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Show Volume One Thursday, October 4, 1979 Number One Competitive From The Very First Day Future Park City planners will look back at the past 18 months and at some point draw a line, stating: "This is where Park City really started to become a world-class ski area." And at least part of the reason for that observation will be the beginnings, this year, of the ambitious Deer Valley Ski Resort. Seven of an eventual 100 ski runs were cut this summer for a resort that will double the skier capacity of Park City and add about 2,000 homes and condominiums to the valley east of Main Street. According to Royal Street Land Company President, Merle Huseth, the first eight of some 21 planned ski lifts and 60,000 sq. ft. of commercial building and support facilities will open for the 1981-82 ski season if everything goes according to plans. "The day we open we will be competitive com-petitive with the other destination ski resorts, with an eventual uphill capacity of 13,800," says Mr. Huseth, who estimates Royal Street will have invested $30-million in the project by the time the first lift ticket is sold. Deer Valley will likely be one of the biggest ski resort projects of the 1980's, and for Mr. Huseth and others involved in-volved in the resort's design, the effort is to make the resort the best there is. "My reputation, Jack's reputation and a lot of other people's reputations are on the line we're going to the nth degree to ensure this is the best," states Bruce Erickson, environmental planner with the engineering firm of Jack Johnson John-son and Associates, which is one of several firms consulting on the project. Allowing that "any idiot can run a bulldozer down a hill and cut a ski run," Mr. Erickson says planners have learned a lot in the past decade about how to make a ski area harmonize with the environment. "It's not hit or miss anymore, we've got everybody else's data and we've learned from other ski areas, particularly par-ticularly about re-seeding and the design of run-off structures," he says. Erickson says four man-made lakes and other methods will be used to control con-trol erosion and run-off and five different dif-ferent types of "sod-forming" grass will be used too, along with wildflowers, to re-seed the ski slopes. "The fact is, from the developer's point of view, you can't have your ski runs eroding away. ...It has to be en- L m vironmentally sensitive," he concludes. That sensitivity has extended to the overall master plan of the area(which has 65 percent open space, not counting coun-ting the ski hill) and the subdivisions and planned unit developments. Included in the master plan is an equestrian park, major indoor sports facility, ice skating areas, tennis courts, swimming pools, and a convention facility. "It will very definitely be a year-round year-round resort," says Mr. Huseth, who believes Deer Valley will complement, not compete with, the existing Park City ski area. "Statistics show when you get more resorts in an area they feed off of each other... that's one of the reasons for the success of the Colorado areas." The 5,000-acre site of the new resort will provide skiing on Bald, Flagstaff and Bald Eagle Mountains, with the major base area located at Lake Flat. A 700-car parking lot will be located a quarter-mile below Lake Flat, and -,kiers will be transported from the parking area to Lake Flat by a double double-chair lift. Deer Valley, Lake Flat, American Flag and Bald Eagle will be the sites of major residential and condominium projects, with Royal Street forming a Deer Valley to 14 Brent C. Hill 'Most Desirable Place In Utah9 "I think Heber Valley is the most desirable place to live in Utah In fact, in my opinion, it may be the finest family-oriented place to live in the entire en-tire West." So observes Brent C. Hill, who, through his ownership of the Century 21 franchise in Heber City and the projects of Brent C. Hill Corporation, is a major mover in meeting the demand for housing in what has been characterized as the "most beautiful, rural valley in Utah." Born in Payson, Utah, Mr. Hill attended Wasatch High School in Heber City. Later he moved to California to work in construction, eventually forming his own development develop-ment company in the Long Beach area, specializing in residential, industrial and shopping center development. In 1974, although still involved in projects in California and Salt Lake City, he moved his base of operations to Heber City, starting construction in 1977 on the first large subdivision ever built in Wasatch County. Known as "Valley Hills," the three-phase, three-phase, 300-lot development, located in the northeast corner of Heber City, is about 30-percent complete. Lots of Valley Hills are selling for about $20,000, with the average price of new homes there at $70,000. Valley Hills was the first subdivision of any size to be constructed in the Heber-Midway area and, as might be expected, its announcement sparked considerable controversy among many long-time residents of this tight-knit community. Two years later that opposition has mostly died, as local residents have moved into the subdivision, helping to free up older homes in the valley for younger couples, easing the area's housing shortage. However, Mr. Hill is quick to point out that controlled growth is still a major concern of residents here and that Wasatch County has, perhaps, one of the toughest zoning ordinances in the state. "I don't think you'll ever have resistance to growth go away entirely and a large percentage of the people Brent C.Hill to 12 |