After a season of long lift lines and customer complaints, Park City Mountain sought to upgrade its Eagle and Silverlode chair lifts on the Mountain Village side of the resort in 2022.
An application for upgrades was initially approved administratively by Park City’s planning director at the time. The planning commission reversed the decision on appeal, siding with residents who claimed the upgrades weren't allowed under the terms in the resort’s 1998 development agreement.
That sent a high-speed eight-pack off to Whistler Blackcomb in Canada for installation and Vail to Utah’s 3rd District Court, where it sued the city over the decision and lost in 2023.
On Tuesday, a panel of judges from the Utah Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case from attorneys for the resort, the city and residents. The hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.
Vail’s failed effort to upgrade its lifts came after the 2021-22 winter when Park City Mountain was plagued by poor snowfall, low staffing levels, and a 47% increase in Epic Pass sales. Vail Resorts later said in an earning report that the stalled lifts projects cost the company millions.
At district court, attorneys for Vail argued its mountain development agreement, which outlines future lift improvements, should be viewed as a “dynamic” road map, not an exact blueprint.
The planning commission, the lawyers argued, acted outside its scope, and therefore its decision to grant the residents’ appeal was arbitrary and illegal.
The primary argument from residents was that Park City Mountain is exceeding its comfortable carrying capacity, or CCC, which is a metric outlined in the resort’s development agreement representing the number of visitors that can be accommodated at any given time.
Lawyers for Park City claimed the proposed Eagle lift upgrade didn’t align with plans set forth in the 1998 development agreement.
The city also argued that Park City Mountain did not provide an adequate plan to mitigate the parking impacts, a requirement for the lift upgrades. Vail said expert evidence suggests new lifts don’t translate to increased parking demand.
But Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik said the commission was presented evidence at the time that raised reasonable questions about the validity of the parking plan.
Mrazik said that gave the commission reason to be skeptical of the planning director’s initial approval.
