The Park City Planning Commission on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss a significant housing project close to the S.R. 248 entryway that involves City Hall itself.
The project is known as the Clark Ranch and the land is located off U.S. 40 in the area of Quinn’s Junction just south of the Park City Heights development.
The municipal government owns the land and wants to proceed with a development via a public-private partnership with The Alexander Company. A project would be placed on a maximum of 10 acres, with the other 334 acres of the ranch straddling U.S. 40 remaining open space.
The designs include 167 multifamily units and another 34 townhomes. A large bloc of the development would be set aside as workforce or otherwise restricted affordable housing.
Park City leaders are pursuing an aggressive housing program meant to provide options for those who would otherwise be priced out of the city’s resort-driven real estate and rental markets. The Clark Ranch concept is one of several consequential housing projects that involve City Hall that are either under construction or under discussion.
A project description submitted to City Hall as part of the Clark Ranch materials says the concept maximizes “housing opportunities for working families, teachers, and essential service providers who are being priced out of Park City.”
The design, the description says, allows the developers to “maintain open space, reduce infrastructure costs, and create a more efficient development footprint — without sprawl or unnecessary density clustering.” It also says by “keeping the massing low and the architectural expression subdued, we strive to reduce Clark Ranch’s impact on the expansive views and natural open spaces that define Park City’s identity.”
There is concern about the project, however, by people who live in Park City Heights. Some of the worry is centered on traffic that a project at Clark Ranch would generate. The S.R. 248 entryway is one of the traffic chokepoints, as commuters from parts of the Snyderville Basin, the East Side of Summit County and Wasatch County head to and from Park City. The elected officials have received recent input raising concerns with the concept. There has also been concern expressed about the prospects of a development at Clark Ranch ultimately making it more likely for broader growth on land under different ownership in the vicinity of the municipal land. Clark Ranch has also attracted attention in the City Hall election.
It seems almost certain the Planning Commission will address traffic-related issues in detail as it reviews the Clark Ranch proposal, as is typically the case when large developments are proposed in Park City.
The Planning Commission on Wednesday is scheduled to visit Clark Ranch at 4 p.m. The panel is slated to discuss the concept at a meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Marsac Building. One hour is set aside for the discussion. A vote is not scheduled on Wednesday.
The concept is tentatively scheduled to be considered at Planning Commission meetings later in September as well as in October and November.
