Deer Valley Resort has asked the Park City Council for permission to form a public infrastructure district, or PID, in Snow Park.
A PID can issue bonds that are repaid through property taxes or assessments on the properties within the project area, which in this case is the Snow Park parking lots.
The Park City Planning Commission recently approved a permit for Deer Valley to begin building an underground parking garage later this year, along with a new underground transit center and other road and utility improvements.
Deer Valley’s attorney, Wade Budge, told the city council that a PID will help the resort finance the project.
“Those kinds of improvements fit into a category where they’re eligible for us to go to the bond market and obtain preferred financing at a better rate than we would obtain from a conventional lender,” Budge said. “So what that does is that makes the borrowing cost less.”
In 2023 the city council reached an agreement with Deer Valley over a right-of-way easement for the development.
In exchange for giving Deer Valley the space to construct the new base village, the resort committed $15 million to the city for a new transportation facility and agreed to build a gondola connecting Snow Park and East Village.
The letter of intent also stipulated that Deer Valley would be allowed to set up a PID, which doesn’t involve any city tax dollars.
However, the letter of intent is non-binding, meaning it’s not yet official.
Budge told the city council Thursday the resort can not break ground in Snow Park until the partnership agreement is finalized.
Late last year, Deer Valley proposed a separate funding mechanism called a community reinvestment agency, or CRA. CRAs are funded by a program called tax increment financing, which is additional property tax revenue that comes from increases in property values within the project area.
Deer Valley initial’s proposal involved using taxes from Park City, Summit County, the Park City School District and other agencies to fund the development of Snow Park. The resort pulled out of the meeting to discuss the CRA amid dozens of public comments denouncing the proposal.
Park City Councilmember Jeremy Rubell said the finalized partnership agreement should stipulate which financing tools Deer Valley plans to utilize.
Budge, the attorney for Deer Valley, did not comment Thursday on if the resort still plans to pursue the CRA.
Deer Valley and Park City have to finalize the terms of the partnership before the resort returns to the planning commission April 2 for plat approval of the Snow Park project.
