Park City, Utah — After a multi-year battle, it seems as though the conflict over the two proposed chairlifts has concluded.
The Park Record reports that the Utah Court of Appeals sided with three locals and the Park City Government over Vail Resorts in the company’s bid to install two chairlifts during the 2022 offseason.
For the 2022-23 season, Park City Mountain Resort originally planned to open two new chairlifts. The first chairlift, a high-speed six-pack with a mid-station, would have replaced the Eagle and Eaglet chairlifts. The second addition would’ve replaced Silverlode with a high-speed eight-pack chairlift. The chairlift parts arrived on site and were ready for installation.
After the city originally gave a thumbs up to the plans, a group of locals successfully appealed the approval. The appeal was successful due to Vail’s inability to explain its comfortable carrying capacity (how many skiers can fit on the mountain without it getting too crowded) and whether its parking mitigation plan would reduce crowding. The fear among locals was that due to Vail not verifying their comfortable carrying capacity at Park City, these lifts would bring more skier visits and traffic. Meanwhile, Vail Resorts claimed that the installation of new chairlifts does not lead to an increase in tourism. After the plans were successfully stalled, Vail decided to ship the lifts up to Whistler, where they were installed. Vail decided to appeal, but the locals and the Park City Government achieved another victory when the District Court sided with them in November 2023.
Vail appealed again, which is how it ended up in the Utah Court of Appeals. Here was one of the key statements made by the Utah Court of Appeals in its ruling:
“In reviewing the totality of the evidence, we cannot say that the proposed improvements would have no impact on parking when the fact was never seriously established or reviewed below. From our reading of the record, there was sufficient evidence presented to the (Park City Planning Commission) to convince a reasonable mind that the Parking Mitigation Plan did not mitigate the impact on parking that the proposed improvements might have had. Thus, the (Planning Commission’s) decision that Criterion Six was not met was supported by substantial evidence, so the decision was not arbitrary or capricious.”
The three locals (Angela Moschetta, Clive Bush, and Mark Stemler) issued the following statement to the media:
“At the heart of the ruling is a simple but powerful principle: Resorts cannot expand capacity without credible, transparent mitigation of the impacts that follow. For years, Vail Resorts has resisted analysis of its Comfortable Carrying Capacity (CCC) — the measure of how many skiers the mountain can hold in a day. This ruling confirms that CCC is not an abstract or irrelevant number. It directly underpins parking, traffic, and quality-of-life impacts for our community. When CCC math is hidden, unverified, or manipulated, the result is oversold lift tickets, gridlock on our roads, and overcrowding both on- and off-mountain….
This is more than a Park City issue. Ski towns across the country are grappling with the consequences of unchecked resort growth. Today’s decision gives local communities a roadmap: Demand verified CCC numbers, require independent review, and hold resort operators accountable when they oversell their capacity at the expense of residents and visitors alike. We are proud to defend Park City and ski towns everywhere in ensuring growth happens responsibly, with the full impacts disclosed and mitigated.”
Interestingly, despite having the financial resources to drag this out, it appears that Park City Mountain Resort is likely to let the lawsuit formally end and restart the approval process. Following the ruling, Deirdra Walsh, who’s the Vice President & COO of the ski resort, issued the following statement to the Park Record:
“We are disappointed by today’s decision, especially after we initially received approval for these lifts after months of work with city staff and community input. Regardless of this outcome, we will resubmit permit applications for both lifts. We are fully committed to the future of Park City Mountain and have invested $144 million in resort improvements to date. Despite the city’s decision to revoke the Eagle and Silverlode permit, we successfully implemented the 2022 parking plan, which, as we expected, has resulted in significant and measurable improvements to the arrival and departure experience at the resort. We will continue to pursue these important projects, and we remain focused on enhancing the guest experience and supporting the long-term vitality of Park City.”
Given how the year started in Park City, which included a ski patrol strike and the Mayor’s direct criticism of the ski resort, I’m fascinated to see how this resubmission process unfolds. In particular, I’m curious to see what Vail Resorts will do differently next time around.
Regardless of how this situation turns out, Park City has a few lift replacements on tap in the Canyons Village. There’s the replacement this season, which will see the new Sunrise Gondola emerge from the Canyons Village. Park City could have another lift replacement planned for the 2026-27 season, with the Cabriolet lift possibly being a target for replacement. That lift project is subject to approval, albeit from a different government source: the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission.
Image Credits: Park City Mountain Resort
