Where to start? Let’s try a wrap-up of local ski conditions, which begins on the courthouse steps. I thought we were over that after last year’s trial of the century. “Gwyneth Goes Skiing” is now a musical theater production opening for the holidays in London. I can only hope it will be at the Eccles Center soon. It would sell the place out for a week. But that’s old news.
Recently a district court judge ruled that the Park City Planning Commission isn’t crazy. I know for some that might be a stretch, but we now have a judicial finding that they are rational. That ruling came in the appeal over the commission’s denial of the permits for the replacement of the Eagle and Silverlode lifts at Park City Mountain.
The standard of review was whether the action was arbitrary and capricious, or had some reasonable basis in fact. The judge found that the commissioners were responsible for determining whether the proposed improvements complied with an operating agreement made between the city and the resort three owners ago. The commissioners wanted to see how the resort computed “comfortable carrying capacity” (CCC), a sort of non-holiday peak number of people on the mountain.
The resort said that formula was more secret than Col. Sanders’ 11 herbs and spices, and they wouldn’t divulge the information. So the Commissioners decided that if they couldn’t tell whether things are operating below the comfortable carrying capacity limit, they would turn it all down. The judge decided that the commissioners were not, at least on that issue, nuts. Who knows where it goes from here?
The problem with the CCC formula is that it’s not fixed. It’s not like converting Fahrenheit to Centigrade. There are uncertain units of measurement/estimations, variables that the industry changes as lift technology changes. Not all lifts add to capacity. In Deer Valley’s case, does anybody really do laps on Homestake or Ruby? How would those get factored in? CCC is like pornography — almost impossible to define, but you know it when you see it. And we’re seeing it.
In theory, this will usher in a new era of cooperation between the resort and the city because, at least in theory, providing a quality guest experience is paramount to everybody. A Christmas miracle. It could happen.
The City Council has decided to sell portions of Deer Valley drive to Deer Valley to square up the parking lot parcel and make room for a gondola that will replace the Silver Lake Express, and ultimately connect all the way to the top of the Mayflower expansion, where another gondola will connect to the village base at Highway 40. That base includes 1,200 day-skier parking places in the current plan. The connection into the heart of the development at Mayflower may do a lot to reduce traffic in town.
The property sale and road revisions have been radioactive for a couple of years. I don’t think that dispute is really about people not wanting to drive on Doe Pass Road instead of right to the front steps of Snow Park. The issue is that the development on top of the parking lots will generate additional traffic. That’s what development does (and why we should quit doing it). It’s more hotel employees, more delivery trucks, hotel guests, and while it’s under construction, a whole lot of big trucks.
The agreement tries to reduce traffic by shaking Deer Valley down for $15 million to put into a satellite parking lot in hopes that about 20% of the skier traffic will never come into town at all. (The city seems determined to put it in the wrong place — it belongs at Richardson Flat with a new off-ramp from U.S. 40 at the existing overpass on the old dump road so that the already overloaded interchange at Quinns isn’t made worse, but whatever.) It all seems quite reasonable.
It’s not a final decision because we don’t do final decisions, even on things that were finally decided 40 years ago. It now goes back to the Planning Commission, who having been adjudicated sane will review the details and the revised site plan. Assuming approval, it will surely be appealed to the council, and a trip to district court seems inevitable. Stay tuned for the debut of “Doe Pass Road, the Musical.”
Of course, the city’s action hinges on there being 1,200 day-skier parking places at Mayflower. That’s outside the city’s jurisdiction and controlled by the shadowy MIDA entity. MIDA could decide that the parking lot is another hotel site and the 1,200 spaces go away. Of course, if that happened we could vote the MIDA board out of office — except that nobody gets to vote for the MIDA board. They are completely unaccountable.
If the past 30 years has taught us anything, it’s that MIDA, sort of controlled by the state Legislature, is not a reliable partner with Park City. Deer Valley always has been a reliable partner, and I hope they have the 1,200 parking spaces nailed down before some state legislator’s son-in-law gets ahold of it.
On the other side of the ridge, there is litigation over the Little Cottonwood gondola plan. And over in Morgan County, a judge has issued a restraining order prohibiting any development or sales in the chichi Wasatch Peaks private ski resort until a citizen’s referendum on the zoning changes there is voted on.
Who ever knew that skiing could be so entertaining?
Tom Clyde practiced law in Park City for many years. He lives on a working ranch in Woodland and has been writing this column since 1986.