In some alternative universe, everyone who wanted to live in Park City would be able to live here. I wish it was possible. I wish there would be no impact. I wish traffic wouldn’t be impacted. I wish schools wouldn’t be impacted. I wish our natural resources would not be impacted.

In another world, we may imagine that Park City would have a hundred thousand people around it — so that anyone who wanted to live here could live here. Right now, the Snyderville Basin has about 30,000 people around the greater Park City area.

So, let us contemplate tripling that to 90,000 people. How nice would tat b

What would that mean?

I believe there is inherent guilt in living in the Park City area. We know how great it is and believe everyone should have the opportunity to live here. Somehow, and I’m not sure how, many of us have found a way to live in a place where homes cost $2 million dollars. My 20-something version of myself would have never dreamed that was possible.

Since we exited the financial crisis in 2012, housing prices went vertical, there has been a push to ensure there is affordable housing in the Snyderville Basin. The argument is that we need our teachers, law enforcement, firefighters, wait-staff and others to be able to afford to live here.

It makes sense. If you research the topic, there are stories about how teachers who live in their community have more time to spend with their students and their kids get better outcomes. We hear that law enforcement personnel who live in a community provide more protection. There is the argument that if people live in a locale, versus drive in, that they will take public transport and reduce traffic.

I don’t doubt this in many cases.

Yet, who wouldn’t want to live here? If you are living in the Salt Lake Valley and immersed in an inversion, wouldn’t you want to live above the pollution in Park City? Who wouldn’t want to be 10 minutes from a ski resort when the Cottonwoods are such a shit-show? We could literally fill every single inch of the Snyderville Basin with people.

I get why people want to live here.

Yet, do we who live here, really want more people to live here? Do we trust Summit County and Park City to solve trail issues? Do we believe UDOT will magically solve traffic through a traffic-study pushed by a developer. Will the health department find a way to stop the inversion from coming up I-80? Do I want to be more crowded?

Or do we believe that more traffic and more people lead to a worse experience for those people who have lived here for decades?

I tend to believe that affordable housing is used by developers to make money. It’s an end to the means for them. There is a rule in our General Plan that says that there is so much development that has already been OK’d but not yet built, that there has to be a reason to OK more development. So, developers trot out affordable housing as an incentive to get it approved. Do they do this because they want to make Park City and Summit County better? No, they want to make money.

The downside of this is that is fills our town with too many people. We don’t have the ability to support the traffic, people, and natural resources necessary.

We make Pa

We have to stop building in and around Park City where not required. We are getting it wrong from the long view.

There are entitlements where a landowner has the right to build something. Thos areas are like the million suqare feet of land approved at the Canyons. There is also land where people propose to change the rules to build more than we want. Those areas are in places like the Boyer Tech Park and Highland Estates.

Today’s perspective is that we have too little affordable housing. Therefore, we need to build in Park City and Summit County. We need to allow the open space at the Tech Center to become eleven hundred apartments and condos. We need to build four hundred apartments in the curved-space that is adjacent to Highland Estates at Highway 40.

Yesterday we wrote that we will lose GREAT Park City teachers unless the Park City School District revamps their new enrollment policy to ensure that teachers’ kids can attend the same school where they teach. These GREAT teachers will go somewhere else in Utah to educate other children — not our children.

I am a supporter of public transportation. In the past five years, I can count on two fingers how often I have driven to a Park City ski resort. I take the bus. It’s the same when I head to Main Street. There is no reason to drive and pay to park when you can take the Spiro 101 or Electric 10.

Yet, there is a problem with High Valley Transit.

For those who don’t know what High Valley Transit is, Summit County had a breakup with the Park City bus system earlier this year. Summit County formed its own bus system and added the ability to book a ride via a Toyota minivan to many places in the Basin. They call the minivan portion High Valley Micro Transit.

It’s great. For no money, Uber High Valley Transit will pick you up and take you where you want to go. Want to be picked up and taken to your friend’s house in Glenwild? High Valley Micro Transit! Want to go from your house to Kimball Junction for dinner? High Valley Micro Transit! Want a ride back from a bar to your house at 12:30 AM? High Valley Micro Transit!

You get all the benefits of public transport without having to ride a bus and get to ride in your own private minivan.

As one Park City High School student coined it, it is FRUBER. Free Uber.

That’s the problem. You and I, as Summit County taxpayers, are subsidizing an Uber/Lyft style transportation system for individuals. Instead of the rider paying $30 for a ride, we the taxpayer are paying for them. It’s not right.

According to a KPCW, “the driver will either drop you off at your destination or at the nearest bus stop, whichever is closest and most convenient based on how many requests the driver has at that time.”

That’s not my experience nor that of people I have spoken with.

The High Valley Transit App allows a person to book a ride from anywhere within the Basin to almost anywhere else in the Basin. From my experience, It rarely directs a user to the bus. It provides free Uber. Then officials claim that as a success because it sounds good. They have thousands of riders who are delivered directly from point A to B without paying a dime. No crap. Summit County is providing free Uber.

A few weeks ago I was headed to the Indigo Girls concert at DV. I booked the ride from Jeremy Ranch to the KJ Transit Center. I already felt bad because I should have booked it to the Jeremy Ranch Park and Ride because that is the closest transit location where a bus could pick me up. However, upon picking me up, the driver offered to take me directly to Main Street. He said he couldn’t take me all the way to Deer Valley but he could take me lower Main Street. I said I wanted to embrace the spirit of the micro-transit and said to continue to the KJ transit hub.

Since then I have spoken with people who tell me that all their friends tip the High Valley Drivers to take them wherever they want to go around Park City.

This can’t be how this was designed to be operated. I don’t beleive Caroline Rodriguez, Regional Transportation Planning Director for Summit County, had this in mind for the High Valley Transit District when they started this. From a local perspective, I have tried many times to book a ride and it is unavailable. Officials attribute this to overwhelming usage. However, I wonder if everyone WAS REQUIRED TO BE DROPPED OFF AT THE CLOSEST BUS STOP, instead of driving 30 minutes across the Basin, would there be a ride for me to the bus station? Probably.

From my perspective,

There was a time where taxes around Park City were low. That’s no longer the case. Personally, my home’s property taxes have more than doubled in ten years. I know people across Summit County are feeling the same thing. It’s getting out of control.

Yes, I get that there is inflation. inflation should be at 1-2% per year over that period.

Yet, I don’t feel like I am getting any more services than I did a decade ago. I received a Jeremy Ranch roundabout which seems more dangerous each time I drive through it. Yes, it does seem to help Eastbound traffic at the off-ramp at 5 PM, but that’s about it. Otherwise, every interaction with it and the Quarry village roundabout causes me stress.

There is High Valley micro-transit, which is basically free-Uber via minivan. You and I subsidize that. In a perfect world, High Valley Transit would take people to the closest bus stop, but in our incarnation, they take you where you want to go and gladly accept the tip to get you there. It actually increases traffic on our roads.

Summit County has its own bus system. We paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to have our own transportation system. It’s led to a worse solution for people in Silver Springs. They’ll directly experience that come this winter.

My property values have gone up, but if I’m not selling my house, my increased home value doesn’t mean much to me.

However, the extra property tax bill does.

On top of that, The Park City School District voted to put a $79 million dollar bond on the ballot. If your house has a taxable value of $945K, it will cost you an extra $100 a year in taxes. By the way, they want about double that and will likely finance the additional portion in another way. So, now you are paying another $200 a year — or more because your house is likely valued at twice that amount. That payment goes on for 20+ years.

Summit County also wants an additional $50 million for open space purchases. That’s likely about $90 per year per $1 million residences. That will be on the ballot in November and will also go on for 20+ years.

Our friends in Francis may have to endure a 31% property tax increase to fix roads. It’s about $100 a year in additional taxes for an average house.

I’m sure we are all for more open space. I’m sure many of us are for better schools. I’m sure most are for repairing our roads before they fall apart.

Yet, at some point, in totality, it becomes too much.

It’s not enough to say, “Trust me, give me $80 million because we had mutliple commitees looking at schools.” Likewise, the community has always been for open space. Yet, at some point the collective bill becomes too much.

I think we are nearing that point.

Bad things will happen because individually everyone thinks their cause is pure. However, collectively it becomes too much.

For those new to Park City, you may not know that we used to have a K-Mart. It stood where TJ Maxx, World Market, and Michaels now live. When it went away, Kimball Junction was a wasteland. That is until a redevelopment made it into the walkable, beautiful development it is today. Long-time readers will know that I say that in jest.

Yet, we are at the forefront of seeing the second coming of suburban blight to the Basin. If you haven’t been following the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission, Harmon’s Grocery wants to become “the anchor tenant” at our local outlet mall. I’d never heard of an outlet mall actually having one of those. That tells you something about the state of the Tanger outlets.

Oh, sorry, they are no longer known as the Tanger Outlets but something called Outlets Park City. I love that their home page shows a picture of Main St and not the acres of concrete at the Outlets Park City. But I digress.

The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission is deciding if, and how, Harmon’s can become the featured tenant of the outlet mall. While I am often critical, I am not critical of the job the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission has done recently. They have to thread the law, with what makes sense for our community, with what is under their purview. It can’t be easy. So, whether they think it’s a good idea or not, Harmon’s is likely coming to an Outlet Mall near you.

Is that a good thing for our community?

No. We have too many grocery stores. We have a Walmart, Kroger (Smiths), The Market, Whole Foods, Fresh Market Park City, and Fresh Market Pinebrook. There is also the concept of another supermarket around Hideout. As Ryan Dickey of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission said, “To the extent, we benefit this retail project with a successful Harmons, we’ll probably lose one of the others.” He qualified that this opinion doesn’t impact their decision-making about whether to approve the location. I completely agree on this taking down a supermarket and guess which one that will be?

Walmart isn’t closing. Whole Foods isn’t going anywhere. Smith’s is too entrenched and successful. The Market has a different market. Fresh Market in Park City also has a different market. The impact of a Harmon’s will be on the Fresh Market in Pinebrook.

Fresh Market in Pinebrook has always had one thing going for it. It has specialty items. The community seems to forgo the fear of high prices because of the specialty items and the fact it is easy to shop … since no one is there.

It is easy to imagine that Fresh Market Pinebrook will fade into nothingness with the introduction of Harmons down the street. That’s unfortunate because I like Fresh Market’s proximity to Jeremy Ranch. I like many of the people that work there. I like their selection of foods. It will be sad when it goes.

So, what will the shell of the building become? Perhaps we will get a seasonal Spirit Halloween store like they have in the empty supermarkets that dot the Salt Lake Valley. You may wish that a Trader Joe’s or Sprouts would come in. However, you don’t fix an overcrowded grocery store market with more grocery stores. Also, the space is too big. Trader Joe’s, if they ever arrive here will likely be in a space that is similar to World Market. And no, Costco won’t go in there. Neither will Target. There aren’t enough people here.

Longer-term it wrecks the plans that the Summit County Planning Department has for Jeremy Ranch. Jeremy Ranch was supposed to be a micro-hub for development. Residents were supposed to go about their day without ever driving a car. Without Fresh Market, it makes even less sense. I’m not sure it even made sense in the first place.