The Park City Council has a retreat every year to make sure they’re thinking about long term goals and have a defined vision for the future. During the retreat, council members and the mayor drew depictions of what Park City is like today, and what they want it to look like after the Olympics in 2034. The council agreed over the next 10 years it wants to focus on balance, connection and the Park City experience.
The council wants to balance a tourism economy and the residential experience. While tourism is essential to Park City, the area also wants to be family friendly.
The council also wants to create greater connections within the community by removing barriers and providing opportunities for everyone in the city.
To reach these goals, the council wants to work on transportation, core services, including public safety and mental and physical health, community spaces and housing.
Transportation and core services were the top priorities overall. Councilmember Ryan Dickey said he wanted to focus on the 248 entry corridor.
“That's where our biggest traffic bottleneck is," he said, "that's where we want to capture cars and trips before they come into town.”
Councilmembers also discussed increasing micro transit in neighborhoods and expanding the “park once” idea.
The council also wants to focus on core services, which include improving mental and physical health services. Mayor Nann Worel said the city also needed to keep up on core services like general city maintenance.
“It's not sexy to replace water lines or sewer lines or whatever else is under the streets," she said. "But I think that we need to be proactive in that area.”
The council also wants to focus on creating and updating community spaces. Bonanza Park is a big project on their radar as well as updating the infrastructure at the Park City MARC.
Housing has also been an important issue for the council for years. While they want to provide more affordable housing, Worel said there might be a better way to utilize housing in the area that already exists.
“If 70% of our housing stock right now is dark or occupied one, two, three times a year, you know, how do we bring that housing stock into more full time to increase the community that way rather than building new?”
While the council put things like equity and sustainability lower on their list of priorities, they agreed these things would be improved within other categories. The council will continue to work on these ideas in their day-to-day work.
