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Show Residents voice fears about Sweeney development impacts by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer The proposed Sweeney Master Plan, which has previously aroused discussion about its impact on nearby near-by mountain slopes, has now brought protests from citizens about its effect on residential Old Town. The discussion came during a Dec. 4 meeting of the Park City Planning Commission, its second public hearing hear-ing on the Sweeney Master Plan development. The project proposes building on Park Avenue property near the Old Town chairlift and on the hillside west of the Main Street business area. It proposes concentrating its hillside units in clusters at the midstation of the Old Town chairlift and in Creole Gulch south of the lift. Pat Sweeney, representing the developers, said the project would have a stabilizing effect on the neighborhood. But Gordon Wirick, a resident of Lowell Avenue, said he lives within 300 feet of the proposed project. "Believe me, it won'tji stabilize my home," he added.! .;. ! "I'm not against the Sweeney project. pro-ject. If it could just be done with a 5 magic wand, it would be wonderful." wonder-ful." But he said he was told by city . streets employees that Lowell and, Empjre (streets in upper Old Town) cannot sustain the construction traf-. fic that would result from : the Sweeney project. ; it :t b "I really don't want trucks loaded with steel and concrete going by my -house for three to five years,"' he said, adding that a flatbed truck once crashed into his dining room. Wirick suggested that construction construc-tion traffic could use two other possible possi-ble routes Eighth Street, which runs west from Park Avenue, or Norfolk Avenue, which runs parallel to Lowell and Empire. Resident Janet Goldstein suggested sug-gested that before the city approves the Sweeney project, it consider the impact made by the Old Town lift on the area. "There's no place to park now. The whole area is going to be a horrendous zoo." She added that while the Sweeneys have property rights, so do the homeowners in Old Town. Mary Lehmer protested that parking park-ing restrictions already are being placed on the whole town due to the new ski lift. She also said that she has been restricted to four units an acre if she wants to develop her Old iiTown property, due to the; narrowness nar-rowness of the street leading to it. Meanwhile, she said, the Sweeney ; project can build up to a zone limit of 1 23' units an acre. And it would generate traffic through the narrow Old Town streets, she added. , But the Sweeneys said the city ; would upgrade Old Town streets and , their impact fees would maintain the J ':r. roads during construction. Another project spokesman, Mike Sweeney, said the project would be phased, so that the next three to five years would be devoted to the Park Avenue development near the lift. The hillside would be built over the next 15 years. Mike Sweeney also said the project's pro-ject's parking would be largely on site and underground. , The density on the hillside also is ., much less than they are permitted to build, developers said. City planner Dave Boesch said the developers plan to put 218 unit equivalents on the hillside, compared to an allowed 431 unit equivalents. Wirick said he was still skeptical. "I know how developers work, because I've been one for 40 years. They'll wear you down if they get a chance." In a related development to the Sweeney project, the city responded to a protest from resident Gary Kimball, Kim-ball, who told the Nov. 27 hearing that cutting trees on the hillside was prohibited by a 1926 law. Boesch said research found that the ordinance had been abolished in a recodification of city laws that took place in 1940. The Planning Commission will consider an approval of the Sweeney Master Plan at its Dec. 18 session. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Marsac Municipal Building. |