This is a subjective list of probably shoulds. All my own, I don’t expect anyone to agree, and frankly, I’m not wrong, either. Well, according to me: City Hall probably should move to the 5-Acre Site. A park on that busy corner of central Park City is not a place anyone would go, given th e wealth of alternatives, and really, just flush $19 million of city money in 2017 for the purchase down the drain? That definitely should not happen. As for the housing plan on tap, we have Aspen Villas a block away in one direction, the EngineHouse right there the other way. Three stories or four, this maybe isn’t the very best use of the public land, even with a little arts center embedded there, that vestige of big dreams for the Sundance Film Festival HQ and Kimball Art Center, both gone.   The current City Hall in the old Marsac School is too cramped, with too little parking, and it’s too tucked away up in Old Town in a historic building aching to become a boutique hotel. Just as student numbers blew out the usefulness of the old building, so have the city’s staffing needs outgrown this precious real estate in a tourist mecca. A busy central corner of town may suck as a park but is ideal as a spacious City Hall with a jewel of an arts center rather than afterthought. From a certain distance, this is obvious, by the way, even with going on nine years of hands wringing over what to do with the parcel. City Hall is out of place in Old Town. Make the Marsac Building part of the revitalization of historic Main Street and a roomier City Hall more central for people who live here. Main Street probably should be fully revitalized. The street is tired, frankly, as quaint historic downtowns have sprung up everywhere, thanks to revitalization efforts … elsewhere. Asphalt is not historic in any sense — not in any quaint and nostalgic sense, anyway. Neither are today’s cars blocking the view of the mining-era buildings. Make Main a pedestrian way on pleasant pavers with maybe a trolley on a track running up and down the middle. This would put more focus on the architecture itself, free of cars, curbs, Ubers with their blue lights clogging the street, engine noise, exhaust, all that.   Sure, figure out a gondola to Snow Park if you can. And stop wasting Swede Alley on dumpsters while you’re at it. Parking in Old Town probably should be free. Wonder why the district lacks locals? That’s not the biggest mystery. This also hearkens to what deeper transit thinkers have been at times impatiently declaring: Old Town needs a real transit plan, probably before anything else.   Short-term rentals probably should be restricted much, much more. Park City has the highest percentage of homes used for short-term rentals in Utah. If there’s a direct cause of the city’s loss of community, this is it. At least four of every 10 homes is employed for short-term rentals. The other three-four of those 10 are second homes mostly left empty. Real homes where real people live full time have become the smaller fraction of the mix. This also might help with that commuter and skier traffic congestion in part thanks to only 12% of Park City’s residents working in town. Clark Ranch affordable housing probably shouldn’t be apartment houses. The 10 acres sandwiched between Park City Heights and U.S. 40 probably should be something other than apartment houses, and should not require a separate road. A development there should match the neighborhood, basically, with town houses at most, and the existing access road should suffice just fine, current hollering aside. The location is out of the way and too dense for the distance from Richardson Flat Road and S.R. 248, never mind town amenities, for apartment living. The city-owned land next to Studio Crossing makes more sense for that. In any case, the plan on tap now definitely isn’t right for the space. Probably should open I-80’s U.S. 40 turnoff to two lanes. This would at least ease a single-lane chokepoint that can only clog up completely with Deer Valley’s East Village base coming on line and Wasatch County growing like none other in Utah. The rest of the Park City area’s daily “gridlock” is largely overblown if you’ve lived anywhere else, other than maybe a fire lookout or lighthouse. Probably should improve Park City Mountain’s lift service This springs from a forest-for-the-trees issue, the letter of the law completely missing what’s right with respect to a bid to get a couple of lifts upgraded and better aligned. Realigning existing lifts is not really a case of “new” lifts. That might be so if Park City Mountain wanted to add new lifts to the total. Replacing is hardly the same thing. It’s past time to get this right in reality. Probably should run a lift from Richardson Flat to Deer Valley, and Park City Mountain. This fits under the category of “how cool would that be?” Done well, it would go a long way toward easing other skier traffic aggravations closer to the heart of town while easing parking pressure on Old Town and Snow Park. It could even be a preferred destination rather than “Oh crap, we’re late and have to park way out here and take a bus. …” Probably should open Deer Valley Resort to snowboarders Ideas about wild and crazy snowboarders were disproved decades ago. Recklessness has precisely nothing to do with the conveyance, one plank or two, and much more to do with, well, adolescence.   All but two ski mountains in America understood this back a few generations now. Skiers who can’t shake old prejudices can learn to share just as they do everywhere else in the world. If Deer Valley is really going to join the big boy resorts, it needs to, um, decriminalize snowboarding. Even grandpas board these days. (Please don’t ask how I know this.)   This doesn’t begin to match the sorry old days when clubs limited membership to white, male and wealthy. But it is backward and discriminatory at root. Call this the very, very least of that kind of issue. Or in short, c’mon man. Not that I would have an objective opinion as a … snowboarder. Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745. The post Journalism Matters: You won’t agree, but here’s what probably should happen appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less