The other day I was in the auto parts store in Kamas. It’s a classic small town parts place, not big enough to have a lot of stuff on hand, but very accommodating in getting things ordered and delivered to the store. You allow some extra time when shopping there because you always run into somebody start talking.
It’s as much a social center as a parts house. Anyway, I was in picking up what I needed to change the oil in my 1943 Farmall M. While I was talking to one of the counter guys about the oil filter gasket for a 79-year-old tractor, the guy at the next place at the counter was looking for parts for a Ferrari.
I suspect that in all the auto parts stores in the entire country, none had ever before had simultaneous requests for parts for a Farmall M and a Ferrari at the same counter at the same time. The overlap between those two markets is mighty small, but to the extent there is an overlap, it’s in Kamas. That weird mix is what makes Summit County such an interesting place to live. There’s something completely unexpected around every corner.
I left the auto parts store and went to the grocery store where the mix of cars in the parking lot was a strange as the parts orders down the street. There were a couple of new Rivian electric pickups, the usual assortment of Range Rovers, maybe 20 Subaru Outbacks, and farm pickups in various stages of rust with multiple dogs in the back.
The top end Rivian is around $100,000. Parked next to it was a new Ford pickup, all larded up with off road options. It also had to be in that price range. Both of them ostensibly four wheel drive pickups, but entirely different in approach. Probably no more overlap in those markets than there is between the Farmalls and Ferraris. It’s a very different Summit County these days.
The County just issued a stop work order on the Jeremy Ranch Elementary School remodel/expansion. The plan has been in the works for years, and they started construction this spring.
One little problem, nobody bothered to get permits.
For an organization that seems to thrive on policies, procedures, and rigid rules, it’s more than a little ironic that the School District couldn’t be bothered by compliance with the County’s rules.
The County’s position is that the project requires a conditional use permit, plus the usual list of storm water, grading, and construction site mitigation permits and plans. They can’t put the port-a-potties just anywhere; they need to be shown on the plan.
The District didn’t get anything, they just started digging. When called to the principal’s office, district officials explained that “the dog ate my conditional use permit.”
Actually, that would be significantly more explanation than the School District has made. Instead of saying, “we messed up,” they did what the Park City School District does best. They clammed up. No word from the school board. No comment from the manager of operations.
The superintendent, who hasn’t been seen in public in years and is widely believed to be a hologram, finally emerged and said “permit? We don’t need no stinkin’ permit.”
So now the lawyers are involved. Despite the lawyers, construction will likely resume just in time for winter, so the excavation will be a muddy mess. But we have a school building addition that has been bought and paid for, with no place to put it while they work out the permitting issues.
There’s a lot of that going around these days. PCMR has two new lifts sitting in pieces in the parking lots, all ready to install, but no permit to do it. They will be in the way this winter. They have to go somewhere.
Finally there is a use for the Richardson Flat parking lot. It can be a community boneyard. They can park the un-permitted ski lifts out there while they work that one out, and now, the school district can park the un-permitted Jeremy Ranch addition out there while they grind through the process.
Both of these are problems that need to get solved. They are complicated because the ancillary issues are bigger than the construction in question. The ski lifts open up issues like parking, traffic, mountain capacity, and a fundamental conflict between the community’s expectations of the skier experience and PCMR’s business model.
The school issue seems pretty simple—there is already a school there, so it’s not like the County will deny the permits and make them build somewhere else. But there are traffic flow issues on the road there, concerns with turning lanes and functionality.
There are problems with storm water and silt control during construction. Those issues are much easier to solve than the PCMR problems, but still require a dialog and the process under the county’s ordinances.
Maybe the parties should all meet up at the Kamas auto parts store and work it out. If both the Ferrari and Farmall guys can get what they need, I have to think we can find solutions to the lifts and the school addition.