As a paying customer, regular contributor to your publication, and active member of the community, I am reaching out to highlight/reiterate a couple things that I believe The Park Record knows but are not stated in the recent editorial “Would It Make You Happy?” on the city’s recent survey results.
It is an economic reality all over the world that all people can’t afford to live where they would like to live. We live in Silver Springs but would love to live in upper Thaynes Canyon or on a sprawling estate off Old Ranch Road. We don’t because we can’t currently afford to — maybe someday if we experience a business windfall, win the lottery, or find a pot of gold under the proverbial rainbow. The reality is that we probably never will and fortunately we love our neighborhood, which is great for our kids.
We have a workforce housing problem rather than an affordable housing problem. It is not the city or county’s responsibility, nor in the community’s best interest for preserving the character and quality of life that makes greater Park City a special place to live and visit, to facilitate affordable housing for people who don’t work here (Park City/Summit County).
The development we need is workforce housing. Any development should have a high percentage of low AMI units ( 40-60% of AMI) and represent 50% or greater of the total units constructed (e.g. Homestake). Additionally, any market rate units should be deed-restricted to not allow nightly rentals. We all know that nightly rentals represent a huge percentage of our local housing stock and are a big driver of our affordable workforce housing challenges. There are several infill and redevelopment opportunities in Park City proper and Snyderville Basin that are ripe for smart, relatively small scale, mixed use development that would feature significantly upgraded retail and new workforce housing components, and don’t require the development of our rapidly dwindling open space that is not already under community enriching conservation easements.
The city and county need to aggressively fight the state on S.B. 271 (fractional ownership) and S.B. 84 (HTRZ related legislation with even more specific spot-zoning language designed to circumvent the governing development agreement for the Tech Center tract in Kimball Junction) to defend against the state’s continuous usurping of our local land use authority and the blatant, unscrupulous legislative maneuvering of bad corporate actors like Dakota Pacific and Pacaso.
The community would benefit greatly if the paper’s editorial department would be more explicit in stating these economic realities and advocating for truly responsible development and growth that is going to perpetuate vs. kill the character and general allure that make our community great.
Eric Moxham
Silver Springs