Hotel showdown: U.S. military could use supremacy to build hotel in

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 7, 2007 | by Lee Davidson

PARK CITY -- A new developer in this resort town has rare power. It is exempt from local zoning laws. So it soon may build a huge hotel/condominium project on a pristine hillside that the city had long planned to preserve as open space.

Since local officials cannot stop it through zoning, they are trying to use millions of dollars to lure the developer to a different site. The developer who may reap such bounty also happens to be heavily armed -- with missiles, bombers and fighters, no less.

It is the U.S. Air Force.

Why is the Air Force suddenly in the Park City hotel business? It "would benefit service members worldwide from all branches" with "an affordable way ... to visit Park City and enjoy its R&R opportunities," says a written statement from Hill Air Force Base.

Terry Morris, Hill's director of plans and programs, adds the military seeks to build a big, world-class hotel resort there -- on par with a few big ones that the military now operates with discounts for its personnel at Walt Disney World and in Hawaii, the German Alps and Korea.

Ironically, that big goal sprouted from an effort to replace a small lodge -- which some described as a glorified cabin -- that Hill once owned at Snow Basin.

The tale behind that -- and how local officials are waging an expensive fight against an entity not subject to its zoning -- twists through the 2002 Olympics, the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon, local hardball business maneuvers and even some Iraq war politics.

Along the way, that has led to accusations that the the city and its fight are anti-military or unpatriotic, or that the military is using its exemption to zoning laws to exploit local environmental worries to enrich itself and its developer partners.

Dispute's roots

The story began with early preparations for the 2002 Olympics.

Snowbasin Ski Area near Ogden said it needed some adjacent federal land for improvements to host crowds at Olympic downhill ski events. Congress ordered the trades -- including a parcel with a small, chalet-style lodge called Hillhaus, which was demolished.

Hill Air Force Base had owned Hillhaus since 1964. It originally had 44 beds, dormitory style, for single airmen. It was remodeled later into a handful of hotel rooms and a cafe as a low-cost getaway for military members to enjoy as a perk to improve morale.

But Air Force inspectors long complained that Hillhaus continually lost money and should be closed or revamped. That became moot when the Olympics led to its demolition.

However, former Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, said Hill officials were upset at losing the small lodge and sought his assistance to find land for a replacement.

Hansen was in a position to help Hill, the largest employer in his district. He was a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and chairman of the House Resources Committee, which oversees federal lands.

"I kind of argued for something at Bear Lake," Hansen remembers now. "But the Air Force found some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property in Park City. They came to me and asked what the chance was of helping out" to obtain it for a new lodge.

Morris at Hill said, "The Air Force is looking for a four-season resort area.... Park City was ideal for that. Park City had everything in terms of sports, culture, all those sorts of things."

The Air Force initially identified some property called Gamble Oaks, a hill across from a residential area near the Deer Valley ski resort. It happened to be under long-term recreational lease to Park City, mostly to allow its preservation as open space.

When the public heard of the plans, neighbors complained that the highest hill inside the city might soon be topped by a hotel instead of open space. Park City and Summit County officials met with Hansen. Adding to their concerns, Park City at the time was not in his district -- and they wondered why he was dabbling there.

Antagonism

Hansen said an incident in one such meeting created antagonism that led him, in part out of acknowledged spite, to ensure the Air Force would obtain land in Park City.

"One of the women in the group said, 'We don't want that kind of people up here.' That really ticked me off," Hansen says now. "It was like, 'We're an upper-class area and we don't want scum from the military here."'

So Hansen, who was then headed into retirement, said that spurred him to quietly include language in the 2001 Defense Authorization Act to give the Air Force some Park City land.

The trouble is, according to Park City and Summit County leaders, that they do not remember anyone saying such things to Hansen. Summit County Commissioner Sally Elliott said, "We have never once said that."

So she, and others, say it is unfortunate that the ongoing disputes sometimes frame Park City as being anti-military.

"Park City never was, not for one instant, anti-military. We are very, very positive about having the military here," she said. Her son is on active military duty in Iraq, and when she was a young military mother, she and her husband often stayed at military hotels.