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Show A-2 Wed/Thurs/Fri, December 16-18, 2020 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. 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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 Published every Wednesday and Saturday Continued from A-1 Wohali approved The proposal has been controversial since before the land was annexed into the city’s boundaries in 2018, a move that doubled Coalville’s size. Developer Jim Boyden, whose family owns the land along with other partners, said he was thrilled with Monday night’s approval. He has said his team opted to withdraw a previous, larger proposal with the aim of being good neighbors and added that he didn’t think Wohali would change Coalville. “It’s out of sight, and to my knowledge, it’s (behind) the world’s largest sound wall,” Boyden said, referencing the rock formation on the site eastern side. “... We’re excited to create a proposal that will economically benefit the community. That was one of the driving moves of annexing in the first place, to allow Coalville to be the beneficiaries of the tax revenue we generate.” The project’s opponents have claimed the 125 second homes would change the city’s rural, historic feel and contribute to a “Park City-fication” of the East Side community. They organized an opposition group, Coalville for Responsible Growth, whose members spoke loudly, consistently and specifically at the many public hearings. The group rebuffed a previous approval by organizing a referendum and saw some city councilors take up their issues with the project, including its water source and the legality of the nightly rental arrangement After Monday’s approval, few hurdles remain for the project to be built, with the still-pending approvals limited to administrative reviews of specific plans of what kind of buildings can be built where — not whether they’re allowed. The approval came at the tail end of a lengthy public process, one that proceeded with fits and starts and included a previous approval almost exactly one year ago that allowed 700 units on the land, split between 570 homes and 130 nightly rentals. The developers have long planned a golf-course centric community, but the first plan included amenities that would be open to members of the public, including miles of trails, a spa and a splash pad. In the project approved Monday night, those amenities will be sequestered behind gates, available only to Wohali members. Boyden indicated it was necessary to increase the project’s exclusivity to maximize its value after the second application included far fewer units. The developers withdrew the first application after the opposition group Continued from A-1 Deer Valley hits capacity number of skiers allowed on any given day, though, depends on the amount of terrain that is open. The Park City area suffered an especially dry start to the winter, meaning the mountain resorts relied heavily on snowmaking operations as opening days approached rather than on natural snow. The sellouts around New Year’s will not impact access to the slopes for those holding Deer Valley season passes or people who have full Ikon Passes, which provide access to resorts across the U.S. and in Canada. Deer Valley, meanwhile, halted the sale of season passes on Dec. 10. The stoppage will last through at least early January, when sales will be re-evaluated. The period around New Year’s is the first of several points in the ski season appeared certain to gather enough signatures to put the proposal to a public vote last June. In February, the developers submitted the scaled-down proposal, essentially the original project’s first phase. That’s what was approved Monday night, a project that the developers contended they were entitled to build according to the land’s zoning. The project received pushback until minutes before the vote itself, chiefly from City Councilor Rodney Robbins, who has consistently opposed the plan. Robbins ultimately joined his fellow councilors in supporting the project, but voiced doubt about the legality of the 303 nightly rental units. The project calls for 125 homes, which the developers claim is allowed by the city’s development code, a contention that has met with little resistance. But along with the homes, the project contemplates a main lodge and an uncertain number of outlying cabins that together would comprise 303 nightly rental units. The developers claimed the cabins are “support functions” of the golf course resort, a use that is allowed under the city’s code. The opposition group disagreed, and brought the issue to the state’s property rights ombudsman. The ombudsman is an impartial state entity whose role is to offer an alternative to litigation and nonbinding advisory opinions. Confusingly, in this case, the ombudsman issued two differing opinions. The first, rendered in September, sided against the developers, and largely found that Wohali would not be allowed under the city’s code. But the city’s project manager, Don Sargent, and the developers informed the ombudsman’s office that it was using an outdated version of the city’s code. Coalville hired Sargent to work to update the code before the city took up the Wohali development application. Code changes require approval from elected officials. Using the updated code, the ombudsman then sided with the developer, an opinion Sargent cited Monday night in saying that the project satisfied the city’s requirements. Opponents accused Sargent of updating the code in the developer’s interests, a charge Sargent denied and called slanderous. “For good, bad or indifferent I have done my absolute best to keep a neutral position on this project,” he said during Monday’s meeting. “I’m not for it, I’m not against it. I have reviewed it to the very best of my ability — I’ve been doing this for a few years — of making sure this project complied with the development code.” An attorney for the developer indicated that the city could lose a lawsuit and be forced to pay attorney’s fees if it went against an ombudsman’s opinion. that are usually especially busy on the slopes. Others include the three-day weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the time around Presidents Day and the spring-break weeks of March. The high demand for Deer Valley lift tickets for the New Year’s period and of season passes will likely be an encouraging sign for the broader community. There remains widespread concern about economic numbers during the ski season with the sickness continuing to spread. Although Park City posted solid numbers in the summer and fall, the ski season is significantly more important to a wide swath of businesses connected to the tourism industry. If the mountain resorts are busy, industries like lodging, restaurant and transportation usually also enjoy an uptick in sales. Deer Valley opted against a reservation system for the ski season and said it does not currently plan to introduce one later in the winter. Park City Mountain Resort owner Vail Resorts, though, continues to operate a reservation system as a key element of that firm’s blueprints for the ski season to curb the spread of the sickness. Weekend to remember for a Park City athlete Rosie Brennan wins 2 cross-country World Cups in Switzerland JEFF DEMPSEY The Park Record Cross-country skier Rosie Brennan had herself a banner weekend in Davos, Switzerland, winning backto-back World Cup events. With the wins, Brennan has taken the overall World Cup lead, in addition to the World Cup sprint and distance leader bibs. Brennan, a Park City High School graduate, began the weekend by winning her first-ever World Cup event, the freestyle sprint, with a time of 2 hours and 37.36 seconds. “It’s wild,” Brennan said in a U.S. Ski and Snowboard release. “I have never considered myself a sprinter, so to find myself on the podium in a sprint is something I honestly didn’t even dream of.” That alone would have been an impressive accomplishment, but the next day Brennan won the women’s 10k race with a time of 24:49.8 and a margin of victory of 34 seconds over the second-place finisher. “That is quite honestly something I'm not sure I've ever even dreamed of,” Brennan said of taking the overall World Cup lead as well as the sprint and distance leader bibs. “Obviously, we have only had a few races, but it's something I'm proud of nonetheless and while I'm not sure I expect to keep them all the whole season, I hope to do them proud while I have them and put up as good a fight as I can.” The victories are the latest step in an impressive comeback for Brennan, COURTESY OF U.S. SKI AND SNOWBOARD Parkite Rosie Brennan won back-toback World Cup events and took the overall World Cup lead over the weekend in Switzerland. who was cut from the U.S. national team after the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Brennan later learned she’d contracted mononucleosis during the season, resulting in a string of disappointing performances. “My symptoms weren’t awful, but my body wasn’t interested in racing,” she told The Park Record at the time. After losing her spot on the U.S. team she returned to her club team, Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, and worked her way back into shape and back into contention. Now, Brennan has reached the peak of her career so far — in the 100-plus races since she began her career in 2009, Brennan had never reached a podium. In the past two month, she’s had three podium finishes. North Carolina man drowns in hotel pool Park Record staff A 22-year-old man from North Carolina drowned in the pool of a Canyons Village hotel Monday evening, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the man was swimming at the Westgate Hotel and told his friends that he was going to hold his breath under water. When the man did not resurface for five minutes, his friends pulled him Continued from A-1 Party draws attention has not issued a citation based on a violation of the mask or social distancing rules. People seen by the police in violation of the rules have complied when approached by an officer, he said. A case like the one on Deer Valley Loop is especially worrisome from the pool and began performing CPR until medical responders arrived around 9:45 p.m. The man was transported to Park City Hospital but was declared dead. The group of friends had been drinking, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The man’s name was not released pending notification of his family. “The Summit County Sheriff’s Office offers our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the decedent,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. since there were 40 people reported to be in the same place. Health officials say there are increased concerns in such a setting since the sickness could be transmitted to many others if someone is carrying the disease. They could then further spread the coronavirus in the days after attending such a gathering. There are also increased nerves at this point in the year with people spending more time inside with the onset of winter. Park City leaders, health officials and the tourism industry have for months urged vigilance and have said a significant increase in cases in the early winter could be especially damaging to the ski season, the most lucrative period on the calendar. #1 Title Company Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs 2018 he Park Record. A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e 2019 LIVE LUXURY Your best life begins with a home that inspires you. 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