The Park City Council recently approved the Bonanza Park Small Area Plan, which serves as a guidepost for amending the land management code.
The code is what developers must follow when building new projects, from coffee shops to multistory apartments.
Several property owners in the Bonanza Park neighborhood have signaled their interest in redevelopment.
Bonanza Park is located in the geographic center of Park City. It’s bordered by major roads like Park Avenue and Deer Valley Drive, and is home to many businesses .
The city hopes to use the code to create a more walkable, livable and vibrant Bonanza Park.
Park City Planning Director Rebecca Ward says establishing a new mixed-use zone in Bonanza Park will encourage residential uses along with commercial.
“Right now the zoning is really to prioritize commercial,” Ward said. “This would allow for commercial on the street level, really active restaurants, retail, bar uses with the more residential uses on upper levels. So you create a true neighborhood where people can live and also people can come to.”
The new zone would preserve the existing 35-foot height limit on buildings in Bonanza Park. However, the city is considering a new mechanism called a “density bonus.” It would allow developers to go up to 45 feet if they provide defined community benefits like affordable housing or a public transit hub.
Park City Planning Commissioner Bill Johnson says it will be a challenge to determine the density bonus details.
“We need to somehow work with the consultants to codify a matrix system, point system, some sort of tier system, potentially within the code to allow for these community benefits in exchange for these density bonuses,” Johnson said. “That’s going to be the most challenging and most important part of these code amendments. So, we really are looking forward to the public coming out and providing input.”
Johnson attended Leadership Park City Class 30’s recent tour of Telluride, Colorado. He says the ski town has started offering reduced rents for commercial and office space leases to local businesses and organizations.
“It was a way for them to provide space for a local nonprofit that’s much needed, or a nonprofit that’s catered more towards local arts,” Johnson said. “It added some vibrancy to a very high-end kind of Main Street area that they have in Telluride.”
Johnson said that concept could work in Bonanza Park.
“As far as executing, I don’t know, there’s a lot of factors involved there,” he said. “As we look at this affordable housing, if we end up having a lot of that in that area, we need to look at some creative ways to provide that vibrancy and I think that’s a potential solution.”
So far, the planning commission has not set a date to start the code amendment process.
The commission will make recommendations to the city council, which has final approval for any new code for Bonanza Park.
