The board voted 3-2 to partially grant a request for an appeal filed by neighbors Eric Hermann and Susan Fredston-Hermann Tuesday. They asked the city to reconsider its August decision, when it said the proposal met historic district design requirements.
The decision comes after planning commissioners, an appeal panel and city planning staff all signed off on plans for the home.
But the Board of Adjustments came to a different conclusion after three hours of deliberation, when attorneys on both sides argued over whether the plans met those historic district design requirements.
At first, board member Ruth Gezelius asked to deny the appeal, allowing the approved plans to move forward. But only one other member of the five-person board, Jennifer Franklin, agreed with her.
Then board member John Stafsholt made a motion to approve the appeal. But the city attorney pressed the board to be specific about what errors it found in the planning department's decision, since granting the appeal required the burden of proof. Board members Stephanie Wilson and Beth Armstrong pointed to the scale of the building and the impact of retaining walls. Wilson expressed concerns about the home’s size.
“The massing? How large it is looming over Old Town? I question that,” she said.
Wade Budge, an attorney representing the Princes, said they’ve worked to follow strict Old Town development rules and have made changes as suggested by the planning director.
“There is a lot of art in this process, and what we’re saying is that the painting we’re bringing is an art piece that meets those requirements,” Budge said.
Wilson later motioned to grant the neighbors’ appeal which board members passed in a 3-2 vote, further stalling the Princes’ home plans.
The Treasure Hill home has been hotly contested in Park City. Some neighbors have praised the design modeled after historic mining structures. Others have opposed the construction, saying it doesn't match Old Town's character and could pose a landslide risk.
Eric Hermann praised the board’s decision
"Up to now, a different set of rules has governed approval of a billionaire’s massive castle in Old Town," Hermann said in a statement to KPCW. "Finally, the Board of Adjustment has applied to this project the same rules that the rest of us are required to live by. This is a win for all Park City citizens and for the historic integrity of Old Town.
The city now has 15 days to adopt a final action letter. If that is approved, the appeal is officially granted. The Princes will then have 30 days to appeal that decision to 3rd District Court or reapply for a Historic District Design Review. In the meantime, construction cannot begin on the home.
In 2023 Matthew Prince tried, unsuccessfully, to use the Utah Legislature to slip special language into a bill that would have allowed him to subvert Park City building regulations.
Originally from Utah, Prince is the co-founder and CEO of the cybersecurity company Cloudflare, and has a net worth over $3 billion. He and his wife Tatiana purchased the longtime local newspaper The Park Record months after the lobbying attempt, which drew criticism from Park City Mayor Nann Worel.
Shortly after the Hermanns filed their first appeal of Prince’s home approval, the billionaire filed two lawsuits against his neighbors, which the couple claims are retaliatory.
The proposed home’s modern industrial architectural style has the endorsement of the Park City Museum. However, some have claimed that’s because of alleged donations from the Princes. The Prince family and the museum both deny any donations were ever made.
The fight between the neighbors drew widespread coverage at media outlets including Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.
