Leadership Park City - Class XVI 

Class 16 culminated it’s community service project last weekend with a community Foodprint Festival. 250 local residents turned out to enjoy a menu of locally-grown foods while visiting with farmers and ranchers.

The thirty members of Leadership Class 16 undertook the challenge of encouraging Park City residents to “Rethink your Foodprint” after learning that the food in an average American lunch traveled over 1,500 ingredient-miles to reach the plate. Americans produce more greenhouse gases each year by the choice of food we eat than produced by the cars we drive! For the first time, our children born after the year 2000 will not outlive their parents. And the answer is in the simple choices we make every time we sit down to eat.

In the course of the project, the class conducted the “Grand Experiment” growing vegetables in 200 container gardens to demonstrate that it’s “not too high or dry to try” planting gardens in our community. Four education events in July and August sensitized Parkites to the health issues in our industrial food supply, how to grow at 7,000 feet, where to find local farmers and CSA’s to buy your groceries, and how to cook and store fully ripened local farm-fresh food through the winter months.

Originally seeded by a grant from The Park City Foundation, the project enjoyed tremendous support from the community, raising over $12,000 in cash and in-kind donations to make every one of it’s education events and the Foodprint Festival completely free and open to the public. As one of the more ambitious class projects undertaken, Myles is both thrilled and concerned that the bar has been raised to new heights for future Leadership classes. Dubbed “The Locavores of Leadership,” the class hopes to continue the movement to “Grow Local with an Altitude.”

Class XVII
102 applications were received for next year’s class! Watch for the announcement of Class XVII members in the October newsletter.

Fire Safety
The Park City Fire District reminds us that it’s prime brush fire season.  Providing defensible space around your home improves your fire safety and gives your home its best chance for surviving a wildfire. Click here for information on firewise landscape design, installation, and maintenance.  Click here for a list of firewise plants.

General Plan Public Outreach Meetings
The Planning Department and Planning Commission members held two General Plan public input sessions at the Eccles Performing Arts Center Lobby on July 20 and July 27. The General Plan is the guiding document which provides direction for the future growth of the City. Park City’s General Plan was last updated ten years ago and is currently scheduled to be rewritten.

The Planning staff prepared and in-depth survey as well as interactive exhibits to enable residents to provide input regarding future land use patterns and development ideas within the City. Approximately 60 people attended the two open houses which were set up in an informal format, with a survey table, interactive mapping exhibits, and an opportunity to rank the proposed goals for the new General Plan.

The written survey included questions regarding appropriate neighborhood development, parking, pedestrian and vehicular accessibility, sustainable initiatives and a matrix of detailed possible uses. A write-in area was also provided to help identify neighborhood ‘special places’.
As part of the interactive mapping component, the public was directed to their neighborhood exhibit and provided with a set of stickers representing different uses and encouraged to place the stickers in their neighborhoods. Such stickers included public art, neighborhood convenience store, bus stop, gathering spot, dedicated car share parking, outdoor stage, wind farm, livestock, big box commercial, mixed use development, affordable housing, convention/meeting space, community compost, locally owned commercial, etc. Areas also existed for sticker placement which identified, “There are enough of these in my neighborhood” and “This does not belong in my neighborhood.” The same general layout existed for areas outside of Park City at a large geographical scale, including neighboring municipalities.

The next step for the general public at the neighborhood session including providing input for proposed General Plan goals/ideas. Participants were given green stickers to mark goals they agreed with the most and red stickers for goals they disagreed with.

The final step was a “free thinking” idea melting pot which let the public provide written input on any items for further discussion.

The Planning Department is currently on a two year timeline to prepare a new draft of the General Plan with the Planning Commission. Staff expects additional input sessions in the coming year.

Bonanza Bulletin
Curb and gutter installation along Bonanza Drive from Kearns Boulevard to Munchkin continues this week with anticipated completion by Friday, October 8th.

The Prospector Avenue to Iron Horse Drive road section is closed to motorist traffic through Friday, October 15.   General hours of construction are 7am-9 pm weekdays.  For more information, please visit http://bonanzadrive.com/ 

Stay Fit on Iron Horse - Park City Racquet Club Relocation
Just a reminder, the aquatics facilities are now closed at the Racquet Club. All fitness classes, cardio, and weight equipment are now at the 1255 Iron Horse location. Come see us there!

Green Your Routine and Banish Junkmail
The piles of catalogues stacked in your mailbox are not only annoying; they’re bad for the environment. To get your name off junk mail lists, Corrin Arasa, the founder of Project GreenHouse, an organization that educates people on living a greener lifestyle, recommends catalogchoice.org, a Web site that stops certain catalogues from being shipped to your house and ultimately ending up in the trash.   Another Web site, optoutprescreen.com, specifically stops junk mail offers from credit cards and insurance companies.

News You Can Use
In July, City Council
• Approved the Rail Central Pedestrian Connection Bridge design
• Appointed Greta Church, Bob Peek, Kai Bolger and Bob Kollar to the Public Art Advisory Board
• Supported pursuing a Summit County environmental partnership

In August, City Council
• Awarded a contract for repair of the China Bridge Parking Structure
• Amended the contract for the Quinn’s Junction Water Treatment Plant design
• Agreed to move ahead with an Energy Dynamics Lab partnership to electrify the Main Street trolley through inductive power transfer