Hundreds of new hotel rooms and a Hollywood-style movie studio in Park City appear imminent after the Utah Legislature passed a bill Wednesday that could pave the project’s way.
House members voted 49-23 to approve Senate Bill 216, which local elected officials staunchly oppose. The legislation would revise the state’s so-called Military Installation Development Authority Act so the military could build recreation facilities on private land without engaging local governments in the planning process.
Summit County’s two representatives in the House, Republican Mel Brown and Democrat Christine Johnson, voted against the bill. The two Republican senators who represent the county split their vote, with Allen Christensen voting for the bill and Kevin Van Tassell voting against the legislation. City and county officials have worked with the U.S. Air Force for about a dozen years to find lodging for airmen since the military lost its rickety lodge near Snowbasin.
“We anticipated the passage of this, and the group that has been working on this is going to meet at the end of the week to see where we go from here,” Park City Mayor Dana Williams said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.
If Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman signs SB 216 into law, the legislation could allow a movie studio, complete with sound stages, to be built alongside a roughly 800-room condominium hotel the U.S. Air Force wants built at Quinn’s Junction, Williams said.
Meanwhile, Heber resident Todd Bay, owner of Bay Entertainment and Media, claims a studio could make Park City the hub of the burgeoning film industry in Utah.
Bay says he is meeting with Hollywood types who are interested in operating a production facility in Summit County.
Developers envision the studio and hotel on land near the Park City limits at the junction of U.S. 40 and State Road 248. SB 216 passed despite City Hall hiring a lobbyist to help defeat the bill. There is long-standing legal wrangling between City Hall and county officials and landowners at Quinn’s Junction over the size of projects developers have proposed.