Protecting what makes Park City special: Candidates weigh in on growth and housing

The foundation must be the General Plan, which clearly articulates our shared priority: Keep Our Small Town Feel. That is not a slogan. It is a mandate.

Zoning must align with that principle. Proposed changes such as the Bonanza Park Small Area Plan should be rare, judicious, and incremental. District-wide upzonings are a one-way trade. Once entitlements are granted, they are not coming back.

The greatest threat to livability is not just development, but poor negotiation. Too often, so-called public-private partnerships have left the public holding the bag. That is a failure of leadership. It is not enough to want good outcomes. One must know how to achieve them.

I bring deep experience in deal-making, finance, and governance. I understand how private equity and publicly traded entities operate. I also understand how leverage works. When used well, it ensures that partnerships are equitable, lawful, and genuinely in the public interest. That same clarity applies to Park City Mountain: it is not the City holding up chairlift upgrades, it is Vail Resorts’ refusal to follow the law and invest in the skier experience. 

Growth is inevitable. Our task is to manage it wisely. That starts with leadership prepared to protect what we love and skilled enough to ensure we get what we deserve.

The Park City cliche is that we all came for the winter and stayed for the summer. And yet the reality is, most of us came for the winter and stayed for the community. We found a welcoming small town full of happy and healthy people grateful to call Park City home, excellent public schools and safety for our kids, and a great place to start businesses and make our dreams come true. Allyson and I changed our lives to stay here after that first winter almost 15 years ago, so needless to say, we love this place and want to keep Park City, Park City.

At the same time, Park City faces demographic challenges: as home values grow well beyond the incomes that our local jobs produce, living in town becomes challenging for families that work locally. Without smaller, less expensive spaces, seniors struggle to downsize. And traffic grows worse as businesses are forced to import nearly 90% of the workforce from out of town. 

We can’t solve demographic trends largely beyond our control. But the call to action is clear: we must continue to double down on protecting open space and fighting sprawl, and at the same time capitalize on opportunities to address the growing housing need for our essential workforce. As the community continues to lose our teachers, firefighters, police officers, and upstart members of the workforce, we may feel like we lose some of our soul. But more practically, we impact the quality of our education system and emergency response, and stability of our overall workforce.

Delivering on this challenge requires tough judgment calls from leaders we trust. With over eight years of public service, as a planning commission chair and city council member, residents know how I think and know where I stand. I’m proud to have stood firmly against overdevelopment and sprawl, leading the planning commission to its denial of the first Dakota Pacific application, rejection of development on open space, and holding developers strictly accountable for affordable housing obligations. I’m also proud to have cast votes for the smart projects like Engine House — 99 units of infill affordable housing, walkable to major transit lines and grocery stores. 

I’ll continue to deliver for Park City in fighting unchecked growth and sprawl, while capitalizing on opportunities to deliver on critical housing needs for our families, seniors, and workforce. 

My approach to growth is simple: keep it human-scale, locally grounded, and future-focused. That means requiring new development to serve the people who actually live and work here, teachers, first responders, and service workers. Not just those passing through. I’ll support policies that prioritize affordability, preserve open space, and strengthen the character of existing neighborhoods. Growth should serve our community, not displace it. And with thoughtful leadership, it can.

As a Park City native with roots dating back to 1860, I’ve lived through immense change over the past four plus decades. I’ve seen firsthand how unchecked growth can chip away at the heart of our community. That’s why I lead with a commitment to preserving what makes Park City special: our livability, our connection to the land, and our sense of belonging as a year-round, full-time community.

I’ve fought for conservation easements; supported workforce housing in town, not just on the outskirts; and championed practical transit solutions to reduce congestion now. Growth will continue to come, but I serve those who live, work, and raise families here, not just those who profit from it. That means aligning development with infrastructure, ensuring we collaborate with our partners, and holding the line when projects threaten our values. I’ll keep showing up to protect what matters most: a livable, inclusive Park City for generations to come.

Every land use decision should be made through the lens of transit, parking, and long-term impact. Period.

We can’t keep approving developments in a vacuum, then act surprised when traffic gets worse or locals get priced out. Growth has to be planned, not just greenlit because a flashy proposal comes through the door.

Take the Engine House. That’s what happens when we don’t stick to the General Plan. And now there’s talk of upzoning 125 acres at once? That’s reckless. You don’t throw out the rulebook and hope it works out later.

Under my leadership, we’ll slow it down, look at projects comprehensively, and hold every proposal to a higher standard that protects residents and keeps Park City livable for the long haul.

We have to stop chasing growth for growth’s sake. My focus is on keeping Park City a viable place for the people who make this town run. That means expanding the stock of permanent affordable housing for working families, creating housing types beyond million-dollar condos, and better regulating speculative investment that turns homes into economic assets and produces ghost neighborhoods. I would strengthen our short-term rental enforcement, prioritize infill housing for locals, and advocate for transit-first planning. If we want Park City to stay a real community — not just a resort town — we need policies rooted in belonging and sustainability.

I have been living in Park City for the last 20 years, watching as our town is changing in front of us. There’s no doubt Park City is feeling the pressure from tourism, second homeowners, and an ever-rising real estate market. I think the key is finding a thoughtful balance that allows our community to grow without losing what makes it so special. That means continuing to support workforce and affordable housing efforts, planning growth in a way that’s smart and sustainable, and making sure development or redevelopment aligns with our long-term values. I believe we can make space for new ideas and opportunities while still protecting what matters most: our neighborhoods, open space, and the sense of community that full-time residents and working families rely on. It’s about being intentional, collaborative, and always keeping Park City’s heart at the center of every decision.

I’ve been lucky enough to live in Park City for more than 14 years, and I know it wasn’t luck that created our town. Park City exists thanks to the vision, strategy, and tough decisions from leaders who turned a mining town into a ski town, and a ski town into a year-round, world-class tourist destination.

To me, that leadership, that public service, means honoring our silver roots and crafting a golden future. It means learning. It means preparing. It means showing up. Listening hard. Working harder. 

It means accountability. It means collaboration to take action. It means treating everyone with kindness and dignity. That’s how I live my life — as a volunteer, a worker, a neighbor, a mom, and a wife. And, if given the honor, it’s how I’ll serve.

I’m running for Park City Council because I love this town. I believe in this town. I believe in its people. I believe in kindness. And I believe we can tackle our challenges together and create something beautiful as we also preserve the small-town magic of Park City for generations to come.

I have been living in Park City for the last 20 years, watching as our town is changing in front of us. There’s no doubt Park City is feeling the pressure from tourism, second homeowners, and an ever-rising real estate market. I think the key is finding a thoughtful balance that allows our community to grow without losing what makes it so special. That means continuing to support workforce and affordable housing efforts, planning growth in a way that’s smart and sustainable, and making sure development or redevelopment aligns with our long-term values. I believe we can make space for new ideas and opportunities while still protecting what matters most: our neighborhoods, open space, and the sense of community that full-time residents and working families rely on. It’s about being intentional, collaborative, and always keeping Park City’s heart at the center of every decision.

Our greatest pressure right now is not internal growth, it is actually quite the opposite as we risk losing our residential neighborhoods and see new growth around our borders, such as the East Village/Jordanelle and Canyons areas as property values in the city show signs of weakness and school enrollments are dropping. As soon as those commercial cores are developed, we will also see an impact to our sales tax revenues. We’re already seeing warning signs in the data. All Park City elected officials owe the community assurance that Park City is their top priority, with no conflicting interests. We are not in a “rising tides raise all boats” situation. There are decisions to be made in the next four years that will either enhance Park City or enhance areas surrounding Park City to our economic and community detriment. This could mean higher local taxes, lower property values, workforce competition creating price inflation that exceeds wage inflation, and more.

To preserve our residential neighborhoods and sense of community, we must invest in them. That includes traffic and transit solutions, recreation offerings, and improvements to our trail network for broader reach. Traditionally a discussion around trails in town meant the Rail Trail and the area commonly referred to as Poison Creek. In the past few years that conversation has been extended to include many more neighborhoods, with safer connections across 224 and 248 in development. We’ve seen it first hand with recent projects. When our community members feel safe outside of their cars, they’ll leave them at home and ride a bike or walk. There’s much more work to do in this area as reflected in our recently adopted Bike and Pedestrian Plan, our Neighborhood Traffic Management Program that invites community involvement to solve safety concerns, the Safe Routes to School program, and the return of year-round neighborhood bus service we haven’t seen for years. 

During my first-term I also worked hard, without a unanimous Council, to activate the Richardson Flats Park and Ride and offer regular bus service to Park City Heights for the first time ever. Solutions such as these don’t solve entry/exit corridor traffic, although they do offer incremental improvements as we pursue larger strategic transit investments. The city has also been able to all but eliminate cut-through traffic in residential neighborhoods that resulted in gridlock during ski season, not allowing residents to get to or from their homes.

Another key area related to livability is fiscal responsibility, coinciding with access to municipal offerings. As a steward of tax dollars like they’re my own, property taxes specific to our municipality have not increased in known history, and in the past 2 years we’ve authorized two bonds to drop off your property tax bill without replacement. Now that doesn’t address tax increases by the county or school district, they are governed independently, and the County holds the keys to your property valuation, not Park City, so we can’t do much about their large increases in the past few years except deploy our lobbyists for state tax reform. Park City has also not raised your sales taxes in more years than I’ve been involved, with the last one being a Transient Room Tax, focused on nightly rentals. Again, there have been other sales tax increases from other jurisdictions such as the county. 

Water rates severely impact our community and have come under focus. With our new, fairer rate structure implemented just a month or two ago 90% of our residential customers will see an annual reduction in their cost of water. Next up is working through fees that inhibit local businesses from being able to start up due to their high costs. Lastly, access to your municipal facilities has been significantly improved over the past couple years, offering the ability for advanced day camp registrations for families to an extra day in advance opportunities to make tee times at the municipal golf course. 

What it comes down to is the local government shouldn’t create undue financial burden whether it be through inefficiency, policy, or waste; we should be able to enjoy the municipal facilities we pay for through our tax dollars; neighborhoods must be protected; invest in our long-term infrastructure for real transit solutions; and we have an obligation to provide safe ways to move around town outside of vehicles.