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Show Growth Sparks Movement To Revise City Planning Codes Faced with accellerating growth and a concern that the Park City Planning documents may be out . of date, the City Council and Planning Commission have decided to undertake studies that could lead to revisions in both the 1973 Master Plan and Land Management Code. That concensus, to undertake under-take what may becQme a far-ranging far-ranging look at the limits to growth, was reached at a special executive meeting last Wednesday attended by both the Council and the Commission. "I think it's because of the traffic situation, more than anything else," explained Mayor Jack Green concerning concern-ing the decision. Green stated that he felt because of concerns over city services and traffic that there had developed an "alarmist" "alarm-ist" attitude among some residents. "I think the information that could come out of these studies might eliminate a lot of the concerns regarding growth," he commented. The Mayor went on to note that there would be public hearings regarding any proposed pro-posed revisions and that there would not be a moritorium on building while the studies were underway. A joint committee of Councilmen and Planning Commission members has been formed to recommend the manner in which the studies should proceed. The hiring of an outside consultant consul-tant or the expansion of the city's planning department are being considered. City Planning Director David jPreece has recommended that the city begin by accumulating as much data as possible on traffic, water, sewer, school and fire protection needs. In addition, the planner states: "We should also address the issues of hillside developments, densities, open space and housing. ' ' "Since 1973, when the Master Plan was updated last, there has been a tremendous amount of growth. Now we are seeing the consequences, and now might be a good time to stand back and see if there are some limits," says Preece. The Planner went on to note that since 1970 the Planning Commission has approved 1,203 single family homes, 870 which have been built, 333 remain to be constructed. --2,575 condominiums have been approved, 971 which have been built, 1,604 left to be constructed. 435,369 square feet of commercial and office space approved, 285,369 sq. ft of wnicn remains to be constructed. con-structed. These figures do not include the 2,000 condominiums condomin-iums and single family homes proposed for Deer Valley. Nor do they include the developments that have come under consideration by the Planning Commission since April. h Those proposed include a 118 unit expansion of Sweetwater, Sweet-water, a 97 lot subdivision, a 93 lot subdivision, a 21 lot subdivision, a 79 unit PUD, two triplexes, one fourplex and two duplexes. To some, these figures are a cause for alarm. But to others, who have seen much faster growth in other cities, the growth here must be put in persepctive. City Manager Wayne Matthews, Mat-thews, who held a similar post inWest Jordan for six years, says that Salt Lake bedroom community went from a population oi 4,221 in 1970, to one in excess of 20,000 today. "Compared to that. Park City isn't growing fast," states Matthews, who projects pro-jects there will be fewer building permits issued here this year, compared to last. But that doesn't mean Matthews is unconcerned about the growth, and he says, "I think people are right to be concerned and interested." But he rejects the argument argu-ment that the city is unable to provide services for the new development. Citing the anticipated completion this year of major water, sewer and road projects, he states, "The City is providing the services." ser-vices." As for the update of the City's Planning Documents, Matthews comments, "Our Land Management Code is rather restrictive now. ..I dont think it's too far out of liner He is most concerned, like many other city officials, with the recent indications that the construction of the extension of Highway U-224 may be delayed for several years. "We could be in serious trouble there," he says. Just how serious the trouble might be is the subject of a traffic study bieng undertaken by trans- being undertaken by Transportation Trans-portation Engineer Wayne T. Van Wagoner. When Van Wagoner prep- When Van Wagoner presented pre-sented some preliminary ifigures in regard to the traffic impact of the Deer ' Valley Resort to the Planning Commission : recently there was a moment of contemplative contempla-tive silence in the room. After which one Commission Commis-sion member commented, "I am absolutely dumbfounded." dumbfound-ed." Without U-224, which Van Wagoner believes is at least three to five years away, lower Park Avenue and Heber Avenue may become more of a parking lot than a highway, with 2,200 additional addi-tional cars trying to exit Deer Valley during the peak afternoon periods in the winter. "Without U-224 we have a crisis," Van Wagoner concludes, con-cludes, adding that on the positive side, the Deer Valley Resort may have provided the impetus for the State ' Transportation Dept. to build the road sooner. The traffic engineer views a comprehensive study of the city's transportation needs as an essential part of any Master Plan revision. "Transportation is a resource re-source just like water.. .if you build too much, you risk running out of transportation," transporta-tion," he states. As for water. City Engineer Engi-neer John Prabasco says he believes the city is ahead of the growth. Noting the projected completion com-pletion this summer of $2 million worth of improvements improve-ments to the city water, system, he says, "I forsee no problems with the water. ' ' "We're staying on top of it. ..if Sandy and some of the other fast growing areas in the state had done as good a job as Park City, they wouldn't have some of the problems they have now," he added. In a letter to the city last month, Probasco concluded: "The Park City water system is one of the top in the state." He stated that, at the minimum, the present system sys-tem will be able to supply a perminent population of 6.840. Others are not as certain, with Planner Preece stating that Probasco's figures have not taken into account the large amount of commercial building already approved by the City. On the other end of the pipeline, some have also expressed concern about the abilityof the new Snyderville Basin Sewer Plant to handle the growth. , But for the Park City area, at least, the director of the sewer district does not see that as a problem. "Sewer is not the limit to growth, the sewer plant can be expanded as fast as the water can be found to put into it," comments District Director Bruce Decker. In a memorandum to the City last month,' Decker Pkxsa turn to psgp7 continued from pg. 6 projected that if the city were to use all of its allocated capacity and reduce infiltration, infiltra-tion, then ' 'an additional 5,000 connections could be . ' made." For Decker and the sewer district,- the problem is not lack of capacity in the hew sewer plant for Park City,, but the demands being made by . the unanticipated development deve-lopment in the areas surrounding sur-rounding the city. ; Because of that, plans to double the capacity of the new plant, scheduled to be on line in, September, "the day after the plant goes on line." ; 1 Decker v says his real concern over growth is not within thef Park City limits, but out in the county where projects ,like;the Jeremy Ranch are r proposing to develop thousand of acres, develop thousands of acres. ' "Now the development pattern has shifted more to the county than anticipated,' anticipat-ed,' he notes.. |
