The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation needs to generate more money to keep its venues afloat for the 2034 Winter Games.
It currently operates at a deficit of $3 million to $4 million every year. To try to close that gap, the foundation is seeking to develop new amenities around the Utah Olympic Park in the Snyderville Basin, such as a new hotel and housing.
At a Summit County Council meeting Wednesday, March 12, the foundation shared a list of proposed adjustments that dealt with maximum building heights, maximum developable square footage, traffic flow and allocation of affordable housing. To read the latest version of the plans, see the meeting materials.
After about 90 minutes of discussion, county leaders said they still have some concerns about the UOP’s proposal.
Councilmember Chris Robinson focused on the foundation’s plans to use tax increment financing to support the development.
“The main driver on your economics is that tax increment finance,” he said. “I feel that it’s not enough juice for the squeeze; it’s temporary.”
With a tax increment financing model, or TIF, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation would keep 75% of new property tax revenue to reinvest into the UOP. Foundation leaders estimate that arrangement would generate about $1.2 million each year.
A Summit County spokesperson could not immediately confirm how long the TIF would be in place, or when 100% of the tax revenue would return to county coffers.
The foundation’s president and CEO, Colin Hilton, argued the TIF will help drive other economic growth at the UOP, like conferences, events and visitor spending.
“We think this will fuel these other elements,” he said. “This is a trigger to help us with those other legs, if you will, of the revenue generation.”
The plans include 72 affordable housing units, with priority for employees and athletes. The foundation said about 29 of the apartments would be set aside for visiting athletes. Councilmember Tonja Hanson said she wants to be cautious about nightly rentals at the UOP, although she supports the hotel.
“I want to be very specific, because nightly rentals are problematic, as you know, and that’s a concern for me with traffic impacts,” she said.
Traffic is one of the big concerns for neighbors near the UOP as well. The Sun Peak Homeowners Association sent an eight-page letter to the council this month, outlining worries including the size of the development, use of an emergency access gate and allowance of nightly rentals.
The foundation told the council Wednesday it is committed to working with neighbors on an access policy for the gate connecting Olympic Park to Bear Hollow Drive.
Councilmember Canice Harte said the county council will spend another two hours discussing the UOP plans at a work session March 18.
“Our focus is putting conditions in that mitigate the impacts to those around it [the UOP], and we have full latitude to do that,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” March 12. “We didn’t want to just try to cobble that together in five or 10 minutes.”
A vote on any conditions of approval would happen at a council meeting sometime after March 18.
Summit County and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation are financial supporters of KPCW.
