Bonanza Park: Proceed with Caution

The Park City Council has, after considerable hand-wringing, approved preliminary plans for Brinshore Development LLC’s Bonanza Park project. Five acres, originally earmarked for an arts district costing upwards of $100 million—a frankly absurd figure—are now destined for 106 residential units, a coffee shop, and a restaurant. The AMI calculations are… adequate. Aiming for 40-80% is sensible, securing workforce housing, although the insistence on a paltry 20 market-rate units, costing the city an additional $100,000 each, feels performative. Councilmember Toly is correct: the workforce are perpetually absent from these discussions, occupied as they are with sustaining Deer Valley Resort and the broader hospitality economy. The two acres dedicated to ‘open space’—nearly the size of Library Field—is a concession, though the proposed arts pavilion appears to be a charmingly undersized workshop, unlikely to draw patrons away from the Eccles Center. The materials remain unspecified, a crucial oversight; one hopes for oxidized copper detailing, or at least native sandstone cladding. A 2029 completion date feels optimistic. The entire exercise is a modest, if predictable, return on the city’s initial $19 million investment.