Prince House passes historic design test

Matthew and Tatiana Prince’s plan to build a new house overlooking the old town passed the design test on Thursday, albeit with the northern end of the roof shortened by about 4 metres.

Rebecca Ward, Park City’s planning director and lead administrative review, also decided that the remaining floor-to-ceiling windows on the building’s east facade needed to be replaced with ones that were more consistent with “industrial mining patterns.”

She said the decisions regarding the property at 220 King Road would not set a precedent for the entire historic district because it is part of the Sweeney Master Planning District with much larger lots and lies in a transition zone between the traditional neighborhoods of Old Town and the open spaces above.

At 1.23 acres, this lot is nearly 29 times the size of lots in the historic district, which were originally zoned at 25-by-75-foot sizes, and plans for the new home are consistent with the Sweeney MPD and similarly sized homes built in the Treasure Hill Subdivision, she noted.

City planners reviewed a long list of materials and design aspects of the house plans for compatibility with industrial mining structures because the property has not been used for residential purposes and is not in a residential area, they said. They also looked closely at massing, height and roofline, which the Planning Commission also did before approving the building.

Prince’s attorney Bruce Baird argued against reducing the northern overhang to no more than 1.5 meters, providing slides to show that no one would notice if they looked from a distance. He also tried to convince Ward that enough had already been done with the windows to satisfy the Planning Commission. But Prince’s team did not object when Ward followed the Planning Staff’s recommendation.

The historic design review is the last approval granted by the city for the house, which has been the subject of four years of city investigations, reviews and decisions.

But it’s unlikely the 7,461-square-foot house is now vacant. Neighbors Eric and Susan Hermann appealed the Planning Commission’s narrow approval of the plans in February, and that review is also up for appeal. It would go to the Park City Board of Adjustment rather than the appeals panel, which in late April rejected Hermann’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval.

Only the Hermanns and their attorney, Justin Keys, submitted written comments before Thursday’s hearing. And during the hearing itself, which lasted just minutes, not hours, only one person spoke about the house.

Nicholas Shaffer expressed concern about how the city would enforce the requirement that the house not be used for nightly rentals and was vocal in his fear that an “industrial mining” style design standard could set a precedent for the entire Old Town.

Ward added the following language to her decision: “This historic design review is limited to the single-family homes of the Treasure Hill Subdivision in the Sweeney MPD and is not intended to create a precedent or interpretation of general applicability in the HR-1 Zoning District or the (Land Management Code) regulations.”

Eric Hermann concluded his letter of objection to the approval of the design with the words: “No matter how hard you try to prevent this from becoming a precedent, people are watching with bated breath to see if you can demolish several houses in the old town and build castles in their place.”

The existing homes at 220 King Road were demolished in July. They had a slightly larger footprint, slightly more finished living space and were slightly taller than the home they were replacing.

The new Prince home would have 7,461 square feet of finished living space, a 5,898 square foot unfinished basement, and a 1,690 square foot home office.

The adjacent Hermann property consists of four connected homes with 1,858 square feet of finished living space, including 557 square feet of finished basement space, according to property records.

In addition to the dispute over the house plans, Matthew Prince has in recent months sued the Hermanns because their dogs are running loose on the Princes’ property and filed another lawsuit because the Hermanns have a wall on their property that juts into his property. The Hermanns also own the property through which the driveway to 220 King Road runs.

The Princes own The Park Record.