The writer of “More Community or Less?” (Sept. 2) describes the opposition to the Bonanza Park development as a “small, vocal and well-organized group.”

I’d ask him to explain that to the just under 2,500 residents (all of whom are over 18, for the City Council member who claims they’re not) who have signed a physical petition asking the city to reconsider this plan. That is not a fringe element. In a town of roughly 8,500 full-time residents, it is one of the broadest expressions of consensus Park City has produced on any local issue in years. And for some context, you need about half that number of votes to be elected to the City Council in this town.

Organized, yes. Passionate, yes. Marginal, no.

The writer also suggests that opposing this specific project on this specific parcel is really a coded objection to who gets to live in Park City. I would argue that that statement is a coded accusation of racism or discrimination. That is a serious charge to level at thousands of neighbors of different races, creeds and political leanings (the evidence is in the signatures).

PLACE-PC’s position has never been “no affordable housing,” but let’s be realistic, this is not “affordable,” it’s just “price-controlled housing,” qualifying workers from Salt Lake and other surrounding areas can live in these units. It is that this site, a failing intersection, contaminated soil, and a nine-figure public price tag is the wrong place to build 11 high-rise buildings with a couple of postage-stamp green areas encircled within (which are private, I might add). We are saying that the same public dollars could produce more deed-restricted units, faster, at HOPA, while this jewel becomes the welcoming gateway this end of town deserves.

That is not “less city.” It is asking the city to spend its money most efficiently, with the most communal impact. Listen to the locals, build something in character with our town, not a mini-Sugarhouse or Chicago inner city project.

On traffic, the writer calls it “a legitimate concern” and then moves past it in a sentence. I challenge the author to ask anyone who has tried to turn right off Bonanza at 5 p.m., or ask Park City’s own police chief, who has told the council directly in a different discussion that this corridor beyond the intersection can become landlocked during a major incident on 248. Adding a 106-unit development with underground parking to that intersection is not a detail to wave off. It is the reason so many residents, including ones who support more affordable housing, oppose putting this monstrosity here.

Proximity to other parks is not an answer, either. A $17 million investment a quarter mile away doesn’t change what sits at the entrance to town today: a fenced, contaminated, former gas station lot with no public open space of its own. Every other neighborhood in Park City has a gathering place nearby. This one doesn’t, and this is the last publicly owned parcel where that can still be achieved.

I’d invite the writer, and anyone else, to look at the signatures and who is represented: not a marginal group defending its own turf, but a unified community that has done the research and reached a shared conclusion. The choice in front of the council isn’t more community versus less. It’s whether the city listens to the people who elected them, spends their money, and its last 5 acres, where they’ll do this town the most good and have the most positive impact for decades to come.

Kim Irwin-Pack

Park City

The post Bad project, wrong place appeared first on Park Record.

I’m not opposed to Miners Day, mining history or the restaurant tax. I am beginning to question whether Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History has received the scrutiny that should accompany this much public support.

This Historic Mine Route is seven miles, climbs roughly 1,200 feet, reaches about 
8,225 feet and can take four hours. Nothing about safety. 

The financial question is equally straightforward. Park City and Friends requested $300,000 in 2025 restaurant tax funding for the Thaynes Mine project and were recommended $200,000. 

Yet Summit County’s scoring sheet gave the proposal just 5 of 20 points for “Ability to Increase the 1% Restaurant Tax,” with a 60.33 overall average.

Preserving history can be worthwhile. But before another restaurant tax check is written, taxpayers should be able to see who is legally responsible for these structures, why public funds are involved at all. Why are we funding a Batman for failed mining structures when there is a pathway for mine abatement? 

Because I do think people would be opposed to trading out Labor Day for Restaurant Worker Day, and that is a problem. 

Please be safe out there. The miners didn’t quite care about you as much as you glorify them.  

John Berry

Park City

The post Popular, sure appeared first on Park Record.

Your voice matters. Right here in Summit County, our community is growing, and the decisions made at our local government tables impact our daily lives. From Emory to Park City, conservative women have always been the bedrock of our families. Now, it is time to channel that passion into powerful action. We are launching an exciting new chapter for conservative women in our area, and we need your leadership to make it happen.

We are officially forming the local chapter of the Utah Federation of Republican Women and the National Federation of Republican Women, the largest grassroots Republican women’s organization in the country.

By organizing a dedicated club here in Summit County, we are plugging local women directly into a massive national network of political education, leadership training, and campaign support. We want to ensure that Summit County women have a permanent, influential seat at the table.

To officially charter our club and unlock these incredible state and national resources, we need a core group of founding members. To get started, we need just 10 dedicated women to step forward as our charter members to help bring this club to life.  

Think about the impact 10 focused women can make. Ten women can spark a movement, support local candidates who share our values, and bring neighbors together to discuss the future of our schools and economy. You do not need political experience to join us. You only need a love for your community and a desire to see constitutional conservative principles thrive. This is your chance to turn your political beliefs into meaningful local action.

The future of Summit County is being shaped today. Will you be one of the foundational ten who helps us build this community? Ready to make a difference?

Please contact me today at ufrwmail@gmail.com to secure your spot as a founding member!

Lesa Sandberg

Utah Federation of Republican Women President

The post Bedrock of families appeared first on Park Record.

Jay Hamburger’s Sept. 8 Park Record article reports that the Park City Chamber/Bureau has endorsed the controversial Bonanza Park development.

I read the chamber’s arguments and came away wondering: Who exactly is the chamber listening to?

The chamber gets one thing right. Park City needs workforce housing. But needing workforce housing does not automatically make this a good project.

The chamber warns that businesses will suffer without workforce housing and calls repeatedly saying no to development “avoidance.”

I think the real avoidance is refusing to look at the numbers.

The city has already told us what success looks like. Housing Resolution 12 2025 establishes Park City’s current affordable housing framework. The 2025 Moderate Income Housing Plan identifies a gap of 1,190 additional workforce housing units by 2032 and places the median workforce wage at approximately 56 percent of Area Median Income.

So measure the Bonanza Park 5 acres against the city’s own goal.

An analysis of the proposed 106 shows an affordability mix of approximately 35 apartments serving that core workforce income level.

Thirty-five against 1,190.

That is 2.9 percent.

Now look at what taxpayers may be putting on the table for those 35 apartments.

The city has identified anticipated financial participation of up to $40 million in soft money loans. It intends to lease 5 acres of extraordinarily valuable public land for $1 per year for 60 to 99 years. There is also $7.2 million already approved for undergrounding electrical transmission lines, plus soil remediation and the possibility of additional infrastructure and construction costs.

And we still do not know the final number.

Where is the complete financial accounting showing taxpayers what we are contributing, what risks we are assuming and exactly what we receive in return?

The chamber represents business. This should be Business 101.

Hamburger also reports the chamber’s warning that without workforce housing there will be fewer local businesses.

That is particularly tone deaf considering the pressures facing independent businesses, especially on Main Street. Before telling residents this development is necessary to save local businesses, perhaps the chamber should spend more time listening to the businesses already struggling to remain here.

There is also a governance problem the chamber completely ignores.

The city owns the land. The city selected the developer. The City Council authorized the application. The city is advancing the project. Yet the Planning Commission reviews it.

And planning commissioners are appointed by the mayor with the advice and consent of the City Council.

That is an obvious conflict of roles.

Would a private developer receive the same consideration?

We have a recent comparison. In March 2025, the Planning Commission rejected the privately proposed Yarrow redevelopment, a project that included 60 restricted affordable housing units.

Yet now the city’s own development is moving through the process while requesting substantial accommodations.

That contrast deserves scrutiny.

The chamber says the 5-acre project is a test of whether Park City can “say yes.”

I think it is a test of something considerably more important.

Can Park City demand financial transparency, consistent rules and measurable results even when City Hall itself wants the project?

Supporting affordable housing does not require supporting every project containing affordable housing.

Thirty-five apartments against a 1,190-unit workforce housing gap, while potentially committing tens of millions of public dollars and public land for generations, deserves more than an endorsement.

It deserves due diligence.

The chamber should be asking these questions.

Not becoming an echo chamber for the developers.

Timothy Noonan

Prospector

The post An echo chamber appeared first on Park Record.

Wow, what a summer! All of us at Park City Recreation want to say a heartfelt thank you to our community for your patience, flexibility and support throughout the construction of the new PC MARC pools. There was dust, noise, limited parking and access changes that disrupted your daily routines, and we truly appreciate you for being adaptable and understanding.

Beyond the pools opening, what made the summer so special was the people who filled them. It was the smiles, the excitement, the friendships, and the countless moments of play that reminded us why recreation matters so much. Watching our community come together and enjoy these new spaces made every challenge along the way worthwhile.

It is you as the community that brings all our Park City Recreation programs and facilities to life. Whether you joined us for a camp, class, lesson, league, ride, swim or workout, you helped make this a memorable summer.

Thank you for showing up, for being patient, for sharing your enthusiasm, and for making this summer one we will always remember. Your support means more to us than we can say, and we are so grateful to be part of this community. We look forward to many more summers of play, connection, and unforgettable memories together.

Heather Todd

Fitness & Aquatics Division Manager, Park City Municipal Athletic & Recreation Center

The post A heartfelt thank you appeared first on Park Record.

In the brief time I’ve spent serving Park City, I’ve seen how quickly a community can toe the line of division. As I consider what kind of leadership makes a community stronger and helps move it forward, particularly when perspectives don’t align, it’s clear how important it is to choose something different. 

It comes down to respect, action and a commitment to working together — even (especially) when it’s difficult. This is Malena Stevens’ leadership. She has spent years doing work that isn’t always recognized, work that is nothing short of essential to how a community functions. 

Malena is there, she listens, and she does the work to bring people together from different viewpoints — not an easy task in a place like Summit County, where the challenges of growth, affordability and quality of life affect people in very different ways. Malena doesn’t approach leadership as something to win. To her, it’s something to build. 

When Malena offers her help, she means it. She is the person who shows up. I watch how she supports other leaders. She consistently encourages people to step forward, helps them find their voice, and thoughtfully works alongside them to propel ideas into action. 

This mindset matters. Strong communities don’t rely on one person to lead. They rely on many people working together, each contributing in their own way.

That same approach is critical for the role of county clerk. At its core, the Clerk’s Office is about helping the community function, ensuring that elections are accessible and trusted, that processes are clear, and that people can engage with their local government in a meaningful way.

It’s not about visibility. It’s about consistency, clarity, and service. Each quality is innate in Malena, who understands that the work is not about drawing lines between people, but about finding ways to move forward together. 

She has the ability to effortlessly engage with different perspectives, stay grounded in her values, and still find practical paths ahead. In a time when it feels easy to lean into division, we need leaders who are committed to building something better.

Malena Stevens is that kind of leader, and I’m proud to support her for Summit County clerk. 

Molly Miller

Park City

The post Leadership to bring us together appeared first on Park Record.

It takes a village at every life stage. The earlier and later stages often require the most support, but the caregivers and service providers in all the in-between stages also rely on a community to thrive in their roles.

I certainly had a village growing up in Summit County and Mr. Winterer played a major role in mine.

An impressive thunderstorm rolled through town last Saturday morning while I and several others attended Tony Winterer’s funeral mass at St. Mary’s Old Town chapel. The oldest Catholic church in Utah held family, friends, colleagues, and former students while we paid tribute to a beloved teacher and community member.

I attended many masses at the old St. Mary’s in my youth, and was even an altar server for a few years. The familiar stained glass, incense, stations of the cross, and of course the faces of my former teachers and classmates were comforting as we remembered the life of an avid outdoorsman and dedicated public servant.

Mr. Winterer was one of those teachers for me who completely changed my trajectory. His environmental science class opened my mind to the interconnected world around me.

He was good with the misfits. I felt seen in his class. I looked forward to it. I had a sense of belonging and never felt judged. I appreciated his humor, unconventional approach, and how he always emphasized the why.

Mr. Winterer was one of several who fueled my passion for the natural world and inspired me to become a teacher. When I was hired to teach AP enviro, biology, and anatomy/physiology at Park City High School, another beloved teacher, Mr Mulick, hung a picture of Tony above my desk to remind me of the profound impact a teacher can have on a young person’s life.

My teachers were not only excellent educators, but they were active community members, coaches and mentors. A lot has changed since I graduated from Park City High School in 1999, not just in the area but in our country and global economy. And as the last generation of teachers who could afford to live in the community they serve near retirement age, I can’t help but reflect on the recent pushback against local affordable housing.

As a teacher, attaining affordable housing was the only way I was able to stay in the community that raised me and I was called to serve. The impact as more and more of our workforce are required to commute is felt in growing daily traffic and declining community vibrancy. Affordable housing near jobs, existing infrastructure and neighborhoods is a community benefit. It supports the entire village across life’s stages.

Your village benefits by having local affordable housing whether you’re a new preschooler at PC Tots or a second-home owner dining out; a teenage bike mechanic or an empty nest lawyer; a new teacher or veteran firefighter; a stay-at-home parent or a single yoga instructor with three jobs; a local musician trying to book gigs or a wealthy injured retiree that requires ski patrol, an ambulance, nurses, doctors, and physical therapists to get back on his feet.

For the big end-of-year culminating project, Mr. Winterer tasked his environmental science students with designing sustainable communities. With my best friend and project partner Emily (who also cried next me on the church pew last Saturday), we created an environmental utopia we dreamed of living in someday.

We had to include the water and energy infrastructure in addition to a plan for education, jobs, conservation, housing, roads, food, transportation, waste and of course the arts.

Mr. Winterer was also a talented musician and understood the important role arts and culture played in building community. I got his band to play at our 20th high school reunion and every Grateful Dead song they played he said, “This one’s for you, McKenna.”

Park City High School students designed sustainable, walkable, mixed-use communities in the ’90s!

Perhaps some of the new local opposition groups could use a lesson from Mr Winterer on what it takes to build and sustain thriving communities in the modern era.

I am forever grateful to Mr. Winterer and the countless others who have and continue to make up my village. None of us got here on our own or without any help along the way. Let’s do better and support the village that allows us all to thrive in our communities at each stage of life.

The Summit County Housing Authority is hosting its next quarterly housing speaker series, “Seniors and Housing,” on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Kamas branch library. I encourage all to attend that are interested in learning more about affordable housing and how it supports our village.

Megan McKenna

Summit County Councilor

The post It takes a village appeared first on Park Record.

I first moved to Park City/Old Town in 1993, and over my three decades of hiking the trails at Park City Mountain Resort, I have never seen our mountains in such a state of neglect. We are currently facing a noxious weed crisis on our trails, and Vail Resorts is showing a profound lack of stewardship.

While I have spent the past several weeks hiking and periodically clearing weeds by hand to keep the Creole clear, other popular routes like Jenni’s Trail, Mid Mountain, and Tommy’s Two Step are completely overtaken. They are choked by invasive species like dame’s rocket, spotted knapweed, and especially the thorny purple musk thistle.

As a father of young kids, hiking has become incredibly stressful. These thistles are covered in sharp spines that actively hurt when bumped into, leaving kids terrified of getting scratched and poked while trying to navigate narrow sections of single-track.

I was incredibly disheartened to learn that Vail’s primary mitigation strategy is sending a single employee in a truck to spray glyphosate. Resorting to highly toxic chemicals is an environmental hazard, and a single truck is entirely ineffective for steep, narrow trails.

It is not difficult work to carry clippers and cut these weeds down before they flower. I have proven that on Creole. One local citizen should not have to do the job of a multi-billion-dollar corporation.

Park City Mountain profits heavily from summer trail use, and they have a responsibility to maintain the ecology they market.

Vail needs to abandon this bare-minimum chemical approach and implement a modern mitigation plan:

1. Fund dedicated, on-foot trail crews to manually clip and remove noxious weeds.
2. Install “boot brush” and loaner-clipper stations at major trailheads to empower hikers.
3. Partner with locals to launch community weed-pulling events to build goodwill and respect for the land.

We love these mountains, but Vail’s current approach shows a complete disrespect for the land and the community that relies on it. It is time for Park City Mountain to step up and take active responsibility for its trails before they are lost to the overgrowth.

Brian Van Hecke 

Park City

The post Ski mountain gone to weed appeared first on Park Record.

I have long been a fan of Kate Sonnick’s column and in this one she perfectly verbalizes the reason we ski. The mountain becomes part of you and you it.

There was a time I honestly worked 80 hour weeks and managed to ski 120 days in a year, downhill and water. It’s a total separation from whatever is stressing your life and escaping, if only for a couple hours, and dealing with an activity that demands all of your attention while providing a real sense of floating in amazing natural locations. Sometimes shared with friends that will never be forgotten and sometimes alone in awe of where we are and the beauty that surrounds us.

For some of us, it’s our reason for living and breathing. I was living exclusively in Park City for a bit over 20 years and all of it spent working and volunteering at Canyons. The biggest joy was sharing my passion and igniting that same passion sometimes even in people that never skied in their life.

To see someone’s eyes light up as they become able skiers and develop a whole new skill they’ll carry forever. Those are memories I will carry with me always!

Bob Berube

Park City

The post She’s done it again appeared first on Park Record.

I want to express my support for Malena Stevens for Summit County clerk.

Malena has served our community selflessly for over a decade. Her work with local law enforcement, the redistricting committee, planning commission, and as chair of the Summit County Council is far more than many of us could do in a lifetime, much less at such a young age.

Her commitment to the community is obvious but her experience is much more important. While our preferred way to vote in Utah (mail) has been under attack, having someone with experience and knowledge in the role is more important than ever. Kudos to our lieutenant governor, who has chosen to stand up to the bullying in Washington, D.C.

Here in Summit County, we need a leader that will support those values.

Malena has the experience and the character to always try to do the right thing. Even when it is hard.

I am proud to support her for Summit County clerk.

Frank Lynch

Pinebrook

The post Right experience appeared first on Park Record.