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Show Page A2 Thursday, March 29, 1990 Decker sues Summit DECKER from A1 granted along S.R. 224, he went back to the county with his request. In his lawsuit against the county, Decker cited two specific commercial commer-cial developments along the highway the Snowed Inn and a convenience con-venience store at Silver Springswhich Spr-ingswhich have sprung up since 1982 without opposition from elected officials. Decker argued that his land should have equal treatment, and should not be characterized as "strip commercial" because other businesses along the road had not been. Further, he alleged that prior to the commission's denial of his request, re-quest, "Park City took steps to influence in-fluence Summit County against his proposed zoning change," as stated in his complaint against the county. Decker's legal document reads: "...that in the early months of 1989, Summit County Commissioner Franklin Richards was seeking approvals ap-provals for a proposed development of his property including annexation to Park City. In connection therewith, Richards received support sup-port for his proposed development from Hal Taylor, Mayor of Park City. Ci-ty. Thereafter, Mayor Taylor called Water fees won't fluctuate WATER from A1 water. For instance, the Olympic would pay $17,000 per year for its base rate while Johnson would only shell out $144, he said. Council member Sally Elliott asked ask-ed Gibbs if it was true that commercial commer-cial users subsidized residential ones. Gibbs responded they did on a per gallon basis. But he explained the city needed to charge more because commercial customers required re-quired larger distribution pipes, larger meters and a great deal more stored water than residential customers primarily in case of a fire. That meant there was a greater upkeep cost associated with commercial com-mercial users, he added. A majority of the council decided not to pursue changing the rate structure so commercial and residential customers paid the same base cost. But Johnson later told the Record equalizing the base rates for commercial and residential customers was something he felt needed to be done. "It's one of the very important issues and the most' frustrating one for me," he said. Johnson noted Gibbs increasing rates would bring more money to the water department and would not be revenue neutral. Although he said he prefers a revenue neutral scheme, Activists stage 'f riendy fir' rally Anti-fir activists rallied outside the Park City Wood Burning Stove and Pipe shop Friday, calling for an end to the use of "friendly firs" in fireplaces around town. "Go with stickery spruce or prickly prick-ly pine," encouraged activist leader, Hugga Log. "There's so many more of them in this area than fir." Log said his group, Friends of the Fir, was out to show the world how inhumane the treatment of firs could be. "Sometimes they're grown a single foot away from each other on fir farms I " he exclaimed. "How can the young trees get enough light? Is that any way to live?" I CANT Resist rmsnc.uowm fT WHAT YOU VERY600P, MAMM.WU Mill. Developer A local developer is asking city planners to allow him to build 2,200 units on Park City hillsides. The project, known as Ridgeline, would take advantage of "all the nice views in town" by placing the units, a combination of single family homes, duplexes, condominiums and hotels only on top of the hills, ac cording to developer Skru Yew. Former council woman files for commission wants Although there has been little interest in-terest shown in any of the county offices of-fices open for election so far this year, county officials were surprised this week when former Park City Councilwoman Mary Condas Lehmer filed for one of the county commission seats. Mrs. Lehmer was a highly visible figure on the Park City political scene for many years, holding positions that included City Attorney and a term as a memebr of City Council. She frequently ran for Park Record upon the County Commission and staff to return the favor by facilitating the denial of the Decker zoning application, which application applica-tion Park City objected to." Commissioner Richards made the motion May 30 to deny the rezone, saying there was "no intent on the part of the petitioner as to the use for the zoning." Decker said that he had tried to clarify his intentions for the land, and in his lawsuit against the county he stated that the County Commission Commis-sion "did not truly intend to re-hear the facts to determine whether the application was speculative, but only on-ly to correct its defficienct record and deny the zoning summarily." Summit County Deputy Attorney Franklin Andersen said the county's legal answer to Decker's lawsuit "denies that he was mistreated by the county with its refusal to grant commercial zoning on his lot.. .He did get due process," Andersen told the Record. "He had many times to be heard." Andersen expects a discovery period will be held regarding the cases, and said, "I would not be too surprised to see a motion for summary sum-mary judgment of dismissal." Personally, he said he doesn't "believe there is anything substantial substan-tial to Decker's allegations." the city should at least look at reducing reduc-ing commercial base rates if it was going to consider raising residential ones, he said. Ideally, it would charge users only for the water they use, whether residential or commercial, commer-cial, he said, "rather than how much they might use." Johnson, who is the treasurer for Park City Ski Area, told the Record changing rates to reflect actual use would not benefit the ski area, and would in fact result in slightly higher charges in some cases. Gibbs and City Attorney Jim Carter both defended the concept of a high base rate. Carter noted it was the same as a "service fee," and should not be considered just a price for the first 5,000 gallons. Gibbs noted the water department had certain cer-tain fixed costs which it charged the base rate to cover. "The base rate is defensible," added ad-ded council member Ruth Gezelius, "because it allows the city to keep the infrastructure maintained. It's the cost of having water available." Although the council indicated it wanted to keep the base rate high enough ' to "Cover yearly"operation and maintenance costs, it also showed show-ed concern over the low charges for increasing use Gibbs had proposed. Even under his plan to influence the most homeowners, users would not pay the full $1.70 per thousand gallon Log went on to say the trees were often cut during summer, when their sap was in full flow. That meant the trees would ooze to a slow and painful pain-ful death, he added. "If a fir is to be, well... sacrificed, we think it should be during winter. It's hard on the loggers, but that's the way it should be, after all," said Log. The activist and two other demonstrators spent all Friday afternoon outside the shop, stopping motorists with huge signs reading "No fir, no friends" and "We'd die to save a single fir." wants city to Yew told council members he had an option on virtually every ridgeline in Park City, and hoped they would be quick in approving his plans. "You can imagine the work I've put into this," he said. "I've had to wheel and deal with so many different dif-ferent land owners to get this property." pro-perty." Yew said he hoped the council office, including an unsuccessful bid for Mayor, and was an outspoken critic of City Hall and development in general. She has been less involved involv-ed in recent years since her death In 1987. Speaking through her channeler, Leslie Miller, Mrs. Lehmer said, "It's bad enough what they did to Park City, but now the developers have taken control of the County Commission and are about to ruin the rest of Summit County. There MADAM WILLOttY B& M ZS-' TO BATHE. flNDWU MAi BURNTHtHWA I jEC, County Decker's small parcel of land has been held in separate ownership from larger tracts surrounding it since 1901 when it was deeded to the LDS Church for the SnydervilleWar-dhouse. SnydervilleWar-dhouse. The structure burned in the late 1950s and only the foundation remains. re-mains. The highway frontage is 165 feet and the depth is 264 feet, with about 30 feet having been taken as a prescriptive use by S.R. 224. Decker purchased the land in June of 1982, perceiving that it "would be an attractive commercial location similar to the just-zoned Silver Springs Spr-ings convenience store," according to a letter Decker wrote to Utah Attorney At-torney General Paul Van Dam, explaining ex-plaining the situation. Decker is seeking to recover compensatory, com-pensatory, punitive and consequential consequen-tial damages, in addition to court fees and attorney's fees. Decker's, attorney said "While my client's damages are not fully ascertainable at present, at a minimum, he has lost the benefit of developing his property pro-perty as a commercial parcel which, of course, radically impairs its value. As the commission has been made aware, Mr. Decker has had to let valuable commercial opportunities oppor-tunities pass him by due to the illegal il-legal and unprecedented conduct of the Board of County Commissioners." Commis-sioners." cost to provide water until they used more than 35,000 gallons per month. "Should any block be less than the cost to produce water?" asked Elliott. A majority of the council agreed it should not, and asked Gibbs to revise the rates accordingly. according-ly. Gezelius said all users should be encouraged to conserve through the rate structure, and not just those over 30,000 gallons. Again, most of the council agreed. Mayor Brad Olch told Gibbs he felt the rate structure needed to encourage en-courage conservation, but not unduly undu-ly penalize those who had large landscaped land-scaped yards in place. Those yards add to the beauty of Park City, he noted. Gibbs asked whether the council wanted to pursue any of his and the WET committee's other conservation conserva-tion programs. He was told to prepare a public brochure, but keep the cost down; look into a demonstration conservation garden; and possibly have in-home (shower, toilet, etc.) conservation kits available for rwrchaser"' Council members" wuTvote on an - ordinance which includes the revised revis-ed rate structure after a public hearing hear-ing on the matter. Neither the hearing hear-ing nor the vote has been scheduled, but the council indicated it would like the new rates in place by June 1. When asked whether the signs weren't a little on the fanatical side, Log admitted he wasn't really willing will-ing to die to save a fir. "We just thought it would have a more profound pro-found effect," he said. Log noted other tactics the group was considering included throwing red-tinted sap on loggers cutting firs, or anyone they saw buying fir for firewood. "Spitting is another thing we've thought about," he said. "You know, social pressure is quite effective." The demonstrators all said they had once been "in the sorry group" that saw no difference between us if wmw, PUAse stex H&$, MADAM. THIS 15 OUR. UNCONDITIONAL 90-QM GUARANTY. flNPTH&e A&OURtVWWT CARS INSTRUCTIONS, INCOSB Y0U R3 SPAT UPON m . n r a approve Ridgeline project would be ready to "say okay" by the end of April so he could "get the old shovel in the ground" before this year's building season got too far along. An ashen Sully Alliott asked Yew exactly which ridgelines his project would include. "Oh, all of them," he responded. "Let's see, there's the Aerie, the ought to be a place left in this world where a person can settle down and live her life without having to watch over her shoulder all the time to see what sort of crooked scheme is being cooked up. People are getting taxed right out of their homes to pay for the problems these developers bring in the name of progress." Although there is nothing new about dead people voting in Summit Tlie Way We Were , , , , , , , " . ; v i" ijymmm-V'""m. y'jT y' ' X V; . I . . ' """ -x V ; -. .... . f . . ' .... ..jLv: L . l i - - I .' . i i I ( rr' j j J .mil (( : I .-2r- '1immnypw&mwwtmm& - ,.'..tfmiiv i, J f -Tint y fim'nmt.mm-fltlte w'v u" - - ; I , ' , ? a - " j , , : - ' - - , ......... - mmrn Spring Spruce It's time for rejuvenation and renovation. Get out the hammer, nails and some paint. This 1930's tax photo shows the house at 270 Grant which has been recently revitalized with the help of a city grant. Speaking of "Grant" this very short street is an offshoot from the south end of Swede Alley. Photo courtesy Park City Museum. Note: Thanks to all of you who identified the men in the last photo. One source tells us these were "bull Elk looking for female Elk." Actually, it was a Mother's Day in the 1930s. The men were all wearing carnations white if their mothers were dead, red if they were living. Mai delivery costly MAIL from A 1 against raising taxes and wouldn't vote for home delivery if it meant the city had to purchase additional snow-removal equipment or hire staff. But, he noted, the city was growing, the downtown post office crowded, and people had a right to expect home mail delivery. "It's a situation that should be changed," he said. "It's going to have to be before we get too far down the road." Olch suggested Johnson, Karz and city staff , meet to determinewhere. expanded puirbsidej delivejryjyasv possible :under the existing, snow?;; removal regime. Johnson- told the -Record as soon as he had a document docu-ment requesting the additional service ser-vice in places the postmaster felt delivery was "practicable," he would put it into place. ing fir and other wood products. But, each found out in a different way about the "friendly fir" and changed as a result. "The needles of fir trees are soft, not prickly like that mean old spruce," said Log. "As soon as I discovered why biologists call them "friendly firs" I stopped my abhorrent abhor-rent practice of freely flinging firs in the fire." Log said the small group will move on to Coalville next in an effort to "bring the message to Utah" and may even propose anit-fir ordinances or-dinances for local ballots. JUST AS A SPAT UPON back side of Solamere, the ridge that used to be part of the Kearns-Tribune Kearns-Tribune property in Park Meadows, Old Town, Iron Canyon... you know, the whole deal." Planning Director Nora Saltyrich told the council she had met with Yew, and had already talked him down to 2,200 units from his original proposal of 2,500. She added County elections, County Clerk Doug Geary said that in his years in office, this is the first time he has ever had a dead person file for office. "We've had a few over here that it was kind of hard to tell about," he said, without referring to any particular county officials, "but Mary is the' first one I'm sure is really gone." Geary indicated that Mrs. Lehmer had paid her filing fee, and would be treated just like any other candidate in the election. "It's pretty hard to Up... No sell job The editorial staff of the Park Record has made a concerted effort to bring you this week and probably this week only a realtor- free Record. While we have no control over the ads, you will not find a single press release, new promotion, yet-to-be-developed development announced an-nounced or grossly inflated sales figures from anybody. No joke. Hey, it's the least we can do... UDOT buys farm, expands highway by TERI PADDLE Record editor In a surprise announcement late Wednesday, night UDOT' officials revealed they had reached an agreement agree-ment ' with Dr. Ozgothorpe to relocate his historic dairy farm to allow the completition of the long delayed Highway 224 from Kimball Junction into Park City. "We have spent a great deal of time with Dr. O and the forward thinkers of Park City and I think we have come up with a plan that will be exciting for everyone involved," said UDOT chairman Slam Taylor. Taylor said plans were to move the farm inside the Park City limits to the parcel known as the KearnsTribune land in the general Park Meadows area. The working dairy will be "buffed up" according to Park City Public Affairs Director Myles Radman and then open to the public for tours. "So many children today are growing up without the hands on experience ex-perience of knowing exactly where milk comes from. And a lot of tourists from big cities have never seen a real cow, up close. This is going go-ing to be great. Nobody was crazy about another hotel in town or more condos going up so we took a bold move and condemned the land. This is in the public good and we think it will be just one more amenity for Park City to sell." While Dr. O could not be reached for comment he was reportedly pleased with the arrangement and had told family members the although the hotels and condos would be fairly obvious to the rest of Park City, there was no ordinance in place to stop the development. "It's in the masterplan," she said. Yew told the council he stood to make "a fair chunk of change" on the plan. And, since he was within the local codes, he expected to cash in shortly. political life argue residency under the cir cumstances," he added. Geary and Lehmer are both Republicans. Incumbent commissioner Franklin Richards said, "I don't, think she has a ghost of a chance of winning," but privately expressed concern about the impact that Lehmer would have on the commis-' commis-' sion race. Insiders speculate that the late Mrs. Lehmer may draw a sympathy sym-pathy vote. here estimated $3.5 million paid to him for the relocation would be used, in part, to establish an Indian museum on the new property. The museum 1 will be filled with the numerous ar-' tifacts UDOT officials are expected ' to uncover during their excavation of the property. Those artifacts have been one of the reasons for the delay and once Dr. O was convinced the many rare relics of Indian lore would be preserved, he agreed to the relocation. ChamberBureau Director Fuss Veenema was delighted with the deal. "We have been anxiously awaiting the completion of this major artery into town and so naturally this is good news. But the bonus gaining another year 'round tourist attraction attrac-tion within the city limits is really exciting, even for me." Sources close to UDOT-to-dot officials of-ficials said they were a little surprised surpris-ed that the residents of Park Meadows would welcome all the sights and smells that accompanied the dairy farm. They did admit since the farm would back up to the Park Meadows golf course playing "in the rough" was bound to take on new meaning. The new highway is expected to be completed by June 31. STAFF Publisher Andyfcmhwd ftflw TefiOrr Staff itriim Ron Gcor Robin Porter, Shu Taylor, HddWtH Contributing wriltrt Tom Clyde Photograph, and darkroom David Scrtuhi Office manager Susan Davit Circulation manager Susan Davit Classified manager Kim Dudley ' Sale director Pamela Haintworth : Advertising tales Tom Lent KMnn Honeywell CrapWci Yvonne Thompson Production . Kathy McCarthy .,' Distribution Keith Leany Cartoonist .P.Ma The Park Record (USPS 0037-8370) is published weekly by the Diversified Suburban Newspapers. Second-class postage in Park City, UT. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Park Record, 1670 Bonanza Dr., Box 3688, Park City, UT 84060. Entered as second-class matter, May 25, 1977, at the post office In Park City, UT 84060, under the Act of March 3, 1897. Published every Thursday. r..t(-...Sjlrj,..Pft. |
