Two people are in the race for Midway’s next mayor, Craig Simons and Miller Wright.
Andy Garland, Genene Probst-Miles and JC Simonsen are the three candidates competing for two seats on the Midway City Council.
At a town hall hosted by the Midway Boosters, the five candidates fielded questions about how to tackle issues like parking, tourism and affordability.
One topic was the future of Midway’s Main Street and whether the town should restrict the number of chain businesses, as Park City did in 2017.
Genene Probst-Miles said she’d support steps to help small, local businesses thrive. She said her priority is a pedestrian-focused, friendly downtown.
“I love that a lot of them are mom-and-pops,” she said. “I do like that idea that we wouldn’t allow chains to infiltrate in our city.”
JC Simonsen said existing planning regulations help keep the focus local on Main Street, but he’s open to following Park City’s lead.
“Midway already has restrictions as far as store size, which keeps out big box-type situations, and I think that’s great,” he said.
Craig Simons said he supports Midway’s restrictions on drive-through businesses and that downtown zoning should be updated.
“I have a five- and a 10-year plan or vision of what this looks like, and that will start with zoning,” he said. “We have some really weird lines in our zone that need to be corrected.”
Miller Wright said he loves the town’s focus on walkability. He said he learned from his mom’s experience opening a local donut shop.
“I want to see Midway continue to do that and be a town with small, little independent shops up and down Main Street that everybody can walk to,” he said.
Andy Garland said he doesn’t want Midway to copy Park City, but he likes the way Park City promotes caring for historic buildings.
“They provide historic grants in and around Main Street of Park City,” he said. “I think that’s something that the city should invest in.”
Short-term rentals were another hot topic.
Simonsen said he thinks the negatives outweigh the positives for nightly rentals, and he is interested in removing or shrinking the zone where rentals are allowed.
Simons said it’s a problem of insufficient enforcement. He thinks hiring an enforcement officer would help solve nightly rental issues.
Wright agreed there should be more enforcement and said the short-term rental zone should not get any larger.
Garland said the size of the nightly rental zone should stay the same, but the city should focus on promoting local resorts instead of rental homes.
Probst-Miles said she believes short-term rentals have their place in Midway’s economy but agreed that the rental zone should not be expanded.
The general election is Nov. 4.
