A hoped-for tipping point in the controversy over the Treasure Hill project failed to materialize at a Planning Commission meeting last week.
Ron Ivie, a former Park City chief building code official, who had helped write Treasure’s approval documents in 1986, spoke to the commission on the project, which has grown vastly since the city council gave it a green light 30 years ago.
Residents and even some former city council members argue that the scope development being proposed by Treasure was never what the city had in mind and could destroy Park City’s small-town charm.
Treasure contends that the approval three decades ago always provided for potential expansion. Spokesman Patrick Sweeney told SLmag Park City’s days as a small-town ended long ago, “It’s a city.”
At the meeting, Ivie only went as far as to say Treasure’s plans for fire protection of the development were sound. He did, however, suggest the city could buy the convention-center part of Treasure to control its use. (The city considered a buyout of the entire hillside in the 1990s, but bulked at Treasure’s suggested asking price.)
Treasure’s spokesman Sweeney, in an interview with Salt Lake magazine, suggested that if the city is concerned about the development of the hillside, “They can buy it.” But, he acknowledged the city “probably can’t afford it.”
Read all of our Treasure Hill Coverage here.
Watch for a in-depth examination of the Treasure project in Salt Lake magazine—on newsstands Jan. 1.
