Three new members of the Park City Planning Commission are expected to be seated shortly, with the likelihood they will hold votes on a series of high-profile development-related matters in coming years.
The Park City Council is preparing to select people for three out of the seven seats on the panel. They are currently held by Sarah Hall, Bill Johnson and Laura Suesser. Johnson and Hall are seeking reappointment. The recruitment drew a robust field.
The Planning Commission ranks second in influence of City Hall’s panels, trailing only the City Council itself. The Planning Commission holds the authority to approve or deny a variety of applications and plays a key role in crafting the municipal government’s growth documents.
There is a long history of members of the Planning Commission eventually winning elected office. Three mayors in recent decades — Brad Olch, Jack Thomas and Nann Worel — each served on the Planning Commission, as have multiple members of the City Council.
The upcoming Planning Commission appointments are for four-year terms. It is probable the panel during that time will be tasked with addressing several development proposals with community-wide consequence. Deer Valley Resort is expected to press ahead with its plans to remake Snow Park into a full-service base area, while City Hall is crafting a vision for land under the ownership of the municipal government off the intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard.
The candidates for the Planning Commission:
• Arthur Johnson: He brings a background in finance and housing. Johnson once worked for Vail Associates, a predecessor to the current Vail Resorts that owns Park City Mountain, in the 1970s and early 1980s and is now mostly retired. Johnson in the application says he would prepare for Planning Commission meetings by learning the history of an application and a developer. He says he would “determine the history of the applicants with the City and outcome of prior applications if any.” Johnson has lived in the Park City limits for three and a half years.
• Bill Johnson, an incumbent member of the Planning Commission: Johnson works in the environmental consulting industry. Johnson describes Planning Commission service as challenging and rewarding.
“Agenda items are often complex and require significant research and time,” he says in the application. “I’ve taken the responsibility seriously, striving to be thorough and well-prepared for every meeting.”
He describes that members of the Planning Commission “all have our own unique personal and professional experience, no one perspective is more or less valuable than the other.”
Johnson says he participated in a visioning process in Park City in 2008 and 2009. Johnson has lived in Park City for 34 years, with time away from the community for school and travel.
• Casey Christ: Christ, who has lived in Park City for three and a half years, has a varied professional background in logistics and has worked for places like Amazon and Delta Air Lines. Christ describes a “deep-rooted understanding of land development,” including learning as his father developed a project in the Phoenix area. He says “growing up around that process gave me early exposure to the complexities of responsible growth, infrastructure planning, and balancing community needs with development goals.” Christ describes himself as a “firm believer in the need for managed, sustainable growth” and notes his admiration for the work of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He served on a committee that studied the future of transportation in Park City.
• Christopher O’Neill: He has lived in Park City for 27 years and has a varied professional background, including ownership roles in the restaurant, the insurance, the transportation and real estate industries. O’Neill says his background in a diverse set of industries “allows a perspective from many different viewpoints.” He also says he has lived in several Park City neighborhoods and has “had many different experiences.”
“I believe my proven ability to learn and absorb new technical/legal information and regulations along with my long term experience as a member of the community will enhance the commission greatly,” the application says.
• Claudio Brasca: Brasca has lived in Park City on a full-time basis since 2022 and was a part-time resident for two years prior to moving to the community. The application indicates Brasca is from Milan, Italy. Brasca has a background in management consulting, real estate investing and imports olive oil from Italy.
Brasca says in the application he is a member of an advisory committee in the lower Deer Valley neighborhood.
“I try to engage with city (and county) staff productively to help improve small and large issues I spot living in Park City (e.g., fixing leaking water mains, discussing recent proposals around waste diversion, promptly reporting abuses of municipal code),” the application says.
• Derek Fossey: He has lived in Park City for six months and is the pastor at Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church and was previously a member of the clergy at a church in Palm Desert, California.
“With a background of serving as a pastor in a community largely influenced by the tourism and resort industry, I understand the importance of maintaining a balance between preserving the character of a community with new opportunities for growth,” Fossey says in the application.
He says a background of “working with local government agencies and community organizations has given me a strong understanding of managing growth with sustainability and public interest.”
• Grant Tilson: Tilson has lived in Park City for over 20 years and grew up in the community. He has a background in the financial technology industry with a firm in the automobile-loan business and launched a startup in the cosmetics industry.
“As a long-time local raised in Park City, I have experienced life in Park City from childhood to my adult years. Witnessing the change and growth in our community throughout these years provides me a unique perspective on the need to maintain the soul of our community while building the future of our town,” the application says.
Tilson also notes the possibility of significant upcoming development.
“Many major developments in Park City are expected to soon submit applications to the Planning Commission, including the resort base area developments, Yarrow redevelopment, and Bonanza district. As major developments that will shape Park City for decades to come, I believe it is important for a younger community member to work with City Council and the developers to recommend solutions that maintain Park City as an excellent place to live and visit for future generations,” the application says.
• Jake Dewey: Dewey has lived in Park City for four and a half years, describes himself as self-employed and says he has skills and experience in the development of affordable housing and land use.
• Jeffrey Pierce: Pierce has lived in Park City on a full-time basis for nearly five years and has owned property in the city for longer than a decade. Pierce describes a background that includes the finance industry and real estate investment. He says he “personally developed a historic home from scratch” on Park Avenue before selling the property. Pierce in the application notes an interest in preservation.
• Katherine Kendall: Kendall is a retired physician who has lived in Park City for 13 years and since retirement obtained a real estate license. Kendall says she is a member of a Park Meadows neighborhood advisory committee and has served as an officer in a homeowners association.
“I think that this year round engagement has allowed me to develop an understanding of the challenges that face the city in terms of the preservation of our natural habitat and life style in the face of traffic, the tourist industry and surrounding development,” the application says.
Kendall also says she “developed familiarity with the neighborhoods that make up Park City” as she obtained a real estate license.
“I have an understanding of their density, geography, demographics and attributes. This knowledge provides me with an overall prospective of what Park City currently is and what it can be,” she says.
• Neil Hafer: Hafer has lived in Park City on a full-time basis for eight months and as a part-time resident since 2011. He is recently retired following a career in the car-rental industry that progressed into management. Through his career, Hafer says in the application, he gained experience in front of government zoning boards and permitting processes. He says he worked with City Hall to obtain the permits needed to open a location in Park City.
Hafer describes himself as a “non-partisan local who will review things objectively and help make the best decisions based on information provided and dialogue during meetings with colleagues on the planning commission.”
“I expect applicants to (be) well-informed and be ready to communicate effectively (during) planning commission meetings. I would expect to engage with the community when appropriate to listen and understand the needs and opinions of our community,” Hafer’s application says.
• Robert Carey: Carey has lived in Park City for four years and has a background in investment banking that was focused on the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical-technology industries.
Carey says in the application he would contribute to the Planning Commission “experience operating multi-billion dollar businesses” and executing business plans.
“I bring maturity, problem solving and an active intellect,” he says.
Carey also describes how people with business before the Planning Commission “can support the process by submitting fully completed applications that are mindful of the code, are clear in their asks of the Planning Commission and when the Commission gives comments and recommendations for future follow up the applicant should incorporate these or have a specific and compelling reason why they didn’t.”
He adds: “Community members could help by understanding that the Commission is bound by the code and our decisions must reflect that and be mindful of state statues as well. Clear reasoned statements either supporting or opposing an application would be helpful.”
• Sarah Hall, an incumbent member of the Planning Commission: Hall has lived in Park City for 14 years and is an attorney.
Hall in the application explains the role of a member of the Planning Commission “requires a significant commitment” and preparation for meetings “should take” between 10 and 20 hours.
Hall also describes the attention the Planning Commission can attract.
“It is essential to minimize the negative publicity directed at the commission. Over the years, public misinformation and increasingly critical media coverage have intensified scrutiny of the commission’s work. As a result, I find it difficult to recommend this public service to others. Having already endured significant private, public, and media criticism, I feel that the damage has been done,” she says.
Hall adds: “While I am uncertain what more can be done, I strongly wish the public understood that our role is to apply the code to each application — not to base decisions on public sentiment or the opinions of an applicant’s neighbors.”
• G. Seth Beal: Beal has lived in Park City for seven years, is an attorney and has a background as an executive at an online bookseller that he co-launched. Beal also spent time as a Walmart executive, has a capital firm and is an investor in partnerships pursuing affordable and market-rate housing developments.
Beal’s background includes service on the Park City Library Board and a City Hall committee that addressed the future of municipal acreage in Bonanza Park.
“We live in an incredible community with a wealth of human talent and strong opinions about how to keep Park City unique. The city staff, both in planning and in other departments, city council and many volunteers on boards and commissions are all working towards a common goal of creating and maintaining an outstanding community for our residents — and all these people have diverse and valuable experiences and backgrounds,” he says. “As a community, we all need to support and encourage each other and work collaboratively towards our shared vision.”
• Steven Michalski: Michalski has lived in Park City for three years and has a background that includes real estate appraisal and development, including renovating historic properties. His development work has been in New York state. The application notes he has won approval for upward of 1,000 housing units and developed solar farms covering approximately 100 acres.
He says he has “vast engineering, legal and planning/ permitting knowledge.”
“I am very aware of the needs and importance of the natural environment (why I built solar) and am a proponent of open space,” Michalski says.
The application indicates he is working on a development described as a “small ‘sustainable community’ — (solar, organic farm, electric cars, batteries, and composting etc.)”
• Tyler Greene: Greene has lived in Park City for four-plus years and has worked in real estate for more than 25 years. The application indicates Greene develops “multifamily projects for institutional investors in Salt Lake City.”
Greene describes a “deep fundamental understanding and technical savvy of real estate and what makes a thoughtful development project that enhances the communities in which we live.” He also says he understands the experience of families “as a dad raising my two kids here.”
Greene says in the application he could best be supported as a member of the Planning Commission by engaging “in genuine and honest conversations about the direction Park City is growing and what we can do as an overall community to prepare and plan for the landscape of long-term, thoughtful growth that considers the greater good and not any single agenda.”
• Suzanne Rosenberg: Rosenberg has lived in Park City for seven and a half years as a full-time resident and 25 years as a part-time resident. She is retired after a career as a university professor and led a laboratory dedicated to immunology research. The application lists a background that includes service on what she describes as “federal review and advisory committees.”
Rosenberg says she is a board member of a homeowners association and says she has “followed several of the projects that have been proposed for Park City and Summit (County) in the last few years.” She says she was “very active in the discussions about the changes needed for supplying water to the wetlands below the Rail Trail when the Three Kings water treatment plant became operational.”
“Overall, I am very concerned about the future of Park City and I feel that my background and intense interest will make me a rational and productive contributor to the Planning Commission,” the application says.