Outlets Park City owner revises plan, offers 26-unit workforce housing and trail upgrades

The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission spent its 4:30 p.m. work session on the proposed Outlets Park City redevelopment, where the applicant described design updates and offered to build workforce housing on-site.

Justin Keyes, an attorney for the outlets’ owners, told the commission the team was "surprised" by the staff cut‑and‑fill analysis and would rework grade changes after additional study. He described the staff estimate as roughly "4,500 tons of fill," a quantity the applicant said is cost‑prohibitive and will be reduced in further design work.

The applicants showed updated plans that add multimodal pathways, pocket‑park spaces and an elevated trail section behind the proposed Harmons grocery store to preserve existing stormwater flows. Architect Julie (presenting by video) said the project will connect to the Millennium Trail and provide dedicated multimodal lanes, additional short‑term bicycle parking and a bus pullout sized to accommodate a 40‑foot transit vehicle.

Developer representative Adam Greenbaum said the anchor tenant, Harmons, would bring daily traffic that the applicant believes can be mitigated as a redevelopment rather than a greenfield project. "When you redevelop, you have the delta of traffic impact," Greenbaum said, adding the team has completed a traffic study and will meet code‑required mitigations.

Workforce housing was a central focus. Keyes proposed adding a condition to the development agreement that the owner would build "26 unit equivalents" of workforce rental housing on the site and be substantially complete within 30 months of the Harmons certificate of occupancy. He described the plan as "100% affordable" and said the project would target an average of about 80% of area median income (AMI) across the building to allow income turnover without displacing tenants.

Commissioners pressed on several fronts. Several members said the rooftop solar revision — which staff said would supply only about "2 to 3%" of the store's energy needs — fell short of County sustainability expectations. Commissioner Hubler, who works on energy issues, urged the applicants to explore electrification strategies and recovering refrigeration reject heat for building systems, calling grocery stores ‘‘one of the best building types to electrify.’’

Commissioner Cook and others focused on multimodal safety, asking whether the proposed elevated trail and parking‑lot crossings would meet AASHTO and MUTCD standards and whether on‑site pedestrian connections would be physically separated from vehicular circulation rather than relying on painted markings.

On size and zoning, commissioners debated whether the proposed Harmons footprint and mezzanine would run afoul of a town‑center guideline that limits single big‑box stores to about 60,000 square feet; staff said such determinations are evaluated through the SPA (site‑specific plan) process and that mezzanines count toward floor‑area calculations.

Staff and applicants agreed on next steps: the applicant will return with a revised grading approach and staff will provide additional background on comparators (Home Depot, Walmart and other anchor sizes) and further analysis on traffic, stormwater and sustainability. Keyes said staff and the developer have already been working closely — "Peter and Amir both met with us several times" — and asked for feedback to refine the submission ahead of the next packet.

The commission and project team emphasized that the cut‑and‑fill issue remains unresolved and will be a primary subject of the next hearing.

What comes next: staff will review the revised grading plan and update the commission packet; the applicant expects to return to the commission to show how grading and pedestrian connectivity will be modified to limit fill while keeping the planned public benefits.

(Reporting note: quotations are taken directly from applicants and staff remarks during the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission work session.)