OCR Text |
Show Time Sharers Eye Residential Neighborhoods by Anne L. Burnett Record Staff It wasn't too long ago that Ennis Gibbs nearly sold his Thaynes Canyon home to a developer who wanted to turn around and "time-share" "time-share" its ownership. Neighboring Neigh-boring resident objections ended that transaction but apparently the idea didn't die. TheRecord has learned that the local Resortex "time-share" "time-share" company has purchased pur-chased several Park Avenue condominiums and is currently cur-rently buying more with plans to "time-share" their ownership. In addition, the Record .received an anonymous anony-mous phone call this week from a woman building a home in Prospector Square who said a developer is currently buying a home there with plans to "time- share" its ownership. In examining the situations, Resortex president Monte Hunsaker told the Record they are different. He said his company "is opposed to time-sharing homes" saying "they have no place in a residential area." But Hunsaker draws the line when it comes to the Park Avenue condos. He said his company has gotten a lot of bad press and he feels people generally don't understand un-derstand the concept of time-sharing. Hunsaker said his company wants to "help the community comm-unity and increase property values not the opposite." He noted many condo owners rent their condos on a regular basis. He said time-sharing works the same way except that the "renters" "rent-ers" own the condo instead. He noted some Park Ave- nue residents are worried about the quality of the area deteriorating but he said history shows time-sharing has a positive impact on the area because several families are chipping in to pay for the wear, tear and upkeep of the condos, In short, Hunsaker said they believe time-sharing should be limited to transient areas or hotel zones since it would not constitute a change in use for the area. He called it a positive move for the Park Avenue condos since time-sharing investors tend to be "upper income people" as opposed to the average renter. Many Park Avenue condo residents and owners differ with Hunsaker. The Park Avenue Condominium Home owners Association is meeting meet-ing with him early next week to talk about their differen ces. One of the major problems may have been the way Resortex set out on its development program. According to Dick Emery, Homeowners Association president, several Resortex personnel showed up at their board meeting to run for positions on their board of trustees. Upon being questioned quest-ioned by an association member two out of the three candidates admitted they were "related" to Resortex. They were not elected. Apparently, it's not so much the hard feelings " initially raised by the issue as concern over the impact of time-share development that bothers condo owners. Emery Eme-ry said they are worried about the demands put on condo facilities including the amenities shared by owners. "People aren't going to pay the kind of money they're going to have to pay to buy one and not use it or the -facilities that go with it," said Emery. He said it would put added pressure on parking and swimming facilities facili-ties for instance throwing them into 90 to 100 percent useage during the year. Emery also challenged the propriety of such a scheme. He said he admired Resor-tex's Resor-tex's innovation but said "owners selling the time-shares time-shares stand to make considerable consi-derable dollars greater than the fair market value of the condominium." Hunsaker appears to be saying why not? He said Resortex "doesn't want to be discriminated against especially when Sweetwater is allowed to do their thing further up on the hill". Emery, meanwhile, admits there's pretty strong resentment resent-ment over the whole thing noting, "I don't suppose., we can do much now," about those purchases already made. Hunsaker told the Record they've closed on seven condominiums and have five more in different stages of purchase. But that doesn't mean other owners aren't going to attempt to stop them. Park Avenui Cmdominium Home Owners Association lawyer and condo owner Steve Inelehv said that in addition to meeting with Hunsaker they are currently rewriting their condominium codes, convenants and regulations regul-ations to prohibit future time-sharing. They hope to have it completed within the next month or two. Both the assocition and the anonymous Prospector Square resident said they contacted City Planning Director Di-rector Bill Ligety about their situations. The problem of time-share impacts has come up with Ligety before which he said is why the Planning Commission recommended that the city council issue a moratorium pn time-share dev :Iopment throughout the area "f Park.Vjty I he Prospector resident told the Record a home in her area was being purchased by Kilburn Corporation in connection con-nection with the Park City firm of Western Enviro Systems Inc. When contacted contact-ed by the Record, Kilburn's Salt Lake City, President, Jim Clark said he had no comment on the situation except to say that Bill Ligety had had tried to discourage them from going ahead wit'i the idea but. that Kilburn's attorney's advised them "That such a thing was Ligety said the commissioi: made that recommendation a month ago with no residing action from the coun.., to date. However, City Manager Mana-ger Arlene Loble has asked Ligety to come up with alternatives in lieu of rhe moratorium. Ligety admits "that the longer we wait the more opportunity there is for time-sharing to happen". But he said, "it's stilfjiot too late for future projectsV' In the meantime, without a nioratorium against timesharing time-sharing in residential areas or areas not previously planned for time-sharing, developers may be within their legal rights to proceed with time-share development . of existing properties. It could mean the city would end up with areas where time-share owned residences are intermixed 'with single-owner single-owner residences. Currently, Ligety said he's "not aware that the city has any legal means to prevent it." |