Park City wants to build housing, commercial space and a new home for the Kimball Art Center on five acres of city-owned land at the intersection of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive.
But first, contaminated soil full of arsenic and lead - a remnant of Park City’s mining past - must be removed.
Park City Environmental Regulatory Program Manager Ryan Blair said the city is applying for a $2 million grant from the EPA to fund the clean up.
Blair said a previous study found around 28,000 cubic yards of material will have to be removed from the five-acre site.
“We’re meeting our soil cover requirements on that site, but if we were to dig in and remediate it, we’d have to recap it and then dig up that cap again," Blair said. "We might as well keep it capped until we’re ready to develop the site. So whenever the redevelopment happens is when we would start the remediation.”
Blair is also leading the city’s clean up of the Gordo site, a 22-acre property located along state Route 248 across from Richardson Flat Road. He said around 60,000 tons of dirt have been removed from the property since work began earlier this year.
Blair said he expects the Utah Department of Environmental Quality to sign off on the project by early next year. That will give the city the option to build on the Gordo property. No consensus has been reached, but the city council has discussed various ideas for the site, including parking, housing and a transit center.
On Thursday the Park City Council will consider amendments to the city’s soil cover ordinance.
The ordinance was originally adopted by the city council in 1988, and predominantly covers areas including Prospector and Old Town east of Park Avenue. The ordinance set rules to protect residents from historical mining impacts, including a protective soil “cover” of at least six inches, dust and runoff controls, and guidelines for how to properly dispose of soil.
Blair said the proposed amendments better align the city ordinance with state and federal regulations and clarify aspects of soil disposal requirements.
“We’re cleaning up some of the language and making it easier to read as an ordinance,” Blair said. “It’s more usable for residents and visitors in town.”
More information about the proposed changes and a map of the soil ordinance boundary can be found here.
