Heber movie producer Todd Bay said he wants to make Park City Utah’s film industry hub by possibly building a production studio complete with sound stages, a recording studio and post-production facilities at Quinn’s Junction.
“We are meeting in just the next little bit of time with what in the film world, is recognized as one of the best studio management companies around; and they’re very interested in seeing and developing and managing a project like this in Utah,” said Bay, who owns Heber-based Bay Entertainment and Media.
A bill in the state Legislature could allow Bay to develop the studio alongside an 800-room condominium hotel the U.S. Air Force wants built near the back door into Park City, Park City Mayor Dana Williams said.
Local officials could not regulate the project’s size if Senate Bill 216 passes, said Williams, who is against the legislation.
“To tag [the studio] onto a military project, in my opinion, is not right,” Williams said.
SB 216 would change the Military Installation Development Authority Act, which was formed to help the military rehabilitate old facilities. Military officials could build recreation facilities on private land without engaging local governments in Utah in the planning process.
The studio and hotel are proposed for land near the Park City limits at the junction of U.S. 40 and State Road 248 in the unincorporated Snyderville Basin.
“Quinn’s Junction is absolutely the wrong location for either a movie studio or an Air Force hotel,” Summit County Councilwoman Sally Elliott said. “I can’t imagine why the Legislature wants to get their nasty little fingers into our zoning codes and turn everything upside down.”
For 12 years the city and county have worked with Air Force officials to find vacation lodging for airmen, Elliott said.
“We’re going to continue to work in good faith with the Air Force to find a way that they can build an Air Force hotel in Park City,” Elliott said. “But this bill could destroy local zoning in every jurisdiction in Utah.”
Despite City Hall hiring a lobbyist for $60,000 to help defeat the bill, Elliott said state lawmakers are poised to approve SB 216.
“The notion of the economic-development benefits of having a movie studio in Utah is sort of driving the train right now, and the Air Force is merely a vehicle for getting a movie studio,” Elliott said.
City Hall and county officials have long-standing legal quarrels with landowners at Quinn’s Junction over the size of the projects developers have proposed.
“In my opinion, [SB 216] was specifically written for the Quinn’s Junction area and the Air Force, and the owner and developer of that property,” Summit County Councilman John Hanrahan said.
The county was mentioned at a Senate committee hearing about the bill Monday.
“It was just really upfront, in-your-face, ‘Summit County, we’re going to ram this down your throat,'” Hanrahan explained. “I’m not sure what the impetus for this is We want to be able to work effectively with our state legislators because it can have such a dramatic impact, pro or con, on your county.”
Committee members voted 3-2 to recommend the bill, which could now be debated on the Senate floor.
“The rub for us in Summit County, as well as all the other counties that are affected, is that it takes away local authority for zoning and planning,” Hanrahan said. “[SB 216] will allow the owner of that property (at Quinn’s Junction) to circumvent our zoning and our planning to build this enormous movie studio and additional commercial space.”
The movie studio, however, could provide a needed jolt to the local economy while attracting “the who’s who of Hollywood,” Bay replied.
“I picked up The New York Times recently and on one of their front pages it said the movie industry is seeing an unprecedented surge the first quarter this year, it’s up 17.5 percent,” Bay said. “The golden age of film came out of the depression and now that we’re in a recession again, and a big one, we’re all of the sudden seeing more people going to the movies and watching TV.”