Last time The Mine went before the county council in 2019, it won an exception for extra height—48 feet—to have an Olympic-sized speed climbing wall at a new location in northeast Quinn’s Junction at the Park City Business Park.
This time, they want approval to add housing to the building. Co-owners Andy Jacobsen and Grady Kohler think the gym's height exception lends itself to extra residential space.
Summit County planner Ray Milliner said what piqued the Synderville Basin Planning Commission’s interest in this new idea was that Kohler and Jacobsen volunteered to make all of the housing affordable.
Kohler told the council Wednesday he thinks Quinn’s Junction is a good place for the project.
“We've got a lot of positive support from the planning commission meetings, neighbors and people in our community saying this is a great area to put it,” Kohler said.
But The Mine needs the county to give it an exception to build the housing—or change the zoning on the land. That’s because the area is zoned “service commercial,” which means businesses only, no housing.
Councilmember Canice Harte said he wouldn’t ordinarily consider adding housing, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s already in the works nearby. He later referenced the 200 affordable housing units approved at the nearby film studio at the southwest corner of Quinn’s Junction.
“I'm not saying we would approve it,” Harte said. “But I would contemplate it because these other projects with residential units essentially are already there.”
Another issue: state law says the county may require 20% of residential units to be affordable in this particular case—but no more than that.
Kohler and Jacobsen said they promise 100% of the units will be affordable. But Council Chair Roger Armstrong pointed out if they ever sell the property, the next owner might want more profit.
“And that subsequent developer may decide, ‘You know what, I would prefer this be something more at market rate,’” Armstrong said.
The council might not be able to stop that hypothetical owner from raising rent for 80% of their units, because of state affordable housing laws, which Armstrong indicated was ironic.
“They wanted to create affordable housing,” Armstrong said. “So they restricted how much affordable housing could be created. Because that’s genius. Genius.”
But if it lets one developer add housing in the service commercial zone, the county has to allow others to do the same. Harte said later the council and planning staff need to think through the potential ripple effect of this development, even though 100% affordable housing seems like it could be a win.
“That's where the hesitancy comes from, as you tend not to want to change zones very often, because then it changes the whole layout of the area,” Harte said.
He emphasized Wednesday’s conversation was exploratory and that the council is open to looking at solutions while minimizing negative ripple effects.
The development will be publicly noticed again and then come back to the council before The Mine can build its new location.
