We are residents of King’s Crown affordable housing at 84060 who have repeatedly tried to get Mayor Nann Worel and our city counselors to hear our desperate appeal, but they continue to ignore us.
We are asking you, the media, to help us present our affordable housing parking issues directly to the public.
We feel that city officials now need to be confronted publicly regarding their failure to provide basic quality-of-life issues throughout the affordable housing program here in Park City.
Developers’ construction defects are often ignored, and we are left to repair and mitigate defects. The simple issue of planning for and allowing a second-car permit within city limits is critical and constantly ignored by city planners and officials.
Simply put, we feel trapped and betrayed by Park City leaders.
Over the past four years, families with a second car have been parking on the road with an issued permit from the city. This past summer, our permits were not renewed. This left us with parking tickets piling up and us scrambling to figure out what to do with our second cars. City officials and the developer assured us and issued these permits for years, and now we are treated like prisoners and have limited transit options.
Remember the 224-bus rapid transit (BRT) that was promised for over a decade? It doesn’t exist!
The reasons why Sundance is leaving us is obvious. The transit system does not work, and the expense of staying in town is too expensive.
Despite the new signage for residential parking on Lowell Avenue, residents are no longer permitted to park there, only tourists and second-home owners. In the past, affordable housing residents and tourists have shared the street with no issues. The current benefit is to the nightly rentals across the street, not to the full-time service-working residents, many of whom work multiple jobs.
This parking rule change is also making affordable housing much less accessible for families. Second cars are essential for most full-time working families in our building to get to multiple jobs and then schools in different parts of town.
We all have stories to tell. One husband often works 12 hours a day and depends on his car. His wife needs a second car to take her daughter to day care, get to work, run errands, get medical appointments, and other activities for their daughter. The daughter’s day care is not on a bus route.
We currently cannot have friends or family who drive because there are no parking options for them.
If we go out of town and have someone house or pet sit with a car, we cannot leave our car at home. If we have a babysitter over for a ski day, there is no parking. The solutions are many and never get implemented. A centralized parking lot for assigned affordable housing second cars in, say, Iron Horse or Gordoo or even way out at Richardson Flats, where we could shuttle to our second cars, could even help.
Deed-restricted units are allowed to rent a room. However, this has not been possible because of a lack of parking. Meanwhile, when City Hall needs more parking, they just take it from China Bridge — look at what they did for their tenants on Thayne’s. They seem to find answers for their employees and their tenants, but they continue to ignore us.
This issue also limits career possibilities and our ability to further ourselves financially. Since we are only allowed one car now, options are very limited.
We were grateful for our city’s multi-modal transportation improvements, but now you have taken away our free shuttles!
You cannot make this issue go away by ignoring us. This issue makes it less feasible for families to live in our building and the many coming buildings like Engine House and HOPA.
We ask that you consider immediately reissuing our parking passes for the families that need them. We are also open to speaking with you about various options to solve this. You must stop ignoring us!
We need to live better than prisoners do!
Kings Crown Affordable Housing Residents Group
Park City