As we’ve reported, the public comment at Tuesday’s Snyderville Planning hearing on the Highland Flats proposal was overwhelmingly opposed—and easily outnumbered the four or five people who supported the project.
In fact, some critics suggested that the supporters were just “plants” cultivated by the developers. KPCW got a response from the applicants.
Hilary Reiter is the spokeswoman for the Highland Flats developers—the Colmena Group, Breen Homes and Jake Breen—proposing to create 410 rental units, with 35 percent of those set as affordable deed-restricted housing.
In an e-mail to KPCW, Reiter said that the developers are acquainted with those who spoke in favor of the project. She said the applicants rallied people to turn out for the public hearing—just as opponents from the Highland Estates neighborhood did the same thing.
But she said the supporters don’t have financial ties to the project. Reiter said they spoke out on their own, and are genuinely concerned about the lack of affordable housing in Park City. She said one of them, a teacher, turned down a job with the Park City School District for that reason.
Reiter said she personally knew some service and healthcare workers who wanted to speak Tuesday but couldn’t because of their work schedule.
Meanwhile, Snyderville Planning Chairman Ryan Dickey said he was gratified by the public turnout and it raises a question for the future.
He said at some point the Snyderville Commisison will get back to live meetings at the Richins Building. But the Zoom meeting Tuesday was attended by up to 238 people—and enabled an outreach, he said, that they can’t get in person.
“We had parents saying, “Hey, I’m in the middle of bedtime, but thanks for calling on me,” and gave feedback. We had a lot of residents would not have come to the Richins Building, and we would not have heard from, had we met in person. And 238 people wouldn’t fit in the room. So it just really struck me that probably a task for us when we think about going back to meet in person-- which is a lot better from a Commission perspective, in terms of our discussion--but figuring out how we continue to have all these voices. Because as long as that hearing was, we had folks say things we hadn’t thought of, and voices that we don’t see at the Richins Building. And so, I think that’s a task ahead of us for probably all of our public meetings, as we think about how to bring technology into the physical location, or whatever it is, how do we keep that public input going.”
Snyderville Planning Chairman Ryan Dickey.
