I watched with growing dismay the candidate forum on Tuesday at the Santy. While it was mostly civil, it was disappointingly sterile. What we need is a spark — a bold, original idea from even one of the six challengers that might meaningfully move the needle on Park City’s most urgent challenges.
Instead, we heard more of the same. Once again we heard continuing support for a park-and-ride on the Gordo parcel adjacent to Round Valley. But has anyone stopped to ask whether placing 1,000 cars directly on S.R. 248 near Round Valley is actually a good idea? Imagine stopping outbound traffic at 4 p.m. to let those 1,000 vehicles exit. If you’re headed to the hospital, then you better not be seriously ill.
Thankfully, there was one bright spot: Nearly all the candidates expressed support for a gondola connection from the Richardson Flat Park and Ride to Deer Valley’s Snow Park base. Unlike the Gordo proposal, this is a solution that would actually remove 1,000 to 1,500 cars a day from S.R. 248. With 700 spaces already built at Richardson Flat, expanding to 1,500 spaces is achievable — and impactful.
We can’t rely on just offering an alternative means of transport, we need to be offering an attractive, more efficient means of access. This gondola, with direct access from U.S. 40, would be a 10-minute ride to Snow Park for Deer Valley employees, St. Regis employees, day skiers, etc. And for those heading to Old Town, a quick bus ride from Snow Park base.
This is how we begin to confront our unmanageable traffic burden. A gondola works. It works all over the world. And more importantly, people will use it — far more willingly than they’ll board another bus or not board a bus, as is frequently the case. Contrast that with the costly and underwhelming Bus Rapid Transit plan for S.R. 224, projected to cost $120 million and deliver a grand total of four additional buses per hour.
The Gordo site, by comparison, is about a mile west of Highway 40 — already inside the bottleneck — and offers no opportunity for aerial transit. At best, it buys us a marginal improvement for a small stretch of road. For residents of Park City Heights, caught between Gordo and Clark Ranch, the message is clear: You and your daily commute are not the priority.
Richardson Flat is fundamentally different. It offers not only a feasible and popular gondola connection but also the opportunity for direct access from U.S. 40 — precisely the kind of convenience that will make people choose transit. This is the standard we must meet if we want solutions that work for both visitors and our workforce.
With $30 million of public-private investment on the table — $15 million each from the City and Deer Valley — we cannot afford to squander this generational opportunity, especially with another Olympic Games on the horizon. To pursue anything less would be shortsighted. To ignore Richardson Flat outright would be governmental malpractice.
The first candidate with the courage to stand up and say that out loud will earn an avalanche of support. Starting with my vote.
Bill Tink
Park City