Deer Valley Resort as part of the concept for a major development at the Snow Park base envisions installing, in partnership with City Hall, a stoplight along Deer Valley Drive on the perimeter of the base.
A stoplight is under consideration at the intersection of Deer Valley Drive and Deer Valley Drive East, a spot sometimes referred to as the Y intersection. A stoplight at that location would be the first on a street controlled by the Park City government. All the other stoplights inside the Park City limits are on roads — S.R. 224 and S.R. 248 — under the jurisdiction of the Utah Department of Transportation.
The Deer Valley team on Monday evening indicated agreements would need to be negotiated regarding the operations and maintenance of a stoplight. A roundabout, meanwhile, is proposed at Deer Valley Drive West and Doe Pass Road.
The information about a stoplight was one of the highlights of an open house held at Snow Park Lodge as Deer Valley continues to showcase the concepts for a Snow Park project and gather input from people who live or own properties in lower Deer Valley and others.
A stoplight would be a glaring addition to the streetscape in lower Deer Valley with there being so few of them in Park City and none on municipal streets. The installation of stoplights inside Park City over the years has been seen as another signal of growth in a community where some longtime residents pine for the era of decades ago when stoplights were not needed.
A stoplight would be designed to address the traffic headed into and out of a development at the Snow Park base. The closely related topics of traffic and circulation have for years been key points in the discussions about large developments like the one proposed at Snow Park.
The Park City Planning Commission will likely spend significant time on the topics when it reviews an application for Snow Park development. It is not known how much of the discussion would be spent on a proposed stoplight, but such a measure would be part of a broader package of steps to address the issues.
Deer Valley is continuing to gather public input as it prepares what will be a landmark application to City Hall for a development at Snow Park. Input sessions like the one Monday are designed to offer the public an opportunity to hear from Deer Valley officials and discuss issues related to a development on a one-on-one or small-group basis.
Approximately 250 people attended the event on Monday. The crowd spoke to Deer Valley executives, including President and Chief Operating Officer Todd Bennett, questioned the resort’s consultants, and studied poster boards showing various aspects of the concept. There was information available about pedestrian and bicyclist access as well as about parking and garage access. The crowd was scattered through the open house and there did not appear to be any single overriding topic that drew an outsized amount of interest.
There are development rights attached to the land where the Snow Park parking lots are located dating to a 1970s overall approval of what would become Deer Valley. The resort still must secure another approval from Park City officials before commencing work on a project.
Deer Valley envisions remaking 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 built upon.