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Show Guest Editorial Will Any Thing Really Change? Well, it's that season again. Elections. That amazing time when would-be Councilmen start attending Council Meetings, and begin quietly pointing out what should be done, a quiet prelude to the accusations and promises of the weeks to follow. As always, there will be the vows of protection for the 'old timers" and the 'history" of the city, with smooth transitions to 'progress, improvements and changes." There will be the sketchy solutions to intricate problems and complicated solutions to no problems at all, and hovering hov-ering over the whole caprice the perpetual optimism that accompanies anticipated changes. But will anything really change? How will a new Council Coun-cil deal with business? 7oning? Water? Developers? Will a new Council deal with these problems at all, or abdicate its responsibilities and excuse themselves by saying 'it's not what the people want?" A sad example of this type of abdication has occurred during the past month, little known to most Parkites, but effecting each one. Last week, on successive nights, the PlanningCommis-sion PlanningCommis-sion and City Council put the stamp of approval on another subdivision in Park City. They had little choice. The subdivision sub-division conformed to the 1968 Zoning Ordinance which governs gov-erns the size of lots, yard space and buildings, There are 135 lots for 212 units. No park. No baseball field. No picnic tables, bridle trails or tennis courts. There will be people. There's nothing bad about that. Park City needs people. But people need space for living, and if the developer doesn't provide it, the people living in the new subdivision will use Park City's existing facilities. The developer would have to give up only five lots to provide an acre of ground which could become a park. Of course, there were assurances that this-development will be a quality place with ample green space and will be "done right." But the fact remains re-mains that if it isn't -"done right," the developer isn't left holding the bag, the residents and the City are, because there aren't enough provisions in the zoning ordinance which require re-quire a subdivider to "do it right." At a public meeting held recently to hear input on the proposed new zoing ordinance, two Councilmen and a Planner Plan-ner were buffetted, battered, accused of being inept and secretive for two hours by this same developer with his gaggle of experts and a considerable number of "old timers" tim-ers" who voiced the same concerns about property values and rights to use land. They even went so far as to condemn the Master Plan committee for failing to notify them by personal letter that meetings were being held to draft the new zoning ordinance. Nevermind that this committee devoted their time voluntarily for the past year to draft the proposal, and that meetings were publicized for anyone having the energy to read the notices and hoist his rear end from in front of the T.V. to attend. Where has that legendary backbone that built Park Citv gone, when the same old timers who condemn all the new buildings, businesses and people let dollar signs fill their eyes, when the quality of a neighborhood is of no importance import-ance and if a neighbor feels that a family home surrounded by nightly rentals is no place to rear a family, that's just too bad. Take the money and run. Park Citv can accommodate the past and the future if greed and selfishness can be overcome. The new zoning may not be the answer, but neither is ignoring the problem. The leaders who will be elected in November need to listen not to the threats of the would-be rich, but to the laments of those who see Park City as a fine place to live and grow. |