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Show Page A16 Thursday, January 25, 1990 Park Record . O MMW WWWHWilWWIWi t t Don't miss the golden ring Since May, the city council has been entertaining the plans of one developer for its delapidated Carl Winters school and surrounding land. After months of listening, suggesting, hearing from neighbors of the school and negotiating, the council is now going to decide whether or not that developer, Chris Jeffries, will be allowed to go forward with his plans. We'd like to offer one more piece of input before that fateful decision is made. In our opinion, there's just no getting around it the Carl Winters school is, well.. .ugly. It stands out like the proverbial sore thumb amidst scores of tiny picturesque homes and a few modern condo projects. And frankly, most of the editorial staff think it would be best to just raze it and start afresh. It's undeniable we need new playing fields and parkland in Park City. Anyone who has ever tried to book an unscheduled Softball game or toss a frisbee in spring or summer around here knows that. With all the buildings down and the ground leveled and seeded, the Carl Winters site would be perfect as a park extension. But reality suggests this or any council is not going to tear down the old school. It'd be like killing off some bothersome in-law just because you couldn't stand the sight of them anymore. So, in the interest of practicality, we will go with our second choice cautious support of Jeffries' plan. By cautious, we mean there are still a number of issues which need to be resolved really resolved and not just paid lip service by the council or city staff. But overall, the plan has merit. Ironically, although the new "associated housinghotel" which Jeffries will build on the school parcel will indeed cast "perma-shade" "perma-shade" on some houses, it is its very size and bulk which we think makes it work aesthetically. The old school is unattractive in part because it is so out of scale. If it was part of a planned complex, counterbalanced by an equally equal-ly large building and landscaped in-between with usuable, accessible grounds, it would help visually. At best, it would make the school seem like it belonged. And, since we don't think the council will go along with the razing idea, including it as part of a planned center is about the best we can do. But, this isn't just any center, either. Besides incorporating incor-porating the old school visually, Jeffries plans to give the town a gift of sorts, or maybe "payback" is a better word a $1.5 million cultural center. Like you, we're a little suspicious about just how "public" the renovated schoolcultural center will be a few years from now. But, the agreement between Park City and Jeffries revealed last week would keep it a cultural center until a city council changes that use. Neither sale nor bankruptcy bankrupt-cy nor foreclosure can do it, just the council. Not a guarantee, true, but perhaps as close as we want to come. After all, what if we all hate the cultural center in 50 years? There has to be a way out if we need it. Jeffries is offering a quality renovation of the old school, space available free of charge to the public 30 days a year, arts and educational programs to enrich Editorial residents' lives and, we think, an attractive complex which incorporates what is now an outcast. We think that's a good deal for Park City, and hope the council agrees. But, we also think there are a few major details which need working out before any approvals are granted. First and foremost, parking! Residents keep expressing express-ing concern over the city's flimsy attempt to ensure adequate ade-quate parking for those times when the hotel is full and the center has an event, but nobody seems to listen. Now, the city says Jeffries will have to come up with a "plan" on how to handle all those cars each time he schedules an event. That's putting the tough decisions off, isn't it? The truth is, he will be scheduling events commonly through Park City's busiest time of year, a time when the hotel will also be fullest. The resort has refused them access to its lots, so what's left? The street, the library, the City Park all spots residents need to use. Resolve the problem now. Make it clear Jeffries will need to create a parking structure to accommodate visitors to the cultural center. The underground spaces he is proposing will only handle hotel guests. Another important feature the city needs to tie down is mitigation for the loss of open space. The agreement between bet-ween it and Jeffries calls for using a $1.5 million payment pay-ment by Jeffries for "improvements in the area." We think it would make residents much more comfortable to be specific about how that money is to be used. Again, the town very much needs parks and playing fields. Isn't it only fair the money be spent to acquire at least 4.2 acres the amount Jeffries project will use of land to be made into parks? We think so, and would like it made -a part of the written contract between the city and developer. We also think Jeffries should agree in writing to free public access to the landscaped grounds between the school and hotel. Finally, we ask that Jeffries fully compensate those residents whose homes will be permanently shadowed by the new hotel. To us, that means he should pay them fair market value so they can move to a new location. If these issues are really taken care of, we think the town should realize what a deal it's got. Because we attend at-tend all those council meetings, we've seen the succession succes-sion of less commited, less well-financed developers come through City Hall with half-baked ideas for the school. None have included public uses, and all have fallen apart. It's hard sometimes to recognize the golden ring when its going to bring such mega-change to our town. But, we think this may very well be it and urge the council to grab it while they can. t. wale wtce. Ufl MS W E This is an art deal:.. .lii by TOM CLYDE Right off the top, let me state my bias so you can judge the rest of this with it firmly in mind: I think the Carl Winters School the old Park City High School should be bulldozed and the land around and underneath it kept as a park. Buy the lots on the corner, plant a few trees and turn on the sprinklers, that's all. Mow it now and then. I also think that Park City needs a performing arts center about as much as it needs another ten-thousand square foot house. This is a hard piece for me to write because I know so many of the people involved in the Winters project. They are people I like and trust, and their judgment is often better than mine. They are enthusiastic about their project. pro-ject. Their motives are sincere. That enthusiasm is propelling a project forward without much study. If we were dealing with private land, private development and private risk, maybe that's fine. But we aren't. This is public land, a scarce public resource, and public money. There appears to be a pretty hefty public subsidy of the project ranging from storm drains to an implied promise to condemn the only other private land on the block so the owner won't get in As H See It the way. This is one of the few land use decisions in Park City that the city itself can absolutely control. For the last year, we have been talking about open space, saving the environment, and slowing the pace of growth around here. Remember CommunityVision and the election in November? There seems to be an assumption that we need a performing per-forming arts center in Park City. I'm not sure what that is based on. Maybe somebody had a vision or something. Park City, as the Chamber of Commerce points out, is only 30 miles from Salt Lake. Salt Lake has performing arts centers coming out of its ears Symphony Hall, the Capitol Theater, the Tabernacle, the Salt Palace and its auditoriums, Marmalade Hill, a half dozen facilities on the University of Utah Campus and some huge high school auditoriums. They all sit there idle about 90 percent per-cent of the time. We are not short of stages around here, it's audience we lack. The Egyptian Theater is not exact ly a gold mine for its owners. The closest thing to this proposal I've seen is also in Salt Lake. The Irving School on 21st South was supposed to be a performing art center with a big theater, concert halls, offices, and shops catering to the arts. It has been sitting empty and falling down for 20 years now. I don't know why it failed, but it wouldn't hurt to find out. Has anybody looked at the realities of operating this thing when it is done? For five years, the developer is supposed suppos-ed to cover the losses. Where do they send the bills after that? This is an arts deal, not a real estate deal. There are some differences. A real estate deal would talk about mortagages and interest rates and plans and specifica-tipns specifica-tipns and firing pach other's socks off if either defaulted. The draft contract gives the developer up to seven years to pay for the property, on whatever schedule he likes. There is no interest charged during that time, and as far as I can tell, there is not even a mortgage on the property proper-ty to secure payment. So it basically looks like an unsecured, interest free loan of $1.5 million with pretty lose payment terms. That's very artistic. The art center is not the only issue. On the playing field, which some would argue is every bit as historical as the school that used it, the proposal calls for the construction con-struction of one of the biggest buildings in Park City. It's 148,000 square feet, or roughly three times the size of the Main Street Mall. Unlike the Mall, which is mostly buried into the hill side, this will be the tallest building in Park City. I like to be able to see the mountains from right here in town. You remember the mountains; artists ar-tists sometimes paint them for the benefit of people who live where they can't see them. If you like the lower end of Main Street, you'll love the hotel on lower Park Avenue. We can toss out any sense of scale, since the hotel is also for the Arts. The lower Park Avenue neighborhood is a weird mix of everything from the ski area base to the senior citizen's center, from miner's cottages to luxury condos and about everything in between. It would be hard to find a land use that was not compatible with something in that neighborhood. But there are other areas where a performing art center would fit, assuming we have to have one at all. What about the land across from the high school? The ability to jointly use the facilities makes some sense. Why not at the base of either resort? The concerts at Deer Valley have been nicely done, and there is parking available. What about pitching a big tent right there on the Carl Winters site for the summer? People can sit in an air conditioned auditorium anywhere. It's possible that somebody could convince me that Park City needs an art center. They could probably even get me to a point where I felt like the argreement would protect the public interest even if the developer died and left toe project foMpitfy Gibsonjn hjs.;WjJUt'.s, even possible they could convince me that the, art center, and giant hotel belong oh lower Park Avenue. But to con vince me of any of this, they have to come up with something better than telling me its all for the Arts, . Tom Clyde is a gentleman farmer in Woodland and a former city attorney for Park City. As I See It Is a weekly column published by the Park Record. Submissions are welcome and we ask that columns col-umns adhere to the following guidelines: They should bet submitted to the Park Record offices of-fices at 1670 Bonanza Drive or received in the mail (P.O. Box MS, PC, Vt- 84060 no later than $ p. m. on Monday before publication, They must be signed and include name, address and telephone number of author. No column will be published under an assumed name. They must not contain libelous material. Columns should, if possibte, to typed and w reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long for the space available or if they contain statements w4 consider unnecessarily offensive or obscene. . What U.S. Film Festival film have you seen that's remarkable? C i ) i A if LJlkJ Stephen Ashton director of the Wine Country Film Festival in California - The Latin American films, A Man of Principle and Last Images of a Shipwreck. They use a whole different approach ap-proach to drama and addressing ad-dressing human circumstance. Susan Basmajian housewife Roger & Me. It was different dif-ferent and had a great message. The film made us all aware of something that happened in our society and he did it with humor. J Les Davis motion picture lab owner Roger & Me. It's nice to see something that's uplifting, funny, humorous and sad, too. f r ' f J 1 i Jan Davis housewife j To Protect Mother Earth. It's a pretty moving documentary about Indians fighting for their land. -"' ' " ' Don Bradshaw insurance broker I saw The Story of a Three Day Pass. It was different, but it wasn't my favorite. 4- 1 ' I'll-- Ruth Bischoff movie watcher i ' We saw The Story of a Three Day Pass. I liked it. It was very different. I'm surprised sur-prised that they could get away with making it in 1967. |