The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation plans to hold at least one open house concerning plans to build a hotel and attainable housing for employees at the Utah Olympic Park following community backlash.
Residents complained at a Snyderville Basin Planning Commission meeting last week about proposed amendments to the park’s development agreement to allow for the construction.
The original development agreement was created in 2011, with the intent that the document would be revisited throughout the years as the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation refined its vision for the park. The agreement outlined allowable uses on the property, such as a hotel, employee and athlete lodging, maintenance facilities and ski runs. It also included a provision allowing the foundation to change which parcels are used for which developments at any time, as long as the developments were classified as an allowable use.
Foundation CEO Colin Hilton said the amendments don’t change the heart of the established development agreement and only serve to make the process more efficient for the county and the nonprofit.
Residents who attended the meeting disagreed, though. They staunchly opposed the changes, saying further development would create more traffic congestion, disturb wildlife and harm the mission of the organization.
Because of a misunderstanding between county staff and the foundation regarding how the size of the buildings is measured, the proposal initially indicated that developers would build more than 1.4 million square feet of office space on the property.
However, Hilton clarified that the plan is to install roughly 230,000 square feet of commercial space, most of which will belong to the hotel. The rest of the square footage will be dedicated to offices for sports teams and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.
Overall, Hilton said the total planned square footage of park facilities, including buildings already on the property, is around 690,000 square feet — less than originally anticipated in 2011.
In 2011, for example, the master plan included 40,000 square feet for medical offices, but the updated 2025 plan bumped that number down to 15,400 square feet. Instead of setting aside 103,710 square feet for general office space, the new master plan accounts for 50,900 square feet, about a 50% decrease.
The updated conceptual master plan for the Utah Olympic Park shows eight developable parcels, significantly less than the 14 parcels mapped in 2011. Most of the development projects, including the hotel, are centered near the base of the hill. Only the sixth parcel, which is currently earmarked for single-family residences, is elevated and near the ridgeline.
The amendments encompass a request to approve the updated master plan, designate the site as a major sporting event venue to earn more tax revenue, issue a low impact permit for the ski lifts and hotel construction, update the affordable housing calculations, update building height limitations, and clarify parcel and building pad locations.
However, residents overwhelmingly opposed the amendments during a public hearing, expressing concerns over the park’s financial status and questioning the motive behind having a hotel on site. They compared the situation to the controversial approval of Dakota Pacific Real Estate’s project in Kimball Junction and said they felt blindsided by the plan to further develop the Utah Olympic Park property.
Community members speaking said they were worried about the effect construction would have on wildlife in the area, namely breeding moose that tend to populate the hills where the single-family residences are proposed. They also bemoaned the possibility of drivers using the park’s back gate near the Sun Peak neighborhood to bypass Kimball Junction traffic during the winter if the gate were to open for residential access to the ten single-family housing units.
There were questions about the housing aspect of the project, too, with many residents asking about who would rent the units and if the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation intended to turn the park into a “year-round real estate venture.”
Hilton clarified after the public hearing that he does not plan on ever having the back gate open to the public because of the detrimental effects it would have on the Sun Peak neighborhood.
“When I hear about worries of ski traffic coming off Kimball Junction through the UOP and out our back gate, I’m blown away,” he said. “How would anybody ever think we would allow that to happen? We have control gates at both locations. The internal road is just for staff vehicles. No, we’re never going to have the public use it as a thoroughfare through the UOP. Not in my lifetime.”
Hilton also said the single-family homes would be owned by national governing bodies, such as U.S. Ski & Snowboard, which would be responsible for rotating athletes, coaches and their families into and out of the homes based on training schedules, eligibility and other factors.
He added that the hotel is intended to serve athletes’ families, not the public, and is a key component in making the park a self-sustaining facility. The housing units are also limited to athletes, coaches and foundation employees, although around 10% will be listed at market value to help earn more revenue.
“We’re four times busier today in use of the facilities like the Olympic Park than we were right after ’02,” Hilton said. “There are kids and visiting teams and athletes wearing down our facilities faster than we can maintain them. Do we need more facilities to support them? Absolutely. The demand is every day. We feel it, and we’re trying to fill that need and pay for that need without having it be paid for by local tax dollars.”
The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation plans outsource management of the hotel to a hospitality company, with a portion of the proceeds going toward the foundation. If the hotel doesn’t generate money, Hilton said the responsibility will fall back on the developer and operator, not the park or greater Summit County community.
“We have a whole variety of other board members with lots of business experience who have grilled (the developers) about the viability of a hotel,” Hilton said. “We did a hotel study and had them report on the results of that to the revenue committee of our board, so do know we take revenue generation very seriously. We have a lot of resources to access, but we run a nonprofit. We run a mission-based organization, and our metrics are more about the participation of young people in our programs than it is about profitability.”
Hilton said during a Park City/Chamber Bureau event in late summer that the improvements are part of early preparations for the 2029 Bobsleigh World Championships, but will be spanned out over the next 20 years or so. The goal is to move from an “Olympic training site” to an official “Olympic Training Center.” The focus is on supporting athletes, coaches and the community.
Summit County Community Development Director Peter Barnes said county staff and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation are generally in agreement on the amendments, but he urged against forwarding a recommendation to the Summit County Council if the Planning Commission still had questions, especially since the County Council likely won’t have time to hear the proposal until January as members work through the 2026 budgeting process.
The Planning Commission unanimously decided to hold off on a recommendation until Nov. 25, giving the foundation time to gather answers to residents’ questions and hold the open house to engage further with community members.
No date for the open house had been set as of Thursday afternoon.