Park City will not make money available to businesses to assist in the private sector’s planning for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
Mayor Ryan Dickey and the Park City Council on Thursday addressed a concept to provide funds in the years before the Games, but signaled they were not interested in moving forward with such a program.
The comments about what the municipal government described as an Olympic Readiness Grant Program, which could have also provided funding to the not-for-profit sector, were notable during broader discussion about economic development. Municipal staffers had outlined a program as a potential option for the future.
It would have been designed to help businesses prepare for a variety of issues related to the Games, such as sustainability, communications and marketing. Few details had been crafted, including dollar figures and eligibility, before the meeting.
The Park City area will be crucial to the Games. Three competition venues — Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park — are on the Games map, and the community will be essential to the transportation, security and celebration plans.
Ed Parigian, a member of the City Council, was blunt in his assessment.
“I don’t even know where that came from, why it would even be tied to the Olympics. That’s ridiculous. Seven-plus years away,” he said.
The planning for the Games is eventually expected to encompass the public and private sectors. There will, with near certainty, be a desire by all sides to ensure the preparations for 2034 remain on track. There will also be discussions about steps that could be taken to guard against the potential of a dip in visitor numbers during the 2033-2034 ski season.
The elected officials interspersed comments about Games financial assistance with other topics related to economic development.
The discussion occurred in the years after officials suspended a grant program that assisted a variety of businesses and not-for-profit organizations between 2006 and 2022. Those grants involved dollar figures in the low five figures. Some of the recipients included the Park Silly Sunday Market and the Park City Performing Arts Foundation.
The elected officials had questions about the earlier economic development program and did not support a relaunch.
There was a brief discussion about having future discussions about policies related to impact fees in the context of economic development. Those sorts of fees are designed to help offset the impact of projects on a community’s infrastructure. The elected officials also mentioned perhaps creating an alternative form of economic development, possibly via loans, but they did not delve into details.
It was not clear when the mayor and City Council would return to the topic.
