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Show i ' " ' Or.niarest Corp. H .' , I 3322 So. 3rd Ea3t , , i. i K Page5 gWMjtVr.i.,.ll...,..ill.ll , Page : Vkw " .. , , , , ... f. ; . "-4 , - J? If relates to outer space or is : A sJ& . II 1 VATN i Park City looked like a winner S jm, .r r , . : tw fit . A V r 4-5)4Tf i . " 5t electronic it s selling. An overview CjT STS. MA Min TStOS" 3 THi w Mir4 . . c , , , . A , 1 ft 1 of the kids' stuff that's hot on the i v7C I P I. Highland Saturday but their , V ' 4 A WS&T'Al l rijfi' 4te&XM 6 I U i" V""w- , ? x , J -V -HTs 1 Christmas gtft counter. UiWQ?'S& 0 Zf msr " ' 'W losing streak reamins unbroken. " t' 54 i'iM'VX i X&r Periods of snowFriday through Ft( iV0" ' ' v - Uj&P 1V AYS Sunday-High temperatures will be td !Ug -y t.. Xffl 6X around 25 wHn lows in the teens. Volume Four A proposed amendment to the city's land management code that would allow hotelapartments as a conditional use in general commercial commer-cial zones was appealed to the City Council at the December 7 meeting, following a unanimous rejection by the Planning Commission in November. Novem-ber. Proposed by the J.J. Johnson and Associates engineering firm, the plan asks that living units with kitchens be allowed in general commercial areas. Currently, hotel rooms without kitchens kit-chens can be approved in that zone. What The Traffic Will Bear ain Str Following a public input session at the November 16 City Council meeting, a new parking plan for Main Street will go into effect December 20 for a 30-day trial period. With recommendations trom residents and merchants, Park City mayor Jack Green and councilman and streets commissioner Steve Dering outlined new parking regulations for Main Street in an at tempt to alleviate the growing trattic problem. Although initial suggestions called for one-way traffic on Main Street, the thirty-day trial plan will continue two-way two-way traffic. Beginning December 20 there will be no parking on the west side of Main Street and a two-hour parking limit will be imposed on the east side between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Prominent signs will be erected sending motorists to Swede Alley for parking. "No one pretends this is the ideal solution, but it is a compromise of the suggestions we heard," Dering com mented at the December 7 City Council meeting. "We'll try it for thirty days and then have another public input session. The councilman noted that city At its Novmeber 16 meeting, the Park City Council listened to opinions and concerns regarding Main Street traffic flow and parking. Among those addressing the council was traffic consultant Wayne VanWagoner. Wayne VanWagoner and Associates, a transportation, planning and traffic safety consulting firm, was commissioned by the city to prepare a traffic study of Park City. It was from this "Park City Comprehensive Com-prehensive Safety Study" that VanWagoner Van-Wagoner drew facts and conclusions regarding the Main Street situation. However, the study, published in September Sep-tember of this year, was city-wide in scope and addressed itself to present and potential traffic problems throughout the town. As stated in the report given to city officials: "The goal of the study was to develop a program of improvement in traffic safety to insure the safe operation of traffic flow for both vehicles and pedestrians in Park City.'" The following is a summation of the conclusions and recommendations presented in the safety study regarding regard-ing not only Main Street, but the entire en-tire city. According to the study, an analysis of accident reports did not indicate "any major high accident locations" but it did show three areas with relatively high accident rates. The three areas were Main Street from The Planning Commission rejected the proposal at its November 22 meeting because, although planned as nightly rental units, the hotelapartments hotelapart-ments could become year-round residences. Van Martin, planner for the engineering firm, said year-round use of the units would not be economically feasible, but the commission com-mission felt the city would have no guarantee that the project would remain as approved. The commission also was concerned concern-ed over the discrepancy between density and off-street parking eet Parking Change mm Main Street parking w ill be changed on a 30-day trial basis in an a!4empt to relieve traffic congestion. crews would make snow removal in Swede Alley a top priority to keep parking spaces easily accessible, and Second Street to Filth Street, Park Avenue from 10th Street to 16th Street, and the resort parking lot. .Main Street The major contributor to Main Street accidents is the existence of on-street on-street parking, the study states. It shows that 77 percent of all traffic accidents ac-cidents in the city's historic commercial commer-cial district involved parked or parking cars. "Drivers searching for vacant on-street on-street parking stalls contribute substantially sub-stantially to the traffic volumes on Main Street." The report notes the under-utilization under-utilization of Swede Alley parking and cites poor signage and poor lighting as two of the major reasons. It also points out a lack of pedestrian walkways between Main Street and Swede Alley, along with safety hazards to elementary elemen-tary school children having to walk through the parking area. ' The report recommends that automobile access to Main Street be "eliminated or restricted." "If elimination of traffic is not possible, reducing traffic would best be accomplished by eliminating, or severely restricting, on-street parking on Main Street; eliminating vehicles traveling Main Street searching sear-ching for an available parking stall would significantly reduce traffic volumes." The study recommends that use of Swede Alley "should be encouraged". ii u Thursday, December 14, 1978 requirements between hotels and multiple family units, fearing possible abuse by developers building high density apartment units under the pretense of a hotel. At last Thursday's meeting, Martin asked the City Council to consider the proposal, commenting that issues raised by the Planning Commission andor City Planner David Preece "were not sufficiently researched" and that Preece's "recommendation to deny the request was based on either faulty andor misleading information." in-formation." that additional walkways to Main Street would be included in the city's rpri.evelopment plans. and that the possibility of placing the Swede Alley road farther east should be studied. It also states that "islands of protection" should be installed in Swede Alley for the safety of school children. The study contends Swede Alley could be designed to handle all traffic in the historic commercial area, opening the way for the development of Main Street as a purely pedestrian mall. Park Avenue Describing Park Avenue as a "high volume corridor for Park City," the study states that 45 percent of the accidents ac-cidents from 10t h Street to 16th Street related to cars either entering or leaving residen'.:al driveways. This Continued un Fage9 Wayne VanWagoner "Right now hotels in the general commercial zone are allowed," Martin Mar-tin said. "The density is not affected by adding kitchens." Martin told the council that rooms without kitchens are the last to rent in Park City. He noted that the ski area attracted families, most of whom could not afford to pay nightly rental rates and eat out every night during their stay. "It is economically almost impossible im-possible to build a hotel right now," Martin said. "I know the only reason the Holiday Inn is here is because of a municipal bond." "It is almost necessary to allow the condominiumization of this kind of unit," he said, citing the Snow Flo .ver project near the resort. in reality all we are asking is a kitchen in a hotel room," Martin continued. con-tinued. "In the Snow Flower project there are two and three bedroom units w"! kitchens. The way the ordinance reads now, you can't do that in the general commercial zone." In a letter to Mayor Jack Green and the City Council, Preece outlined the purpose of the recreation commercial district (where the Snow Flower project is located) and the general commercial district. "The purpose of the recreation commercial district is to allow for the development of hotel and lodging accommodations ac-commodations in close proximity to the Park City ski resort, whereas the purpose of the general commercial district is to allow those trades and services that may not necessarily be compatible in scale or use with the historic commercial business district and to locate them in an area that is convenient to major traffic accesses and the emerging population . ' ' Continued On Page !) Public input was heard at the December 7 City Council meeting on proposed projects to be funded by a $850,000 Community Development Block Grant being applied for by Park City. Mayor Jack Green noted that a similar grant application was made a year ago but was unsuccessful. He said, however, the city recently received encouragement from the Denver regional office of the Department Depart-ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the federal grant application will be resubmitted. City Planner David Preece commented com-mented that the grant, established under the Community Development Act of 1974, provides community development and housing opportunities oppor-tunities for low and middle-income individuals, and aids in eliminating blighted areas in the city. To date, Preece said four programs have been identified in the grant application for the impacted area, which includes everything south of 8th Street: housing rehabilitation, including 114 older units currently below housing codes; filtering dollars to Main Street redevelopment projects; constructing construct-ing additional recreation facilities; and acquiring land for selling to developers for low and moderate income in-come rental housing. "The city manager (Wayne Matthews) Mat-thews) and I felt these projects would benefit Park City substantially," Preece said. "And we are looking toward housing this year rather than the improvement of municipal services." ser-vices." Preece noted that the grant is approved ap-proved on a matching fund basis, with the city equaling the federal government's govern-ment's allocation. The planner remarked that $850,000 is the ceiling Park City's Only y y vf 1 y t' pf" . . BffEiirs v (a twm. tjWK 1 ' - A I rh' y L The Christmas tree in the Holiday Inn is perhaps the grandest x in the city. Towering 23 feet in the hotel lobby, the locally cut j A tree was decorated by Tina Lewis. x ' j'jX'SjjpvJSipvyr ylKy' jpJy N5 w w ers Grant Uses for the grant, and that it would be highly unusual to receive that amount. He continued that the City Council is both the Redevelopment Agency and the Housing Authority and would supervise the projects. Real estate broker Bill Coleman questioned the city's priority to purchase pur-chase land for resale, asking how that might affect the open market. Certainly Last Resort Thousands of skiers have shuffled to the Park City lift lines since the November 14 opening, leaving less fortunate resorts to ponder the snow that drifted to our slopes. With Christmas just eleven days away, a tally of open space in town finds nary a room at the inn. How does Park City, or its snow, stack up to the other resort areas? Park City currently is operating nine of its ten chairlifts and the gondola, gon-dola, with the resort probably becoming fully operational by the weekend. Skiers are enjoying packed powder on the area's 64 runs with a depth of 44" at the summit and 38" at the base of the mountain. Although Killington, Vermont is reporting the best skiing in the east, only four of their thirteen chairlifts are running, making only 15 of their groomed runs accessible. Their 24-inch 24-inch base is being augmented by snowmaking equipment around the clock. They noted that they did have an early season opening, on October 16, but it was thanks to manmade snow and on a very limited basis. The resort received eight new inches a week ago, and are now reporting Locally Owned Newspaper Number Thirteen Preece noted that the ever-increasing ever-increasing value of land makes it almost impossible for developers to construct low cost housing, and as an incentive, the city would purchase the land and sell it at a lower rate. Coleman, who commented that the plan "doesn't seem prudent," suggested that the city use the grant Continued On Page 13 Not The conditions as packed powder wun ice granules. Closer to home, Sun Valley, Idaho is operating on a limited basis. Of their 15 chairlifts on Baldy Mountain, only two are operating on the Warm Springs side. That area now sports a two-foot base with the help of snowmaking and six inches of natural snow. None of Dollar mountain's four lifts are operating. California's Mammoth mountain reports an 18-inch base with obstacles showing. They opened , the week before Thanksgiving, but Closed again when conditions deteriorated. They reopened November 22. Currently, one each of their two T-bars, two gondolas gon-dolas and two poma lifts are operating, along with ten of their sixteen six-teen chairlifts. Of their fifty to eighty ski runs (many are in bowl areas and difficult to count), about half are open to the public. One person from their marketing department said she had been up skiing several times and the conditions are "pretty good, with a 50 percent chance of new snow this w eekend." Continued On Page |