Earlier this year Park City launched a committee to develop a Main Street Area Plan, which seeks to establish a vision for the future of the neighborhood.
The plan, which is now under consideration by the city council, proposes several transformational concepts, including parking reductions on Main Street and significant commercial development along Swede Alley.
Longtime Park City resident Jeff Camp told the city council Thursday adding hotels, retail space and other amenities to Old Town would only serve visitors, not locals.
“We’ve embraced tourism and we’ve overrun our town with tourism for 60 years now,” Camp said. “But at some point in time, you got to pump the brakes. And now we got the Olympics coming up, in a mad rush to do a bunch of stuff there, and the locals have fatigue.”
Old Town resident Mike Pundmann had a different sentiment. He expressed excitement about the plan’s concepts, such as a pedestrian-friendly Main Street, a gondola connecting the Brew Pub lot to Deer Valley, and a potential grocery store in Old Town.
“The plan thoughtfully balances the preservation and progress and enhances the attractiveness and character of Main Street for both locals like me and visitors,” Pundmann said.
Shiva Minter, a student at Park City High School, said the city council should move forward with the plan so Main Street can stay competitive economically in the years ahead.
“Over the years we believe that the place that we’ve called home has changed drastically, we’ve seen that competition with other towns and other locations,” Minter said.
Councilmember Jeremy Rubell summarized the diversity of comments after the public hearing.
“The one thing that’s for sure is there is zero consensus in the community, which is going to make it hard to lead that way” Rubell said.
The city council did not make a decision about the Main Street Area Plan Thursday.
Park City Mayor Nann Worel said the council will continue discussion in January.
“The council is interested in focusing on pedestrian improvements right now, as well as making sure that we have a traffic circulation plan that is going to work,” Worel said. “Because if we don’t have the traffic circulation, we’re dead in the water.”
Park City officials have said the Main Street plan is high-level, and the elements of each project will require further public input and analysis, including planning approvals, and transportation and financing considerations.
