The Park City planning director will depart the Marsac Building in May, a little more than two years after her arrival in the influential post and after having held a key role in the discussions about major development concepts at the bases of Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort.
Gretchen Milliken is slated to leave the municipal government on May 12. A message to municipal staffers from Milliken indicated she wants to “explore new opportunities that provide a healthier live-work balance and a more creative outlet for my skills and experience.”
The message thanks her colleagues in the municipal government and says she is “proud of the strong team we have built and the work we have accomplished.”
City Hall hired Milliken in early 2021 to succeed the retiring Bruce Erickson. She was tapped from the government in Louisville, Kentucky. The Planning Department she leads is responsible for processing a broad range of development-related matters.
Her time at the Marsac Building, though, has been especially notable for the discussions about the base areas at the two resorts. There are longstanding development rights attached to the land that now serves as the Park City-side base parking lots of Park City Mountain as well as the land that is currently used as the Snow Park parking lots at Deer Valley.
The Milliken-led Planning Department processed a Provo firm’s concept for a large project at the Park City Mountain base, a proposal that drew broad opposition from people who live or own properties in the area of the land. The Provo firm, called PEG Companies, appeared to grow frustrated as the discussions with the Planning Department and the Park City Planning Commission stretched far longer than was initially anticipated. PEG Companies in early 2023 withdrew the application. The development rights remain intact, though, and resort owner Vail Resorts will almost certainly eventually revisit possibilities for the land.
There were especially tense moments during the talks about the proposal at the base of Park City Mountain, and some of the criticism from the public centered on the Planning Department itself.
Deer Valley remains in discussions about the Snow Park project. The concept of City Hall vacating a section of road as a part of the overall development also has become controversial. A timeline for the talks about the Snow Park proposal is not known. There has also been criticism leveled against the Planning Department in the talks about it.
The planning director post for decades has been one of the highest-profile staff positions in the municipal government. The person holds a crucial role in growth and development discussions ranging from proposals to build a house on an individual lot to the expansive applications for large projects like those at the resort base areas. The planning director and the department’s staff need to weigh the proposals against City Hall’s development rules, and there are in many cases differing readings of those rules between the Planning Department, developers and the public. Disputes are commonplace.
Parkites, meanwhile, remain leery of growth decades after a 1990s boom era that began to define modern-day Park City. The Planning Department, more than any other municipal department, draws the criticism regarding growth in the community.
The recent National Community Survey, conducted on behalf of City Hall in late 2022 and early 2023, found Parkites displeased with residential and commercial growth. They were especially unhappy with the overall quality of new development, the survey showed, even as the results were better when Parkites were asked about the preservation of the community’s historical or cultural character.
The results of the National Community Survey would have taken into account growth and development that occurred prior to Milliken’s arrival, but they also illustrate how difficult it would be for any planning director to win widespread acclaim across Park City.
“Gretchen took a department that was in transition at the time of her hire and built a team we are all proud of. Planning director is a demanding position and Gretchen consistently conducted herself with grace – even during the job’s most challenging moments,” Jennifer McGrath, the deputy Park City manager for community development, said in a prepared statement released by City Hall.
Park City plans to launch a search for the next planning director shortly. The assistant planning director, Rebecca Ward, will lead the department during the recruitment with support from McGrath.