Park City has seen a lot of evolution since its inception, some good and some less so.  What is consistent since the 1970s is that Park City enjoys a tourist economy. This carries with it some great benefits. Most of the municipal services and infrastructure we have all come to enjoy and expect ar e largely funded by visitors through taxes they pay on what they spend staying, eating and recreating in town.    Being a tourist economy also carries some clear challenges. There are obvious issues with traffic, crowding, housing, and price levels, plus today there is another challenge: area competition.  Our tourist audience has unprecedented flexibility, access to information, and a desire to make the most of their time and treasure when they travel. The newest major hotels in Park City, the St. Regis and Montage, were built over 15 years ago. Since that time, we have witnessed the completion of the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley, Pendry, Pioche, New Park, and Black Rock resorts, among others, all built outside of Park City. Major ski lift investments are underway in Summit County and the MIDA area (Military Installation Development Authority) of Deer Valley East Village. These developments represent not only significant competition for tourists, but also for the workforce necessary to operate them who do not have local housing options in Park City. Many were excited about the prospects for the evolution of the Bonanza Park (BOPA) area of town.  Once the outskirts of town, BOPA is now central to most of town’s activity and represents a tremendous opportunity for redevelopment.  The city’s extensive community outreach revealed broad consensus, as articulated in the initial reports, that the community would like to see BOPA evolve into a more connected, inclusive, and accommodating mixed-use neighborhood focused upon local residents who can live, work, grow and thrive in town. The challenge is that apart from the city’s 5-acre parcel, formerly known as the Arts and Culture District, there is currently only one undeveloped parcel in the area. The remaining area is already fully developed and serving the needs of the respective property owners and patrons. Fulfilling the dream of BOPA, as the heart of our “complete” community with housing and opportunities for those critical to the vibrancy of our town, will largely require the existing uses to redevelop. Unlike new developments on undeveloped land, there is a much higher economic hurdle to achieve redevelopment of existing properties. Given the relative success of the current uses throughout the district, property owners (including the city) need to be attracted by the prospect of a material increase in value to risk interrupting the use and success they enjoy today.   The recent denial by the Park City Planning Commission of the proposed redevelopment of the DoubleTree by Hilton-Yarrow Hotel suggests that the Planning Department does not adequately differentiate between new greenfield development and redevelopment of an operating property. This decision also represents the probable death of the community’s dreams and aspirations for BOPA.   If Planning cannot embrace a 10-foot height exception to replace seas of asphalt parking with 40% open space, long sought new trails and connectivity, affordable housing, and new mixed-use vitality all on top of costly underground parking, how will any of the district evolve or redevelop?     The existing Doubletree is a two-story building covering the vast majority of the site surrounded by asphalt parking uninviting to bikes and pedestrians, not unlike most of BOPA today. The only way to open the ground plain of fully developed properties to accommodate trails, plazas and open space is to cluster future redevelopment onto a smaller footprint and structuring or displacing parking. Doing this requires stacking uses vertically instead of horizontally, essentially building up and not out.  Development is not inherently evil. In fact, development can bring tremendous community improvements to an area. Development can also provide reliable tax base and critical economic vitality. Development and especially redevelopment, does, however, require the simultaneous alignment of many critical elements, a willing and capable ownership team who is interested in doing the right thing, a favorable market, and ability to timely unencumber the property for development.  It is truly unfortunate the Planning Commission failed to find a path to capitalize upon the tremendous opportunity represented by the redevelopment proposal they denied. Peter A. Tomai  Park CityThe post R.I.P BOPA? appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less