Park City leaders have reached a tentative agreement with developers to buy half of the development rights to Treasure Hill for $30 million. News of the coming deal, being negotiated in secret, caught citizens and opponents of the development by surprise.
Mayor Jack Thomas and Mayor-elect Andy Beerman told reporters the deal would require Park City voters agree to a $24 million ballot measure (the other $6 million will come from the city’s budget) next November.
The deal follows months of planning commission clashes between the developer and activists, who bitterly oppose Treasure Hill as destructive to Park City’s mountain town vibe. The development has been described as the “line in the sand” that would make Park City, formerly a mining town, an urbanized resort center.
But activists who opposed Treasure Hill still may have issues with the new deal. Cutting the development by half (the city would only get the Sweeney family’s property) would allow significant development to the hillside that overlooks Park City’s Old Town. Park City II, LLC, reportedly would still pursue building a boutique hotel and more than dozen houses.
Opponents of Treasure Hill, haven’t forgotten that a late 1980s city council got the city into this existential corner with a poorly considered development agreement.
The above image represents the Treasure Hill development as it stands, not as changed by the tentative deal.
