The city council discussed Deer Valley’s petition to vacate the public right-of-way on Deer Valley Drive near the resort base Tuesday.
Deer Valley is asking for the road vacation so it can build a new ski-in ski-out village with hotels and commercial space on the road and adjacent parking lot.
Residents at city meetings have largely opposed the plan. For months, city leaders and resort officials have held private negotiations to find a fair trade for the right-of-way vacation.
Details of a deal were announced last week. It includes a 20% day skier parking reduction, $15 million from Deer Valley for transportation infrastructure, and a promise from the resort to build a new gondola connecting Snow Park to its new base area in Wasatch County along U.S. Highway 40.
More than 20 people on both sides of the issue shared their thoughts with the council Tuesday.
Several residents, including Jay Shepherd, said the council should reject the deal.
“We should not get lured into making a false choice for the sake of expediency,” Shepherd said. “If we did reject it, I find it very difficult to believe that Deer Valley would not ultimately offer an alternative plan. Responsible, sophisticated developers routinely have contingency plans for just these types of circumstances.”
While the city maintains a public right-of-way on Deer Valley Drive, the resort owns the property. City officials emphasized Tuesday that the right-of-way has no monetary value.
Former Park City Council candidate John Greenfield said he’s largely supportive of the deal, but asked for additional concessions.
“This is it,” Greenfield said. “It’s time to start asking for adjustments instead of killing the plan… I want $5 million more dollars, night skiing, and BYOB at the concerts there.”
He suggested adding more flexibility to how the funding can be spent, such as for reconstructing intersections in the center of town.
Greenfield also said if Deer Valley does not get its way, the resort’s owners will go to the state legislature to move the project forward.
Lower Deer Valley resident Hans Fuegi encouraged the council to vote for the proposal.
“The Deer Valley base, when I started skiing there in 1981, was state of the art,” Fuegi said. “It’s fair to say that 42 years later it is tired, and it does need to be redone. The plan that has been shown by Deer Valley, quite frankly, is very exciting to me.”
City councilmembers made comments after the public hearing, indicating how they may vote.
Councilmember Becca Gerber said residents’ fears about increased traffic and new development are valid.
“The deal, as proposed, creates a lot of good for our community overall,” Gerber said.
She said Park City is the rare exception where businesses are paying the government for economic development, instead of the other way around.
Councilmembers Ryan Dickey and Max Doilney, who were both involved in private talks with Deer Valley, stood behind the proposal. Doilney said many of the progressive ideas in Park City’s history were met with stiff public opposition at the time.
“The most consistent thing about Park City is not its mining history and not its ski history, it’s change,” Doilney said. “It’s been changing from mining to skiing and we’re continuing to change.”
Councilmember Tana Toly praised the transportation elements of the deal.
“This is a bold solution with the gondola to [U.S.] 40,” Toly said. “This Mayflower portal could potentially have almost 2,000 parking spots. It has two frontage roads, it has three entrances, four base lifts, and a gondola. And it could really, really take a lot of the traffic burden that’s coming up from the Wasatch Front.”
Councilmember Jeremy Rubell said he’s waiting to see more details about the city's agreement with Deer Valley before rendering an opinion.
The council will meet Thursday, Dec. 14, for a potential final vote on the deal. If approved, the full ski village development would move to the Park City Planning Commission for review.
