OCR Text |
Show Sixth in a series Skiing This is the sixth in a series of excerpts from the book "Skiing in Utah: A History." the work of Salt Lake City author Alexis Kelner. This book explores the start of alpine skiing and ski jumping jump-ing along the Wasatch Front, focusing both on the sport's early advocates and on the development of ski areas such asAlta, Brighton, Park City, Solitude and Snowbird. The following excerpt is taken from the chapter entitled en-titled "The Skiers' Mecca. " "Skiing in Utah," a paperback, paper-back, is available at a variety of locations around Park City. What about the people of Utah? And especially those whose roots trace back to Park City? How do they view Park City's near-emergence as the Aspen or Brecken-ridge Brecken-ridge of Utah? As one talks with a number of "natives" such as Mel Fletcher, who tried to activate acti-vate Park City's ski soul during the '40s, and Robert J. Wright, who envisioned the "Iron Mountain" resort facility 10 years later one thing becomes apparent: Ski development has been great, and its early contribution to Park City's flagging economy econ-omy was welcome. But today, they perceive, "things are moving too fast." And their concern is not directed at the sport of skiing, but at the real estate development and speculation that has, hand-in-glove, accompanied ski development. "This is a fun town," Mel Fletcher reminisces of Park City as he compares its present with its past. "And it was a fun town even through the Depression a close-knit your birthday at the Prospector's and I I HAVE YOUR f : 1 LUrNfNELtt I ON US! ;W Call 649-7482 J immmmmmmmmmmmmmimmmmmm for information jjh , f in Utah: a town. People around here all rallied for the person in trouble. Depression days here tied the people a little tighter, a little closer. Everyone was kind of sharing. shar-ing. A lot of the people I've known were completely unselfish un-selfish with their time; their whole interest was in the betterment of their city." To be unselfish with one's time for the betterment of one's city is a characteristic characteris-tic that best describes Mel Fletcher. As one of Park City's volunteer fire fighters, Mel has viewed the effects of rapid growth and careless development from a perspective per-spective few others consider. For example, he points out, zoning and building ordinances are violated frequently. fre-quently. "We're getting heights (of buildings) that we could never reach during a major fire. You get three stories high up there on one of these back streets and we can't even reach it. Even though we have a ladder truck we couldn't get it up there along the narrow and steep avenues during winter. We have a pretty good sized deluge gun that will throw the water, but as far as rescue is concerned, these heights worry us." A planning and zoning commission exists in Park City, and it's been a "fair one" Fletcher feels. A city-wide city-wide master plan has also been in existence for a number of years. "But its guidelines have not been followed," he complains. "Even though they've said 'This is what we're going to have' it's always been overridden over-ridden by the City Council or the real estate people who've t a7 "Even though it was often S a tough struggle," Mrs. II Lehmer explains, "the m) I r II i history had dominant effects for getting things through." Robert J. Wright was a member of Park City's Planning and Zoning Commission Com-mission during its formative years, at a time when it had no legal standing. As much as anyone he has a feeling for the operation of the city's municipal government during dur-ing the days of master planning. "It's not a matter of corruption," he explains. "None of those people, to my knowledge, are crooks. It's more a matter of ignorance and inexperience. For a long time, our municipal government govern-ment was only a part-time government, made up of persons who were not professionals. pro-fessionals. The developers would come in and just run rough-shod right over them. They knew all the answers. They knew what they were doing. They were leading. And the municipal government govern-ment was approached only after the developers had all their deck together and their plays ready. Only then did they propose a development to the city. And the city staff was supposed to make instantaneous in-stantaneous decisions. Without With-out knowledge, without a lot of background and professional profes-sional help I think they've made some pretty bad ones. Look at the results: We've had to start considering moratoriums on building because the sewer and water systems haven't been able to keep up with the growth. We've found that residents have to take building regulations regula-tions to court before code-compliance code-compliance is enforced by those who are supposed to regulate it." Mary Condas Lehmer, a retired attorney whose Park City roots trace back to the 1920s is concerned that her city, like Aspen, is becoming a "rich man's town" and that the old-time residents who have managed to survive sur-vive two major depressions are not going to be able to survive Park City's "new prosperity." Sweetheart Tournament February 12 Mixed Doubles Tournament Trophies Prizes Refreshments Sign up your favorite Sweetheart today! RED HOT LOVERS ANovice AOpen BOpen Entry Fee: $5couple Get your entry blank RACQUETBALL CLASSES - by Steve Monday-Wednesday, February 2-26. Juniors 4-5 p.m.; Beg. 5-6 p.m.; Adv. 6-7 p.m. people living in Park City had Utopia. Many of them were living on Social Security Se-curity then, but they were managing because living was cheap. They owned their own little homes. They had their own little gardens. These people had what we're all striving so hard to achieve. And now it's destroyed. de-stroyed. Now the businesses around here are so anxious to rip off the tourists that they've affected the locals, too. So what if the price of their homes lias appreciated over the last 10 years? It is still their only home, a roof over their head. So what if they can sell it and make a big potfull of money? What do they do then? They have to go out and buy a new home somewhere else at someone else's inflated values. What has it accomplished?" One of Mrs. Lehmer's greatest concerns is the way real estate developers have managed to "ravish" Park City by way of annexation. "When McCulloch Developed De-veloped Lake Havasu City in Arizona there was nothing there but a parcel of barren ground. But when the developers de-velopers came to Park City they found a city all set up. There was a hospital. There was a city administration. There was a police force and a fire-fighting force and there was a sewer and a water system. Our engineering engineer-ing studies had said that the water supply we had at the time was adequate for the existing city. It was sufficient suffi-cient to allow every vacant lot within the city to be developed. When we passed the sewer and water treatment treat-ment bonds in 1965, the new facilities were for the development de-velopment of Park City proper. Then the developers came and ravished it all. One developer annexed some three hundred acres to the city and immediately used up all the water supply and sewer capacity. And that was that! We hadn't even developed Park City proper." pro-per." Park City's political process pro-cess is of special interest to Mrs. Lehmer. Having been a member of its City Council for four years (1972-76) and also its City Attorney, she's ill! Prospector Athletic Club 649-6670 KISSING COUSINS BB CC BC CNovice BNovice members; $10couple non-members at Prospector Athletic Club. been witness to numerous cases of conflict of interest among those in charge of government. "It's a mess! she explodes at the mere mention of city government. "We've got a lot of well-educated people in this town. When our mayor said 'You can't fill public offices that won't have conflicts of interest' I don't go along with that. I hope we can get some of these residents with the 'smarts' to become interested in the city, interested enough in it that they'll run for office. I don't mean those people who own stock in the corporations they have to vote on. Nor those who have an axe to grind. The people we need in city government are those who are genuinely interested in the future of the city and its people." What is Mrs. Lehmer's assessment of Park City's future? "It depends on what we do from here on out. If Park City continues in its present way, persons who are concerned con-cerned about their city will suddenly find themselves living in just another suburb of Salt Lake City." During the 1960s and the greater portion of the 1970s very little organized opposition opposi-tion to the development of Park City has been present. Traditional Utah environmental environ-mental groups have been especially conspicuous in their absence. Why? "It's a local issue, best resolved by the citizens of Park City," seems to be the concensus among several environmental leaders questioned. ques-tioned. Unlike the development develop-ment of Alta, Brighton, and Snowbird most of Park City's development (both present and proposed) is not located on public lands. As a consequence, many feel, the development should be regulated regu-lated by local zoning. The watershed conflict present in Little and Big Cottonwood canyons is not present in areas near Park City proposed pro-posed for development. Problems becoming apparent ap-parent with sewage disposal and development of culinary water sources should, once again, be easily resolved by local authorities. Traffic problems and overcrowding? overcrowd-ing? Again, the answer 1 GAY DOUBLES OPEN A B C Coray, Pro points to the need for more community participation. Community participation in the decision-making process received considerable impetus impe-tus during August, 1979 with the formation of a citizens' organization, the "Park City Citizen's Council." That there was great interest in Park City's destiny is attested at-tested by the fact that some two hundred individuals were present to sign the charter of the organization. Their aim? To provide residents' input into governmental govern-mental decisions, input according ac-cording to one of the coun-. coun-. cil's organizers, long missing miss-ing from public decisions. On the political level, the primary elections later in October bore witness to the depth of concern over the question of Park City's future prospects. The top six vote-getters running tor three City Council positions were all sympathetic, , I W Aii If, . I imf ill '' ., IP, ; s'-!? H i j t m I ml ) -hi I iA : if ' i . di f j J jmm " 1 " -, . , t ' u ys -; If i' ' 'i- vt -j I ) 'mmtL. 3 JtI ill ' ' NOW OPEN Free Estimates Insurance Work Expert body & paint work Custom painting Fiberglass repair Frame straightening Foreign & Domestic Subaru, Datsun, Porsche, Corvette Our specialty East of Anderson Lumber 649-5666 mmmmmMmMmmmmh least in part, to the goals of the citizens' organization. One incumbent councilman, who had often clapped during dur-ing developer's presentations presenta-tions and had openly ridiculed ridi-culed citizen's concerns during Council meetings, did not receive sufficient votes to qualify for the general election ballot. Unless this reawakened community consciousness is extraordinarily successful, the destiny of Park City, "the skier's Mecca," is foretold best by the now-familiar now-familiar Cleveland or Minneapolis Min-neapolis postmarked advertising adver-tising circular delivered almost al-most weekly to nearly every household in the State of Utah: "GOOD MORNING! Our Mm i-1 PARK CITY ROPY & PAINT W SPECIALIST 1 heartiest congratulations! You have been selected as a winner in our 1979 Grand Giveaway. You will DEFINITELY DEFIN-ITELY receive TWO of the wonderful gifts on the inside of this folder. Yes, it's true! Open the SECRET PANEL on your voucher RIGHT NOW-to learn your Award categories! cate-gories! Every voucher is guaranteed to have two gift award categories. The gift reservation numbers on your voucher will tell you which gift you will receive in each category. You will definitely receive two awards! You and your husband (if married) mar-ried) will receive these fabulous gifts when you visit and inspect Lodge at Park City ." mi. |