City Hall intends to build a housing project on Old Town land that officials at one point expected to sell to a group that wanted to pursue its own residential development at the site.
The municipal government owns the land, which is located at 1450 Park Ave. and 1460 Park Ave. Park City leaders have indicated for some time that the location works well for a housing project. There are two old houses at the site and enough other land for a development.
Officials on Monday posted a document requesting proposals from firms interested in providing architectural services for a project. The submittal deadline is May 15. The request is an important early step as City Hall begins considering the details of a project.
The document indicates City Hall wants the historic parts of two old houses on the site preserved as part of a project. It also says officials want the design for new residential units to involve houses “with a compatible neighborhood concept.” It indicates between six and eight units are contemplated but a study is needed to determine the proper number.
Park City leaders have made housing one of the top issues for City Hall in 2015, saying that work force, senior or otherwise affordable housing is critical for the community. There have long been concerns about the effects of Park City’s expensive real estate market on employee recruitment, commuter traffic and the community feel.
“Ensuring that members of Park City’s workforce can live locally and are not forced to commute from other regions is critical to City Council’s environmental as well as diversity goals, helping Park City remain an inclusive community of diverse economic and cultural opportunities,” the document says.
Park City’s elected officials want seven percent of the city’s housing stock to be designated as affordable in some fashion by 2020. Doing so, City Hall says, requires another 184 units above the 497 units currently in the stock.
Rhoda Stauffer, the housing specialist at City Hall, said officials have crafted few details about a project. A price range has not been set. The six to eight units mentioned for the site includes the two old houses there now. She said that number of units would fit on the site and would meet zoning rules. Stauffer said the new houses would likely be between 800 square feet and 1,200 square feet in size. The document outlines that City Hall anticipates the houses will generally be two-bedrooms “of creative compact design.”
“If density allows and the pleasant neighborhood feel can be maintained, incorporating a duplex to increase the overall number of homes is acceptable and encouraged,” it says, adding that officials desire “innovative approaches to storage either within individual units or grouped in a shared structure onsite.”
Stauffer said City Hall would develop the site and then recoup its costs through the sales of the houses. That would be a similar arrangement to another City Hall-developed housing project, the Snow Creek Cottages.
She said there are many benefits to the site on the 1400 block of Park Avenue, including its location in Old Town and the residential setting.
“It makes a lot of sense,” Stauffer said.
Stauffer said a groundbreaking could occur in the spring of 2016, at the earliest. City Hall would need to secure the proper permits from the Park City Planning Commission prior to starting a project. It is not clear when officials would submit the applications for Planning Commission review. It oftentimes takes months for a developer to clear the Planning Commission as the panel heavily debates topics like the number of units proposed at a site, the layout and parking.
The document posted on Monday indicates interviews with some of the parties that respond would be scheduled during the week of May 18. A firm could be selected during the week of May 26 followed by the award of a contract during the week of June 1, according to the document.
City Hall acquired the land at 1450 Park Ave. and 1460 Park Ave. in 2009 for $750,000. Park City leaders later reached an agreement to sell the land to a group that wanted to build a project in an unorthodox development manner known as cohousing. The deal with Greenpark Cohousing, LLC, though, collapsed amid financing issues.
Greenpark Cohousing, LLC wanted to build a residential project incorporating the two old houses. Most of the units would have been sold with income restrictions while the others would have been sold at market rates. Greenpark Cohousing, LLC won a key vote in favor of the project from the Park City Planning Commission. People who intend to live in a cohousing project have an outsized role in its designs.
The architect who designed the Greenpark Cohousing, LLC project, Craig Elliott, said his Elliott Workgroup is considering submitting a proposal in response to the City Hall posting. Elliott said he anticipates the municipal government will receive lots of interest from architectural firms.
“It looks like they have a reasonable approach,” Elliott said. “They’re asking for houses that are appropriately scaled to the historic buildings.”