Deer Valley & Canyons Village parking lot reductions spur urgent transit talks

Officials review plans to enhance transit infrastructure as both Deer Valley and Park City Mountain resorts ramp up construction significantly reducing parking availability

PARK CITY, Utah — As both Deer Valley and Canyons Village ski resorts prepare for construction that will temporarily reduce parking capacity. Summit County and Park City officials reviewed findings on Friday from a joint park and ride study that recommends expanding transit facilities at key gateway locations.

The study, funded through a Utah Department of Transportation grant and conducted with nearly 1,200 participants, comes at a critical moment for the region’s transportation planning.

“Kimball Junction is quite a bit smaller than most of the park and rides, but it sees very high usage rates on peak days,” said Alex Roy, Park City’s senior transportation planner, noting the facility reaches up to 94% occupancy during peak periods.

Construction on a new parking structure at Canyons Village begins today, immediately reducing available free parking by 50% before closing the Cabriolet lot entirely from April 21 through December 2025. Simultaneously, Deer Valley’s five-year Snow Park Village development will cut available parking from 712 spaces to just 400 during its most intensive phase beginning May 2026.

Park City Council member Tana Toly emphasized the urgency of expanding park and ride capacity: “We’re just ready for a project location at Quinn’s, and getting that moving forward for a plethora of reasons, including some of our resorts going under construction this summer.”

The study recommends a hybrid approach featuring larger facilities at Kimball and Quinn’s junctions, supplemented by smaller neighborhood lots. Data shows Richardson Flat’s 650-space facility already approaches capacity at peak times, with usage growing substantially in recent years.

“The highest we saw last year was over 600 and we regularly see over 300 stalls being used there,” Roy noted.

The hybrid strategy emerged after researchers compared distributed systems like Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley with consolidated approaches like Jackson Hole’s. Usage patterns showed 49% of park and ride users currently utilize Kimball Junction, followed by Richardson Flat (42%), Jeremy Ranch (30%), and Ecker Hill (23%).

During discussions, Park City Council member Bill Ciraco raised concerns about Canyons Village development: “They still have roughly 50% of their entitlement left to build there. So we can anticipate a growth in visitation there.”

Peter Barnes, Summit County’s Community Development Director, said the Canyons construction would be phased to minimize disruption: “The first three levels of that parking garage are supposed to be completed during this summer construction season. At that point, the construction will shut down in time for next winter ski season.”

Both resorts plan to enhance shuttle services during construction, with Deer Valley securing off-site parking agreements at Richardson Flat and Jordanelle State Park to compensate for reduced parking.

The study also revealed growing interest in neighborhood-level solutions. Park City Mayor Nann Worel noted: “I’ve spoken to several people in neighborhoods like Sun Peak and Silver Springs and Park Meadows that would love to be able to have a small park and ride in their neighborhoods.”

Council member Ryan Dickey emphasized the need for immediate action: “It feels like we’re behind. We got to identify this location. We got to close this partnership with Deer Valley, get shovels in the ground… As parking shrinks, our residents are going to struggle to go skiing. So how do we get them there? ”

Key next steps include improving amenities at existing lots while monitoring usage patterns to forecast future demands. The plan also suggests working with regional partners in Wasatch, Salt Lake, and Utah counties to capture trips near their origin.

“I do feel that there are some solutions that we could even look at this summer, even if that is just putting down some asphalt that might be temporary, similar to what we did in the five acres in order to do some of the transit trails and overflow parking,” Toly said. “But I think that this community is hungry for some more parking immediately this summer, and I think we have a need for that.

Officials scheduled their next joint meeting for June 27 to continue discussions. For more information on Park ‘n’ Ride locations in Park City, visit the Park City website.