with,” Morris said. “They just want to know that this thing is moving forward and really happening so that then they can own the parcel that permanently makes it part of their open space plans.”
Park City government spokesperson Clayton Scrivner told KPCW the Round Valley land is part of the city’s long-term open space plan, and it agreed to buy the land from MIDA back in 2015.
Years later, MIDA got assurances from the federal government that it could acquire the land Park City wants in Round Valley and sell it to Park City. On Thursday, the MIDA Board voted to give a MIDA-owned 1.5-acre lot within the resort expansion area to the Air Force in exchange for the land Park City wants.
Scrivner said Park City will pay $2 million for the 26 acres and will conserve it as open space for public recreational use.
Morris said Air Force planners want to use the property in the ski-area village as a backup, in case the hotel now under construction fails to provide the promised military discounts. He said it’s just a contingency option the Air Force wants, and said he believes there’s “almost a 0% chance” the hotel would breach the contract.
Morris said if no problems arise with the primary hotel, the Air Force could leave its new land undeveloped, or it could build a roughly 50-room hotel there and offer it to military members at times when the original hotel doesn’t have rooms available, such as during a major conference.
After MIDA’s approval, the Air Force still needs to sign off on the exchange. Morris told the board Air Force officials said that won’t happen immediately but could in early 2024 with the help of the Utah Legislature, which will convene in January.
Footage and documents from the board meeting are available at this link.
