Summit County nonprofits may have a future home in Kimball Junction after County Manager Shayne Scott signed an amended development agreement with Six Ridge Partners to include a nonprofit hub in Altus Park City, formerly known as the Dakota Pacific project.

“It’s intended to be a community benefit,” Scott said. “One might argue that it was forced down our throat at one point by the Utah Legislature, but we’re making it as good of a project as we can for our community and for those who visit our community, and I think these potential spaces will only enhance what is already going to come there.”

Altus Park City is a mixed-use development that will be built in the Kimball Junction area. The Sheldon Richins Building will be demolished to make room for the project, and county services will move into the PEAK Center, which Skullcandy previously occupied.

Six Ridge Partners will then construct new civic buildings, commercial spaces and a transit center in addition to 885 residential units, 160 of which will be county-owned affordable housing.

The amended development agreement adds approximately 50,000 square feet of office space to the Altus Park City project. Two retail buildings already planned for the development will expand by 10,000 square feet while a third building with 30,000 square feet of space will be added to the site plan next to the PEAK Center.

Amending development agreements is now an administrative action in Summit County, which means Scott could have approved the change without input from residents or the County Council. However, the county held an open house to discuss the proposal last month, with Scott saying he wanted as much input as possible from interested nonprofits, community members and other county officials before making a decision.

Scott said he discussed the feedback he received with the County Council the day after the open house, telling councilors that residents seemed largely in favor of the idea. He previously told The Park Record that he wouldn’t consider signing the amendment if councilors were opposed to it, but they supported the amendment, leading to Scott’s signing of the document last week.

The latest iteration of the development agreement gives the county control over the additional 50,000 square feet of space in case the nonprofit hub falls through or there aren’t enough organizations to fill the offices, Scott said. He mentioned childcare and public parks as examples of services the county could install in the expanded buildings or lot near the PEAK Center if they’re not occupied by nonprofits.

The Kimball Art Center has already expressed interest in moving to Altus Park City from its current location on Kearns Boulevard, citing difficulties in maintaining its level of programming in a space totaling less than 10,000 square feet.

With the nonprofit hub now greenlit by the county, the arts organization is expected to relocate to the 30,000-square-foot building next to the PEAK Center, although whether Kimball Art Center would occupy the entire building or only a portion of the space has not yet been determined.

The deal also isn’t finalized.

Now that the county has OK’d the expanded development, nonprofits interested in moving to Altus Park City, including the Kimball Art Center, will need to negotiate with Six Ridge Partners directly to determine availability, pricing and placement.

Alex Regenold, the communications director for Kimball Art Center, said the organization’s potential relocation is exciting and will likely help staff offer more programming. She also acknowledged concerns from Park City residents, saying the Art Center will still serve Parkites while expanding its visibility for other community members and tourists.

“Kimball Junction is a real gateway,” Regenold said. “This is the first stop if you’re coming out from Salt Lake or from other places in Summit County. You’re coming right here, so to have a cultural beacon right at that gateway into Park City, I think it’s a unique opportunity to show people all that we have to offer. I know that there is some sadness to be moving out of Park City proper, but when we think about how we can best serve the community … this makes so much sense.”

The Park City Chamber/Bureau is also interested in moving some of its services to the Altus Park City development, according to CEO and President Jennifer Wesselhoff. Wesselhoff said the process is still in its early stages and nothing has been confirmed yet, but the Chamber/Bureau is considering moving the Kimball Junction visitor center to one of the 10,000-square-foot spaces in the nonprofit hub to increase the center’s visibility for tourists using public transit.

“I understand there’s going to be 1,200 parking stalls and access to the bus rapid transit system, so we’re just wanting to make sure that visitor services are a core component of that and that we’re accessible to visitors where they are,” she said.

Scott said construction on the first floor of the PEAK Center will likely be finished by the end of the month, allowing county services to move across the street in August. The Richins Building won’t be demolished until next spring, which is when Six Ridge Partners is expected to start building Altus Park City.

The post Altus Park City project now includes plans for a nonprofit hub in Kimball Junction appeared first on Park Record.

The departure of the Sundance Film Festival weighed heavily Friday over a panel of five Park City arts leaders at the annual Park City Leadership Symposium. 

Ben Anderson, founder of Park City Song Summit, called the festival the “fair-haired child” of Park City’s arts scene that “gave us the one-fingered salute” and disowned the family. He and the other panelists contemplated how Sundance’s siblings in the Park City arts scene might fill the void left by the festival.

For Katy Wang, executive director of Park City Film, the biggest void left by the Sundance Film Festival that she hopes to fill is inspiring Park City’s youth. 

“My kids, growing up here, are saying all of these stories that they got exposed to are spreading their imaginations, sparking that creativity and (making them) go, ‘I could be that,’” she said.

Jamie Wilcox, executive director of Egyptian YouTheatre, agreed.

“We cannot talk about centering the arts if we’re not talking about giving these opportunities to young people,” she said.

She added that not all children will grow up to be artists — some may even work jobs that don’t exist yet, particularly due to advances in AI — but that the skills children gain by being grounded in the arts are essential. 

“Our kids are coming back and telling us, ‘It helps me with interviews. It helps me speak up for myself and others. It helps me collaborate,’” she said. “If these aren’t skills we’re teaching them and in a fun way, we’re giving them a disadvantage in their future.”

Meanwhile, Brian Richards, executive director of Mountain Town Music, thought the biggest void the festival left was the presentation of art that takes creative risks or discusses difficult subject matters, challenging perspectives and sparking conversations.

“I’m not sure that we, as an arts and cultural collective, are doing enough right now to continue to shape those future discussions,” he said.

He then brought up musical plants.

“I had a thing come across my desk. This artist was going to bring in a bunch of plants, and they were going to connect microphones to the plants, and they were going to create music,” he recalled.

But he couldn’t think of a suitable venue for the artist. 

That led straight into a discussion of arts spaces, or the lack thereof, in Park City. 

Jocelyn Scudder, executive director of the Arts Council of Park City and Summit County and moderator of the panel, pointed out that the need for such spaces was outlined in the Arts & Culture Master Plan created by the Arts Council, which was approved by the Park City and Summit County councils earlier this year.

Anderson said he hopes that manifests in the form of a facility similar to the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, Colorado. The Center for the Arts was established in 1985 to revive the ski town, and in 2019, a new, 28,000-square-foot building was opened, costing about $20 million.

“They do food and wine festival outdoors. They do a summer concert music series outdoors. Indoors, they do art, music, drama. They have culture. There’s 1,600 people in Crested Butte. What are we doing?” Anderson asked. “We are so far behind. We are so lacking.”

Richards agreed. He asked whether anyone regularly saw live music on Main Street. A few raised their hands. 

He then asked where people see live music most. People shouted out venues like The Marquis and The Spur. Richards pointed out that those were venues for patrons 21 and older and emphasized the need for spaces for youth musicians. 

He added that Park City live music is “beholden” to the whims of ski resorts during the winter, which tend to host only DJs.

Anderson described bringing live music to Park City as “an uphill, Sisyphean battle because we don’t have the space.”

Wrapping up the panel, Scudder asked each panelist how they wanted to look back on the arts scene 10 years from now.

“In this town, we always joke that you could throw a stick and hit an Olympian. I would love to be able to throw a stick and hit an artist,” Wang said. 

All agreed that they wanted further investment in the arts scene, diversifying Park City’s portfolio so the tourism industry can survive even during warm winters.

But for that investment to happen, words have to turn into actions.

“I have been in so many of these meetings, going back to sitting up at the loft of the costume area at the Egyptian Theatre with Randy Barton, trying to outline how we could move forward as an arts and cultural society. All we’ve done for 15 years is talk about it. We need each and every one of you in this room to pursue action now,” Richards said. 

“I don’t know how much we have talked about AI today, but we are at a critical junction, and we are going to experience a lot of pain. And there is no way around that,” he continued. “And we are going to need one another. We’re going to need artists. We’re going to need community. … When we are sitting here in 2036, we’re going to say, ‘We did it. We provided joy. We provided community gatherings. We contributed to the wellness of our community.’”

The post Park City arts leaders envision a post-Sundance future appeared first on Park Record.

Main Street is expected to remain the canvas for the Park City Kimball Arts Festival, regardless of whether the organizers are based inside the municipal limits.

The Kimball Art Center plans to keep its event on Main Street even as the cultural institution plans to move out of the city limits. The festival has been held on Main Street throughout the years and is one of the top special events on the Park City calendar.

The Kimball Art Center on Wednesday, two days before the planned opening of the festival, announced plans to relocate to Kimball Junction, within the Dakota Pacific development. The art center is currently located along Kearns Boulevard and, prior to that, was in the Main Street core for decades. The organization sold the property at the corner of Main Street and Heber Avenue amid a dispute with City Hall about a concept for an ambitious expansion.

The Kearns Boulevard location has always been seen as temporary, but a permanent solution has been elusive. The art center was planned to be one of the anchors of a conceptual arts and culture district once backed by City Hall on municipal land off the intersection of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive. There has been limited clarity about the future of the land in recent years and the Kimball Art Center ultimately opted for the location at Dakota Pacific.

The agreement between the Kimball Art Center and City Hall to hold the festival on Main Street runs through the 2028 event. There has been occasional talk over the decades about moving the festival to another location in the Park City area, but the sides eventually agreed to keep the event on Main Street. Many view Main Street as a scenic historic backdrop to the festival even though the street presents certain logistical challenges. The festival this year runs through Sunday.

The leadership of the Kimball Art Center on Thursday said it wants the festival to stay on Main Street even after the organization moves to the Kimball Junction location. A timeline for the relocation of the Kimball Art Center is not clear, but securing the approvals needed for the project and the construction would almost certainly take at least several years.

“We’d love to keep arts fest in Park City proper,” said Aldy Milliken, the executive director of the Kimball Art Center. “I don’t see any reason why that would change.”

Milliken noted what he sees as the attractive Main Street setting and the organization’s familiarity with the operations of the event on the shopping, dining and entertainment strip. He said the Kimball Art Center staffers and Park City officials collaborate well with the Main Street location.

“We have the logistics of the arts festival down,” he said. “It just works well.”

Milliken said nobody on the staff at the Kimball Art Center nor members of the not-for-profit’s governing board has broached the idea of bringing the festival to Dakota Pacific once the building is developed there.

“It has never crossed our mind to move it,” he said.

The post Kimball Art Center to keep festival on Main Street even after move from Park City appeared first on Park Record.

The Sundance Film Festival will move from Park City to Colorado starting with the 2027 edition.

And the Kimball Art Center on Wednesday announced plans to relocate to Kimball Junction after keeping its headquarters inside the city for decades.

Sundance’s announcement in March and the Kimball Art Center’s statement on Wednesday both struck at Park City’s status as an arts and culture hub. The impact, though, will stretch well outside that sector.

The departure of Sundance and the Kimball Art Center’s pending move out of the Park City limits leaves a high-profile City Hall-led project, once envisioned as an arts and culture district, without either of the two anchors initially identified.

Sundance and the Kimball Art Center each originally gave the concept different levels of cachet, with Sundance bringing an internationally prominent name and the Kimball Art Center offering a regionally recognized institution. An arts and culture district with those two anchors, many had believed at the time, would nurture the broader creative sector. The thinking was that an arts and culture district with the Kimball Art Center and the Utah offices of Sundance as the anchors would further the community’s efforts to become a cultural destination and advance Park City’s work to diversify the economy.

The municipal government in mid-2017 announced a nearly $20 million agreement to acquire five acres at the southwest corner of the Bonanza Drive-Kearns Boulevard intersection. The deal, widely celebrated, was negotiated after the previous owner, the Bonanza Park partnership, encountered deep-rooted resistance to an ambitious development concept on the acreage. City Hall instead desired the land to create an arts and culture district.

Progress, however, was slow even before the pandemic. The Kimball Art Center repeatedly signaled its interest in pressing ahead with the district even as Sundance did not appear as committed to the location.

City Hall itself gathered input from the community as it considered the ultimate possibilities for the land. There were eventually questions about the price tag of an arts and culture district like the one initially considered, which at one point neared an estimated $90 million.

Sundance in spring 2024 launched a process to weigh whether to move the festival from Park City after it had been the host since the 1980s, raising new questions about the future of an arts and culture district. That work ended with the selection of Boulder, Colorado, as the location of the festival starting with the 2027 edition. A combined bid for the festival by Salt Lake City and Park City, which would have shifted most of the event to the capital city, was one of three finalists before the selection of Boulder.

In the meantime, the possibilities for the City Hall acreage were reworked. A location for the Kimball Art Center remained included, but much of the rest of a development concept moved away from an arts and culture district. It is now seen as a project with a mix of uses and a large bloc of income-restricted housing. Neighborhood retailers are also expected to be included in the designs, as are cultural offerings.

Park City leaders in June selected a Chicagoland firm called Brinshore Development for a project on the municipal acreage where the arts and culture district was anticipated to be built. Transit infrastructure and underground parking are also included in the concept. A spot for the Kimball Art Center was noted in the materials that were presented during the selection process.

A project will be required to move through the City Hall approval process. It seems likely there will be questions about the traffic a development would be expected to generate, the design of the buildings and the overall layout. Those topics typically are raised during any approval process involving significant development concepts in Park City. The location at the intersection of two of Park City’s busiest roads will likely generate additional scrutiny once a project is formally sought.

“Kimball’s decision shifts some of the vision for the Bonanza 5‑acre site, yet it also opens the door to new opportunities — to be explored in alignment with community priorities and council direction — as we move forward with this project,” City Hall said in a prepared statement on Wednesday.

The post Kimball Art Center, Sundance departures leave Park City development without onetime anchors  appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City Kimball Arts Festival opens on Friday and will attract large crowds to Main Street through the weekend.

There is, as always, an art to navigating the community during what is among the busiest weekends of the year. The arts festival, a fundraiser for the not-for-profit Kimball Art Center, closes Main Street to traffic and brings other restrictions in Old Town designed to reduce the impact on the neighborhood.

Park City plans to close the parking at Bob Wells Plaza and the Brew Pub lot on Wednesday at 6 a.m. Then, on Friday at 3 a.m., parking and traffic will be closed on Main Street, Heber Avenue and Swede Alley. The surface lots on Swede Alley that were not closed earlier will be closed at that time as well. The closures allow the organizers to move in with the artist booths and other temporary installations for the festival.

Traffic will be restricted into Old Town during the festival. Residents must have access passes to proceed through checkpoints.

There will be paid parking available in China Bridge on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The charge on Friday is $9 per hour between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m., with a maximum of $40 and standard rates starting at 9 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, the charge in China Bridge will be $9 per hour between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., with a maximum of $40. The standard parking rates will apply after 6 p.m.

A City Hall notice about the festival says there are privately held lots in Old Town with a variety of prices.

The notice also outlines that the holders of business, carpool and employee permits are able to park in the lot on the north side of the Marsac Building, which is accessed from Marsac Avenue. The upper lot at the Gateway Center, accessible from Heber Avenue, is also available to the permit holders, as are the Sandridge lot and the China Bridge garage if there is space.

Taxi staging and a drop-and-load zone will be in operation in the parking lot on the south side of the Marsac Building from 5 p.m. on Thursday until Sunday at 10 p.m.

City Hall notes public parking will be prohibited along Park Avenue and Swede Alley. Parking on Old Town neighborhood streets surrounding Main Street is heavily restricted.

Officials encourage festival-goers to take buses to Main Street. There are park-and-ride options at Richardson Flat, the Park City School District campus on Kearns Boulevard and the Park City side of Park City Mountain. There will be a park-and-ride option in Lot 5 and Lot 6 at Snow Park on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

A bicycle valet will be in operation on 7^th Street.

More information is available on the municipal website, www.parkcity.org. The direct link to the details about the festival is: https://parkcity.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/40780/15. More information from the Kimball Art Center about the festival is available at: https://kimballartsfestival.org.

The post Park City arts fest nears, bringing heavy restrictions to Old Town appeared first on Park Record.

The original script seemed to be flawless. 

City Hall would solve the issue of a contentious development proposal in one fell swoop. And, in doing so, it would advance the diversification of an already-formidable tourism industry. Some would see it as a masterpiece. Others would consider it to be, in essence, a Hollywood ending.

In early July of 2017, the mayor of Park City at the time, Jack Thomas, gathered some of the community’s leading cultural figures at the Marsac Building to announce an agreement involving the $19.5 million City Hall acquisition of five-plus acres of long-contested land off the intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard.

The seller, the Bonanza Park partnership of developer Mark J. Fischer and John Paul DeJoria, of Paul Mitchell hair care products fame, had by then encountered persistent resistance for years as various development concepts were considered but ultimately discarded amid concerns about issues like traffic increases and building heights.

At the same Marsac Building announcement, the mayor outlined a radically different idea for the land from the one Fischer and DeJoria pursued. City Hall would create an arts and culture district with the Kimball Art Center and the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute as the anchors. Painters and those working in other media at the Kimball Art Center would create, display and sell their works just across the way from independent filmmakers at Sundance pursuing their passion projects, the idea held. The Park City economy would benefit, the thinking went at that time, since the arts generate tourism-related revenues alongside the ski industry.

Nearly seven years after the mayor brought the Kimball Art Center and Sundance to the Marsac Building for the announcement of an arts district, however, the concept, as it was envisioned then, appears to be imperiled and perhaps even on the verge of collapsing.

The concept has remained reasonably intact through three mayoral administrations, various Park City Council rosters and the pandemic, even if progress was sluggish. But Sundance’s statement on Wednesday that it is taking an early step toward possibly moving the film festival to another place creates unexpected, and significant, uncertainty regarding the acreage at a time when Park City leaders themselves are attempting to learn whether Parkites even remain interested in the original vision.

Sundance in the announcement said it has started a process that could result in relocating the festival from Park City, where it has been held since the 1980s. The process began with the opening of a brief window for places to signal interest in becoming the host. That period closes May 1 and will be followed on May 7 by the start of a phase when Sundance will collect proposals from the communities. The submission deadline is June 21. Sundance anticipates announcing the selected location sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024 or the first quarter of 2025. Even if the festival remains in Park City, it is not known whether Sundance would be committed to the concept of an arts district.

The current agreement between City Hall and Sundance to hold the festival largely in Park City covers the event through 2026 with automatic renewals starting in 2027 unless either of the sides provides a two-year written notice by March 1 of any year. Park City leaders in 2023 agreed to allow the March 1 deadline in 2024 to be pushed back to Oct. 1 to allow Sundance more time to consider the long-term future of the festival, which is the top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. and the most lucrative event on the Park City calendar.

It could be a hectic stretch with City Hall and the tourism industry likely already beginning to formulate a strategy that they hope could persuade Sundance to abandon the notion of moving.

The Sundance side, meanwhile, will be reviewing the possibilities another community would present. It is unclear what sort of interest there will be from elsewhere in Utah and nationally, but it would be a rare opportunity for a city to lure such a prestigious event after the brand was built over the decades in Park City.

The Sundance intrigue is unfolding as Park City’s leadership also needs to address the fate of the arts district. It was not immediately clear whether City Hall intends to continue to pursue the discussions about a district at the same increased pace as it has been in recent months or whether the Sundance process will impact any of the municipal timelines. Park City officials recently gathered another round of input about the land.

If the festival departs Park City — eliminating Sundance’s involvement in a district — a project-defining question would need to be answered: Can an arts district that will likely run into the tens of millions of dollars be viable without the involvement of the internationally recognized Sundance?

The supporters of the Kimball Art Center may argue it indeed can be, citing the popularity of the organization’s programs and the crowds that gather each summer on Main Street for the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. Others could raise doubts about whether the Kimball Art Center has the stature and long-term wherewithal to anchor such an ambitious district on its own.

A debate like that would be another agonizing exercise in the prolonged talks about a district and would become an addendum, years later, to the bitter divisiveness that centered on the future of the Kimball Art Center at its previous longtime property in Old Town.

The not-for-profit art center a decade ago sought to expand its former location along Main Street, tapping a celebrated Danish architect for the designs. The modern style proposed by Bjarke Ingels Group encountered intense criticism in a location where City Hall development rules, particularly stringent in Old Town, are designed to preserve a historic fabric. The Kimball Art Center, frustrated, sold the property in a $7.5 million deal and moved into temporary quarters along Kearns Boulevard. The organization remains in that space, hardly content with the situation. 

The concept of an arts district essentially rose from the Kimball Art Center fracas along Main Street, and there was initial glee in the community about the prospects of such a development. The celebratory atmosphere, however, eventually dissipated amid questions about costs. The dollar figure for the City Hall portion of a project at one point neared an estimated $90 million, with the possibility of housing and transportation infrastructure being included in the designs. The input Park City most recently gathered about a district illustrated the wide-ranging opinions that remain about the future of the land. Some hope to continue with the original vision while others see the ground as prime for other sorts of development.

The Kimball Art Center has pressed City Hall for longer than a year to move forward with the vision of an arts district. Representatives have repeatedly appeared before the mayor and City Council to argue for such a development. The Kimball Art Center’s top staffer made one of the appearances in March. In an interview after his remarks at the City Council meeting, Aldy Milliken, the executive director, said the temporary quarters are not the organization’s “forever home.” He also expressed concern about whether the original concept would ever come to fruition.

“Unless I have a signed contract, I worry we’re not going to realize that goal,” Milliken said in an interview.

There seems to be new justification to those worries just five weeks later.

The Kimball Art Center, like a wide swath of Park City, will be closely watching the Sundance process in coming months — and hoping there is still an opportunity to create a masterpiece of an arts district, regardless of whether there is a Hollywood ending for Sundance in Park City.

The post Analysis: Sundance move would make Hollywood ending less likely for Park City arts district appeared first on Park Record.

There were Kimball Art Center supporters in attendance at the Park City Library on Tuesday evening as City Hall continued to gather input about the future of a swath of land that has long been seen as having significant redevelopment potential.

And people who back the community’s wider cultural scene were there, too.

City Hall officials and a consultant retained by the municipal government received another round of disparate opinions during a well-attended session meant to provide further opportunity for Parkites to consider the possibilities for Bonanza Park.

The land within the Bonanza Park district covers 200 acres east of Park Avenue and on both sides of sections of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive. City Hall itself owns five acres within the larger Bonanza Park district. That ground stretches inward from the southwest corner of the Bonanza Drive-Kearns Boulevard intersection.

The municipal land, where an arts district anchored by the Kimball Art Center and the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute has been envisioned, has received much of the attention, but the event on Tuesday was centered on the full 200 acres.

Many people, though, continued to provide input about the possibilities for the Kimball Art Center, Sundance and the arts and culture community. The Kimball Art Center in recent months has been especially vocal in its interest in developing a permanent location on the land now owned by City Hall, arguing that was part of the original concept when the municipal government acquired the acreage. Sundance, meanwhile, is conducting a broad review of the film festival and it is not clear how it will proceed regarding a location on the municipal land. It could be months before Sundance is prepared to make decisions about a role in an arts district.

There are expected to eventually be high-stakes talks as Park City’s leadership decides whether to embrace the concept of an arts district like the one that was desired by an earlier set of elected officials or craft a new idea for the land.

The event drew a crowd of 120 people, including supporters of the arts. City Hall is conducting extensive outreach as leaders prepare to make long-term decisions regarding the land. The municipal government will ultimately decide the future of the acreage it controls, but the private-sector owners of the individual parcels in Bonanza Park will consider their options amid any changes to municipal development rules that may result from the discussions that are underway.

One of the exercises at the library on Tuesday involved the attendees anonymously addressing a series of issues about the land using sticky notes for messages. There was a cache of messages regarding the Kimball Art Center, Sundance and the general topic of arts and culture. The messages by late in the event seemed to trend heavily in favor of an arts district and in support of the Kimball Art Center.

Messages on the sticky notes about the Kimball Art Center or Sundance included:

• “Find a place for the KAC,” using an acronym for the Kimball Art Center
• “Find a place for Sundance Film Festival”
• “Make sure Kimball Arts Center is part of the plan!!”
• “Sundance + Kimball have overlapping business (models). Figure out how they work together”
• “If this is an arts district KAC should have priority”
• “Make room for KAC if they want to be there”

The people who left sticky notes also addressed arts and culture more generally. The topic is notable even without mentioning the Kimball Art Center or Sundance since an arts district would physically extend beyond the footprint of the two potential anchors. It has also seemed a district would serve an array of creative endeavors that may not necessarily be linked directly to either of the two. Some of the people hoped for artist studios to be included while others want to ensure there is space for Park City-area artists.

Some of the generalized messages about arts and culture left on sticky notes:

• “Art spaces! Studios, theatre creative spaces for local artists”
• Performing arts space
• Outdoor movies
• “Pop up local art exhibits”
• “With climate change and uncertain snowpack, art is going to be super important! I want dense art! All over the place. All kinds everywhere!”
• “Yes to art installations and playful, creative space”
• “Please please please find places for local artists to create, teach, live, sell. We have almost none now”
• “Culinary art is art + commerce”

The post Park City told to ‘find a place’ for Sundance, Kimball Art Center appeared first on Park Record.

The top staffer at the Kimball Art Center on Thursday continued to press the organization’s interest in working with City Hall as the not-for-profit organization considers the long-term future.

Aldy Milliken, the executive director of the art center, briefly addressed Mayor Nann Worel and the Park City Council during a March 7 meeting at the Marsac Building. The elected officials were not scheduled to address the Kimball Art Center and did not respond in any depth. Milliken has regularly appeared before the elected officials to address the same topic.

City Hall, the Kimball Art Center and the Sundance Institute in the summer of 2017 announced a partnership with the intent to develop an arts and culture district on land the municipal government later acquired stretching inward from the intersection of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive.

In the nearly seven years since the announcement of the partnership, though, there has been limited progress. A different set of Park City leaders from the one that was seated in 2017 is considering options for the land, but the details of eventual development is not clear. A timeline for decisions is not clear.

Milliken did not speak in detailed terms during his comments to the elected officials on Thursday.

“I want to remind the council that the arts and culture sector is going through a very ambitious master-planning process, which the council actually helped fund along with Summit County and the chamber of commerce, and hope that we can connect the dots between the ambitious goals that we have for the growth of our cultural sector and these initiatives to really highlight arts and culture as a core value for Park City,” he said.

Milliken said organizations are “looking to bring everyone to the table in our region to really elevate arts and culture.” The appearance on Thursday was a “thank you and a reminder of these ongoing things that are happening,” he told the mayor and City Council.

The Kimball Art Center sold its longtime property along Main Street after a high-profile dispute with City Hall about plans to expand the facility. The organization has been housed in temporary quarters on Kearns Boulevard since 2015 as it continues to consider options for a permanent location. The organization has been seen as an anchor of an arts and culture district. The Kimball Art Center’s interests in a permanent location have centered on a district even as the desires of the municipal government and Sundance regarding a district like the one initially envisioned have appeared to fluctuate over time.

In an interview after the Thursday appearance at City Hall, Milliken said he wants to ensure the elected officials continue to be aware of the significance of the 2017 partnership to the Kimball Art Center.

“That’s an important guiding document I can refer to,” Milliken said.

He said a decision about the ultimate location of the Kimball Art Center is also key.

“The Kimball needs a sustainable home,” Milliken said, addressing the temporary quarters. “This is not our forever home.”

He added: “Unless I have a signed contract, I worry we’re not going to realize that goal.”

The post Kimball Art Center presses Park City leaders about permanent home appeared first on Park Record.

Should City Hall develop a standalone arts center and artist studios on a 5-acre parcel under municipal ownership stretching inward from the southwest corner of the intersection of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive?

Or are affordable housing, a parking garage, a hotel or housing to be sold at market rates preferred on the land?

As Park City leaders continue a lengthy exercise designed to craft a vision for the future of the acreage, the municipal government has posted a survey inquiring about a range of issues related to the land. One of the important questions centers on what should be included as the ground is developed.

City Hall announced the $19.5 million deal to acquire the land in 2017 with the intent to develop an arts and culture district with the Kimball Art Center and the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute as the anchors. In the intervening years, though, there have been questions about whether a district like the one envisioned at the outset is the best option for the land.

Park City leaders are currently gathering a large amount of input from Parkites via open houses and other methods, and the survey will provide the municipal government with another data set.

The answers to the question inquiring about what someone desires to be included when the land is developed will provide an especially important reading on the sentiments of the public since the ultimate uses for the ground will drive the rest of the discourse as a project moves through the City Hall review process.

The answer options:

• A standalone arts center
• Affordable housing
• Community green space or a plaza
• Transit stop
• Garage
• Artist studios
• An arts center that would be part of a building with other uses
• Housing that would be sold at market rates
• A hotel
• Dining and retail outlets

Any development would have enough room to include at least several of the options.

The level of support for the arts-related options will be notable since the land was acquired with the intent to develop an arts and culture district. There appeared to be broad support for a project like that at the time of the 2017 announcement of the municipal acquisition. There have been questions, though, about the cost of a district, which has been estimated to run into the tens of millions of dollars.

A district has been billed as something that would further solidify Park City’s reputation as a destination for arts and cultural tourism as well as add to economic diversification in a community where recreation is the key element of the economy.

Residents have continue to express public support for a heavy arts and cultural aspect in any development, but the current process is expected to be pivotal in the decision making about the use of the land.

Some of the other topics covered in the survey:

• The level of public investment someone supports as the land is developed. Answer options run from zero investment by the public to more than $40 million.
• The possible funding strategies for a project, with answer options including new tools to Park City like tax-increment financing, using financial tools that already exist, a subsidy from the municipal General Fund and uses for the land that would create value, perhaps a hotel or housing sold at market rates.

City Hall has also posted a survey that covers topics related to Bonanza Park — 200 acres east of Park Avenue and on both sides of sections of Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive. The 5-acre municipal parcel that is covered in the other survey is within the broader Bonanza Park, which stretches through land owned by a patchwork of private owners.

The Bonanza Park survey inquires about what someone sees as the project goals, with answer options including a mixed-use neighborhood, supporting business owned locally, and the expansion of the availability of workforce or otherwise affordable housing.

The survey also includes a question covering the way someone wants Bonanza Park to develop over certain periods with a timeline extending to 20 years. Another question, meanwhile, focuses on whether taller buildings should be allowed in Bonanza Park than are currently permitted through zoning rules and under what conditions.

The surveys close Nov. 17. There are links to the surveys on the municipal website, www.parkcity.org. The direct link to the item about the surveys is: https://www.parkcity.org/Home/Components/News/News/43029/23. The direct link to the survey about the municipal land is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5AcreSiteMtg2 while the direct link to the survey about Bonanza Park is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BonanzaMtg2.

The post Park City has five central acres: Should they be used for arts, housing, parking, a hotel or something else? appeared first on Park Record.

The Kimball Art Center hosted the Monster Drawing Rally Thursday evening, June 1, 2017. Artists created works of art in three, 50 minute time-blocks which were then made for sale for $50. Attendees enjoyed food, live music and a sneak peak at the work that goes in to the artists creations. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

The post PHOTOS: Monster Drawing Rally appeared first on Park Record.