Hotel showdown: U.S. military could use supremacy to build hotel in Park City's open space

He notes that Summit received The Canyons property essentially for free from developers. "It didn't spend a nickel for it," he said. So he suggests the county might want to come down in price to offer a resolution.

That can't happen, Elliott said. She said the county obtained The Canyons property in a "density transfer" for open space. That deal requires the county to receive market value for it if it is sold, with the proceeds being used to obtain more land for open space.

So a cheaper price than fair-market value, Elliott said, legally can't happen.

Outlook

As the sides negotiate, some tough things are sometimes said or implied — including questioning how patriotic local officials are and questioning whether the Air Force is using its federal supremacy to enrich local businessmen and developers.

"I love America and the freedom to go out and make things happen," Ferrin said. "Frankly, we have plans to take most of the profits from this and turn it back to the benefit of the citizens of the community. There shouldn't be anyone who could claim we're taking advantage of our relationship with the Air Force to make a profit."

Meanwhile, Morris with the Air Force also stressed the patriotism behind the project, especially in the time of the ongoing Iraq conflict.

"You know there's a lot of veterans coming back from the desert. We'd love to have a nice place for them to go and take their families and be able to afford to go to a nice place," he said.

On the other side, for example, Park City Manager Bakaly said, "It is interesting to ask how much a developer should benefit from the use of the Air Force's power" of federal supremacy.

Elliott said, "This is not a military facility that's being erected. It is a market-rate condo project that is available as a marketing tool to retired military officers. And only retired generals are going to be able to afford to buy into this," Elliot said. "And then when they exhaust all the military possibilities, then these units will be offered to the public, and there's no restriction on ownership of the condos."

Amid that, the sides are still negotiating and, as Covieo said, "We are still looking at parcels of property."

He adds, "Our greatest wish is to find an unencumbered site so we can trade the Red Maple property to the community to maintain it as open space. That has been the goal since Day One." But until that happens, he said a possibility exists that the Air Force will build its hotel on the hillside that the city wants to protect as open space.

Park City is left waiting and worrying until a decision is made, which could be as early as the end of this month.

"Are we nervous? Sure. Because the federal government has carte blanche," Park City's Erickson said. "If the developer chooses to go to the Red Maple parcel and they can convince the higher-ups at the Pentagon and the Hill Air Force Base that that's the best decision, we have no recourse. We're trumped by the federal government."

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