Can Park City Be a Little Less Condescending Toward Summit County?

Throughout the debate of whether the Park City Film studio should be built at Quinn’s Junction that culminated in 2012, we continued to hear that Park City needed to annex film studio land into the city, so that the city’s development codes could be used. The implication was that Summit County would have somehow allowed a monstrosity to be built while Park City would use its strict design guidelines to help create the next Taj Mahal.

We thought we were done hearing that but yesterday’s Park Record quotes ex-Mayor Dana Williams about the Park City Film Studios and says Williams “supported the annexation of the land and the development of the studios there since that guaranteed the project was built in the Park City limits rather than in an unincorporated part of Summit County.”

If Park City representatives want to continue praising themselves for the Film Studio design that is fine. However, the hubris starts to show through the facade. People start to wake up.

Take a few citizen comments from a story about the studio at the Park Record:

“Just came back from a drive in Kamas and boy do I hope they have a budget for about 1000 trees. This thing is horrible looking. I really hope when completed it blends in a little.”

“Monumental white elephant. Future home of Woodward.”

“This idea reeked of disingenuousness from the beginning; now as I drive past that monstrosity on 248 or Hwy 40 I wonder what it will ultimately turn out to be…nothing that springs to mind seems very appealing. Chinese-owned film studio? Big Box store? Perhaps a second Fieldhouse is the best option, although it won’t stop the site from being a blight at the gateway to town.”

And those are some of the nicer quotes.

So the next time Park City says it wants to annex land so Summit County doesn’t somehow mess it up, keep the Film Studio in mind. I can’t fathom how it could be less attractive. While Summit County government isn’t blameless in the studio fiasco, at least The County Manager stated that the project was too big for the site. I think that’s something most unbiased people would agree upon.