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Show A-2 Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, February 1-4, 2020 The Park Record Wohali developers reveal alternate proposalP C The Park Record. Serving Summit County since 1880 The Park Record, Park City’s No. 1 source for local news, opinion and advertising, is available for home delivery in Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. Single copies are also available at 116 locations throughout Park City, Heber City, Summit County and Salt Lake City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Summit County (home delivery): $56 per year (includes Sunday editions of The Salt Lake Tribune) Outside Summit County (home delivery available in Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties; all other addresses will be mailed via the U.S. Postal Service): $80 per year To subscribe please call 435–649– 9014 or visit www.parkrecord.com and click the Subscribe link in the Reader Tools section of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. To report a missing paper, please call 801–204–6100. 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Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Published every Wednesday and Saturday Scaled-back project may be built if earlier approval is overturned ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record As Coalville residents get closer to gathering enough signatures to contest the approval of the controversial Wohali development through a ballot measure in June, the developers have submitted a second application to the city that shows the scale of the project they believe they’re already entitled to build on their land. Instead of 570 homes and 130 nightly rentals in Wohali’s already-approved plan, the new application calls for 125 homes and 303 nightly rentals. Most of the amenities remain, including 27 holes of golf, a spa and a lodge, but the new plan calls for a gated community without public access to those facilities. The developers have touted public access to the facilities as a community perk. The 303 nightly rentals would be in standalone cabins or cottages, the city’s planning consultant Don Sargent said, built to support the golf courses. He added that there isn’t much in the development code regulating that type of structure, so it is unclear whether — and how many — nightly rentals would be allowed. Coalville does not have an ordinance against having two pending applications for the same land at the same time, City Attorney Sheldon Smith said. He added that the city is taking the position that the first application is no longer active, as it is on hold pending the result of the ongoing push to overturn its December approval via referendum. The developer is paying fees related to reviewing the application, Smith said. Developer Jim Boyden, whose family owns the land along with other partners, said he believes they are entitled to build the project laid out in the second application without any further zoning changes. He said the plan is what Wohali would pursue if the referendum is successful. “We, of course, are hopeful we can proceed with our original plan,” Boyden said. “Should the referendum succeed and the zoning that was granted to us by the City Council in December be overturned, then the plan would be to submit a development application based on the original (agriculture) zoning that was granted to us at the time of the annexation.” The developers have submitted essentially the original project’s first phase as a standalone application, Boyden said, with major changes being 445 fewer single-family homes than in the original proposal and no public access. When Coalville annexed the 1,757 acres into its borders in 2018 at the request of the developers, it essentially doubled the size of the city. Nearly 200 residents went to that public hearing, and residents have continued to attend a series of contentious public hearings expressing opposition to the development. When the City Council approved the zoning change in December allowing Wohali to move forward with its initial proposal, an opposition group began the push to overturn the decision through a referendum. The group has until Feb. 24 to gather 241 signatures, which would trigger a June special election. The approval is on hold until the referendum is decided, either by failing to gather the requisite number of signatures or until voters decide the issue. Coalville Mayor Trever Johnson has questioned whether residents understand the scope of the project that would be allowed under current zoning laws — whether, in effect, they know what they’d be voting on in June. The new Wohali application helps spell that out. A pro-referendum website indicates the group had collected 218 signatures as of Friday morning, but organizer Lynn Wood wrote in an email to The Park Record that number had not been updated in a few days and that they expect to collect the requisite signatures well before the deadline. The already-approved concept calls for a second-home community centering on a denser village core surrounded by larger properties at the perimeter. It includes 27 holes of golf, a lodge, a spa, a village plaza, miles of trails, a splash pad and a small commercial zone, all of which would be open to the public. Opponents worry it does not fit the city’s rural identity. The new application includes many of the same amenities and is essentially a scaled-down version of the original plan, but Boyden said it would be a gated community without public access to the amenities. The new application’s first phase includes 102 homes, the same as in the original application. “The gate will allow us to maximize the value of the properties,” he said. “With the reduction of the density, we see that as a critical component.” When the land was annexed into Coalville, it was granted agricultural zoning that allows one residence for every 20 acres, meaning the project’s 1,664 acres would yield 83 residential units. That number is increased by half - up to 125 units - because developers are using an incentive that ‘ rewards proposals that include a lot of open space with increased density. m Wood, the referendum organizer, s said the group has reviewed the new t application and that its size is a better w fit for the community. She added the C group still has concerns about water f and the number of nightly rentals. “We are very hopeful that the ultil mate project will be a better scale and d fit for the community,” Wood said. p “Things are definitely moving in the r right direction!” w Water has been a consistent source o of controversy in the process. In the s original proposal, the developers inc dicated they would tie in to the city’s culinary water system and eventually c drill new wells that would essentially i increase its water supply. Residents d expressed concerns that it would t impact the city’s current source, Icy t Spring. The original plan also called for the s developer to pay for a water diversion c and storage system to irrigate the golf course. c Under the new proposal, the de“ velopment would still pay to tie in to f the city’s system but would not be rec quired to drill new wells, according to o Sargent, the city’s planner. w The proposal suggests the developm ers would still pay for a water diverd sion system from the Weber River. t The plan is scheduled to be heard s at the Feb. 18 Planning Commission r meeting. p fice is screening the case. It has been assigned to the prosecutor who works on cases involving special victims. The office anticipates deciding next week whether to file formal charges. The Police Department drafted an affidavit of probable cause against the man covering accusations dating to late 2016. According to the affidavit, on Dec. 10, 2016 at 6 p.m., a man wearing just a Santa Claus hat exposed himself to three girls, each 15, in a hallway close to the swimming pool at a Park City hotel. The person “told the victims he was playing a game, and then ducked into an alcove,” the affidavit says. The next year, on Dec. 2, a man wearing just a Santa Claus hat exposed himself to a 15-year-old girl at a hot tub at a different Park City hotel, followed by another case at a different hotel that date, it says. The second case on Dec. 2 occurred at the same hotel as the one in 2016. On Dec. 1, 2018, a man wearing just a Santa Claus hat exposed himself to three youngsters and their father at a hotel swimming pool, the same one as the 2016 case, the affidavit says. A similar incident was reported later in December of 2018, the filing says. Some of the cases occurred on the same day as the Santa pub crawl in Park City, an annual event celebrating the holiday season. The suspect eluded the police in each of the cases. On Dec. 7, 2019, the date of that year’s pub crawl, the Police Department mounted an undercover operation at one of the hotels where the cases were reported in previous years. The affidavit says a man was seen observing the pool, where two women were posing as decoys. An undercover officer approached the person, who left the hotel and drove away, the filing says, indicating investigators obtained a license-plate number on a vehicle that i t s n fi o was registered to the man. Another case was reported in late December of t 2019. d The authorities conducted a surveilt lance operation on the suspect and, p with a warrant, put a GPS tracker on the p vehicle in mid-January. On Wednesi day, the GPS tracker showed the truck r driving to Park City from Cottonwood C Heights, parking in a lot close to three t hotels, the filing says. a The police watched him walk bei tween three hotels and were told of a i suspected lewdness case in one of the s hotels. The authorities pulled the man over and arrested him at gunpoint. t The Santa pub crawl is held each o year for people 21 and older on Main n Street. The Historic Park City Alliance, s a group that represents the interests of businesses on Main Street or just off the street, says several hundred people attend each year, with costumes including Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus and Christmas trees. “Business-wise, we are seeing a slow Sundance,” Kuhlow said. She said she spoke to approximately 15 businesses during Sundance, finding sales have generally dropped between 5% and 20% from the previous year. The businesses are inquiring whether the Sundance crowds also dropped this year, she said. “No one’s afraid they’re not going to make their rent,” Kuhlow said. Economic data covering the fes- tival period will not be available for months. Sales-tax figures will eventually help provide some clarity while Sundance itself commissions an annual report detailing the overall economic impact of the festival. The event in 2019 generated $182.5 million in economic impact. “Is Sundance leveling off and will always be like that,” Kuhlow said about the anecdotal numbers in 2020. “I don’t know.” Man arrested in Park City lewdness probe Police say he exposed himself several times at hotels in the area JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record The Park City Police Department on Wednesday arrested a Cottonwood Heights man on suspicion of four misdemeanor charges categorized as lewdness, including three counts of lewdness involving a child, outlining cases stretching for longer than three years. The 57-year-old man on Friday was released from the Summit County Jail on $50,000 bail. He had not been formally charged in 3rd District Court by Friday morning. The Park Record does not typically name suspects who have not been charged. The Summit County Attorney’s Of- Continued from A-1 Business softens Correction The article “‘Influence’ tells of info war,” published in the Jan. 29-31 edition, mistakenly referred to South America in one instance rather than South Africa. Don’t get buried in news you don’t need. Call 435–649–9014 to get the news you care about Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e 3092 So. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City (801)484-6364 888.445.RUGS (7847) Mon.-Sat. 10 am to 6 pm |