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Show Could parking restrictions hamper development of Prospector Square? The Prospector Square Association Associa-tion has been meeting with city planners in an effort to reach a parking agreement that would not preclude further development there. The parking issue in Prospector Square is a complex one, according to all paries involved. The municipality municipal-ity and developers, however, don't agree on how parking for potential projects should be planned. The Park City Council and Planning Department are determined deter-mined to institute a formula by which builders would have to provide additional parking if their commercial commer-cial structure required more than was allotted on the common grounds. The Prospector Square Association, Associa-tion, however, believes there is enough parking to go around for now and doesn't want any restrictions imposed by the city, according to Association spokesman Mike Sloan. According to city planner Dave Boesch, there are approximately 1,000 parking spaces on the common grounds at Prospector Square, and about 328,000 square feet of potential po-tential commercial area. By a simple formula, he said, for every 328 square feet within a building, one parking space should be provided on the common grounds. Beyond that, developers should provide parking. But Sloan and the Prospector Square Association maintain that only 15 percent of the common parking grounds are being used even though 22 percent of Prospector Square has been built upon. Compounding the complexity of developing parking regulations in the area is the fact that the common grounds are owned by Murray First Thrift which is being dissolved by the Utah Commission of Financial Institutions. Back taxes of approximately approxi-mately $100,000 are owed on the common parking ground, according to City Attorney Tom Clyde. It is conceivable, according to Clyde and City Councilman Jim Doilney, that those grounds could be sold for back taxes, leaving no common ground in Prospector for parking. Sloan said that his association would go to court this week to win title to the grounds which, he said, were promised to the Prospector Square Association in an agreement with Murray First Thrift. Whether the tax burden for those grounds will land in the lap of the Prospector Square Association is not known. Doilney, however, is adamant that those taxes be paid before any more building approvals are given to the Prospector Square area. According to Boesch, however, no building permits have been denied in the Prospector area. Boesch said that the City and the Prospector Square Association are working toward an agreement on parking there. "Until that time we'll try to accomodate interim development," develop-ment," he said. Sloan's plan for parking in conjunction with development in Prospector is to assess property owners later for parking structures, should there be shortcomings at a later time. Without title to the grounds, no parking structures can ...... be built there now. . . But Boesch and Doilney maintain , that isn't a workable solution. It -. would be impossible to track down . ... owners later for an assessment, they said. The city wants a plan that will ", , address parking now. . ..... ! . According to Boesch that leaves. .. two alternatives. The first is that , . , builders provide on-site parking . according to a formula designating .. ... parking needs depending on the type of commercial use constructed. The second alternative is that ; .... developers be assessed at the time of . . , .: building for parking structures.. ;. ; Those funds would go into an escrow . .. account for future parking needs. ... . "We don't want to administer funds but we need to know funds exist," Boesch said. . : The Prospector Square 'Associa- ; " tion has agreed to make annual studies of parking in the area. Those studies, Sloan said, would determine V " j actual use of common parking during all hours of the day. That information will go a long way toward resolving , . the current issue, he said. |