An assortment of ideas meant to transform Old Town into something new were discussed at a recent Park City Council retreat — the Main Street Area Plan ticks along, shorn of an overall vision, or justification for the magnitude and rate of change.
Councilor Toly’s vision of a lower rent district for startups and locals is eclipsed by a dominant theme to increase peak-time tourism. Whereas merchants in years gone by have craved a balanced year round approach, with enhanced access, and improved workforce conditions.
The proposed doubling act of peak tourism is geared toward grand hotels and big spending visitors. It gets two thumbs up from the chamber’s sustainable tourism czar, while it adds fuel to the fire of resort-sized inflation that seasonally strapped employees and full-time residents can’t match or keep pace with today. It makes use of a spreadsheet to shift public space to private investors — valuing public land by its “best use” — a sure fire way to devalue the community and suck the spirit out of its character.
The improved quality of life for locals has gone by the wayside as the discussion focuses on a direct gondola link from Deer Valley to dine on Main Street that won’t serve a local skier or Deer Valley employee unless they navigate several connecting transit systems to the Brew Pub at the top of Main. It’s a slap in the face to the community, along with a proposed hotel on public land that the current General Plan prohibits. A justifiable criticism of the municipality that continually defies its own rules and aspirations of equality.
The rules are broken and outdated. They need to be addressed before we rely on 22 resident-input forms to suggest there is overwhelming support for hotels and gondolas in Old Town.
The general sense of direction from these meetings is to prioritize traffic and pedestrian circulation. The main culprit of poor circulation is the mandated private parking proliferation at every new development that triggers congestion due to our seasonal trade. We have an opportunity to fix this by immediately moving to a modernized citywide and equitably sound shared parking plan that streamlines and prioritizes transit usability in and around town. It’s where a gondola may fit to serve everyone, too.
I can’t come to terms with more grand hotels in Old Town, so I won’t dwell on that undesirable gentrification.
Main Street is the “Main Attraction” that already exists — it draws people in because of its quirkiness, quaintness, history and by being different and local. Its future prosperity is threatened by overcrowding and inflexibility, not new shiny plazas being built nearby. Its attraction needs to expand to all seasons and include scalable reasons to visit.
The plans misuse of the term “car-lite” is confusing as it restricts no one. There are many examples of automated car-lite solutions that control a street’s use from full closure to two-way traffic and anything else inbetween, and whenever one desires — hourly, daily, seasonally, or as needs be — this is the sort of flexibility that might get everyone on board?
The rationale for this plan is self-defeating in many ways. It doubles the number of visitors while widening an already overcrowded sidewalk on one side of Main Street. It limits vehicular access at one end of the street, while leaving it wide open at the other. It gives away public space for demanding high-end hotels that require more workforce than we can possibly muster.
Clive Bush
Old Town