The Park City Council could move to vacate the public right-of-way on a portion of Deer Valley Drive Thursday, which would mark a major step forward for Deer Valley’s plan to develop Snow Park.
A letter of intent in Thursday’s agenda outlines what Deer Valley is offering to the city in exchange for the road vacation.
Park City Manager Matt Dias said one of the major components of the partnership agreement is a 20% reduction in day skier parking in Snow Park.
“We took today’s current conditions, to be specific it’s around 1,700 day skier parking spaces, and that’s several hundred trips in and out of that canyon that we are trying to eliminate moving forward to reduce the traffic and congestion,” Dias said. “So bringing the number from about 1,700 down to roughly 1,300 is a considerable decrease for the operations.”
Throughout the project’s review process, residents have consistently expressed concerns about the increase in traffic, citing a study showing daily vehicle trips increasing by over 3,500, or 34%. Deer Valley said it plans to introduce paid parking as part of the development.
As the council deliberated on the road vacation request, earlier this year the resort announced a major expansion into Wasatch County: land that was previously envisioned for the new Mayflower ski resort. The expansion will give Deer Valley a new base area with 1,200 parking spots easily accessible from U.S. 40.
As part of the road vacation agreement with Park City, Deer Valley would build a gondola connecting Snow Park to the new base area along U.S. 40.
The resort would also contribute $15 million for the construction of a new parking and transportation structure along state Route 248. The letter of intent specifies that the new facility must have a minimum of 900 parking spaces, with a portion of the property going towards affordable housing.
Dias said a potential spot for the new infrastructure could be the Gordo property, at the intersection of state Route 248 and Richardson Flat Road.
“The Gordo parcel presents a lot of opportunity because as early as this spring we will be doing excavation to remove some of the soil on that site,” he said. “Clearly there’s an opportunity there, it’s on the corridor, more or less contiguous to the intersection. But that’s a future public policy decision that the mayor and council will have to make through public process and otherwise.”
At the last meeting about the road vacation, a majority of the city council expressed support for the exchange agreement.
If the road vacation is approved Thursday, Deer Valley’s project still has a long way to go. With approval, the proposed development would move to the Park City Planning Commission for a full review. If the commission decided not to recommend the ski village project, the city council’s road vacation approval would be moot.
At Thursday’s meeting the council could also approve the Sundance Film Festival’s event permit.
The meeting in council chambers at the Marsac Building is open to the public at 4:15 p.m. after a closed session.
The agenda and a link to attend virtually can be found here.
