Park City Municipal staff members will present a report Thursday to the City Council on the feasibility of building a new senior center on the Mawhinney parking lot and an adjacent lot.
The report includes the findings of a parking needs study, environmental soils testing and a geotechnical investigation.
The current Park City Senior Center, 1361 Woodside Ave., has outgrown its 3,200-square-foot space, with a membership of about 625 people. The Mawhinney lot, which is in Old Town Park City and off Park Avenue, is across the street from Park City Library.
The staff members are working to meet a June 1 deadline to determine how to move forward with the project and are requesting the City Council’s input. Comments from the public also will be taken at the meeting.
“As part of relocating the senior center, the city and the seniors will be required to work together on any future commitments at a new location,” the staff report says.
For purposes of the site evaluation, the report considers a maximum building footprint of about 7,000 square feet and a total square footage capacity of just under 10,000 square feet. There are 47 parking stalls on the Mawhinney site, with 20 of them used for library overflow.
Information the staff is seeking includes the desired size and footprint of the project, whether the council wants to consider having above-ground parking as part of the development and if additional areas near the Mawhinney lot should be used to supplement the number of public parking spaces.
“This would entail creating a ‘campus approach’ to provide more supply for the Library, new senior center, and adjacent parks and recreation,” the report says.
The areas could include Park Avenue, Sullivan Road, Woodside Avenue, 13th Street and Norfolk Avenue, according to the report.
The Park City Senior Center’s board has not taken a position yet on the proposal to build on the Mawhinney lot.
“We are waiting for more information and look forward to hearing the council’s response to the feasibility study,” said Liz Novack, senior center president.
Building a new center has been under discussion for years. The plan previously was to include affordable housing in the project, but that has changed to building just the senior center.
Some community members have suggested that a 5-acre site at Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard would be a better location for the facility.
That site is part of the Bonanza Park Small Area Plan, which the City Council approved last year. The plan incentivizes the type of development designed to make the area a more walkable, mixed-use and livable neighborhood.
Lisa Plane, who lives at the Alpine Retreat residences next to the Mawhinney site, said the five homeowners in the HOA oppose putting the senior center there. They are not against redeveloping a senior center in another location, and Plane said building the center in Bonanza Park is a good option.
The city identifies the parcel next to the Mawhinney parking lot as vacant property but just because there isn’t a structure on it doesn’t mean it’s vacant, Plane said. She said the parcel is green space and described it as a park where she sees moose sometimes.
“To find out that the Park City Council is doing their best to mow down green space in the middle of Old Town is remarkable to me,” Plane said.
The City Council meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Marsac Municipal Building, 445 Marsac Ave. The meeting also can be viewed online on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86324087233#success.