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Show 1 ; ' 17 ' v. 7 s j. x V f - V ' , 11 . . Bob Wells typical time spent before the planning commission on everything every-thing major is two months or better. Two years ago it was one meeting, two at the most. A lot more study was brought about by the new ordinance. It's not perfect, every time we have a meeting we find something we've overlooked, but we have alot better guide to follow than before the new ordinances were adopted. adopt-ed. Burnis Watts is the best planning commission chairman we've ever had. He's very knowledgeable of the whole situation. I couldn't think of a better chairman. There was some discussion in a previous interview of the newness of some members of the commission, of not being residents resi-dents too long. It threw me. I always thought it was a pretty good mix. Roy Reynolds and Greg Lawson haven't been here long, but Kurt Nelson, Merrill Sanchez and Burnis Watts have lived here most of their lives. If you wanted to represent all the groups in town, you probably couldn't get any closer than what the commission is now. I didn't see any basis for the attack on Roy Reynolds for his involvement in the Skaggs shopping shop-ping center. He made it known he was involved when he was ' employed by them and said he wanted to leave the meetings when the project was discussed. He followed the rules and did everything he could. If he resigned from the project because of conflict of interest, I think he was wrong and should have stayed on because he already made his involvement known and excused himself. The benefits of having an architect on the planning commission are 100 times greater than the problems of having a conflict of interest. The only way to get around conflict of interest is to have a planning commission who lived in Salt Lake. It's far more important , to have people who are activity involved in government than to pick a government of people with no involvement. I don't think you get much when you do that. If you go through the agendas of the planning commission meetings in the last two years, there have been very few things that have come up that I didn't know the person or have some connection to him. Record: The appointed officials at city hall? Wells: I think they all do a very good job. I think the town has really benefitted from having Wayne Matthews as city manager. mana-ger. If you look back over the two people who had the job before, Wayne stands head and shoulders should-ers above anybody else who's been here, and the two others were experienced people with good credentials. Bruce Decker is the same way. Dave Preece is the newest. I know he works hard, but it takes time to get acclamated, to get all the background. I have nothing bad to say about any of them. Record: Who do you think is your main constituency? Wells: I think I have a fairly well-rounded constituency because be-cause of the fact that I know personally more of the people in the business and lodging and real estate community just because of what my day to day job is than others. I don't know a lot of people who are newer residents in the last couple of years, although I'm acquainted with them as much as anybody else is. I would feel like the people in the business, lodging and real estate communities would be my best supporters, although I hesitate to say they're my constituency. I don't that that's it in total at all, but those are the people I know best. Bob Wells, 35, was born in Laurel, Mississippi. He received a degree in accounting from Mississippi State and worked as a certified public accountant in New Orleans for nine years before moving to Park City in 1971. He was chief financial officer for Greater Park City Company until the resort was bought in 1975 by Alpine Meadows Corp. Since 1975, he has been a general partner in the Michigan-Utah Corp., developers of the Mt. Air Mall. In May 1976, he became general manager of Moana Corp., Park City's largest housing operation. He is currently Co-chairman of the Park City Planning Commis-I Commis-I sion. Record Interview Council Candidate: Bob Wells like it but because I firmly believe in property rights. When your thinking about the project, most people are thinking it will appear tomorrow morning, but as I understand it we're looking at two years, at least, maybe longer than that as far as economic effect. There's a long time between here and there. Rob Morris said the other night that it shouldn't be built until 1979 or 1980, maybe later. My economic guess is that they won't build until they're ready, and development develop-ment in the county has as much to do with it as development in the city. There's no question some of the development will economically economical-ly hurt some businesses, but I don't see it on a large scale being that big of a hurt. I think the pharmacy could be hurt the most. Everybody realizes they'd be hurt the most, but I think they realize they're looking at three years down the road. Record: What do you think should be done with the Memorial building? Wells: I would rather see the building restored, the appearance improved and have it used for recreation, for the younger people and children in town. Basically, they don't have anyplace, it's the only place for people under 18 to go. I think there's more need for that then for generating other things. It would have to have more drastic changes for it to be used as office space. I realize that city hall is overcrowded, but I think it would be more efficient to buy a couple of lots and build a new city hall and jail than to use our recreation space. Record: How would you improve im-prove relations between Park City and Summit County? Wells: I think time will automatically take care of the problem. The only thing you can work on is increased contact and having more of a voice from the voters. As much of a problem as anything else is that because of our size, we have two part-time governments. But the time will come, as we grow, that the city will be able to expand its staff, have a full-time Mayor, and a larger staff that will have more time. There should be more communication commun-ication between the city planner and county planner in the coordination of things and contact between the city manager and the county people in charge on a day to day basis. Record: How would you rate the performance of the present city council? Wells: I think the present council has done a good job. The present council has been caught in the middle of the last two year growth period. Growth in the last year and a half has been almost an overnight thing and they've coped very well. I'm not running against anyone, any-one, I'm just running for myself. Record: The planning commission? commis-sion? Wells: The same type of thing has happened since I've been on the planning commission. There has been a requirement for substantially more time. It's gotten to the point where the Record: Would you support the proposed Main Street redevelopment redevelop-ment agency? Wells: I think that the concept, being able to provide an impetus to development of Main Street acreage and the historical district, provides a better vehicle than anything else I know of. The biggest problem know of would be how to do it without imposing a penalty on the fire district and school district. But I don't see why the advantages of a redevelopment agency have to be used for a particular purpose. There ought to be a way of sharing the benefits of a redevelopment agency. Through a combination of impact fees and district revenues, the city ought to be able to assist the fire and school district. In general, I think the redevelopment agency is a good approach. I have some pretty strong feelings about Main Street and the surrounding areas and what will happen if this happens and what won't. The commercial growth in the north part of town has taken place for two reasons: lower land prices and the accessibility to a larger number of permanent residents. If the Main Street commercial district is going to benefit from permanent residents as much as from tourism, there is going to have to be an increase in the permanent residential base close to Main Street. The question is how do you encourage development develop-ment in the southern part of town that is single family homes, that becomes permanent residents instead of a second home or rental housing. That means development develop-ment has to take more of a single family direction and it hasn't in the last few years. I felt the Norfolk Avenue subdivision, if it could have been encouraged to be single family homes, could have been a benefit. It would have been a single family subdivision close to Main Street. If you can do some things to make that happen, it would do more than anything else to promote local business on Main Street. Record: Would you support the proposed Holiday VillageSkaggs shopping center? Wells: I wouldn't say I'm an avid supporter. I have mixed emotions and I guess what concerns me most is not that it's a Skaggs or a commercial development, develop-ment, but the actual size of the building in relation to Park Avenue. At the public input meeting Wednesday that's what most people seemed to say. Assuming the planning commission commis-sion can reach an agreement with the developers on the material used and the apperance of the building, I would go for the project, not because I particularly |