A former member of the Park City Planning Commission recaptured a spot on the panel Thursday night alongside a newcomer to City Hall circles in what was a set of appointments more closely watched than is typical for the position.
The Park City Council unanimously approved the two midterm appointments. Jack Thomas, who once served on the Planning Commission, won a term ending in July 2013. Nann Worel, the executive director of the People’s Health Clinic, was selected to serve a term ending in July 2012.
Thomas replaces Dick Peek on the Planning Commission. Peek recently succeeded the late Candy Erickson on the City Council. Worel will finish the term vacated by Richard Luskin. He resigned from the Planning Commission in the aftermath of a slow-speed New Year’s traffic accident and subsequent prosecution.
The appointments bring the seven-member Planning Commission back to full strength after the panel limped through the late spring and early summer down two members. The Planning Commission was forced to cancel a meeting in late May after two of the remaining members indicated they would be unable to attend, leaving the panel without a quorum. A bare bones Planning Commission, meanwhile, met on Wednesday, the day before the two appointments.
It is uncommon for a City Council to be required to make a midterm Planning Commission appointment and extraordinarily rare to have two midterm openings at the same time.
In making the two appointments, the City Council chose a Planning Commissioner with experience in the selection of Thomas and another one with a not-for-profit background in Worel.
The Thomas appointment is especially notable given his background on the Planning Commission. Thomas served from the middle of 2004 until he stepped down in late 2009. He said at the time of his resignation the decision was for professional reasons. Thomas, an architect, said then he needed to spend more time at his firm as the recession continued. Thomas was the chairman of the Planning Commission when he resigned.
In his application to return to the Planning Commission, Thomas said the ongoing rewrite of City Hall’s General Plan, an overarching document that guides growth in the city, and the Sweeney family’s Treasure development are important issues for the Planning Commission.
“I think that it takes equal micro & macro vision of the city & its systems for planning. I believe I have that ability,” Thomas, a Park City resident for nearly 20 years, wrote in his application.
In her application, Worel listed contending with developments that were approved previously, such as Treasure, and the necessity for careful entryway planning as issues of importance. She also said in the application, “balancing the needs of all the residents of Park City with the realities of being a resort town is an on-going issue.”
Worel has lived in Park City on a full-time basis for four years.
The two are expected to attend their first meeting on June 22. An early agenda for that meeting, posted on City Hall’s website, indicates the Planning Commission will return to its discussions about the Park City Heights project at Quinn’s Junction. The City Hall-Boyer Company development partnership recently secured an overall permit for Park City Heights but must return to the Planning Commission for secondary approvals. Items could be added to the meeting’s agenda later.
Thomas and Worel will be seated on the Planning Commission at a time when it appears the workload could be increasing as developers return to City Hall after the down years of the recession.
The Planning Commission is soon expected to begin deliberations about a major redevelopment proposal in the Bonanza Park district centered along Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. Planning Commissioners also hold a crucial role in the long-running discussions about the Treasure development proposal. They will be addressing the General Plan in coming months as well.
The Planning Commission is seen as ranking second in influence of City Hall’s boards and commissions, trailing only the City Council.