The Park City Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center has a spot for environmentally conscious drivers.

The Park Meadows building has, in fact, eight such spots.

The City Hall-owned workout facility has set aside eight parking spots as places restricted to people who drive fuel-efficient vehicles. Signs have been posted at the spots informing people that they are not allowed to park there unless they drive vehicles that are friendlier to the environment.

The spots are some of the closest to the front door, providing priority parking to people driving the fuel-efficient vehicles. There are a total of 147 spots at the Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center, leaving 139 places to park for people who drive vehicles that are not considered fuel efficient.

City Hall has compiled a list of vehicles that are eligible to park in the spots. To qualify, a vehicle must meet at least one of three requirements:

  • getting at least 30 miles per gallon of gas
  • being listed as a low-emission vehicle through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, often referred to as LEED listing.
  • being a hybrid, an electric or a vehicle that runs on natural gas

    Staffers at the front desk of the Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center keep a binder listing the vehicles that are allowed to park in the spots. There are 1,114 vehicles that are permitted to park in them, a recent memo to Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council indicated. People who are not sure whether their vehicle is on the list may ask staffers at the facility.

    Ken Fisher, who manages City Hall’s recreation programs and oversees the Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center, said some signs were posted when the building reopened in late December after an extension renovation. The signs have not received widespread publicity since. Fisher acknowledged that there have been vehicles parked in the spots that do not qualify to be there. He said some other spots have been set aside with signs as being for carpools only.

    Fisher said staffers put courtesy notices on vehicles parked in the spots that do not qualify. Less than a dozen courtesy notices had been used by early in the week. The courtesy notices outline the requirements to park in the spots.

    “Your vehicle does not meet the standard to park in this space. We ask that in the future you park your vehicle in one of the spots that has no vehicle requirements. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation,” the notices say in part.

    Tyler Poulson, who manages City Hall’s environmental programs, said officials have not considered putting similar signs outside other municipal buildings.

    The restricted parking spots at the Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center are part of City Hall’s wider environmental efforts. Park City leaders in the last decade have aggressively pursued an environmental program, and it has been one of the hallmarks of the administration of Mayor Dana Williams.

    The environmental efforts at City Hall, which include installing green features in municipal buildings, purchasing numerous vehicles that run on cleaner-burning fuels and expanding bus service, are seen as an attempt by the municipal government to combat global warming. The Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center was built with a series of environmental features.

    Leaders see the prospects of a warming planet as being potentially devastating to the ski industry, the driver of the local economy. The environmental efforts also are meant to cut emissions and keep Park City’s air healthy. Some businesses in Park City have instituted environmental programs as well.