Utah’s richest man, Matthew Prince, began demolishing two homes on his property overlooking Park City, the latest step in his ongoing effort to build a sprawling mansion on the mountainside of the resort community.
In addition, the Park City Appeals Board on Friday canceled a hearing scheduled for next week, when it was expected to formally reject an appeal of the planning commission’s approval for the massive residence on King Road.
A historic district design review for the building is scheduled for Aug. 15, the last checkoff before Prince can apply for a building permit to construct his new home — although an appeal of the project’s approval to 3rd District Court remains possible and likely, given the litigious nature of the saga thus far.
“The bottom line is there’s no joy in Mudville,” Eric Hermann, one of Prince’s neighbors who has been leading the opposition to the construction, said Friday. “We haven’t decided if we’re going to take it to the 3rd District Court yet, but I think really until it gets beyond the city, it seems unlikely that there will be a full review of the overall project.”
Plans submitted to the city show a mammoth, four-story home, which, according to a staff report, would have an 11,300-square-foot footprint — not including a large underground parking structure, deck space and an underground accessory building. Two floors, which have to remain unfinished, would be underground with two stories having floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Park City’s Old Town and historic Main Street.
Hermann, his wife, Susan, and other opponents have argued Prince’s home is too big, too tall to comply with zoning and the overall character of the neighborhood. They say it is being built in a place that is steeper than allowed and that access to the home is blocked by an easement that cuts across the property.
Prince has filed his own lawsuits against the Hermanns, including one that alleges the Hermann’s two Bernese Mountain Dogs, Sasha and Mocha, are “vicious and aggressive” menaces to the neighborhood.
All that is left, meanwhile, of the two side-by-side houses that stood on the property is rubble.
“There are no more houses; that’s for sure. There’s just wreckage,” Hermann said. “He’s going forward full blast.”
Park City issued the demolition permit for the structures July 11, according to city spokesperson Clayton Scrivner, after determining the request met the city’s criteria.
Building codes allow for demolition of nonhistoric structures without a plan in place for their replacement, Scrivner said. “The timing and/or issuance of a demolition permit has no bearing on any future land use determinations, approvals or actions.
Prince’s attorney, Bruce Baird, said the demolition is nearly complete and after that his client will apply for a building permit for the new structure. Because it’s impossible to build during the winter, Baird said, the hope is to start construction next spring.
The lawyer said he is not concerned about a potential court challenge.
“We hope that they don’t appeal, but I’m not going to bet that they don’t,” Baird said. “Let’s put it this way: We are confident that if they appeal, the well-considered decision of the planning commission, the staff and now the appeals board will be sustained, as well as, we anticipate, the historic design review. The way I look at it, four strikes and you’re out.”
Prince is the founder of the computer security company Cloudflare and, according to Forbes, is the second-richest Utahn, behind Gail Miller. Forbes estimates Prince’s worth at $2.8 billion.
Prince and his wife, Tatiana, initially sought to build their mansion in 2022. But after becoming impatient with the planning commission, Prince’s lobbyists tried to slip a provision into an affordable housing bill that would have usurped the local authorities and let him build the home.
The plan fell apart after reports hit the news. Shortly after the legislative session, Prince purchased The Park Record, the city’s newspaper.