Oh. My. Gosh. My wife and I were riding above the Deer Valley East Village on the great Skyridge, Jordanelle, trails the other day, and we saw the size, scope and scale of the Mayflower development.
It is not just the Extell and East Deer Valley stuff, but there are developments above and below the Jordanelle Parkway and housing all around that big, beautiful lake that are just getting started and won’t quit anytime soon.
This is not just seven new chairlifts and a gondola, doubling the skiing at Deer Valley. There were no less than eight Linden Cranes over there, raising buildings that will make the new Hyatt appear miniscule.
My wife asked, “Where will the deer go?” and I thought, On the logo.
There are already four-five holes built for the Tiger Woods golf course that will extend to the lake and be surrounded by trophy golf homes that make Glenwild and Promontory seem puny. This golf course is supposed to save us water, like the new resort is going to help traffic, just like the copious snowmaking water for the low, southeast facing slopes, pumped from Jordanelle will save us electricity.
Not to worry, it was 70 degrees in mid-November, and any successful snowmaking was at least two weeks away in our new climate of warmth and drought.
At first, I was reluctantly optimistic, making the best of this growth and looking forward to skiing the additional terrain at Deer Valley. But I think the word is out and people will come in droves to explore this new skiing with the old Deer Valley experience.
There are parking lots everywhere, full of extra chairlift parts and construction materials. The classic Deer Valley parking lot shuttle will have to loop out to Heber and Midway to gather all the newly minted millionaires there. I entertained nightmares of the Mayflower exit backup to Quinns Junction and the I-80 to U.S. 40 exit ramp back up to Jeremy Ranch, making a perfect circle of gridlock in our precious valley.
But here I am again, fretting the hypotheticals when the resorts might yet entice us to carpool with cookies and coffee, or impose paid parking so expensive that all day users will park in Coalville, Morgan, Sandy and Bountiful for the bus trip up.
The local satellite parking lot locations for day users start to make more sense with gondolas from Richardson’s Flat to Snow Park and Ecker Hill to Condor to keep everyone but the residents and day workers off our roads.
This new development is all in Wasatch County, predicated originally on easy approval and 100 tax-free rooms for military officers. What are they thinking over there? There must be a master plan and intense coordination and communication among all the cities and counties, regulating entities and stakeholders, as Tom Clyde continually espouses. Otherwise, this is just insanity.
I fear that this is just another pivot point for the Park City area, like the opening of Park City, Deer Valley, the 2002 Olympics, COVID or the Vail Resorts buyout, one that will put us over the top and off the charts in attraction and popularity.
Couple this timing with the 2034 Olympic fever and we have an inflection on our development curve that looks more like another lightning bolt than a sustainable roller coaster.
We always said we didn’t want to become another Aspen, but now we are becoming another Vail. We are building another freeway ski resort and it is not Vail Resorts that is doing it. It is a kinder and gentler Deer Valley. It is us.
I don’t pretend to have all, or any, of the answers, but we need to get ahead of this before it is too late. The time for action is yesterday, the time for study and debate is long past. We know what is happening and we know many of the solutions, low hanging fruit and easy fixes.
This has happened here and in other places before, and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel to solve these issues. Our enemy is delay, denial, inaction or analysis paralysis. Let’s do something, anything. We must discover, iteratively, erroneously and decorously, what works for us. OMG, let’s do it now, before it is too late.
Matthew Lindon lives in Snyderville. See his website: Waterandwhatever.com