Park City Council candidate John Greenfield discusses his campaign

Photo: John Greenfield and his family.

PARK CITY, Utah – The race for Park City Council is heating up, with nine candidates officially declaring their candidacy for City Council in 2023.

As the candidate declaration period has passed, there will be no more official candidates that will be represented in the upcoming Park City Municipal elections. One of the official nine candidates, John Greenfield, recently spoke with TownLift to discuss his ongoing campaign and what he hopes to achieve if elected.

Park City’s primary elections for City Council will be held on September 5, and the general elections will be held on November 21. Primary elections will whittle down the number of candidates from nine to six, and the top vote-getters will advance to the primary elections in November. Statewide municipal elections were recently moved a few weeks back in conjunction with Gov. Spencer Cox’s announcement to hold a special election for Congressman Chris Stewart’s seat.

Greenfield has lived in various ski towns since 2002, beginning when he attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he earned his undergraduate degree. From there, Greenfield and his wife, Molly, moved to Vail, Colorado, where he began working on his Master’s degree in applied sociology. After a little over two years in Vail, Greenfield decided to attend law school, and then moved to Seattle where he earned a law degree from the Seattle University school of law.

After graduation, Greenfield spent some time in small ski towns in both Washington State and Alaska before moving to Park City in 2015. Here in Park City, Greenfield operated a Greek food truck for a couple years in addition to starting a grocery delivery service named Black Diamond Delivery. He was a member of the Park City Leadership class of 2022, and Greenfield has also put his law degree to use, and is a practicing attorney in Summit County specializing in criminal defense.

“I’m doing criminal defense, much like a public defender would do,” Greenfield said. “It’s been sweet because I really think that I’ve helped change some folks trajectories in their lives. People get into holes and they just can’t get themselves out. And so I really make an effort to go every step of the way with people I’ve been helping.”

If Greenfield’s name sounds familiar, it’s likely due to the fact that he also ran for Park City Council in 2021. Greenfield didn’t let the 2021 defeat deter him, and is now running again with more experience under his belt.

“When I was running (in 2021), I remember I walked up to this house in Prospector and this guy’s like, you have to talk to me. He’s said, I like you, but you need to learn more,” Greenfield said. “So I decided I’m going to work on that. So I kept attending city council meetings and occasional planning commission meetings on a regular basis, and really being under I feel like I began to understand how hard the job is, from attending and talking to folks and seeing it for both a tactical standpoint as well as like a relational status standpoint.”

In terms of Greenfield’s campaign, he is focusing on several key issues, including transportation and affordable housing.

“What I’ve been trying to get into an elevator pitch is basically transportation, portability, and diverse representation from all parts of public transportation,” Greenfield said about public transportation issues. “Basically we’re talking about tracking traffic flow, the experience of moving from here to there in town, so I’m looking a lot at Park and Ride lots which planning department calls intercept lots.”

“My role in the city council if I’m honored to be there would be to advocate to actually intercept the traffic where the traffic converges. So I’m an advocate of parking lots outside of town before you get to the film studio,” Greenfield explained. “I’m going to be advocating that they utilize land on the areas outside of town, as opposed to inside of town. That’s really my goal.”

Greenfield also has a unique idea to reduce parking requirements for residential units, hoping to attract residents who don’t necessarily want a car. “I’m interested in decreased parking requirements, I think it’s super good idea for future developments. We have to talk about giving priority to people who don’t have cars, and bring in people who actually want to have that kind of life. And I think that there’s lots of people out there who will gladly trade the possibility to have a car for the ability to live in Park City in the middle of town.”

Besides transportation and curbing traffic, Greenfield will also focus on affordability and costs of living if elected. “I was thinking about affordable housing for a long time, but affordability is much more than that. Housing is a part of that, but so is childcare, and it really encompasses as many topics as you can come up, access to sports access, access to the arts, all sorts of things.”

“I feel my role will be advocating for as many low AMI percentage units as possible.” Greenfield said. “When developers say, pencil out, what they’re really saying is whether desire gains can be generated. I really believe it’s up to the city/ the public to insist upon values other than just profit margin. We need to redefine what pencil out means for people, and if people and developers want to pencil out at a higher rate, if that’s what they insist, then we should be talking to other developers.”

Greenfield also has an idea to redevelop existing homes to create more spaces for families. “I like the idea of  retrofitting existing housing stock, making single family homes, for example, that someone wants to redevelop into maybe a duplex or triplex with a lot of space especially in a place like Old Town. You can still have decreased parking requirements, because you’re in places where you have access to transit and in jobs.”

Greenfield will be out campaigning and attempting to earn votes until the primary elections on September 5, and will be utilizing his experiences to try and resolve some of the issues here in Park City.

“Once you’re up there, some people like it, and more people don’t, and then most people don’t even care. It’s time consuming work and service, but it’s also super important, and so is grocery delivery, and so is a defense attorney too. Which is kind of funny, but it’s super important to realize that because you need to understand what you’re getting into.”