Deer Valley Resort’s ski terrain will about double as crews race this summer to fly in lift towers, install massive snowmaking capability and open 100 new runs in the biggest, fastest expansion anywhere.
This might be the most emblematic turn of the year for Park City, Summit County and the Wasatch Back as a region knitting together while Park City bursts out of its seams.
The East Village has taken the signature 84060 Zip, that Rolex for discriminating addresses among a certain set. Never mind that the new base village is not in Park City, not even in the county, but over the border closer to fast-growing Heber City and Midway, historic communities fated to become ski towns themselves.
The growth storm has only begun on Summit County’s East Side, or maybe wildfire is the better metaphor: The first spot fires in the form of subdivisions have sparked from the embers drifting overhead as greater Park City fills in and home values continue along a path too rich for regular and even pretty darn well off folk.
Francis may soon sport its first hotels, one that wants to stand four stories tall. Oakley is considering a discernable town center around the diner, the corner store, the post office and a city hall still on a dirt lot. Kamas and Coalville are feeling the pressure, and even tiny Henefer fears the fields filling in with homes.
There’s also West Hills and what once was called Cedar Crest, not to mention Hideout slurping across the county line, though only sage for now lives on the Summit side.
And infamous Dakota Pacific is all teed up at Kimball Junction, complete with a Kimball Arts Center weary of waiting on Park City, speaking of emblematic turns this year.
Myles Rademan, the founder of Park City Leadership over three decades ago, broke out the “Serenity Prayer” in a recent speech and observed certain realities, including the country and state favoring private property rights and having a “proven addiction to growth,” along with “virtually every square inch of private property between Parleys Summit and Wyoming is either under contract, for sale or soon might be.”
His advice for Wasatch Back governments and candidates for councils was clear-eyed, too: Guide the inevitable growth by “collaborating regionally rather than squabbling with each other,” work with developers on quality-of-life amenities, and embrace the Olympics and the high virtues the Games espouse.
Beneath the proximate issues for each municipality — the two largest ski companies in the world with outposts here, the bypass in Heber, the city center in Oakley, Main Street in Park City, the arrival of Dakota Pacific, the departure of Sundance, and all the individual projects on tap — there is the meta issue and a solid prescription for it.
Increasingly from here, then, the effectiveness of mayors and council members across Summit and Wasatch counties will rely on their ability to work outside their own municipalities. This means that voters should probably evaluate their choices for their regional leadership qualities as well as right at home. The next test comes Election Day, Nov. 4.
The results will directly determine affordable housing at Clark Ranch, but more importantly, with Larry H. Miller Real Estate and what happens with their comparatively vast holdings east of the ranch, as one example. Who among the Park City Council and mayoral candidates are best suited for the bigger picture future? Who can work best with the other municipal leaders and state legislators for the common good of the region?
That last is an important question, but it’s also possible to overstate the stakes. Especially for those more caught up in the races, with the fields trimmed and strengthened in the primaries. The votes may not go your way, but assuredly the sun will rise on schedule in the days afterward. This area will continue to be among the very best places anywhere to live. That much won’t change.
The Wasatch Back was wonderful through its history. It’s wonderful now. It will be wonderful 20 years hence. How it was, is and will be wonderful has changed some, as everything does. The people who are here to love this place will always change as well, and long-timers who remember the various golden ages will miss their wonderful time as newcomers arrive for theirs.
This is reality, too.
Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745.