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Show -m. mn ii ii t ifh urn. .wwrt ... 'ni'iin.n'n ' " .. . in hi n" mm m -' w. w".. . .. . . " '" - """Mn 1 H"" 7 Paucity's Only Locally Owned Newspaper .Volume Four ' Thursday, May 3, 1979 Number Thirty-Three Park Way Park City's business volume, as measured by local sales tax receipts, increased by 64.4 percent last year, according to an analysis just completed com-pleted by the Utah Foundation, a private tax research organization. Out of 30 Utah cities selected by the report, only Sandy and West Jordan showed a greater increase in business volume than Park City. The Sandy figure was 71 percent while West Jordan registered a whopping 101.6 percent jump. According to the study, gross sales in Park City reached $33,579,000 in 1978. this compares with $20,421,000 in 1977; $16,008,00 in 1975; $3,927,00 in 1970; and $2,416,000 in 1965. The $31,163,000 million increase in the last 13 years represents a total jump of 1,289.8 percent. During the same 13-year period, gross sales in Summit County climbed climb-ed from $8,575,000 to $51,338,000 for a 498.7 percent increase. The Utah Foundation statistics show that Park City now accounts for 65 percent of total county sales. Gross business volume throughout the state rose by 16.3 percent in 1978. Foundation analysts point out that inflation has been a major factor in the increased dollar sales volume during recent years. When allowances allowan-ces are made for the reduced purchasing pur-chasing power of the dollar, the effective ef-fective net gain in sales volume throughout the state last year was 8 1 percent. This compares with adjusted ad-justed effective gains of 9.9 percent in 1977, 7.8 percent in 1976, 2.6 percent per-cent in 1975, and only .7 percent during the recession-plagued year of 1974. Utah's economy has been performing perfor-ming much better than that of the nation as a whole during recent years. The adjusted sales gain of 8.1 percent recorded in Utah last year was twice as great as the adjusted personal consumption increase of 4.0 percent throughout the U.S. in 1978. Utah's average increase of 7.4 percent per-cent per year in adjusted sales volume since 1970 also was double the average annual rise of 3.7 percent in adjusted personal consumption expenditures ex-penditures throughout the nation during this same eight-year period. The report observes that the strong showing of the Utah economy during the past eight years is a reversal of the experience in the 1960s, when business activity in Utah was Traffic Still In a report that drew somber looks from the audience, Park City's traffic traf-fic consultant outlined the impact the proposed Deer Valley resort could have on the town at last Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting. At the request of the city, traffic consultant Wayne VanWagoner researched current traffic flow through the city and predicted possible increases when the new Deer Valley . resort opens phase one in the falj of 1981. VanWagoner estimated that during the peak morning and afternoon hours, when skiers are traveling to and from the existing resort area, there are approximately 400 cars on the road. Adding to that figure the average number of cars using Park City streets throughout the remainder remain-der of the day, he calculated between 15,000 to 25,000 trips per day in the city. In 1981, when Deer Valley is expec s c City Business Up Last Year growing at a much slower pace than that of the nation as a whole. Between Bet-ween 1960 and 1970, the average growth rate in Utah's adjusted sales volume was 2.8 percent per year. This was well below the average increase in-crease of 4.0 percent per year in adjusted ad-justed personal consumption expenditures expen-ditures throughout the U.S. in this period. Despite the generally strong economic picture in Utah during the past few years, the Foundation study notes that there was a "hint" of a business slowdown in Utah toward the end of 1978. Fourth-quarter sales Citizens Urged To Supply Input For Main St. Projects "We have to find out what the city wants and then we'll show how to do it." These are the words of consultant Richard Chong, whose firm of Muir-Chong Muir-Chong has been commissioned to formulate Park City's redevelopment plan. Chong and the redevelopment steering committee currently are attempting at-tempting to stir up interest in a community input meeting scheduled for May 10 at the Prospector Square Conference Center. A similar meeting called for last Thursday had Richard Chong ted to be at least partially operational, VanWagoner estimates an additional 2,200 cars on the road during the peak hours, adding another possible 8,000 to 20,000 trips per day to Park City's traffic problem. Of those 2,200 cars during peak hours, the consultant said half would turn out of Deer Valley and up Main Street, while the other half would continue out of town on Park Avenue.' ' '.- That could mean a possible 1,500 cars traveling on that two-lane street during the crucial afternoon hours. He noted that traffic would be "bumper "bum-per to bumper all the way out to Kimball Junction." VanWagoner also commented that such a large volume of traffic would make left turns off Park Avenue virtually vir-tually impossible. He said a traffic signal at the intersection of Park and Empire Avenues would further hinder hin-der traffic flow, and would IMhH fee., Page 3 Continuing its series on articles on Park City officials, The Newspaper talks with City Councilman Bob Wells. throughout the state were up only 10.1 percent from the 4th quarter-1977 levels. The three previous calendar quarters in 1978 recorded year-to-year gains ranging between 18 percent per-cent and 20 percent. When these percentages are adjusted ad-justed for inflation, it is found that the effective year-to-year gains averaged about 10.8 percent during the first three quarters of the year, but dropped way off to 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter. Ordinarily, the fourth quarter, strengthened by Christmas sales, is the strong quarter quar-ter of the year. to be cancelled ue to poor attendance. atten-dance. "Our job is to help the community achieve its goals." Chong said Monday. Mon-day. "It is not our objective to tell the city what to do." The city signed a $30,000 contract with Muir-Chong several months ago, and since that time consultants from the firm have met with the steering committee to outline redevelopment plans. The first target is the Main Street historic district. Probelm areas to be addressed include: in-clude: parking; access from Swede Alley (pedestrian and vehicular); traffic circulation (pedestrian and vehicular); integration of Main Street with the rest of the city; sidewalks; mini parks; signage; image enhancement; encouragement of historical preservation; and encouragement en-couragement of new Main Street development. "We view Main Street as having the potential to be the key drawing card which could separate Park City from other resorts," Chong said. "Main Street is now at a crossroads where it can take off and establish itself." it-self." Envisioning the historic district as the "civic, cultural and political center cen-ter of Park City," the consultant said Continued on Page 15 A Major Deer necessitate a police officer managing the flow through the area. "But Deer Valley can be an asset to Park City," VanWagoner said on a lighter note. "It will make us get our public transportation system really going, and it will help us light a fire under the state transportation department depart-ment to get the new highway going." The consultant suggested that in the first phase of Deer Valley parking spaces could be limited to 700 to 800 to discourage patrons from driving their cars. "To make Deer Valley viable then, the city needs a very dynamic transportation trans-portation system," VanWagoner said. i He suggested that the city look closely at developing a rail system from the northern end of town through the Depot Project and into Deer Valley. He added that the city could acquire land at that end of town to accommodate parking for I I ) Park City School Board President Gary Boyle must have felt Tuesday's election. Both Endorsed By Park City School District voters passed both the bond sale and bond assumption measures by overwhelming over-whelming 9 to 1 margins in the dual school election held Tuesday. " "The school board views the election elec-tion results as an expression of community confidence in the board's building program," Park City School Superintendent Richard Goodworth said Wednesday. "This is a giant step in a long trip we have to make." Passage of the assumption election means all Park City School District property owners will share payment of the $192,390 bonded indebtedness of the district's newiy acquired territory. That debt was transferred from the South Summit School District to Park City's new district lands when the school district boundaries boun-daries were redrawn. The Park City School District has until 1991 to pay the debt. Voters also gave the Park City School Board authorization to sell $6,000,000 in bonds to finance con skiers who would then use the rail system to move up town. "With a possible 1,500 cars going past the Kimball Art Center and the Utah Coal and Lumber, it would take just one incident of traffic getting backed up and people won't come back," commissioner Mike Vance commented. "I can't imagine that volume of traffic." "As it exists, the city can't accommodate ac-commodate them," VanWagoner said. "If Deer Valley is approved, and I think it should be, it could be an asset to the city and a stimuli to help the U-224 project move forward faster than is scheduled. Plus it will help develop a transportation system that will be a backbone for a method to move visitors in and out of Park City." VanWagoner told the commission that, realistically, the new highway alignment may not begin for five Continued On Page 4 Page 10 Park High student Sonya Ratcliff is looking to have her palm greased. She needs financial support to make a student exchange ex-change trip to Greece. Art l . Jond Measures struction of new school facilities. Park City student population growth already has necessitated the planning of a new elementary school to be built by fall 1980. The bond authorization will permit the board to build the elementary school as planned, plan-ned, to construct a new middle school some years hence, and to build either a swimming pool or an auditorium at the high school. Predictably, those precincts that comprise the district's new territory had a somewhat heavier election turnout, turn-out, and a greater approval percentage. percent-age. For example, Precinct No. 4 (which includes the new areas of Thaynes Canyon, Park Meadows and Holiday Ranch) cast 128 votes in both elections Tuesday. Precinct No. 2, which had 92 more registered voters than No. 4 in last fall's general election, elec-tion, registered only 61 votes. "The school board is very appreciative ap-preciative to those groups and individuals in-dividuals that helped make passage of these measures possible," said Superintendent Goodworth. "There Valley Issue Ill Traffic consultant confident after casting his ballot in Voters were approximately 100 new registered voters in this election." Breakdown of the election results by precinct is as follows (Precincts No. 4 and 5 include new district areas): ASSUMPTION ELECTION Precinct 1 2 3 4 5 Total: For 49 50 56 119 81 355 Against 22 5 5 9 7 48 Percentage approval: 88 percent. BOND ELECTION Precinct For Against 1 51 20 2 50 5 3 57 4 4 122 6 5 84 4 Total: 364 39 Percentage approval: 90.32 percent. Wayne VanWagoner - t imu mmmmmmmm Chance of showers Friday with generally fair weather expected Saturday and Sunday. Highs will be near 60 with lows in the 30s. |