Fox Tail Trail development draws HOA condemnation

A conceptual rendering of the lot proposed, looking east. Photo: Applicant // Park City Municipal Corporation

PARK CITY, Utah — On Wednesday the Park City Planning Commission conducted a site visit and held a work session on an application for over 32 acres at 3805 Fox Tail Trail, which is in between the Hidden Meadows subdivision in lower Deer Valley to the west and Park City Heights to the east.

The property was annexed into Park City in 1995. The applicant, REDUS, which is an arm of Wells Fargo, is proposing to create a 3.8-acre lot for a single-family dwelling with a portion dedicated to open space.

“Wells Fargo is basically trying to recover from the very significant losses they’ve experienced on the Talisker-United Park City Mines loans,” said Douglas Ogilvy, a representative of REDUS. “So they foreclosed on this property in an effort to recover some of those losses.”

They’re proposing to donate the roughly 29-acre parcel to the city for open space purposes.

It would relocate the Woodchip Trail Trailhead to the south along with the trail. Park City Trails and Open Space Manager Heinrich Deters endorsed the application, noting that the change would provide for the continuation of and connection between the Lost Prospector Trail and Park City Heights Trail.

Ogilvy told the commission that they had addressed the neighbors’ concerns by implementing a 12-month rental restriction, and by reducing the driveway from the initially planned 800 feet by pulling the home closer to the cul-de-sac (now 100 feet).

Commissioners Sarah Hall said she wanted to limit fractional ownership on the property, which others agreed with.

James Letchford, president of the Hidden Meadows Homeowners Association, which represents all of the homes in the nearby area, said that the applicant will ultimately be able to make their own rules by establishing their own HOA.

“The intent for this has been always that this would get the project approved, and at the end of the day, will end up becoming a nightly rental,” Letchford said. “They have their own homeowners association and their own CC&Rs, that can in the long run end up being a hotel at the end of our neighborhood.”

Another member of the HOA told the commission that the applicant could solve all their issues simply by joining Hidden Meadows.

“I don’t think we could even attempt to require them to join an HOA,” commissioner John Phillips said. “Nor do I think we could deny this because they’re not joining the HOA.”

A neighbor of the lot that spoke said that they were happy with an agreement they reached with the applicant regarding a sewer easement, and noted they weren’t objecting.

The scheduled discussion was a work session, and no action was made on the application. Commissioner Laura Suesser asked staff for a steep slope analysis, saying “I think the significant vegetation on the site needs to be identified… we have to look at these things very carefully.”

Ogilvy later said that he communicated to 29 neighbors, but missed Letchford. “We’re asking permission to develop 16,000 square feet of a 33-acre parcel,” Ogilvy said. “That’s not an unreasonable ask.”

The application returns to the planning commission on June 28.