Park City Leadership Class 31 headed west for their annual city tour — the first under new director Scott van Hartesvelt – making stops in California and Nevada.
Class members were joined by a delegation of Park City and Summit County elected officials, along with representatives from the Park City Chamber and city departments.
The trip’s first stop was North Lake Tahoe, class member Susan Odell said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” June 2.
“We try and learn from another city or county that are doing similar things to what we are,” Odell said. “They’re dealing with recreation, that rapid growth, a tourism economy. And we really try and make good, long-term relationships where we can rely on each other and call each other down the road, to try and make our towns and cities better.”
Fellow class member Kaitlyn Hoffman said the group’s stop in Truckee, California stood out to her.
“It was a small town,” Hoffman said. “It was focused mostly on rebuilding and revitalization. They’re very similar to us in the way that they really love their trails. They really love their outdoors.”
Similar to Park City, Hoffman said Truckee has been working to implement e-bike rules on a popular year-round trail that is used for commuting.
Class member Pete Deininger said the area is dealing with problems that are familiar to Wasatch Back residents.
“One of the things was just the commonality of the challenges that we face across workforce and affordable housing, transportation and accommodating growth within the communities, responsible economic development, balancing those interests with recreation and environmental concerns,” he said. “So there was a lot that was speaking the same language.”
Deininger said collaboration is key in an area with several jurisdictions, ranging across different states, cities, counties, resorts and federal land. He also said there were several initiatives aimed at tackling a housing shortage for locals.
“These communities, even in some cases with fewer resources than what we have here, are taking some of these ideas and running pilot programs or putting them into effect,” Deininger said. “What we really felt was this underpinning of not letting perfection be the enemy of the good.”
The tour also included Reno, Nevada, which houses most of the local workforce for the Tahoe area.
“They had worked to really create more of a public-private partnership in working with some of the large employers in the region to have more, not necessarily dedicated, but focused van transport that can help get those employees from where they reside to where they work,” Deininger said.
The leadership group is now turning its focus to class 31’s project, which will involve installing several benches around Park City to create community conversation.
“We’ve had a lot of people who’ve been more isolated since COVID, and I think that’s happened in many communities,” Odell said. “We want to have a two-pronged approach, where we can actually provide a physical space, a connection bench, for people to sit and perhaps start a conversation or connect with other community members. And also have some community training on how to start a conversation – how to recognize somebody who might be feeling isolated.”
Odell said they’re still working out where the benches will be placed and more details are expected soon.
Park City Municipal is a financial supporter of KPCW.
