“A rich man’s playground”: Blue Sky Ranch expansion faces community opposition

Rendering of the new fitness center for the Blue Sky addition. Photo: Summit County // Blue Sky

WANSHIP, Utah — A proposed expansion of the luxury Blue Sky Ranch resort faced significant community pushback Tuesday night as residents voiced concerns about traffic, water resources and changing rural character during an Eastern Summit County Planning Commission meeting.

The proposal would rezone approximately 554 acres from AG-40 (can only be used for agricultural purposes and must be divided into parcels of at least 40 acres each) to AG-10 (this allows residential lots of 1+ acres, or 0.5 acres in planned developments) to allow for 76 new lots, including 72 single-family homes that could be put into a rental pool for Blue Sky Ranch guests. The development would also include amenities like fitness centers, art studios and a gourmet grocery.

“This is a rich man’s playground. It’s not anything that’s going to benefit the residents of Wanship,” said Frankie Donaldson, a longtime Wanship resident. “I’m fifth generation and I see my quality of life not the same.”

Traffic emerged as a major concern, with local attorney Janet Conway noting that despite mitigation efforts required for the lodge’s earlier expansion, accidents have increased. “The lodge’s head chef speeding at night, as all employees do, hit a cow head on in front of my house last year, requiring the manager to come out and shoot it in the head right there on the street, because it was suffering so badly,” Conway said. She added that accidents “are beginning to accumulate, with another two in front of my property just in the last couple of months— people speeding to Blue Sky— late for events.”

Michael Phillips, Blue Sky’s owner, defended the project’s community benefits, noting “We’ve had this property for over 20 years. We will build our house there. We employ 279 people. We’ve provided a tax base of $460,000 this year in terms of what the economic impact has been” He said they’ve attempted to address traffic concerns but faced jurisdictional challenges.

“For the last four years, we have had meetings with UDOT and Summit County and the engineering department to suggest that we would do a roundabout— pay for it— at that intersection, and we would also put in speed bumps. That has been denied consistently over time,” Phillips said. “UDOT doesn’t want to do it. They don’t think there’s enough trips there. They won’t even put a stop— a four way stop— and do a configuration that’s safe. We have advocated for that and said that we will pay for those improvements.”

The planning commission ultimately voted to table the application and requested written responses from the developer addressing community concerns before the next public hearing.

The expanded development would be the fourth phase of Blue Sky Ranch, which opened its original lodge in 2006 and was recently recognized as having one of the top 50 resort restaurants globally.

“It’s painful, but change is going to happen. It’s already happening,” Phillips said. “You’re already entertaining people that will develop thousands of units in 1,000 acres. And I’m not doing that. I’m taking a much lower density attitude and preserving the land, and we’ll continue to do that as…good stewards of the land and residents of Wanship.”