THINC Park City

City Hall and the Treasure developers continue to meet weekly as the sides attempt to craft an agreement, but little has been made public about the discussions in recent months.

Jonathan Weidenhamer, who manages the municipal government’s economic development programs and is assigned to the Treasure negotiations, said in an interview this week the sides hope to make progress over the next two months. He declined to discuss the talks in detail, though.

There will be a change in the mayor’s office early in 2014, as Mayor Dana Williams retires after 12 years as Park City’s top elected official. Treasure remains perhaps the highest-profile piece of City Hall business that remains unfinished as Williams enters his final two months in office. Treasure has been before City Hall through much of Williams’ administration, but the development talks stalled years ago. It has seemed Williams wants to reach a resolution to Treasure or at least make significant progress toward one by the time he leaves office.

“There’s a sense of urgency to try to get something to progress by the end of the year,” Weidenhamer said, acknowledging he is unsure whether an agreement will be reached by then.

The Developers have named their price for a total buyout of the Treasure project planned for Creole Gulch above Old Town, 93 million dollars. Park City officials say the price is too high for taxpayers to bear,  so they will no longer pursue that as an option. KPCW’s Linda Gorton has more…

Members of the Treasure Hill Impact Neighborhood Coalition are disappointed that Park City officials will no longer look at buying out the Treasure project. KPCW’s Linda Gorton has more…

The Sweeney family’s asking price for a buyout of their Treasure Hill land abutting Park City’s historic district may be too high even for a community that has spent tens of millions of dollars to preserve open space.

After a closed meeting Wednesday between Park City officials and the Sweeneys, City Councilwoman Liza Simpson said the Treasure Hill acreage could be purchased for $92,925,000. Simpson said that means a deal isn’t likely.

The Sweeneys and their partners, a limited liability corporation called Park City II, have proposed building a 1 million-square-foot project near the Creole ski run and Lowell Avenue that would include a hotel, conference center, restaurant and retail space.

But many Park City residents have criticized the plan as too big. The city had considered purchasing the land as open space.

“I think it is beyond our community’s ability and willingness to bond for the land at that price,” Simpson said. She doubts the council would put a bond that large on the ballot.

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The Developers have named their price for a total buyout of the Treasure Hill project planned for Creole Gulch above Old Town and Park City officials say the price is too high for taxpayers to bear,  so they will no longer pursue that as an option.

For the past year and a half, city officials and the Sweeney family, the primary owners and developers of the project, have been in talks about the plans to put a large development on the hillside just northwest of the town lift. The Treasure Hill project, as it is known, has had vested rights for years and includes plans for condos, a hotel and more. One of the options officials have considered over the last 18 months, in order to avoid seeing the large project go in, was a tax-payer funded buyout of the plan. Now it looks like that option is off the table.

The Sweeney’s recently provided the city with their estimate of the project’s value and said they would be willing to sell all of their development rights for just under 93 million dollars. After a final meeting between the two parties on Wednesday the city has now announced the two are at an impasse and a full buyout will no longer be considered.

City officials had considered the buyout option after residents expressed interest in the idea but survey’s showed very limited support for a large price tag. Officials estimate the buyout would cost property owners about 78 dollars a year per 100 thousand dollars of assessed value for 15 years. A home valued at just over 7 hundred thousand would pay well over 5 hundred dollars a year. In recent surveys only 17 percent of residents said they would be willing to pay that much.

Instead, officials say they will now focus on a plan to transfer roughly half of the density off of the hillside to other areas of town. Some of it could be transferred to the base area of Park City Mountain Resort. Stay tuned to KPCW Thursday morning, we’ll be talking with Councilwoman Liza Simpson about Wednesday’s meeting and what happens now.