Talisker housing plan is not a done deal

(Park Record) Wasatch County officials say certificates of occupancy may not be issued for some housing units the Talisker Corp. development firm has purchased near the outskirts of Park City.

Talisker hopes to convert about 17 of the condos to deed-restricted affordable housing as required by their overall Empire Pass approval from Park City.

But the development at Empire Pass is in Summit County, Wasatch County Manager Mike Davis explained in a telephone interview Monday.

"We're very concerned that [the condos] are being counted as affordable housing for Park City," Davis said about the 17 units near the mouth of Brown's Canyon. "We think that affordable housing for Park City should be within the Park City boundaries."

Black Rock Ridge resident Jim Sheltmire said he agrees.

"Talisker doesn't want to jeopardize their own property values by putting affordable units in their development," Sheltmire said in a telephone interview. "What they're doing, is they are creating their own enclave of affordable housing units because they don't want working class people in their own developments."

He points to projects like Bear Hollow Village in the Snyderville Basin, where deed-restricted affordable units were integrated into neighborhoods with homes selling mostly at market rate.

Black Rock Ridge sits just off State Road 248 near the Summit County line and does not even have bus service, Sheltmire said.

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