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Show Have revisions put Snow Creek in jeopardy? MacQuoid sei.l to those who signed a petilioi, against Snow Creek. The letter said the project would require "'625 parking spaces. 50 percent of which we have agreed ui 6c underground parking " His emphasis. ) The Snow Creek project includes area listed as "undesignated parcels. " Developers have said they cannot detail future plans there, since they ca l predict market conditions According to planner Dave Hoesch. the city staff agreed developers do not have to supply a plan until they make their first conditional use application, on other phases. However, the staff wants developers to commit to placing the same highway buffer on those parcels that presently is listed for the other phases of Snow Creek. by Rick Brough The Snow Creek Hotel project came back before city planners this week with a proposed drop in height of about 20 feet. " In a written report, the city's planning staff said it strongly supported the new concept. But Snow Creek developers now say that, even if they reach agreement with the city, they may not necessarily have the financial support of their backers. A work session with Planning Commission was held Wednesday night, Nov. 7, at the Marsac Building. A decision session has been scheduled on Nov. 14. In a related development, Snow Creek failed to receive an endorsement from the Historic Main Street (merchants) Association. Member Harry Reed strongly opposed the idea, saying Snow Creek's "support commercial" area is too large. The Snow Creek project, including the commercial, a hotelconvention center and an office complex, would be located northeast of the Utah Highway 224Kearns Boulevard intersection. According to the newest concept from developers, the maximum height of the building above code would be about 40 feet, as opposed to the previous variance of 55 to 60 feet. Snow Creek partner Mac MacQuoid said the average variance is 18 feet. Chief architect Bruce Call told the Record the overall average height of the building is 32.8 feet, within Land Management Code limits. This height prevails over the most critical section of the building, he said. The building could go up to 11 levels. The height change could be achieved, said MacQuoid, by moving the upper-level restaurant back further toward the hill. But this may lead to construction changes, such as moving the hotel's elevator core back. (This, in turn, leads to added expense from excavating more dirt out of the hill.) It may create a problem for the hotel operator, said MacQuoid, if the staff has to walk greater distances from the elevator to the restaurant. MacQuoid, appearing before the Main Street merchants, said the Snow Creek lender was "all but out of the project ' and any agreement with the city will have to be sold to him. "We do not have guaranteed financing regardless of what happens," said MacQuoid. The lender reached the "bottom line" of what he could accept several weeks ago, said Call. At that point, the hotel had cut its mass by 61 percent, but still stood at 400 rooms and 370,000 square feet. That was the basic, minimal plan that the lender wanted, he said. Since then, the developers have made changes beyond this "bottom line," but Call said those were minor revisions and fine tuning. According to a Snow Creek chart, this included cutting the rooms to 350 and chopping the square footage down to 300,000. MacQuoid said the lender is sensitive to the city's needs. He has been interested in the city's counter proposals for changing the hotel, but has repeated his desire for a "five-star" "five-star" or "four-star" hotel. (Only 25 hotels in the United States have a five-star rating, Call said. The ratings are given by the Mobil Travel Co. and are based on a lengthy list of criteria such as quality of restaurant, size of rooms and room service afforded. ) The mass of the hotel has been the most controversial issue, but close behind has been the question of the "support commercial" area. This is a village area of 30.000 square feet, roughly between the hotel on Cemetery Hill and the highway. According to MacQuoid. it would serve the entire Master Plan area, including the hotel and office park. The shops would be oriented to the interior of the "village" area, according to senior planner John Eskelin. The developers also have added a path to the east of the "village," strengthening the pedestrian linkage to the hotel. The support commercial was the main topic of conversation at the Main Street merchants meeting, where MacQuoid argued that Snow Creek's commercial, by drawing people out of the hotel, will encourage them to explore the rest of Park City. Snow Creek will not compete with Main Street for several reasons, he said. He noted that businesses once feared Deer Valley would compete with Main, but that did not happen. And he pointed out that two Park City businesses Old Town Gallery and Dolly's bookstore were considering setting up branch shops in Snow Creek. (Other possible shops discussed, MacQuoid said, were a liquor store, The Tinder Box shop, a beauty salon, a barber, a camera store, a golftennis shop, a bakery, a delicatessen and a French fashion store. ) Bob Haedt, the board chairman of the Historic Main Street Association, suggested an endorsement of Snow Creek. But Harry Reed (referring to MacQuoid) said, "He insults our intelligence to ask this group to endorse an area that's 10 times the size of this building ithe Coleman Land Co. building, where the meeting took place.) It's going to hurt us." Planning Commissioner Ron Whaley also has argued the "support" area will have to attract outside customers to make a profit . i MacQuoid said he did not come to the merchants meeting to seek an endorsement. He acknowledged that some commercial proposed for Snow Creek would attract people outside the project. One idea is for a "famous-name" restaurant. But MacQuoid said this means more people will be attracted to the Park City area. The Snow Creek project also includes these elements : The convention center attached to the hotel has stimulated much support for Park City's business community. MacQuoid said the center would seat up to 2,500 for meetings and 1,200 for dinners. Given the hotel's relatively small capacity, he argued, the customers will "spill over" to use other Park City lodging. The office complex, MacQuoid said, may be used as a satellite medical foundation. Developers are talking to the University of Utah, among other entities. The city has tried to get more underground parking from the developers. In its Oct. 24 report, the staff said the developer has planned 47 percent of the parking underground. And earlier, Merle Tourney, Snow Creek's managing general partner, argued he could not build any more. MacQuoid told the Record the underground parking would be from 45 to 50 percent. However, a slightly different indication came in an Oct. 29 letter |