Homeowners in the White Pine Ranches neighborhood of Canyons Village, just down the road from The Colony, will now be able to build a gate of their own.
The neighborhood’s entrance, White Pine Lane, is a private road. It has multiple “private drive” signs, but residents say they’ve been dealing with trespassers for years.
Specifically, skiers and riders have been using a property at the end of White Pine Lane to get to the Tombstone lift or Tombstone Grill.
Residents raised the issue at the Jan. 9 Snyderville Basin Planning Commission meeting. According to HOA president Rick Nemeroff, they’ve recorded at least a dozen instances of trespassing since then.
“I said at the last meeting that my biggest fear was escalation—that we were going to see things get out of hand quickly,” Nemeroff told planning commissioners April 9. “And I hate when I'm right about something, because we saw it over at Brighton. We saw what happens when landowners and trespassers mix.”
He was referring to a viral video captured a month after the January planning commission meeting, in which a Brighton man confronted a snowboarder with a shotgun, cursing and telling him he’s on private property. The property owner now faces assault charges.
“We are reaching this point where people just can't coexist, without real stringent barriers to that happening,” Nemeroff said.
Park City Mountain has a fence, gate and signage behind White Pine Ranches that states the access is only for residents, but homeowners say it hasn’t worked.
According to the Summit County Attorney’s Office, the resort is not required to do anything more to mitigate the alleged trespassing.
In a county staff report, property owners at the end of White Pine Lane describe confronting trespassing skiers in January 2024, who allegedly said, “‘Everybody’ knows about this access point” and they just hop the fence.
Those same residents installed a gate on their property and said someone urinated on its keypad.
They also reported confronting five snowboarders hopping that gate and claim to have been pushed and cursed at. Separately, they claimed to have found footprints around their doors and windows.
Later in January, the neighborhood hired security guards. Residents said guards turned away 13 cars between Jan. 12 and Jan. 14.
Nemeroff said skiers attempted to bribe the guards twice, and residents reported two other times cars sped by the guards entirely.
Part of the issue, according to Nemeroff, is GPS apps route people looking for Tombstone Grill to their neighborhood. Residents also said a local hotel shuttle brought skiers up once.
The HOA argued the alleged trespassing threatens residents’ health, safety and welfare; the Basin planning commission agreed.
Despite some commissioners’ reservations about creating a new gated community, the board unanimously voted to allow the White Pine Ranches gate Tuesday.
“I would be in favor of getting rid of all of the gates, but the county won't do that. The people who live behind those gates, they're looked upon as kind of a negative thing,” Commissioner Tyann Mooney said.
“I don't think it's really a fair presumption because they're also spending a lot of money to have that there. And every time you drive over a road, that isn't a road you're helping to pay for, it isn't quite right. It's kind of like, I'm just going to show up at your house and I want to use your bathroom, because it's there, and I need a bathroom.”
Commissioners acknowledged the HOA had exhausted its other options with the resort and police and met the requirements of code.
Nemeroff said the neighborhood is willing to keep the gate open during the summer.
