The billionaire owner of The Park Record, Matthew Prince, has begun excavating his property on King Road.
He’s able to do so under a type of permit granted before a project is fully approved. Third District Judge Richard Mrazik allowed Park City Municipal to grant him the site work permit June 30.
Prince’s downhill neighbors, Eric Hermann and Susan Fresdston-Hermann, subsequently protested the move in court, objecting that they weren’t afforded two weeks to respond before the judge ruled.
Their attorneys say there’s no legal basis for Mrazik’s ruling since the Park City Board of Adjustment blocked the home last November and Prince is having to appeal that decision to district court.
The Hermanns had also sued to stop the project last August after its initial approval and the demolition of the old homes. Those court cases have been combined into one.
They told KPCW in an email they see the permit for excavation as a “veto” of the November Board of Adjustment decision.
One of neighbors’ concerns has been a landslide. Prince is now building a retaining wall on the property and excavating it under what’s called an “at-risk permit.”
“The work that's being done currently is site work relative to ultimate development of the site, but certainly to stabilize and make sure that the site remains safe as it is now,” Prince’s attorney Wade Budge told KPCW. “The key thing is to make sure that the site works done during a time of the year when you're able to minimize impacts on the community.”
The “at-risk permit” does not refer to the riskiness of the area or the project, explains Park City’s chief building official Dave Thacker, but instead the financial risk Prince is assuming.
“The owners themselves are at risk of having to replace the property in its entirety, back to what it was, should an approval not be given for what their proposed construction is,” he said. “Whether that be a new home, whether that be a commercial structure, etc.”
Prince has paid the required $275,000 bond for the permit, issued July 14, to compensate the city for any potential losses.
Eric Hermann, meanwhile, remains concerned about a landslide should the retaining wall fail.
“Even with the shoring and things like that, it's probable it'll be OK — if we don't have a big winter, it might be OK,” he said. “But he does not have approval to build anything.”
Thacker said the retaining wall will be about 24 feet deep in the ground.
He added that Prince has an agreement with Park City Mountain to haul all of the excavated soil uphill to the resort rather than through town.
It’s unclear when the litigation will be resolved. A new 2025 state law allows city councils to settle administrative land use disputes with private landowners instead of it going to court.
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