Canyons officials plan to build a storage building on the mountain that is 49 feet high. Resort staffers need somewhere to store the chairs for the resort’s new Orange Bubble Express lift.
The Summit County Council has granted Canyons a special exception to exceed the 32-foot building height limit in the Snyderville Basin. Resort officials said the building is needed near the lift’s upper terminal so the chairs can be stored at night.
The Orange Bubble Express was installed this year. The ride, which begins in the base area, unloads between Sun Peak Express and Saddleback Express.
“It’s really going to open up the skiing experience,” Canyons spokesman Tim Vetter said. “It’s a very long lift.”
Construction of the storage building would be completed next year, he said.
County planners advised councilpersons to oppose the special exception. But the County Council voted unanimously to approve the height variance.
“What we have tried to do with the Canyons is understand the big picture of the improvements and changes being made,” Summit County Manager Bob Jasper said. “Skiing is core to our economy Will this make a difference in terms of the overall viability of that ski resort? The Talisker corporation thinks it will.”
According to Canyons officials, the manufacturer warranty for the new lift requires the chairs be stored inside at night.
“With the goal to maintain the chair warranty and to protect the chairs, the applicant wishes to take the chairs off the lift cable and store them every night,” a staff report from the Summit County Community Development Department states. “In order to be able to get the chairs directly off the lift, the structure is being proposed to be immediately adjacent to the top terminal of the lift so the chairs can be guided off the lift and placed directly onto the rails to be further guided into the storage building.”
The building will not be visible from State Road 224, resort officials said.
“We’re not out in the open. We’re not sitting on a flat next to a highway,” said Michael Barille, a Canyons planning consultant.
The height exception would be just over 17 feet. Building heights at Canyons range from 20 to 90 feet, according to Summit County planner Amir Caus.
But an adjacent landowner complained that the structure would obstruct his views of the mountain. Basin resident Steve Osguthorpe asked councilpersons to vote against the height variance calling the building an “eyesore.”
“It looks like a large storage rental unit, right next to our property, up in a pristine area,” Osguthorpe said. “This is terrible to approve a variance for something like this.”
Osguthorpe said his family operates snowmobiling and horseback riding tours in the area.
“It really bothers me when you say nobody’s going to see this, it’s hidden. Well I’m going to see it every time I go up on my property,” Osguthorpe said. “Just because you don’t see it when you are down on the highway doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”
In a public hearing Dec. 8, Basin resident Jack Fenton complained about the proposed building materials.
“The building is just poorly designed from an aesthetic point of view,” Fenton said. “You should probably have a better building standing there for everyone to see.”
The new building will have two levels. Chair storage will be located on the second floor and the lower level will be used as a maintenance shop. The structure will be located about a half mile northwest of Red Pine Lodge. The closest homes are about a mile away in Sun Peak and The Colony.
“There is just not any other solution that we have at this point,” Vetter said. “It has to be at that elevation.”
Resort officials say construction could be completed next season.