'You should be ashamed': Park City councilman walks out during meeting on park wall

PARK CITY — In a rare occurrence, a Park City councilman walked out mid-meeting after the council decided differently than what he believed was best for a concrete wall at a city park.

Thursday's council meeting remained largely uneventful until the last agenda item, when the recreation department asked for direction on the design and construction of a basketball court wall at The Mine at City Park.

The Mine is a rebuild of the community center at City Park, 1400 Sullivan Road, which will provide a year-round space for recreation, gatherings and programming for the city. It is estimated to open in December.

As approved in The Mine's initial plans, a wall was constructed to separate the playground and basketball court. But since the 8-foot concrete wall has been erected, concerns have been raised about how large the wall is and how much it obstructs the park's views.

A city staff report said while the project team recognizes that the visual effect of the wall is more apparent now that the wall is constructed compared to renderings, the wall's design was intentionally developed.

"The wall is intended to provide a defined edge to the court, support safe separation between active recreation areas and create opportunities for programming and future public art," the staff report said.

The concrete wall could be used for programming not possible with an open or transparent court edge, such as wall ball and other rebounding games of various sports, outdoor movie projections and chalk art and other artistic endeavors, according to the report.

On Thursday, city staff presented on the wall and gave the council three options: leaving it as is, removing the wall now, or waiting until construction is finished to revisit the wall discussion. Staff estimated it would cost almost $113,000 to remove the wall safely without damaging the foundation to the basketball court and other surrounding amenities.

City staff acknowledged the views have been affected, but said the meeting's discussion is whether the degree of improvement by removing the wall outweighs the cost of changing it at this point in the project.

Councilman Ed Parigian immediately voiced his disapproval of the wall during his turn in council discussion, saying he wishes to lower it as much as possible and replace it with a fence.

"I'm in favor of taking the wall. There's no ifs, ands or buts about this. I think it's nasty," he said. "I just think it's unnecessary."

Parigian said he has asked people every time he has visited the site, and they all agree it's a very big wall. He said the wall splits the park in half and "it makes me sad."

"The cost is insignificant, compared to the 50-year life that we have to stare at the wall. Truthfully, that's $2,000 a year; I'll pay that. I would pay that out of my own money if I had it," Parigian said.

Despite the additional uses the staff had articulated for the wall, Parigian said he thinks removing the wall would not impair any activities at the park.

"All of a sudden you've got uses for it. It's funny you think of the uses after I complain about the wall, but these uses were never brought up before I complained about the wall," he said. "I don't buy the fact that there's other uses."

He opined the views from the nearby Poison Creek Trail, saying the city went through "all this trouble" to make the building have beautiful views so people want to use it, but now any "common person" coming down the trail has to stare at a wall that looks like a "cell block."

"I hope all of us have gone down there and looked at it from all points of view, multiple times, and noticed that it's just not appropriate in this setting. It takes away most of the mountain behind it," he said. "You see none of the softball fields or beautiful green grass in the park. You don't see any life on that side. You see a wall."

Councilman Diego Zegarra said he agreed with Parigian on some points, but disagreed on the cost being "insignificant."

Councilman Bill Ciraco said he "doesn't love the wall" but "I'm inclined to live with it for a year and if it's horrible ... then we'll take it down. But I think it would be premature at this point in time."

Parigian, however, rebutted and said, "If you wait, it will never come down. I guarantee you."

Councilwoman Molly Miller agreed with the other two councilmen, saying the cost gives her "heartburn." She and councilwoman Tana Toly said the wall already looks better now than it did two months ago as more of the park has come together. Both women said they'd prefer to wait until the project is finished, and voiced intrigue for the possible public art opportunities.

Mayor Ryan Dickey began saying it appeared there was council support for giving it some time and revisiting later, when Parigian stood up and started grabbing his belongings.

"You're not leaving are you? Are you that upset?" Dickey asked him.

"I'm out of here. This is ridiculous," Parigian said as he started moving out of his chair. He then asked, "Can I do that, I mean, officially?"

"Well, you can leave, yeah," the mayor said in response.

The other council members stared straight forward as Parigian walked behind them to leave the dais and said, "Alright, I'm done. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

After Parigian's departure, Dickey reiterated to staff the council's direction to continue construction and the wall would be revisited at a later time.

Related topics