A petition drive has become the latest front in Park City's fight over the future of a well-known five-acre parcel. About 2,000 people have signed on to ask officials to rethink the plan.
For critics, the frustration is not just about a single development proposal. It is also about whether city-owned land should be used to preserve mountain views and public gathering space rather than to make way for denser development.
Here's what to know
PLACE-PC plans to deliver its petition at an upcoming Park City Council meeting, KPCW reported. The site at the center of the dispute is the city-owned parcel at Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive, where a closed gas station sits on otherwise vacant land that Park City Municipal purchased in 2017 for a planned arts-and-culture district.
The concept the city council chose from Brinshore Development would combine park space with housing, KPCW reported. It includes 106 residences, 88 of them affordable, plus commercial space on the ground floor.
On its website, PLACE-PC promotes the slogan "more park, less city" and shares alternate concepts for the property. Group member Tom Seitz said concerns deepened once residents better understood the scale of the proposal and how it would be financed.
"Once we saw physically what it looked like and what was being proposed and the way in which it was being funded, et cetera, we started asking questions about it," Seitz said on KPCW's "Local News Hour" on August 11.
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More background
The parcel is both publicly owned and highly visible, which has raised the stakes of the fight over it. Park City is putting up as much as $40 million in hotel room sales tax revenue to share development costs with Brinshore.
PLACE-PC's Kelly Pfaff told KPCW that most of the petition's supporters are Park City residents, though some also come from elsewhere in Summit County and Salt Lake City and say they value the area's scenery enough to spend time and money there. She said one of the group's biggest concerns is the project's height and what it could mean for openness and views.
According to KPCW, the current proposal would preserve about 2 acres of open space in the middle of the project, including a small amphitheater, a playground, and lawn space. Supporters say those elements already provide several of the public benefits opponents say they want.
It echoes a fight in North Dallas, where neighbors recently organized against a wave of dense development they said would strain traffic and change the character of their community.
What's being done?
The issue is still moving through a public review process. KPCW reported that Park City's planning commission has three hearings on the calendar after a string of hearings last year that preceded the council's March vote to advance the Brinshore proposal.
Because the council made that decision, KPCW noted, it is also the body with the authority to change course. PLACE-PC is directing its petition campaign there.
Debates like this can shape quality of life for years, affecting access to recreation and arts space, housing costs, traffic, and the preservation of local character.
Pfaff said the group's outreach has also revealed how many people were still unaware of the proposal. "We're realizing actually a lot of people don't know about the project, and so it's been nice to be that information piece for them, showing what the city's been doing with it," she said.
"We call on the city council to pursue a different vision on this site: a public park for Parkites, a central gathering place for recreation, local arts, municipal use and community enjoyment," Pfaff said, reading from the petition.
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