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Show The Housing Situation A noted photographer who would like to settle here may not because he cannot find housing for himself and his daughter. A highly qualified reporter, though willing to work for a low wage, is not willing to pay 3 of that wage in rent. An experienced ski instructress discovers that if she accepts a job at the resort, she will have to commute 20 miles or more daily. Mine workers by the scores by the hundreds if you count their families have been forced to leave Park City; have taken their tax dollars and their year-around shopping to other towns, perhaps even other counties. More than half of our children's elementary school teachers tea-chers live elsewhere. In short, it has become all but impossible for anyone of average income to find moderately priced housing in Park City. There are homes for sale, but few can be purchased with a cash outlay of less than $8,000. There are apartments for rent, but those still vacant are waiting for nightly rentals of the ski season to bring incomes of $400 a month and up. Clearly, these are beyond the reach of most of Park City's working class, whether newly arrived resort personnel or miners who've been employed here for decades. They share a common problem: they cannot afford to live in Park City. Steps to provide moderately priced housing in this area have been taken both forward and backward. In 1972, Greater Park City Corporation gained Council approval ap-proval to construct relatively inexpensive employee housing, modeled on USU student housing. hous-ing. "If you want good employees you have to provide decent housing," said Warren King, who headed Greater Park City Corporation, "even if you have to subsidize a bit, and consider it part of the employees' wages." This attitude was not shared by subsequent owners of the resort who, in any case, had fewer employees. Snow Country, as the housing was called, just wasn't profitable. Presented with this argument, the City Council gave approval for some of the units to be turned into nightly rentals. Later all were approved for conversion into condos, to be sold to individuals. Employee housing was no more. Presently another low-cost housing project, this one government govern-ment subsidized, is under construction. con-struction. Applications are now being taken for the first forty units, which will be available by January. Rents will range from $145 to $175, depending on financial situation, income and the number of persons occupying the apartment. Only families will be accepted. Meanwhile, Park City's master zoning plan has been passed into law and, in terms of housing, it favors current property owners and the well-to-do. With a minimum lot size of 12,500 square feet, costs are going to be higher beyond the reach of many buyers of moderate means. With mobile homes and mobile home parks prohibited or severely restricted, another type of moderate moder-ate - priced dwelling has been eliminated. Construction of new apartments are likewise restricted in certain ways though not in price. Rents are likely to remain high ... perhaps go even higher. There are property owners in Park City who insist on charging a fair price for what they sell or rent. (They and their grateful tenants know who they are). Many, however, seem to be motivated by a sort of "whatever the traffic will bear" philosophy. As one local developer is reported to have remarked, in reference to lands he's bought low and proposed to sell high, "I'm going to squeeze a million dollars out of this town." What's being squeezed out are moderate and low-income people. The vital, energetic working people who now contribute a vast amount of energy to the town's atmosphere, increasingly are finding that they must take that energy elsewhere. Landlords and developers, in the name of "free enterprise," "every man for himself," or "whatever the traffic will bear," are in the process of turning Park City into the kind of town that, five years from now, they themselves may not wish to live in a sterile community of the rich and the transitive only. Another Aspen. Hu tr h-. it ' Holiday Village - Government Subsidized Low cost housing |
