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Show A-2 The Park Record 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. Same-day redelivery is possible if you call during the following hours: * Weekdays: 6:30–8 a.m. * Saturday: 7–8 a.m. * Sunday: 7–10:30 a.m. To request a vacation hold or change of address, please call 435–649–9014 or email: circulation@parkrecord.com THE NEWSROOM To contact the newsroom, please call 435–649–9014 or email editor@parkrecord.com Continued from A-1 Occupancy gained steam itation,” outgoing Chamber/Bureau President and CEO Bill Malone told the council. “We’re still trying to figure it out and learn from the nuances on there. We started very, very slow, almost from a zero position back in April.” After a dismal beginning to the summer, Malone reported that the lodging occupancy numbers continue to improve and that the Chamber/Bureau was pursuing a mostly digital advertising campaign to entice skiers and snowboarders to the area. Summit County Manager Tom Fisher, who is responsible for the county’s budget, has recommended the council invest in fund balances this year to be able to rely on reserves to maintain services next year without revenue levels the county is accustomed to seeing from ski season. Malone presented data that indicated there was an 86% drop-off in paid occupancy at lodging establishments in May compared to 2019, a 74% fall in June and a 47% decline in July. He reported the large group market, which has become a crucial source of summertime revenue, cratered this year. That includes people traveling Continued from A-1 PCMR plan criticized For display advertising, please call a sales representative at 435–649– 9014 or email val@parkrecord.com To place a classified ad, please call 435–649–9014 or email classads@parkrecord.com For questions about your bill, please call 435–649–9014 or email accounts@parkrecord.com The Park Record online is available at www.parkrecord.com and contains all of the news and feature stories in the latest edition plus breaking news updates. The Record’s website also hosts interactive entertainment, restaurant and lodging listings and multimedia features. Contents of The Park Record are Copyrighted 2015, Wasatch Mountain News Media Co. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by Wasatch Mountain News Media Co., 1670 Bonanza Drive, Park City, UT 84060. Periodicals postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, 84199-9655 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT84060. Entered as second-class matter, May 25, 1977, at the Post Office in Park City, Utah, 84060 under the Act of March 3, 1897. Subscription rates are: $56 within Summit county, $80 outside of Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferable: $5 cancellation fee. Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com predicts difficulties for businesses at the Resort Center based on the closure of some of the parking, identified in the letter as Parcel B, as the initial development work starts. He also notes in the letter the spread of the novel coronavirus, which forced PCMR to close last ski season several weeks before it planned to stop the lifts, in the letter. “There needs to be some consideration for the business interruption and damages that will occur to existing establishments at the Park City Mountain Resort ... from PEG’s construction on Parcel B. The pandemic has already caused businesses around the country to suffer financial damages, and the Resort has felt these effects,” Continued from A-1 Enrollment is normal with 151 students in 2020 compared to 125 in 2019 — a 21% jump. Bedell said many of the families Continued from A-1 Gondola concept Wed/Thurs/Fri, October 28-30, 2020 for professional conferences or large meetings. “Good news is, summer picked up every month,” Malone said. “... Hard to imagine we’d be celebrating an occupancy decline of only 29% in September, but I think that’s what we call the ‘new normal’ now.” He reported interesting trends for local businesses, which he said had to adjust to slower weekdays and busier weekend traffic. And while large groups didn’t come to town, more visitors booked last-minute getaways, especially as summer continued, Malone said. That led to a 10% increase in the average daily rate that visitors paid for hotel rooms, a modest consolation offsetting the large drop in the volume of business. Malone added that some visitors showed up without reservations, something he hadn’t seen for years. The nightly rental market also saw its inventory shrink as second home-owners pulled their homes off of sites like AirBnB and decided to live there themselves, he said. While the numbers didn’t look good at the beginning of any particular month, last-minute bookers often bolstered the counts as the weeks passed. That might mean that lower economic projections for this winter might be bested by travelers who decide to visit at the last minute. Despite late commitments, visitors aren’t taking their travel plans lightly, said Jim Powell, vice president of marketing for the Chamber/Bureau. He said people are spending almost twice the amount of time planning their trips. “In the level of data we have available to us now, we know if people are searching airline flights, we know if somebody has booked airline flights, we know if somebody has been researching trips,” Powell said. Powell shared skier survey data that indicated the importance to potential visitors of information about health safety measures, the ability to cancel reservations, the health protocols in place at a destination and which activities and amenities would remain open. He said the Chamber/Bureau was executing a $2.1 million ad campaign to entice tourists, about 93% of which would be spent on digital outlays. That represents a 25% reduction from previous years. The Chamber/Bureau decided against buying network television advertisements and opted instead to invest in ads on “connected TV” platforms like Hulu, he added. “Those people that are receptive to travel, and interested to travel, we’re serving up our advertising to them. So, again, we’re trying to minimize any wasted impressions,” Powell said. “Not buying billboards in New York this year.” Powell said that one thing helping early winter season numbers is that ski resorts announced their plans for how they’ll operate amid the pandemic, lending a measure of predictability to the first full ski season during the pandemic. He said the market was particularly helped when Deer Valley Resort started allowing people to buy lift tickets for specific days, giving more information to would-be visitors about what their trip would look like. Malone said that the tourism market has a long way to go before it hits last year’s numbers, which were on a record-setting pace before the pandemic hit in March and essentially cut the last two months from the ski season. But he said the December reservation numbers have picked up significantly in the last month and are down 22% compared to last year. Park City suffered economically this summer compared to some mountain resort towns such as Lake Tahoe, California, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He said that was likely due in part to Park City’s lack of proximity to a national park. But the Park City area is relatively well positioned this winter, he said. One important factor could be the continued difficulty for Americans to travel to Canada, potentially impacting the number of trips to Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia. Powell said he was keeping close tabs on activity at Salt Lake City International Airport, which he said is operating at about 40% capacity. Officials there planned to resume some routes to and from Mexico on Nov. 8, Powell said, potentially opening up the lucrative Mexico City market for this winter. Malone indicated that while tourism numbers might be off this year, that didn’t necessarily spell disaster. “If we stay safe and we do our best in adhering to common sense behavior, we can get through this season and be poised for ... something that will be acceptable in terms of moving through and weathering the storm, so to speak,” Malone said. the letter says. Schott also worries about the possibility of the parking on that parcel closing from March 1, 2021, until Dec. 1 of that year, saying such a scenario “would be disastrous for the owners and employees of businesses at the Resort.” “These restrictions would compound the already poor financial expectations for the coming winter season, due to pandemic restrictions leading to a reduction in lift capacities, a limited sale of lift tickets, an ultimately an unmanageable strain upon Resort businesses,” the letter says. Schott also warns there could be permanent closures of businesses at the Resort Center based on the timeline of the project. “Unless there is a delay in the development of the Resort by a year or two, or some business interruption compensation is provided by PEG or Park City, construction that begins this year will likely cause business failures and the loss of scores of jobs,” he says. Schott submitted the letters as the Planning Commission continues its review of the PEG Companies pro- posal. The Planning Commission as a body typically centers on issues like the layout of a project, the heights of buildings and traffic. The effects of a development on nearby businesses are sometimes broached but are not the focus of a review. PEG Companies submitted a prepared statement in response to some of the concerns. It says, in part: “Replacing the 1200 day skier parking spaces in structured parking while adding parking for businesses and residences within the new base area is the most challenging aspect of this project. Our engineering team has worked diligently to understand the utility constraints of the site, while working with our traffic experts to enhance traffic flow and transit. Another major requirement is to keep the same number of parking stalls available throughout the winter seasons during the build out. This is why we have proposed a forward-thinking plan that delivers both day skier parking and our workforce housing obligations in Phase 1. Meeting so many goals that at times conflict with one another- is why - up until now- no company has been willing to take on this challenge.” PEG Companies intends to acquire the PCMR lots from resort owner Vail Resorts and then pursue the project. A previous owner of PCMR secured a broad development approval in the 1990s for the base area. The lots and attached development rights went to Vail Resorts when it acquired PCMR. PEG Companies and the Planning Commission are locked in discussions with a timeline for a vote unclear. People who live or own properties close to the lots have expressed concern throughout the Planning Commission talks and a community action group is forming in opposition. The development proposal involves a hotel, retailers, restaurants and residences. Large garages would be constructed to account for the parking spots lost to the project. The Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and be held electronically. A hearing is planned. More information about participation in the electronic meeting is available on the City Hall website, parkcity.org. The direct link to meeting information is: parkcity.org/Home/Components/Calendar/ Event/35709/15. who have enrolled their students there have relocated to the area because of the pandemic. “Many people were looking from either coast — not just the California invasion that gets a bad rap,” Bedell said. “So many people aren’t from here originally, of course, they did the same thing. Many people had been vacationing here for years and had thought, maybe at some point we will, and this just moved up their timeline.” She added that the enrollment has been evenly distributed among grades, lessening the burden on teachers. At the Weilenmann School of Discovery, a similar enrollment push has led the school to approach its limit. Executive Director Steve Williams said the school has about 610-615 students this year, roughly 25 more than in 2019. “I don’t have the history in front of me, but it feels like it, it definitely feels like the biggest bump that we’ve had in our 11 years,” Williams said. He added that the middle school dean told him it was the biggest enrollment jump for that age cohort, as well. “We’re essentially full as far as what we can have in the building,” Williams said. He said families have relocated from both coasts, as well as from Texas, but he has also seen an influx of students from closer to home. The Salt Lake City School District has offered online-only instruction this year, and Williams said some families have opted for the Weilenmann School of Discovery for the flexibility the school offers with in-person, hybrid and remote learning. formalized. There have been concepts to link Empire Pass with the Main Street core via a gondola as well as a connection between Deer Valley and the Main Street area. The mayor and City Council a year ago held a brief discussion about aerial transit and signaled an interest in further talks. The elected officials have 30 minutes set aside on Thursday for the update. It seems unlikely they will have the opportunity to discuss details on Thursday, but they could signal their interest in advancing the efforts or ending them. The meeting is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. and will be held electronically. More information about participation in the meeting is available on the City Hall website. The direct link is: granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/parkcity/6fa8ceb1814edf0178248112e7be28a40.pdf. 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