Most Parkites probably do not realize that one of the most visible hillsides in Park City has been eyed for development for years.
Now, the Sweeney Land Company, which owns the land located nearby the Town Lift and just west of the existing houses in that part of Old Town, is readying to begin formal talks with the Marsac Building about their plans.
The project has been contemplated for almost 20 years and is a remaining part of an overall development plan that was approved in 1986.
Pat Sweeney, who speaks about the land on behalf of his family, said he understands that many people who now live in the city do not realize that the land is seen as a spot for development. He expects that some will be displeased with his family’s plans but others will support the project.
The family’s land is divided into two development sites.
Sweeney said one is a 3.75-acre site located at the mid-station area of the Town Lift. He said the family wants an OK from the city to put 39 unit-equivalents at that site. A unit-equivalent is a planning tool that typically describes one type of development unit. Of the 39, 35.5 will be residential and 3.5 will be commercial, he said.
A much larger part of the plan is slated for Creole Gulch, which is located northwest of the mid-station. Sweeney said the family will request an approval for 161.5 residential units and 15.5 units of commercial outlets.
"These are big sites. There will be a variety of different end products," he said. "The market will determine that."
In all, the family will seek an approval for 216 units on a combined 123 acres, making the project one of the most significant in Old Town in years.
Most of the land, though, will be kept as open space, Sweeney said, noting that 90 percent of the acreage will remain undeveloped. He said the family intends to deed 50 acres of open space to City Hall in addition to 42 acres at the site that were already preserved.
The family chose the current plan over seven other designs and the one they chose preserves more of the hillside than the others, Sweeney said.
"I think there will be a variety of responses," Sweeney said about what he figures will be comments from the public, adding, "I don’t know what to expect. It will probably be all over the board."
Sweeney said he has filed a preliminary application with City Hall but the more detailed parts of the plan will be considered in future submittals.
Thus far, talks between the Sweeneys and the government have been limited to internal meetings. Public meetings will follow once the application is in front of the Planning Commission. Kirsten Whetstone, a planner at City Hall, notes the 1986 approval, saying that the project’s parameters were OK’d at that time but the Sweeneys will now have to face further scrutiny as the details are decided.
She said the Sweeneys will have to work through a number of technical issues.
"They’ve got to, technically, prove emergency access and fire code and building code issues," Whetstone said.
She predicts public hearings will not be held until the fall.
Whetstone said the developers are contemplating that motorists driving to the project will use a switchback at Empire Avenue and Lowell Avenue, which means that people heading to the project will drive through a neighborhood to get there.
Sweeney said the family would like to launch construction in spring 2005.
The project is envisioned as a ski-in, ski-out property, with ski access coming from Park City Mountain Resort’s Town lift runs. Sweeney said there is the potential that his family’s project could coincide with an upgrade of the Town lift and that lift could eventually be replaced with a gondola. Sweeney, however, said that the project does not contemplate adding a new lift.
The lift options will likely spur speculation about the Town lift’s future. A replacement for that lift, which is slower than many others at PCMR, has been discussed for years.
At one point, PCMR, Deer Valley Resort and United Park City Mines talked about replacing the lift with a gondola and then linking the gondola to UPCM’s Flagstaff Mountain Resort, which will be built in Deer Valley. That idea never materialized.
The development will also be of interest to merchants, lodges, bars and restaurants on lower Main Street, where many say that business has suffered. The Sweeney project will be located close to lower Main Street and people staying in the Sweeney units would have easy access to Main Street on both the Town Bridge and the pedestrian bridge that connects the Town Lift Plaza to the Marriott Summit Watch.