Discovery Ridge is a 97-unit development in Summit County up Kilby Road next to the Weilenmann School of Discovery.
When complete, Discovery Ridge will have 67 market rate and 30 deed-restricted affordable homes. Leigh Ann Gray and Brianna Gallery and their families entered into contracts for two of the affordable homes to be built in “phase one” of development.
That was in early 2020. Now three years have passed and they’re still waiting.
Gray and Gallery’s building, which has five units in all, happens to be the most expensive of the deed-restricted units to build. It’s going to be three stories tall, built into a hill on a downslope facing the Weilenmann School.
Gray said the communication from developer Michael Milner and the rest of the team has been challenging at best.
“Every time they send an update, you know, ‘We're sorry that this has kept going on. We're sorry about this. You can have your earnest money back if you'd like to cancel your contract,’” Gray said. “No, I don't want to cancel my contract.”
Gallery isn’t planning to back out right now either, even though they say they’ve been strung along, because she feels lucky to have a shot at an affordable home near Park City in the first place.
“Where's that fine line of being grateful but also continuing to advocate?” Gallery said.
She and her husband work for the Park City School District. Even with the recent 16% pay bump, they don’t think they’d be able to afford a market rate home near work.
They sold their home in Salt Lake City when they got a spot at Discovery Ridge and planned to rent for six months. It’s now been three years.
Similarly, Gray and her family have had to move twice since selling their Old Town home when they secured a spot at Discovery Ridge.
“The mental stress that we've had to go through for 3.5 years has just really been challenging for our family,” Gray said.
Renting has been financially stressful, too.
There was a glimmer of hope last year. The developer told Gray over email on March 11, 2022, the foundation was poured and anticipated completing the fiveplex in January 2023.
But Milner said the historically snowy winter stalled progress. In a letter dated April 27, he said the snow and increasing labor and construction costs would mean pausing construction for about three more months.
It was his stated intention to begin construction again in August and finish it in February 2024.
“At that point, we then had to pick and choose the buildings that we could do given this extraordinary increases in materials and subcontractors so that we can deal with that loss and keep our ratios intact,” Milner said.
According to Milner’s development agreement with Summit County, Discovery Ridge’s ratio of market rate to affordable units are required to be 1.5:1. An email the county sent Gray confirmed the developer was in compliance as of Aug. 15, which means the county can’t step in.
Construction on Gray and Gallery’s five-plex did not resume in August.
Milner told KPCW he intends to resume construction in the next two to three weeks. That would put the estimated completion time around April 2024.
Gray said she believes the delays violate her and Gallery’s real estate purchase contracts, which stipulate Milner must complete their homes within 12 months of starting construction. That would have been March 11, 2023.
Milner said he and his legal counsel disagree with that interpretation of the REPC. The contract allows for delays in case of “interruption of transportation, availability of materials, strikes, fire, flood, weather, governmental regulations, acts of God, or similar occurrences beyond the control of seller.”
Would-be residents of the unfinished fiveplex have considered legal action but haven’t filed a lawsuit as of Sept. 16, 2023.
