The Park City Council in the middle of December backed one of the key elements of Deer Valley Resort’s efforts to remake the Snow Park base, approving an alteration to the road network that was sought by the resort.
The vote was in favor of vacating parts of Deer Valley Drive West and Deer Valley Drive South. The decision essentially will remove the sections of road from the map of public streets as part of Deer Valley’s overall traffic circulation plans for the eventual development of the land where the Snow Park parking lots are now located.
The City Council at the same meeting authorized Mayor Nann Worel to execute a letter of intent between City Hall and Deer Valley that will outline a public-private partnership between the two sides to address transportation and housing. The municipal government and Deer Valley will each contribute $15 million as part of the partnership.
It was a complex agreement that took months for the sides to reach as they met in closed-door sessions in an attempt to break a logjam in the discussions about a development at Snow Park and the related vacation of the sections of roads. It was also a highly unorthodox one for the municipal government. City Hall rarely enters into public-private partnerships as consequential as the one with Deer Valley. The dollar figure is noteworthy, as are the high-profile location of the land and the role of Snow Park as the anchor of lower Deer Valley.
There were supporters who saw the agreement as one that allows Deer Valley to proceed with the plans for a reimagined Snow Park base area, while critics who were worried about the municipal government vacating sections of roads as well as the impacts of the alteration to traffic patterns in the vicinity of Snow Park. Meetings about the issue drew some of the largest crowds of the year to the Marsac Building and the vote was among the most important development-related decisions made by the City Council in years.
In early December, as it appeared the elected officials were readying for a vote prior to the retirement of two members of the City Council, the municipal government published a seven-page list of answers to frequently asked questions about the vacation of the road sections and the agreement between City Hall and Deer Valley. Even after the vote, the document offers a guide to an agreement that many in Park City might not fully understand unless they were closely following the issue.
Topics covered in the document include:
- Why the municipal government proposed a public-private partnership with Deer Valley. The answer involves the interest by Park City leaders to secure “reasonable compensation in exchange for a right-of-way vacation,” which it says was also sought by the public and the Park City Planning Commission.
- “The Mayor and Council liaisons negotiated $15 million to satisfy a reasonable compensation exchange and committed the compensation and any additional partner or matching funds to a public-private partnership to maximize additional traffic mitigation opportunities at a local and regional level,” it says.
- Whether the vacation of the sections of road allow Deer Valley an expansion of the amount of development at Snow Park. The answer, firmly, says that is not the case. The document says the “right-of-way vacation request has no impact on the allowed or proposed density in the Snow Park development.”
- How the $15 million pledged by Deer Valley will be used. The answer explains the funds will be put toward what is described as a “regionally significant transportation and parking facility.” The location is desired to be in the area of Quinn’s Junction and the City Hall match will also be used. There is a possibility the monies could also be spent on workforce or otherwise restricted housing at the location.
“Park City and Deer Valley also propose to bring additional public and private investment to multiply the scale of the partnership and its impact. A partnership of this magnitude developed before a future Olympics will have a positive impact on traffic in Park City and the entire region,” it says.
The document, meanwhile, addresses the upcoming process between the municipal government and Deer Valley. With the discussions about the vacation of the road sections decided, Deer Valley will return to the talks with the Planning Commission about the development itself, it says. There was a lengthy pause in the talks between Deer Valley and the lower panel as the elected officials addressed the road vacation.
There are development rights attached to the land where the Snow Park parking lots are located dating to a 1970s-era overall approval for Deer Valley. The development concept involves residences, commercial spaces, a hotel and entertainment. Deer Valley intends to build large garages to account for the parking spots lost as the land is developed.