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Show Historic guidelines to avoid nit-picking, says consultant The Historic District Commission Com-mission isn't going to be the Big Bad Wolf after all. The perception is growing, say Nore Winter and Barbara Bar-bara Cole, who are working to form design guidelines for Park City's historic area. The two consultants, hired by the city with the Colorado firm of Downing-Leach, conducted con-ducted an exhaustive schedule sched-ule of five workshops over Monday and Tuesday to present suggested "ground rules" for design in the HCB and HR-1 areas. Winter said the rules helped allay apprehensions from local builders and residents who were critical of the Historic Commission because it had no clear genera! guidelines. "They had no idea before this how detailed or nitpicky the commission would be," said Winter. "I think we've shown that the guidelines will focus on general items, rather than bric-a-brac. "We're hearing at these workshops that people do support the protection of history in the city," Winter continued. Despite the long hours involved in the meetings, both consultants seemed happy with the results. In papers presented at the workshops, Winter and Cole listed a number of integral building characteristics-first characteristics-first for the Main Street (HCB) area, then for Old Town (HR-1). If validated by Parkites, these visual factors fac-tors would form the basic ideas for the design guidelines. guide-lines. On Main Street, they discerned such characteristics characteris-tics as the following: buildings build-ings have attained a variety of heights, but the width of building fronts are about the same. Facades are divided into three major areas the base, midsection, and cap. The lower floor is mostly glass, while upper floors are more solid. Porches or awnings often project over the sidewalk. They suggested suggest-ed that new buildings should be similar. For Old Town, they also listed several common factors. fac-tors. Here", said the consultants; consul-tants; historic buildings have similar hetghfand width although new buildings are larger in size. Building fronts are traditionally set back from the street at a uniform distance, and facades fa-cades are spaced evenly due to sideyards. Gabled roofs are predominant. Entrances face the street and are covered with porches. Public response, said Win How Thurs., Feb. 4 MOTIONS Table Iron Horse Bonanza Dr. plat dedication. VeS VS yeS yeS Table Iron Horse condomlnlumization. VeS JeS yes yes Approve Park SUriion II y g condomlnlumization. y VeS J y es Approve Stonebridge yes yes condomlnlumization. Approve Lift Line II condomlnlumization. VeS leS yeS yes yes Approve temporary business license for Dalley's Clock Co. no nQ ygg yes yes at Holiday Inn. ZSZSZXc- i J J yes Table amendment to ordinance 8-80A regarding yes yes yeS yes yefi ski lifts. ST" Ve& yes JW . yes fiCrSwSS yeS Ves VeS ies yes ter, indicated the consultants were on the right track with these visual ground rules. This information makes the Historic Commission less subjective than people feared. "People also worried that restrictions could unduly affect their business," Winter Win-ter said. The problems of setting standards are not just the Historic Commission's, Winters Win-ters noted. They occur with any new civic board. "The board has to make procedural improvements," he said. "You have to be reasonable in your expectations. expec-tations. And several people have told us they realize that." The workshops also made residents more receptive to contemporary new design for buildings. "Through the slide presentations, they saw examples that expanded their ideas of what could be done," Winter said. Assessor disputes charges of local tax inequities Property taxes on a $70,000 home vary widely, even within the Park City-Summit County area, according to a report this week from the Utah Foundation, a private tax research organization. But Summit County assessor asses-sor Leo Frazier called the report misleading in its implication that the differences differ-ences are caused by assessment assess-ment levels. Discrepancies, he said Wednesday, are the result of varying mill levies and not in assessments. The foundation reported that "property taxes charged on a home in Park City with a current value of $70,000 during early 1981 would average $437," compared com-pared to a statewide averae property tax of $515. "The study shows that the average property tax load on a $70,000 home could vary all 1 the way from $250 in the unincorporated area of the South Summit Schoof District Dis-trict to a high of $672 in Sandy City," the foundation report said. "The wide variation in the property tax burden in the different areas of the state is the result of differences in tax rates and assessment levels," the report re-port continued. Frazier said he has figures on actual taxes paid on a the City Council Alvarez ' L v, Jy Lewis A question that still plagues the Main Street area, they said, is how to encourage builders to renovate reno-vate or preserve their old buildings. Said consultant Barbara Cole, "Any incentive incen-tive that reduces the cost up front is favored by the residents, but it's still questionable ques-tionable if it's feasible." Winter said some schemes are less promising than others. The city cannot provide much incentive through reducing property taxes, for instance, because it doesn't raise a great deal of money that way. One hope, he said, is the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which includes a 25 percent tax credit for the renovation of certified historic his-toric structures. Another alternative, said Cole, would have the city helping builders get bank loans through a guarantee program. "This is the most feasible of the options," she $70,473 house and lot in 1981. The assessed valuation would be $9,427. The actual tax paid in the South Summit School District was $377.37 based on a 40.06 mill levy, or $40.06 per $1,000 in assessed valuation higher than the foundation's figure, he maintained. main-tained. The same home in Park City would carry a tax burden of $637.74 because Freeze closes Winters Gas-line freeze, that familiar scourge of winter motorists, managed to shut down a whole school in Park City last Friday. About 4:30 a.m. last Friday, Mel Fletcher, the Park City School District maintenance supervisor, discovered that the boiler at the Carl Winters Middle School had shut down. The outside temperature that morning was approaching 30 degrees below zero (actually 28 below at the Parley's Park Elem entary School ) . By 8:30 a.m. the problem still hadn't been solved. The decision was made to bus the students to the two other schools in the district. (See letter by Superintendent Richard Goodworth on Page A3). Coleman said, "because the city only has to come up with the cash if the person defaults." A major Old Town problem prob-lem discussed at the workshops, work-shops, Winter said, was parking space. Many of the old homes were built before the age of the auto had fully arrived. Garages intrude into the open space around houses, he said, but residents also complain about problems prob-lems if they park their cars in the street. A possible solution might be the use of clustered parking lots in the area. "We're not here to present one solution," said Winter. Our job is to present all the options." The next historic meeting is scheduled for March. Each hearing, Winter said, helps to narrow down the options to what Parkites desire. "Every meeting is inching us down to the final guidelines." guide-lines." he said. of the higher mill levy, he pointed out. In Salt Lake City, the property tax would be $744.83. Frazier explained that property pro-perty in Summit County was reassessed in 1980, but assessments were "rolled back" to the 1978 level, by state statute, to equal assessments assess-ments in Salt Lake City and the rest of the state. About mid-morning the culprit was iiscovered. "Apparently it just got so cold that it froze some water in the line between the pilot light and the regular boiler system," Goodworth explained. ex-plained. "It wouldn't permit the natural gas to move through the system." He said the gas could reach the pilot light but not the main burners. Goodworth reported that the building was warm again by noon and the students were bused back to their normal classrooms shortly afterwards. He said the heating system required no major reparis. "The biggest problem was finding out what the problem was." S1V Shellenberger Wells Distinguished $160,000 on site sales office 1495 Empire Avenue directly east of THREE KINGS chairlift 649-3600 Park City LAND COMPANY BOX 1763, PARK CITY, UTAH 84060-1763 801 649 - CONGMATULATIOHS 'ff. From Left to Right: Tom Flinders, Jeff Polychronis, Steve Strand, Bill Coleman, and seated, Pete Alvarez. Coleman Land Company is proud to honor these individuals for outstanding sale performance as recognized by the Park City Board of Realtors. Bill Coleman Realtor of the Year Tom Flinders Salesman of the Year and Million Dollar Club, third year Pete Alvarez Million Dollar Club, third year Jeff Polychronis Million Dollar Club Steve Strand Million Dollar Club Coleman Land & Investment RealEs ta te Ser vices E The Newspaper Thursday, Condominiums to $420,000 February 11, 1982 Page A5 3600 |