Park City Council signals support for Arts and Culture District

A previous rendering of the Arts and Culture District, which would be at the intersection of Bonanza Dr. and Kearns Blvd. Photo: Park City Municipal Corporation

PARK CITY, Utah — Representatives with the Sundance Institute and the Kimball Arts Center were at the Marsac Building on Thursday to discuss the Arts and Culture District with the Park City Council in a work session.

The project has been a concept in development since 2017 for the land the city owns at the intersection of Kearns Blvd. and Bonanza Dr. The two organizations would be the anchor tenants of the development.

Park City Deputy Manager David Everitt said “the planning for the district and what it was to become got a little muddy” prior to the current council.

The main question on Thursday was — are you committed to this? All around, the answer was yes.

“I’m committed to us putting something for the community there that does include a culture aspect,” Park City Councilor Tana Toly said. However, she added that she is not in favor of the plan presented to the last council.

The newest councilor, Ryan Dickey, said he’s in favor of the original vision, adding that he would like to see housing involved.

Councilor Jeremy Rubell said he wants to see a neighborhood plan first. “If we keep moving forward with projects without cohesive planning of that area, we are going to regret it,” he said. He also expressed interest in the housing element.

“We talked about not having this be everything to everybody. But since we said that — transit, nonprofit, housing, community gathering place — all came up. And as soon as you start talking about community gathering place, you talk about food and beverage, talk about public facilities,” councilor Max Doilney said after the roughly one-hour conversation delved into certain issues.

“This is how slippery this slope is. We have to be really disciplined. There are gonna be some things that get cut out, in order to get this done.”

“I find it really exciting that we’re all coming back to the same table to have these conversations,” Park Mayor Nann Worel said at the end of the discussion. “We’re gonna move forward on this and I think we have a renewed commitment to that and you heard that from the council tonight.”