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Show Cert Twenty-Five Cents ark City Volume Four Condo Blaze Shortly before 7:00 p.m., while pulling his skis in from the porch of a Three Kings condominium, Ken Tipton Tip-ton spotted smoke rising from the Snow Flower condominium project and quickly phoned the Park City Fire Department. The intense blaze that soon developed destroyed a nearly completed section of the Snow Flower complex, sending a luminous red column of smoke that could be seen for miles. No one was injured in the fire. Ironically, Tipton, who was on a working vacation in Park City from San Diego, is the insurance agent for Snow Flower Ltd. and a partner in the development. "I figure the loss to be about a million plus, maybe a million and a quarter.. .it's hard to tell right now because we don't have to total numbers," num-bers," said Tipton. Snow Flower is comprised of two 41-unit buildings. The building that burned was about 80 percent complete, com-plete, according to Tipton, and had a recent shipment of trash compactors worth $18,000 stored in the basement. The sister building, which is only half finished, was untouched. Historic Expertise Requested The City Council, at its March 1 meeting, was asked to insure that a person with historic preservation expertise ex-pertise be in a position to work closely with the city's Planning Commission. The request was made by local resident Patricia Smith, who has applied ap-plied for one of the two voting positions now available on the Planning Plan-ning Commission. The City Council recently adopted an ordinance that will expand the commission from six to nine members, with the intent of including expertise in the areas of architectural andor civil engineering, historical aspects of the city, economics, banking andor financial matters, and real estate development andor sales. Ms. Smith, an historian, noted at Thursday's meeting that because of a city ordinance passed in 1977, she is ineligible to fill the commission position because she lives outside the city limits. She commented that there is no state code or enabling act that outlines residency requirements for Park City, and added that it is within the City Council's authority to repeal the ordinance. Ms. Smith recommended that if no other applications with historic backgrounds were received, that the council look at alternatives to insure historic preservation representation in Park City. She suggested that the city consider establishing an historic advisory board with no residency requirements that would serve as a counsel to the Planning Commission. The local historian also noted a suggestion made by Craig Call, an attorney at-torney hired to strengthen city laws relating to historic preservation. Call recommended the creation of an historic districtlandmark commission com-mission whose members would be chosen according to profession. He cited an architect and local historian as two of these members and added that persons with legal, real estate or community planning skills be included. in-cluded. Call's recommendation for such a commission was incorporated into the expansion of the Planning Commission, Com-mission, rather than the establishment establish-ment of a separate board. Continued On Page 3 i 1 .-r- JK Several Park City residents are partners in the complex being developed by Jack Davis of San Diego. But the investing partners were not the only ones suffering a loss since all the units had been presold. pre-sold. One San Diego resident in Park City for a ski vacation surveyed the charred skeletal remains of the Snow Flower Wednesday morning. "It's so sad," she said, "I just bought a condominium con-dominium in this building. ...I was hoping to get a look at the place while I was up here." Volunteers from the Park City and Summit Park fire departments received re-ceived .the alarm at 7:08 p.m. and arrived at the scene a few minutes later, fighting to contain the blaze while police blocked roads leading to the area and waved cars away from hoses stretching across streets. Many of the 30 or so firefighters worked until un-til 7:00 Wednesday morning, making sure that the flames were dead. Observers of the conflagration said they heard two or three loud booms as propane cylinders inside the building exploded, fueling the fire to a white heat at the core. The cylinders cylin-ders were connected to spaceheaters which were being used to dry concrete. con-crete. Some bystanders cheered the flames on. . Park City Fire Captain Jim Santy said the fire was too intense to save the burning building and that fire fighting efforts were aimed at preventing the flames from spreading to the sister complex and the nearby Three Kings condominiums. con-dominiums. "A propane tank went off just as we pulled up," said Santy. "That really fueled the fire." The captain said the flames started in the east portion of the Snow Flower building, then raced to the west end when the fuel cylinder exploded. ex-ploded. "We found an exploded cylinder later. It looked as if the steel had been ripped (as easily) as if it had been a styrofoam cup,'' he said. Continued On Page '. Deer Valley Bonds Approved By Council At its March 1 meeting, the Park City Council unanimously approved the issuance of $22 million worth of bonds to help finance the $250 million Deer Valley resort project due to begin construction this spring. The bonding approval followed a special meeting February 15 at which Royal Street Land Company President Warren King asked for council endorsement to issue tax-exempt tax-exempt bonds to finance the project. James Fenton, of Zions First National Bank, told the council that because of the current high prime interest in-terest rate, low interest municipal bonds appear to be the only method of financing the. new resort at this time. Questions arose at Thursday's meeting concerning city liability should the resort development fail. With the guidance of Park City attorney attor-ney Mike McCoy, it was agreed that Royal Street will guarantee $1 million per year for the first five years immediately following the initial issuance of the bonds by irrevocable letters of credit from one or more national banks. In addition, Royal Street will furnish the city with a letter holding harmless Park City and members of the City Council from any liability resulting from the issuance and sale of the bonds. Page 5 Park City racer Roxan-ne Roxan-ne Toly placed 12th in a World Cup downhill race in Lake Placid, N.Y. last weekend. Roxanne was the second highest American finisher, among the field of Olympic hopefuls. Thursday, Causes $1 Million In Damages I sv . -t i ; v ; . v.. - I f y . j I tr- I if- ";: I I - f . ." 0 .t f " : - i 1 1 A 41-unit section of the Snow Flower condominium project was destroyed Tuesday by a estimated $1 million in damage. By approving the bonding, the city has the opportunity to add $2ro million in improvements to tax roles by providing $22 million in municipal financing. Park City Mayor Jack Green commented that he favored the bonding because of the no-Continued no-Continued On Page : Housing Measure Proposed A city housing.. ' "committee, spearheaded by Councilman Bob W:ells, has formulated a proposal designed to encourage construction of moderate income housing. The "moderate income housing exception" ex-ception" would provide for greater densities in the Residential Development (RD and Residential Development Medium Density (RDM) zones than are currently permitted. Under the proposal, qualifying property could have a gross density of 20 units per acre as compared to the five units now permitted per-mitted under RD and eight units un- Continued On Page 3 1:, ; March 8, 1979 Snow Sculpture Saturday Break out your shovel, kitchen utensils and waterproof mittens. ..the 8th annual Snow Sculpture Festival is coming to the Park City Golf Course on Saturday, March 10. Prizes will be awarded to the first through tenth place finishers, with the top prize of $400 in cold cash going to the would-be Michelangelo who shows the most skill and creativity in his sculpture. The contest will take place in a designated area on the back nine holes of the golf course. The contest will open at 9:00 a.m. when entrants begin to arrive with lounge chairs, picnic lunches and plenty of help from friends. Any utensils can be brought along to create the forms, but only snow can be used, with no decorations or adornments. All sculptures sculp-tures must be completed by 3:00 pjn., with the winners . chosen by i:30. Winner's must be present to win. The contest is being sponsored by Coca-Cola, KALL 910 radio and the Park City resort. Last year's contest offered hot and heavy competition and Coke cups grew in piles nearly as large as the sculptures. The contest is open to groups or individuals in-dividuals of any age, though a winner under 18 years of age must be accompanied ac-companied by a parent or guardian to collect the prize. In the case of groups, one person must be selected to be the official entrant as only one official entrant will be judged the winner in each prize category. En Page 9 Park High Principal Jack Dozier recently stated that his school has a drug problem. Help has arrived in the form of Dick Culler, a new Prevention Center counselor. Park City's Only Locally Owned Newspaper trants must fill out an official entry blank at the sculpture site. On sculpture day, Thaynes Canyon Drive will be limited to one-way traffic going west, so area residents are urged to use other accesses. Thavnes Canvon Drive also will be At 3SS - . i" Number Twenty Five lire that caused an Photo By Bob Young used for contest entrant parking. Come on out Saturday morning, pick your lucky pile of snow, and pat, scrape and chisel your way to a prize. Show everyone that all those years of playing in the snow were good for something. vr Mostly sunny and mild weather expected through the weeMend. Highs will be near 40 with lows in the teens. |