The travelers on the recent City Tour to Reno, Nevada, and the Lake Tahoe region of California and Nevada spent time discussing the business communities, the government structures and housing, as well as a number of other issues.

And as the annual trip ended, the people on the City Tour offered their opinions about what was learned and how any lessons from the other communities apply to the Park City area. The fact-finding trip travels to destinations in the West each year to learn about the mechanics of the other communities with the idea that policies and programs discussed on the City Tour could be relevant to Park City.

The City Tour covered five days in late May and early June, stopping in places with significant tourism. Government officials, business people, not-for-profit figures and members of the Leadership Park City class typically attend. Mayor Nann Worel and the Park City Council received a written report about the trip in anticipation of a meeting on Thursday.

The report reflects the rapid-fire nature of the City Tour, when the group often hears from a range of speakers in different settings over the course of a day. But it also highlights that the travelers by the end of the most recent City Tour had formed ideas about what from the other communities may or may not apply to Park City. In many cases, the challenges in the places visited — issues like housing, traffic, the environment and affordability — are similar to those in Park City.

Two entries on a list of key takeaways from the trip center on the resort industry. One concerns the presence of independent businesses in resort communities, while the other one addresses disconnections among jurisdictions.

The passage regarding independent businesses reads: “Participants noticed that many restaurants and businesses in the resorts they visited were independently owned, contributing to a sense of authenticity and flexibility. They questioned how Park City might encourage more local ownership and diversity in its own resort zones, rather than relying on chain or corporate operators.”

The passage regarding disconnects between jurisdictions reads: “A broader structural issue was raised about how resorts often lie outside core jurisdictional boundaries, creating murky questions about tax revenue, services, and community benefits. This disconnect was seen as relevant to Park City, where similar issues play out between the city, county, and private resort operators.”

Both of the topics have been of consequence in Park City for years, with the community attempting to boost small, locally owned businesses and with the area’s resort industry stretching outside the Park City limits and into unincorporated Summit County and Wasatch County.

Some of the other key takeaways:

• Regional collaboration and governance: “Many were struck by the complexity — and success — of collaboration across jurisdictions in the Lake Tahoe region. With overlapping city, county, and state governance structures across California and Nevada, the ability to work across boundaries was both impressive and instructive. However, participants also warned against excessive reliance on special boards and commissions, as Truckee in particular seemed to suffer from a degree of over-complication and potential inefficiency.”
• Innovative housing strategies: “The group found multiple examples of creative, pragmatic housing policy. Truckee’s multi-pronged approach to addressing the ‘missing middle’ in housing markets was widely admired. Reno’s incentives for affordable housing — such as removing parking minimums, waiving building and sewer fees, and increasing height limits — were seen as aggressive and effective. These tactics stood in contrast to the slower pace of development often experienced at home.”
• Vacant lots and development gaps: “Some participants raised concerns about vacant lots in otherwise developable areas — a theme discussed in North Lake Tahoe.  These parcels had entitlements or potential but remained empty due to inadequate incentives or prohibitive regulations. It sparked a conversation about whether Park City is unintentionally blocking desirable development through its own policies or inaction.”
• The absence of public schools in economic conversations: “Some participants noted that K-12 public education seemed almost entirely absent from economic development conversations in the cities visited. This was flagged as a critical oversight, especially when trying to attract or retain families and workforce talent. There was a call for more intentional integration of school districts into Park City’s planning and growth strategies.”
• Advanced wildfire preparedness tools: “A notable innovation came from the Tahoe region, where AI tools are being used to model wildfire evacuations. These systems can calculate escape times based on license plates and identify visitor populations during crises — an area where Park City could significantly improve, especially given the number of short-term rentals and second homes in the region.”

The City Tour involved 64 travelers. Government officials typically attend at the expense of taxpayers while others pay their own way or are funded by their respective organizations.

Scott van Hartesvelt, the director of Leadership Park City, said some of the issues he saw as notable included wildfire preparedness and the jurisdictional makeup of the Lake Tahoe region. He said the successes between the jurisdictions the travelers learned about led to a conclusion that the Park City area should reinstate coordination between governments regarding transportation.

Van Hartesvelt said the City Tour also provides an opportunity for relationship building between the travelers and with their counterparts in the destinations.

“There is always a benefit to see someone else’s big swing,” he said.

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