Where might skiers park when Deer Valley Resort eventually commences construction on a major development at the Snow Park base?
And what about the concept of a gondola linking Deer Valley base areas that has attracted attention in recent months?
People following Deer Valley’s efforts to remake Snow Park will have opportunities in coming months to hear from resort officials about those and other topics related to a project.
Deer Valley in early June publicized a schedule of topics it plans to address in public gatherings through the end of the year. The schedule offers a preview of some of the key topics related to Snow Park and when they will be discussed. There are four remaining entries on the timeline following three events that were already held.
These four are upcoming:
• Construction and mitigation, in August.
• Sustainability, in October.
• Public realm, in November.
• Vertical architecture and program, in December.
Deer Valley is readying the details of what will be a significant submittal to City Hall seeking an approval for a Snow Park project. The resort is gathering public input as it prepares the submittal. The timeline was part of the materials presented during an open house Monday at Snow Park Lodge centered on the project Traffic and access were some of the important topics at the event.
The timeline in some ways resembles, at least broadly, the Park City Planning Commission process as the panel considers large, complex development proposals like the one expected to be filed by Deer Valley for Snow Park. The Planning Commission can spend months, and sometimes longer than a year, addressing issues along some sort of schedule. Meetings sometimes can be designed to consider specific topics in a similar fashion to the upcoming Deer Valley-hosted events. Discussions about especially difficult topics can stretch through multiple Planning Commission meetings.
The Deer Valley-hosted events centered on Snow Park have drawn large crowds seeking information about the project. The open house on Monday attracted approximately 250 people to Snow Park Lodge to learn about transportation-related issues.
The outreach efforts by Deer Valley are in anticipation of the eventual submittal to the municipal government. There are development rights attached to the land where the Snow Park parking lots are located dating to a 1970s municipal overall approval of what would be built as Deer Valley. The resort, though, must secure another approval before a project could start.
Deer Valley wants to remake the Snow Park base with residences, commercial spaces, a hotel and entertainment. Large garages would be built to account for parking that is lost as the lots are developed. The project is part of a wider vision for Deer Valley’s future that also includes a large expansion in Wasatch County known as Deer Valley East Village.
Some of the details of the upcoming schedule of gatherings are intriguing since they highlight when Deer Valley will address some of the topics that will likely be particularly notable throughout the City Hall process. They include:
• The August addressing of construction and mitigation. The timeline indicates some of the topics that will be outlined include temporary parking, access and staging. The issue of temporary parking will, with near certainty, draw wide interest from Deer Valley customers and the broader community since the Snow Park lots are so important to the operations of the resort. Deer Valley would be expected to discuss the plans for parking as work is underway on the lots, such as where spots will be available for drivers and what times of year there could be disruptions to parking. Other topics listed on the timeline for August include access and staging.
• The November addressing of a category labeled “Public Realm,” when Deer Valley is expected to provide information about several high-profile aspects of the development concept. A gondola is listed as a topic under the “Public Realm” category. The schedule does not provide details about a gondola, but there has been discussion about the possibility of Deer Valley eventually linking the Snow Park, Silver Lake Village and Deer Valley East Village bases with a gondola network. Deer Valley would also be an important location should a wider aerial-transit system be developed in Park City, which has been broached over the years but has yet to advance. The “Public Realm” listing also includes the ideas of a ski beach and a plaza, two possibilities that would be of note to skiers.
• The December addressing of what is labeled as “Vertical Architecture & Program.” The schedule indicates the residential, hospitality and retail aspects of a development are slated to be covered. The future of Snow Park Lodge is also listed as a topic. Deer Valley could present information about the designs of a project since residential, hospitality and retail square footage will be the core of a development. The possibilities for the future of Snow Park Lodge would also attract interest with the building being the entry point to Deer Valley for so many skiers as well as people headed to the resort in the summer and fall.