Birthday Bash for Park City

 birthday bash for Park City, with Sam Bush as entertainment

Main Street party is scheduled to mark the 125th anniversary of city's founding

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

Posted: 05/26/2009 05:01:34 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

Sam Bush, with his 'Newgrass' style of playing, has long been a favorite of bluegrass fans. He is...

It's going to be some birthday celebration next month.

Park City will throw itself a party to mark the 125th anniversary of the incorporation of the municipality. Settlers arrived a little while before then, but the local government did not begin operating until 1884.

And plenty of Parkites will likely be interested in the entertainment: bluegrass legend Sam Bush.

The Park City Council recently approved a daylong celebration on Main Street on June 13, culminating with a concert by Bush, long a top-shelf figure in bluegrass and the newfangled musical style known as 'Newgrass.'

There was little discussion as the City Councilors approved a permit for the Park City Chamber/Bureau for the celebration. The organizers have been planning an event to mark the 125th anniversary for some time, but details had not been finalized until recently.

The Bush performance is scheduled from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. on lower Main Street, a popular location for bigger public concerts. The concert is free and open to the public. Bob Kollar, a Park City Chamber/Bureau official who is helping organize the event, said he expects up to 5,000 people to attend the Bush concert.

"That was the idea, to get a headline band to make it more than just your traditional free concert," Kollar said.

The performance will be part of a tour that starts in Ohio on June 6. He is scheduled to play in Richmond, Va., two days before the Park City concert and will leave Park City for a planned show on June 20 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colo., according to Bush's Web site.

Brian Richards, the executive director of Mountain Town Stages, a not-for-profit organization that puts on local concerts and was involved with booking Bush, said the concert matches well with Park City's tastes. Bush is "Americana, mountain town," Richards said.

"He's a man of the mountains, got the mountain music going," Richards said, adding that he hopes the celebration on lower Main Street will "epitomize what Park City is all about."

The concert will end a day of events on lower Main Street that will start with a breakfast and a motorcycle ride, the organizers said. Max Paap, who directs special events for City Hall, said Main Street will be closed to traffic between Heber Avenue and the trolley turnaround at the bottom of the street for most of the day.

Some of the entertainment scheduled for the celebration includes:

A walking parade of civic organizations and businesses at about 11:30 a.m. The parade will descend from upper Main Street to Miners Park. The parade will include entries celebrating the city's history, including the silver-mining era and the 2002 Winter Olympics, a schedule submitted to the elected officials before they approved the permit indicates.

Concerts start at Miners Park at noon and run until 5:30 p.m. Scheduled performers are Lash Larue, Swagger and Fat Paw.

On the main stage, where Bush will play, performers are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. The Park City High School jazz band has a timeslot, as do people who practice tai chi, a troupe of Irish dancers and a mariachi band.

From 7 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., City Hall officials are scheduled to give short remarks about the 125th anniversary and Summit County leaders will give the city a birthday gift. Summit County Councilman David Ure, who once represented Park City in the Utah House of Representatives, will choose the gift from the county.

Park City officials in early March, coinciding more closely with the actual date of the incorporation, endorsed a resolution commemorating the anniversary. The resolution spoke of a terrible 1898 fire that destroyed much of Park City and mentioned the rise of Park City into a resort community decades later.

The celebration is scheduled on the eve of the opening of a Western Governors' Association meeting in Deer Valley that is expected to draw a roster of high-profile politicians. Paap said some of them might attend the event. He said he hopes Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. or Gary Herbert, the lieutenant governor, will address the crowd if they attend.

"I just envision Park City coming together, you're seeing all your neighbors in the street," Richards said.

New Trails Map Released

The map details new routes

Greg Marshall, Of the Record staff

Posted: 05/26/2009 05:01:14 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

Alex Hemb, left, and sons Steffen and Christian catch their breath Saturday before a ride a Park...

Jason Cyr, an expert biker with White Pine Touring, would be lost without one. So would Carol Potter, the executive director of Mountain Trails Foundation.

The new trails map, released early last week, details more than 400 miles of trails in the Snyderville Basin. The map identifies a network of new routes branching out from Quinn's Junction, Summit Park and Park City Moutain Resort.

A joint project of Park City Municipal, Synderville Basin Recreation and Mountain Trails, the map is available in 22 bike shops, outdoor outlets and grocery stores in Summit County for $2. It is also available at Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley Resort, The Canyons and the Park City Visitors Center.

The $2 price tag is a donation. Proceeds from the 20,000 double-sided maps go toward trails upkeep. Crews from Basin Recreation and Mountain Trails spend hundreds of hours each year cutting and sweeping away vegetation and fighting the ongoing battle against erosion.

Bikers, hikers, walkers and horseback riders have flocked to retailers to snatch copies of the trails map, now calibrated with distances thanks to the use of Global Positioning trackers. "The map is so huge and so many people use it," Potter said. "It's a labor of love and the first sign of spring. This is the trail map of all trail maps."

The map displays new trails, such as the Flying Dog near Guardsman's Pass as well as old favorites such as Shadow Lake and Spiro. Cartographers flipped the map for Park City Mountain to read from the bottom up, like ski maps of the mountain, for greater ease, said Rick Fournier, who helps maintain trails for Mountain Trails.

"I think it's a lot cleaner, and the Round Valley section is cleaner" on the 2009 trail map compared to previous years, he said.

Potter is partial to the map's new cover, which pictures a racer from the 2008 International Mountain Biking Association.

Despite years experience biking around Summit County, Cyr almost always carries a trail map in his pack. Some of his favorite excursions on the Wasatch Crest Trail, Lost Prospector and the Round Valley Loop take him far afield to places hard to reach by foot.

Founded in 1992, Mountain Trails releases a new map every year, and it is difficult to estimate how many trails are in the area. "It's a massive spider-web system," Potter said. Some trails have been marked for years. Others, relatively new, remain unnamed.

Nearly all trails in Summit County are open to "non-motorized" traffic," Potter said. Sharing trails requires etiquette. Bikers should yield to hikers, and they should yield to horses. Uphill riders have the right of way. Dogs should be leashed (though most admit this rule is followed sporadically at best) and people should park at trailheads to avoid obstructing private property.

"We haven't had too many problems," Potter said. "Everyone's polite."

Cyr urged patrons to abide signs indicating closed trails. Wet, muddy trails are susceptible to erosion, he said. To avoid mud and snow, Potter advised sticking to lower elevations for the next week or so. Riders and walkers should check out moutaintrails.org for trail updates and recommendations.

Cyr is excited for the summer season. "Park City is a real hidden gem for bike riding," he said. "And the trail map is one of the best in the country."

Deer Valley: the next big project

The resort holds development rights from long ago

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

Posted: 05/22/2009 04:10:53 PM MDT

Deer Valley Resort has longstanding rights to develop real estate on the parking lots outside Snow Park Lodge, shown toward the end of the last ski season. Under Deer Valley's blueprints, a garage would be built to replace the lost spots and add more parking spaces. David Ryder/Park Record

Harvey LaPointe moved into his condominium on the 500 block of Deer Valley Drive in 1993, toward the beginning of Park City's boom years of the decade.

Sitting between Old Town and Snow Park, the place is situated well, giving him easy access to the Snow Park area of Deer Valley Resort, with its vast parking lots, and the shopping, dining and entertainment options of Main Street.

Someday, though, the parking lots outside of Snow Park Lodge, just down the street from where LaPointe and scores of other Park City people live, will likely be developed with real estate. Deer Valley Resort holds long-standing rights to build on the Snow Park lots as part of the overall approval of the resort years ago.

"Frankly, when I moved here I had

Some people walk to their cars in the parking lot outside Snow Park Lodge instead of taking Deer Valley's tram. Deer Valley next year might start talks with City Hall about a major development on the land where the lot is now located, an official with the resort says. David Ryder/Park Record

no clue what could take place on Deer Valley's parking lots," LaPointe says, describing that he has since become aware of the development prospects of Snow Park parking lots through media coverage.

Many people who live along Deer Valley Drive likely are unaware of the development rights Deer Valley holds, as LaPointe was when he bought his place. The corridor between the Old Town roundabout and Snow Park has grown substantially over the years, and neighborhoods have been built off the main road that will be affected by development at Snow Park as well.

It is a situation that is similar to what is unfolding across Park City with the Sweeney family's Treasure development proposal close to Old Town. City Hall officials in the 1980s granted an overall approval for Treasure and several smaller nearby projects. The Sweeneys are now seeking an approval for Treasure, which would be built on the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort. Treasure is the most significant portion of the earlier approval.

The Sweeneys are facing opposition from neighbors and from people who live elsewhere who are displeased with the Treasure plans. Critics from streets like Lowell Avenue and Empire Avenue say Treasure, as it was approved in the 1980s, no longer fits in the neighborhood. They are especially worried about the traffic Treasure is expected to attract.

Many of the critics arrived well after Park City officials granted Treasure's overall approval, and some were unaware when they moved in of the development rights the Sweeneys held.

At Deer Valley, the resort's forefathers in the late 1970s secured the overall development plans for much of what is now built at the resort. Under that approval, Deer Valley is allowed to develop the Snow Park parking lots, one of the last major development parcels inside Park City.

According to Bob Wells, the vice president at Deer Valley and the official who leads the resort's development efforts, city leaders at the time allowed approximately 420,000 square feet of residential development on the parking-lot site. The number of units has not been determined, however, and that figure will depend on the square footage of the individual places. Wells says Deer Valley is allowed to build another approximately 22,000 square feet of commercial space under the earlier approval.

Deer Valley would build a huge parking garage, partly underground, to replace the Snow Park spots that are lost as the land is developed. He says the garage would contain approximately 2,100 spaces, significantly more than the 1,200 to 1,250 cars that the Snow Park lots now hold.

Deer Valley refers to the project as Snow Park Village. There has been occasional chatter over the years that Deer Valley is preparing its submittals, but they have never materialized.

Wells, though, says Deer Valley is "consistently working on planning." At the earliest, he says, Deer Valley would file paperwork with City Hall in early 2010. Once that occurs, the resort would discuss the project with City Hall planners and then the Planning Commission. The Park City Council sometimes is involved with larger developments like Snow Park Village.

City officials will be deciding whether Deer Valley's blueprints are acceptable, not whether there should be development outside Snow Park Lodge. The decision to allow development at the site was made during the earlier era.

Wells says Deer Valley Drive, the road primarily used to drive to Snow Park, could handle the additional traffic Snow Park Village would bring. He says a study of traffic patterns, though, will be done. Wells expects that Snow Park Village would cut the outbound afternoon traffic, when Deer Valley Drive is frequently clogged with skiers leaving the resort, by keeping some of the skiers at Deer Valley later with after-ski draws like restaurants and, possibly, an ice rink.

There is likely to be opposition, though, particularly from people who live along the Deer Valley Drive corridor and those who live or have properties close to the parking lots. Traffic will probably be of great concern to the Deer Valley Drive residents. The proposed height of buildings at Snow Park Village will likely be closely scrutinized by the people closest to the site.

Still, Wells says Snow Park Village will have supporters as well. He says many people with places close to Snow Park will benefit from what will be built there. He says Deer Valley officials have kept them apprised of the plans.

"Adjoining developments, property owners, look at the ultimate completion of the village there as an asset," he says.

Official: project not well known

Charlie Winzter, a member of the Park City Planning Commission who lives on a street off Deer Valley Drive, says he is unsure if many people who live close by are aware Deer Valley Resort holds long-standing rights to develop real estate on the parking lots outside of Snow Park Lodge.

Wintzer, a longtime Park City resident who is in the construction business, says he understands Deer Valley will one day develop the parking lots, but others who live on or near Deer Valley Drive do not.

"I know that because I've been paying attention to development," he says. "I don't know if the other people do."

A Deer Valley official says the resort could file submittals for what is known as Snow Park Village in early 2010, at the earliest. The project would have residential and commercial space, and a huge parking garage.

Wintzer's current term on the Planning Commission expires in July. He has submitted an application for another term.

Wintzer, who lives on McHenry Avenue, says the Planning Commission would look closely at the amount of traffic driving to and from Snow Park Village and the designs of the buildings. Perhaps, he says, city officials could discourage people from driving to the development.

"At five o'clock at night, it's crowded now," he says about traffic on Deer Valley Drive, adding, "It's not just Deer Valley Drive, it's the whole corridor."

Deer Valley Resort Operations To Now Include Property Management

Deer Valley Resort Lodging and Reservations

 

Deer Valley Resort is expanding our operation to include a property management division. The Resort will pursue management of properties within the Deer Valley area, allowing us to extend our services beyond the slopes. Offering luxurious amenities such as ski valets, groomed-to-perfection slopes, on-site child care, gourmet dining in three elegant day lodges and now accommodations operated by the Resort, we look forward to being able to offer our guests the 'Deer Valley Difference' beginning with lodging check-in.

 

We are very excited about the opportunity to run our own property management division. This will give us the ability to be hands-on through every step of our guests' vacation experience. Deer Valley Resort's distinguished reputation was built by our staff's commitment to excellence in service, as evidenced by our four #1 rankings by the readers of SKI Magazine. We are looking forward to expanding upon the offerings and prestige of our established brand.

Deer Valley's Central Reservation's wholesale lodging department began in 1981 and is currently the only resort reservation center able to book everything from airfare, ground transportation, ski rentals, lessons and restaurant reservations. In addition to offering lodging managed by the Resort, Central Reservations will continue its relationship with several select property management companies and properties while operating under their new name, Deer Valley Resort Lodging and Reservations. Our guests will have access to the largest lodging inventory in the Deer Valley area.

 

For more information on Deer Valley Resort or its property management division, please email marketing@deervalley.com or call 435-645-6510.

Park City Schools Ranked #1

Submitted by Park City School District

Monday, KSl released the results of its research project on high school performance in Utah.  Park City High School ranked number 1 in the sate.  Using data provided the Utah State Office of Education, KSL and its independent researcher ranked schools according to student scores on the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test, school improvement, and advanced placement (AP) tests.  

"We are thrilled with the ranking," said Hilary Hays, principal of Park City High School.  "This is the result of hard work by our students, their parents and our faculty.  I'm grateful for the support we receive from the board of education and the community.  Congratulations, Park City High School Miners!"

The study looked at 123 Utah high schools.  In addition to test scores, the rankings included graduation rates, attendance, and other variables associated with the state's U-Pass assessment.  

Sweeney Rights Remain Intact

Treasure special counsel delivers much-anticipated report about project

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

Posted: 04/24/2009 04:03:16 PM MDT

Treasure special counsel Jody Burnett this week affirmed the Sweeney family's longstanding rights for the development, indicating in a much-anticipated report that the family has made sufficient progress over the years to keep a 1980s overall approval for the project intact.

Burnett delivered his report to the Park City Planning Commission on Wednesday and to the City Council the next day. Burnett, an attorney hired by City Hall to comb through the earlier approval for Treasure, said in his written opinion the project continues to hold vested rights, a term often used by municipal planners and attorneys to describe a development that had been approved previously but is not yet built.

Burnett said in the four-page opinion Treasure "has continuing vested rights which are valid." He said City Hall should continue to consider the family's bid to build Treasure, which would be situated on a hillside overlooking Old Town on the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort.

He said the Sweeneys have set aside land as open space and built trails as part of the 1986 approval. The family has also built smaller parts of the overall approval, such as what was put up as the Caledonian.

"From my vantage point, they have definitely pursued the project with reasonable diligence," Burnett said in an interview after addressing the Planning Commission.

Meanwhile, Burnett also said the rights for meeting rooms and commercial space supporting a hotel at Treasure should be capped at 5 percent of the total floor area. He mentioned, though, the Sweeneys have other rights to commercial space that could be in play.

It is unclear what effects the opinion about the commercial space will have on the Sweeney plans, which include convention space. There have been increasing concerns among critics about the meeting space.

The Planning Commission has struggled with the project since talks about Treasure started in 2004. City Councilors, at the request of the Planning Commission, agreed to hire a special counsel to review the Sweeney files. Members of the Planning Commission and people who live on streets like Empire Avenue and Lowell Avenue are worried that the development no longer fits.

The Sweeneys want to build a hotel with approximately 200 rooms and approximately 100 condominiums along with 19,000 square feet of commercial space. The Sweeneys say the project would boost business in the Main Street area and provide a high-end lodging option for people wanting to stay close to Main Street.

Neighbors and others, though, are worried about traffic, parking restrictions and the size of the buildings, among other issues. The Planning Commission on Wednesday listened to approximately 40 minutes of testimony from nine people in opposition, with many of the comments centered on traffic. The Sweeneys contend the streets, with improvements and other transportation upgrades like a stand-up gondola, are adequate.

"They always have an answer. The answer is we can do it," said Peter Marth, a Hillside Avenue resident, as he questioned traffic studies favorable to developers.

Planning Commissioners on Wednesday were suspect of the Sweeney plans as well, with comments including that the parking plans are not innovative and they want other alternatives. The Planning Commission tentatively agreed to continue the discussions in late June.

Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council met with Burnett on Thursday in a closed-door session. The City Council agenda for Thursday indicated the closed-door session was scheduled to last more than two hours and cover property matters and legal issues, two topics that state law allows elected officials to talk about in private.

Williams declined to discuss the closed-door session.

"There's more than just the report," he said, referring to the Burnett opinion.

Problems Still Unsolved for Vacation Rental Owners, Companies

Both say land developments had no relation to current crisis
by Andrew Kirk, OF THE RECORD STAFF
Posted: 04/21/2009 04:21:35 PM MDT

It's been four weeks today since the community first began learning of the need for Deer Valley Lodging and David Holland Resort Lodging to suspend payments to the owners of condominiums the companies rent out.
Bobby Foster, director of marketing for Premier Resorts International, the parent company of Deer Valley Lodging, said in a March 30 interview that troubles would be resolved within about two weeks.
Although his company has sent frequent updates to owners on the progress of negotiations, there is still no official word on when payments will be sent out or how the company will solve its financial woes.
David Zatz, owner of David Holland Resort Lodging, said in a recent interview that the details of the process are confidential, but that he's been notifying his owners weekly on his progress to find a solution to the problem.
Deer Valley Lodging continues to operate and accept new reservations saying the current crisis is temporary, but employees had a scare the week of April 7 when their paychecks would not cash. The three people who contacted The Park Record about the situation said later they were able to cash them after a short wait.
A note appeared on punch clocks April 9 stating, "We did not expect the run on the bank that occurred yesterday where a high volume of payroll checks were cashed. We anticipated the normal payroll check cashing cycle and were prepared to cover those checks throughout the week with the normal daily deposits."
Foster said on April 8 that about 36 people were affected. On April 21, he said the next payroll, today, is fully funded.
People familiar with the claimed both financial crises were created by unwise investments in development projects.
David Zatz did just complete construction of The Lowell Condominiums at Park City Mountain Resort. Zatz said they were a separate project with no shared funds with the lodging company. The condominiums are paid for through the construction loan. The project was not a contributing factor to his company's delay of payments to home owners for nightly rentals, he said.
"The Lowell is a stand-alone entity," Zatz asserted.
The reason for the speculation is that the condominiums were an expensive project. Over a decade in the making, the property began as a 26-unit hotel project called "The Gables." Sometime in 2007, a decision was made to reconstruct the spaces into 13 units, 12 to be sold as luxury condominiums and one space for retail - currently Park City Sport. It was completed last summer.
According to documents at the Summit County Recorder's office, there are currently three mechanics liens against the condominiums. There is also an on-going lawsuit with the engineering firm.
According to Prudential Realtor Trent Davis, seven of the 12 residential units are sold. Steven Martin in the Appraiser's office agrees the condos taxable values match the asking prices of between $1.1 to $1.7 million, depending on the unit.
The loan held by Hanmi Bank is over $13 million according to documents in the Recorder's office.
Some owners who use Deer Valley Lodging have speculated that the company is suffering from a failed development in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
That development called Barefoot Resort near the popular tourist destination Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach, had many developers.
One of them, Drake Development, did declare bankruptcy in 2006. According to news reports found on Lexis Nexis, Premier Resorts and Drake Development were in a partnership at the time, but Premier was not involved in the bankruptcy.
Press releases found on Premier Resort's website about Barefoot Resort in 2007 suggest the company now owns much of the property shared with Drake Development.
One 2007 press release lists a large number of recently completed, ongoing and planned construction projects including a waterfront plaza and conference center, a Yacht Club marina, a restaurant called Docksider's Grille, a health club, a spa and the acquisition of several acres through Premier Holdings of South Carolina.
The website also says the company is the property manager for 250 condos in North Myrtle Beach.
The company's response was similar to that of David Zatz:
Foster responded to these concerns saying, "no funds from either Deer Valley Lodging or Premier Resorts International were used to construct any of the facilities in North Myrtle Beach. Those facilities were funded with loans involving other entities."
Foster also pointed out that other companies across the nation are experiencing similar difficulties because of lost lines of credit. The original explanations for the crisis from Deer Valley Lodging sent to owners on March 27 attributed the problems to loss of credit and a slow season. Recent numbers suggest this winter was off $7.5 million from last for Deer Valley Lodging, he said.
The most recent message sent to owners Monday afternoon explains that the company is in negotiation with four entities: one local, two national and one multi-national. Foster could not say what types of companies they were.