Park City’s Administrative Hearing Officer Tim Pack reviewed an appeal of two applications to upgrade Park City Mountain's Silverlode, Eagle and Eaglet chairlifts Thursday, July 16.
One application will expand the Silverlode Express from a six-passenger detachable lift to one that carries eight passengers. The other will replace the 30-year-old Eagle and Eaglet chairlifts with a six-passenger detachable chairlift and mid-mountain station.
The Park City Planning Commission approved the upgrades May 27. Six Park City-area residents then appealed the decision June 8.
Pack now has until Aug. 6 to grant or deny the appeal.
Appellants believe the planning commission unlawfully ignored evidence the changes would contribute to unsafe and overcrowded conditions on terrain served by Silverlode and Eagle. Their appeal says commissioners should have factored in comfortable carrying capacity (CCC), which measures how many skiers and riders the mountain can manage.
Hyrum Bosserman is an attorney for the appellants. He said the resort has already admitted the upgrades could be harmful to guests in its application by detailing how to mitigate traffic and parking.
“They have determined that there is a detrimental impact generated by the lift construction and its operation, such that they needed a plan, and such that that plan provides a workable means with dealing with that impact,” he said. “We can't determine whether parking is mitigated without a CCC analysis.”
CCC figured prominently in Park City Mountain’s first attempt to upgrade Silverlode, Eagle and Eaglet in 2022. Four residents eventually overturned the planning department’s initial approval and kick-started three years of litigation.
A key difference is the 2022 application was submitted under an administrative process that required CCC information. It also gave the city’s planning director the final say, rather than the planning commission.
Park City Municipal attorney Lara Swenson said conditional use permits, on the other hand, don’t require CCC data.
“The plain language of the development agreement does not require a CCC analysis or any other independent criteria for the CUP other than what's required by the code,” she said.
Pack’s review is limited to information from planning commission meetings — including public comments — along with the hearing arguments from attorneys for the appellants, Park City Mountain and the city.
Park City Municipal and Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise foundation are financial supporters of KPCW.
