In one of the most ambitious expansions ever undertaken by a ski area, Deer Valley Resort plans to install 10 additional lifts by the 2025-26 season, and that’s just for Phase 1 of its Expanded Excellence project.
One of those lifts, though, is proving to be a gash in the resort’s skis, so to speak, threatening to slow at least some of the expansion’s progress.
Nearly a month after Deer Valley first asked for a conditional use permit to install “Lift 7″ and in the Park City planning commission’s second consideration of the proposal, the commission approved the resort’s plan at its May 22 meeting — albeit with nearly 30 conditions. This week, though, the Bransford Land Co. appealed the planning commission’s decision, throwing the lift permit into limbo again.
A three-person panel will review the petition for appeal, which The Tribune acquired through a public records request. It is unclear whether that will happen at the panel’s June 17 meeting, for which no agenda has been set, or on another date.
As proposed, the half-mile-long Lift 7 (its placeholder name) will be a six-person bubble lift that would carry skiers into 4.62 miles of mostly beginner terrain between the peaks of Bald Mountain and Flagstaff Mountain. The lift is slated to slice through at least 13 acres of land that the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has deemed “crucial” habitat for at least eight species. The construction of the 6,024-foot bottom terminal and 13,543-foot chair storage facility would also necessitate clearcutting.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Though the planning commission unanimously approved the lift permit during its May 22 meeting, it attached 29 conditions to its decision. Deer Valley will have to abide by those conditions to receive building permits.
The conditions included a requirement that 111 acres of undeveloped land be set aside elsewhere at Deer Valley to counterbalance the land that will be disrupted. Clearcutting cannot begin this summer until eagles and other birds in the vicinity have abandoned their nests for the season. Plus the resort will have to abide by any recommendations made by a biologist who will assess the area after the snow clears. That biologist will be contracted by Deer Valley.
“The [permit] relies heavily on future confirmation of current conditions,” Anne Bransford, one of the Bransford Land Co. trustees, wrote in her the petition to appeal, “including professional assessments and reports for which no timeline, benchmarks, demand for independent third-party analysis, penalties or alternatives were conditioned as part of the approval.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Skiers at Deer Valley overlook some of the area that will soon be added to their skiable terrain on Thursday, April 4, 2024.
Bransford Land Co. owns some of the land under the resort, including the Trump and Ontario runs adjacent to the planned location of Lift 7. Anne Bransford, Mary Bransford Leader and Carolyn Bransford MacDonald — the sisters who owned the land before putting it into a trust — have said they favor the expansion but believe their land would be a better vessel for Lift 7. Through numerous written and in-person statements to the commission, they have argued that following the natural drainage through their property would make the runs off of Lift 7 gentler, wider and safer. It would also, they say, necessitate the removal of fewer trees and reduce the impact on wildlife.
Bransford Land Co. hired Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners to evaluate their land as an option for Lift 7. It found, according to an April 24 letter to the commission, that using the Bransford land “would require less risk management, less excavation, and a much-improved skier experience.”
“To support of [sic] a safer and less destructive plan for a Lift 7 Pod,” the petition states, “BLC proposed using our adjacent land to allow [Deer Valley] to realign the lift and ski runs, relocate the bottom lift terminal, limit disturbance to vegetation and wildlife and better comply with code and governing agreements.”
When pressed by commissioners, Deer Valley representatives said the alignment chosen is the best available.
Todd Bennett, the resort’s president and Chief Operations Officer, told the commission on April 24 that the Bransford land isn’t an option because it is tied up in a lawsuit. Mayflower LLC, which is owned by Deer Valley’s partner Extell, has sued Bransford Land Co. over a right-of-way dispute. Court documents show that the land proposed for Lift 7 is not part of the lawsuit.
Hearings in that case are slated to begin June 18.
The staff report submitted to the planning commission on May 22 found that a zoning ordinance prohibits the development of a lift on part of the Bransford Land Co.’s property. That information was provided after commissioners asked about alternative alignments in their April 24 meeting. However, skiing development is allowed on the land, per the ordinance.
Anne Bransford, the chair of the trust, said prior to filing the appeal that the company’s intent isn’t to stop Lift 7 from being installed, but rather to help Deer Valley create the best experience possible while also preserving the land. She said Bransford Land Co. offered to donate the land in question to the city as part of an 18-acre conservation easement. Bransford said she hand-delivered a term sheet to Mayor Nann Worel’s office last June — before Deer Valley announced its expansion. She included the text of the letter in the petition for appeal.
The city confirmed, via spokesperson Clayton Scrivner, that it received the offer.
“An informal proposal was suggested to the City in 2023, but those talks never progressed,” Scrivner said in a text to the Tribune. “The offer was never denied.”
According to a timeline included with the petition, Extell offered to buy 40 acres of the Bransfords’ land in 2017 for $2 million. That offer was denied.
The nine other lifts that form Phase 1 of Deer Valley’s Expanded Excellence terrain are located in Wasatch County. They are under the jurisdiction of the Military Installation Development Authority, which partnered with Extell to acquire the land for and develop the area under the name Mayflower Resort before it was leased to Deer Valley. MIDA has already approved those lifts.
Correction: June 7, 2024, 4:45 p.m • A headline on this story has been changed to show Park City responded to a land donation offer from the Bransford Land Co.
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