"Good politics is being courteous and listening to your critics, and if you feel like you're right you move ahead," he said. "There's been a lot of time, a lot of will and commitment for this project."

Affordable housing is defined as not more than 30 percent of the total wage for people making between 80 percent and 140 percent of the area median salary. Park City only looks at its core work force, excluding second-home owners and residents who make most of their money out-of-state. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, however, doesn't exclude those higher wages. HUD provides some housing assistance in the city.

In the past, Park City has purchased lots and built affordable homes to sell below cost to city employees and other eligible wage earners. Interested workers are put on a waiting list to buy the units. The homes in the program are allowed to appreciate only 3 percent per year but can be sold whenever the original owner is ready to move on. Luckily for the city's new police chief, Wade Carpenter, one of those units became available just in time for his move to the city.

Carpenter, a strong believer in community policing, has instituted policies in affordable-housing neighborhoods that he hopes will reduce crime there, he said.

Simultaneous to building the cheaper housing, Park City and Summit County have spent millions on acquiring open space in recent years, thereby making usable land within the small resort town even harder to come by.

The two goals aren't in conflict, Robinson said, but rather acquiring both open space and cheap housing is about finding a balance.

"The solution isn't just building everywhere because that destroys, ultimately, the character of the town," she said.

Harlan said some of the open space has never been open to development, so the city's decision to purchase and protect it is just a guarantee of precious assets for the future. The community would never have allowed housing to be built somewhere like Osguthorpe Farm at the city's entrance, he said.

Within the next five years, developers will have to build a lot of affordable housing to fall in line with city and county ordinances, said Scott Loomis, director of the Mountain Lands Housing Trust Fund. The housing problem will then evolve into one of educating eligible potential homebuyers about their options, he said.

For full reports on the housing projects or to read the minutes of planning commission and council discussions, visit parkcity.org.

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E-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com