Is The Park City City Council Risking a Bad Outcome With Mountain Accord?

I received an anonymous comment about yesterday’s Park City City Council Meeting on Mountain Accord. The person makes a very good point about how the Mountain Accord may play itself out, given how the city council is approaching the issue.

It seems the only council member not willing to risk a bad outcome for Park City (by trusting Mountain Accord) is Dick Peek and he is retiring this year. That’s not good news.

According to the individual…

The Park City council voted 4 – 1 last night YES to Mountain Accord studying all non auto connections between Park City and the Cottonwood Canyons. The dissenting vote (The Mayor doesn’t vote but stated his opposition) was from council member Dick Peek who stated that he would not be willing to subject Park City to the risk of trains and tunnels, which are included in such study. There was no comment by those voting YES. On KPCW today council member Tim Henney explained why he supports a Mountain Accord study of all non auto connections between Park City and the Cottonwood Canyons. “The Guardsman Pass road is the big worry. If UDOT opened that up to year round use it would be a nightmare. Trains and tunnels would be a far better outcome.”

So now we are seeing some of the Mountain Accord play book, and the behind the scenes lobbying. When UDOT threatens the year round Guardsman Pass road opening, the Park City City Council will be able to “save” us from the “nightmare” with trains and tunnels! Never mind that UDOT has estimated that a year round Guardsman Pass road would cost 100 million + $, not including standard maintenance costs; and that part of the road is not owned by UDOT at all, but instead Wasatch county; and that it would seem almost, if not impossible for UDOT to acquire the necessary right of ways from the top of empire pass down Marsac Ave to Deer Valley Drive.

Council members voting YES: Beerman, Simpson, Henney, Matsumoto. NO: Peek.

Along those exact lines and with no comment they also voted to approve the Mountain Accord Interlocal funding agreement, obligating PC to pay $100,000 per year for the next three years.

h/t to the community member who provided this warning to the community.