The Park City Historic Preservation Board on Wednesday night rejected High West’s Distillery’s request for an Old Town grant, deciding in a split vote that it would not provide what would have been a second round of City Hall assistance to the startup at the bottom of the Town Lift.
The panel voted 3-2 against the grant request. Puggy Holmgren, Roger Durst and Sara Werbelow were in the majority. Gary Kimball and Ken Martz cast the opposition votes.
Holmgren, the vice chair, had been especially critical of the request. She asked City Attorney Mark Harrington, who was in the audience Wednesday, whether she was allowed to make a motion even as she was presiding over the meeting. He told her she could, and Holmgren quickly moved to reject the grant request.
Holmgren has been especially critical of the timeline High West followed in seeking a grant. Most who seek the Old Town grants apply for assistance prior to starting the work. High West has nearly completed an extensive renovation of what is widely known as the Watts property on Park Avenue. It applied for the grant in May, a few months before the distillery is scheduled to open.
Holmgren did not want to make an exception to the typical timeline for High West. She said it would be difficult to explain to others in a similar situation why High West received a grant and they may not.
There were tense moments, though, as High West’s owner, David Perkins, argued that City Hall accepted his application for a grant after the work had started. He said the rules should be clearer.
City Hall architect Kayla Sintz had recommended the Historic Preservation Board consider providing High West a grant of $11,000. The figure would have matched the amount the distillery received in an earlier City Hall grant meant to assist in moving equipment to the Old Town site from Salt Lake City.
Perkins said after the vote he was disappointed.