Park City Mountain’s two lift upgrade proposals were back before the Park City Planning Commission Wednesday, May 13, this time to delve into the traffic and parking plan.
One application seeks to upgrade the Silverlode Express from a six-passenger detachable lift to an eight-passenger detachable lift. The other would replace the 30-year-old Eagle and Eaglet chairlifts with a six-passenger detachable chairlift and mid-mountain station.
Parking, traffic and how they relate to resort carrying capacity were points of contention when the proposals were first considered by the commission in 2022. At the time, the upgrades were proposed through an administrative process instead of a conditional use permit.
Park City Mountain Director of Mountain Planning Zach Purdue said the lifts replace aging infrastructure. They would also increase Eagle lift uphill capacity by almost 16% and Silverlode by 20%.
But Purdue told the commission Wednesday that uphill capacity increases don’t guarantee resort visitation will grow, because the improvements don’t introduce new terrain or base access points.
“One of the central questions before the commission is whether these operational improvements are expected to generate additional traffic and parking demand,” he said. “Based on industry experience and expert opinion, these projects are not expected to create an increase in visitation and therefore would not induce additional traffic and parking demand.”
If visitation did increase, Purdue said the resort’s parking and traffic mitigation plan could handle it.
Parking demands have dropped significantly since the 2022-2023 season, resort president Deidre Walsh said. That’s when a paid parking and carpool incentive system was adopted. Partnering with Park City High School to provide parking has also helped.
Walsh told commissioners over 64% of vehicles now arrive at the resort with four or more skiers and riders, and base area travel is down 40%. Purdue said on the top 10 busiest days since the parking plan was implemented, there were over 600 parking spots available.
RELAED: Park City Mountain shares details of lift upgrade proposals
Andrew Latham said the city’s data matches these stats. Even on peak days, he said resort parking lots are 65% to 70% full.
“We track the number of times throughout a ski season that Park City Mountain Resort sees a sellout,” he said. “In this past ski season, we saw four times that they sold out the lots. The two years prior to that, it was only one day.”
During a public hearing, a handful of local residents, including Frode Jensen, said lift upgrades are likely needed, but trail crowding is still a concern.
“The consequence of exceeding downhill capacity, I think, is overcrowding and an unsafe ski experience,” Jensen said. “Won't the proposed increased uphill capacity of the new lifts only make overcrowding at the resort worse?”
Commissioners agreed Wednesday that they’d like to see an updated version of the comfortable carrying capacity assessment submitted in 2022. However, the report is not required under conditional use permit rules and the resort otherwise checks all the boxes in city code.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the proposals May 27. Locals can give feedback before the decision during a public hearing.
Commissioner Adam Strachan recused himself from the discussions and any votes. He previously worked as an attorney for the resort and said that as a private citizen, he also spoke publicly about the previous lift proposal application.
