Alan Theis has been a Park City Mountain skier for years and has held an Epic Pass, a Vail Resorts season-pass product. He lives in Prospector. And Theis, according to a filing in Third District Court, at some point suffered injuries in a collision while skiing. The injuries necessitated surgery and a hospitalization, the filing says. Theis filed a petition in court centered on planned upgrades to the resort’s Silverlode and Eagle lifts that the Park City municipal government previously approved through its process. The Park City municipal government is the defendant in the case. The petition wants a judicial review of the approval. On Tuesday, Theis declined an interview request. He indicated any comment would be issued via a prepared statement with the requirement that his answers be published verbatim. The Park City Planning Commission late in the spring approved the upgrades. The Planning Commission approval led to an appeal by six individuals, including Theis. The municipal hearing officer who officiated the appeal ruled in favor of the improvements in late July. Although Theis declined to comment on Tuesday, he submitted an opinion piece to The Park Record in June explaining the reasoning for the appeal. The opinion piece provides some insight into his thoughts about the upgrades sought by Park City Mountain. Theis’ opinion piece said the people who filed the appeal did not oppose the improvements. He pointed to Park City Mountain owner Vail Resorts in the commentary. “The public is being told faster lifts will solve congestion. They won’t. People aren’t standing in long lift lines because chairs are small or slow. They are standing in lines (for lifts, parking, barbecue, bathrooms, etc.) because Vail’s Epic Pass overcrowds our mountain,” he said. Theis added: “Faster lifts simply move more skiers onto the same terrain. Unless additional infrastructure and amenities are added alongside increased lift capacity, the result is more crowding on runs, not less.” Theis wrote that he was worried that the “Planning Department and legal staff told the commission to discard court rulings, ignore governing documents, and defer analysis to a future application. The commission acquiesced.” “If this precedent stands, Park City has no defense left against developers. Not against Vail, Alterra, Columbus Pacific, Extell, MIDA or anyone who shows up with renderings and a stack of checks for local nonprofits. That should worry everyone. The appeal, like the one before, is not about chairlifts. It’s about whether the city will enforce its own rules,” he said in the opinion piece. Other points in the submittal included: “Our request is simple: Follow the rules, the same governing agreements that have bound Park City Mountain for decades, and the same land use law that binds every property owner in town. Operate by those rules or leave our local ski hill to some one who will.” “If analysis shows the lift upgrades can proceed under those rules, great. Alternatively, if they put the capacity equation out of balance, the Vail can invest in other meaningful upgrades to rebalance the equation and apply for the lifts once more under a legitimate and transparent process. That is how the system is supposed to work.” The post Park City man challenging lift improvements previously outlined concerns  appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less