Wasatch County and Park City are continuing to work on relations in an unusual situation. That being that the city owns Bonanza Flat, a piece of property outside their boundaries in Wasatch County.
Wasatch County Manager Mike Davis says that the recent upgrades made to the road to guardsman pass were done as a necessity.
“We have been getting so much traffic up there there's safety issues,” Davis said. “We actually had a death up there a couple years ago, and there's a large lawsuit on that. A lot of the project that was done—it already had some paving on it, it wasn't good paving but—the guardrails and the things that were put in with that were the bigger part of the project to try and make the road safer. We share the concern that when you build it, they come, but we also had the concern of if we don't keep it safe, we have the potential of hurting people. Now with the popularity of the Bonanza Flat area—which has just grown exponentially the last two years since the acquisition by Park City—we have more people than ever up there. So, we're just trying to keep it safe. There are no plans to make it bigger or faster and we hope that that will work out well.”
Park City Municipal proposed a parking lot in the Bonanza Flats area. Approval for the parking lot from Wasatch County has taken some time, Davis says that’s just because of due process.
“We require a development agreement with the permits as they’re done,” Davis explained. “The only thing that we need for that agreement was that any gates that are put up would be gates that emergency personnel could get through in case of an emergency in Brighton Estates or anywhere else. That we can get access with emergency vehicles. Really, that was the only issue. Park City is fine with that. Actually, all the agreements have been signed and everything is done as far as I know.”
Davis says that Park City is looking for an understanding agreement between the city and the county. The understanding would be that if Wasatch County were to ever consider expanding the road near Bonanza in the future that Park City would be invited to discuss that. Davis said they have no plans to expand the road and they’re happy to agree to Park City’s request.
