At a meeting June 26 Park City Councilmember Bill Ciraco said a tri-cable gondola between Snow Park and Richardson Flat could help reduce vehicle traffic at the base area.
“We can’t begin to change behavior unless we have a more convenient option for people, and I think this accomplishes that,” Ciraco said.
Councilmember Jeremy Rubell also expressed support for exploring the concept, in an effort to get cars off the road.
“It actually makes a lot of sense to me, if we could bring folks into the city at the Snow Park area,” Rubell said. “They go ski, they hang out, they’re spending their tax dollars in the city.”
The council has previously discussed improving a 700-space parking lot the city leases in Richardson Flat from the Larry H. Miller Company.
Council members Ed Parigian and Tana Toly were also in favor of studying a Richardson Flat connection. But Toly added a caveat.
“I’m not in favor of us doing something where we’re exchanging like a Dakota Pacific-style type project in exchange for a giant gondola,” Toly said.
Councilmember Ryan Dickey had a similar sentiment.
“I’m not looking to develop a town center, but if it’s feasible and you can get — 15 minutes to the base of Deer Valley — of course that’s phenomenal," Dickey said. "So let’s study that routing, it can also go a few different places from there.”
The preliminary gondola discussion was born out of a broader plan to redevelop the Main Street area. Thursday the council also evaluated several alignments for a different aerial connection between Old Town and Snow Park.
There was majority support to study a route connecting Deer Valley’s base and the China Bridge parking garage on Swede Alley.
The southern portion of the garage is deteriorating and repairs are required to keep it operating in the coming years. The council wants to study an aerial connection at China Bridge in conjunction with broader redevelopment plans for the property.
Dickey and Toly expressed support for also analyzing the Brew Pub parking lot at the top of Main Street. A staff presentation identified a route from the lot as having the least amount of interference on private property, compared with other city-owned parcels along Swede Alley.
Separately, the council signaled a strong desire to see Park City Mountain’s Town Lift upgraded into a gondola.
Local tech billionaire Matthew Prince recently purchased the Town Lift Plaza on Main Street and has expressed a desire to upgrade the lift into a gondola and connect it to Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.
There was a brief discussion about connecting a new version of the Town Lift to Deer Valley terrain, but the council did not consider any specific plans Thursday.
Park City Municipal is a financial supporter of KPCW.
