Park City Historic Main Street

Main Street
Vitals Dashboard

Pre-meeting materials for the Main Street Business Group.
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mainstreet.alpineparkcity.com  ·  Not for public distribution
Main Street Vitals
Historic Park City, Utah  ·  Business health & economic resilience dashboard
Baseline Period  ·  Winter 2024-25
PUBLIC = pre-loadedSURVEY = group input

Historic Main Street is Park City's competitive identity. It is also, at this moment, without a coherent strategy for what it is supposed to become.

Every mountain resort town has hotels, lift access, and après ski. Very few have a historic commercial district with the character, density, and cultural gravity that Main Street provides. That distinction is what separates Park City from a resort and makes it a destination. It is not a given. It requires active stewardship — and right now, that stewardship is missing.

The city attempted a Main Street Area Plan in 2024. The process generated more controversy than consensus. Pedestrianization divided the business community. Parking changes had no agreement. The gondola concept was aspirational without a funding path. The plan stalled. The result: Historic Main Street is entering its most competitive period — Deer Valley East open, Canyons Village expanding, Quinn's Junction developing — without an agreed strategy to meet it.

This dashboard exists because productive strategy conversations require shared data. Before the group debates what to do, it helps to agree on what the street's health actually looks like — measured, not felt. The vitals index is that instrument.

The shared starting point
Three things this group can agree on before debating anything else
1
Main Street's health is measurable — occupancy, tenancy mix, seasonality, foot traffic. We currently measure none of it systematically.
2
The competitive environment is intensifying. New resort-adjacent districts are opening with capital and strategy that Main Street cannot match without one of its own.
3
The absence of a plan is itself a policy choice. Without an agreed framework, whoever arrives with capital and a permit sets the agenda.
The plan attempt
2024
City commissioned Main Street Area Plan. Controversy over pedestrianization, parking, gondola. No consensus reached. Process ongoing but unresolved.
New competitive pressure
3 districts
Deer Valley East opened winter 2024-25. Canyons Village has ~50% of entitlement left to build. Quinn's Junction in active development.
The opportunity
Year-round
Main Street's advantage is character and walkability — assets that work 12 months a year. The question is whether a strategy exists to activate them.
About this site: This dashboard compiles publicly available data about Main Street's demand environment alongside a framework for measuring commercial health. Yellow fields are filled in by the group from direct observation. The goal is to put shared data on the table before strategy conversations begin — not to advocate for a predetermined conclusion.
Enter your group's audit data in the yellow fields. Public data is pre-loaded. The gap score and radar chart update live as you type.
A — Demand conditions  (leading indicators)
Snowpack — SWE % of median (Jan 1)
89%
Weber Basin SNOTEL · Jan 1, 2025
PUBLIC · nrcs.usda.gov
Park City lodging occupancy
57.6%
Market-wide · Nov 2024–Apr 2025
PUBLIC · PC Chamber / STR
Transit ridership — winter
900K+
Dec–Mar 2024-25 · +4% YoY
PUBLIC · Park City Transit
Permitted special events
61
2024 full year · down from 78 in 2023
PUBLIC · PC Special Events
Seasonal snowfall vs. 10-yr avg
Enter % of 10-yr average at season end
SURVEY · Resort records
Transient Room Tax — latest month
From city council monthly finance report
PUBLIC · parkcity.gov
Anchor event attendance
138K
Sundance 2023 in-person · $118M Utah impact
PUBLIC · Sundance Institute
B — Commercial outcomes  (lagging — group audit)
Ground-floor occupancy rate
%
Walk audit — % storefronts occupied
SURVEY · Group walkthrough
Local independent ratio
%
% occupied that are locally owned
SURVEY · Group walkthrough
Year-round businesses
%
Open in both May and January
SURVEY · Group audit
Average business tenure
yrs
Average years at current location
SURVEY · Member survey
Visualizations
Demand vs. commercial outcomes
Enter audit data above to populate the commercial outcomes layer
Demand conditionsCommercial outcomes
Event permit trend
Permitted special events by year — public data
Lodging occupancy — ski vs. shoulder
Market-wide Park City occupancy by period
Citywide sales tax — selected months
General fund monthly ($000s) — public data
D — Diagnostic gap score
6 / 10
Snowpack 89% of median · 57.6% lodging occ. · 61 events · 900K transit riders
5 / 10
Enter audit data above to inform this score
+1
Gap score — demand minus commercial
Slight demand advantage
Demand conditions were modestly ahead of what Main Street captured. Enter audit data above to sharpen the picture.
This table shows all metrics with current values where publicly available. Green values are pre-loaded from public sources.
Main Street Vitals Index
All metrics · data status · sources · baseline period Winter 2024-25
Updated March 2026
MetricCurrent valuePrior periodTrendSourceNotes
A — Demand conditions (leading)
A1. Snowpack SWE % of median89%112% (2024)↓ Below medianNRCS SNOTEL · wcc.nrcs.usda.govJan 1, 2025. 2025 water year ended ~83% statewide.
A2. Seasonal snowfall vs. 10-yr avgPending~355" avg—PCMR / DV resort summariesEnter % of 10-yr average at season end
A3. Full-operation ski days (both resorts)Pending——Resort daily ops · establish Year 1Count days both PCMR and DV fully operational
A4. Park City lodging occupancy57.6% ski / 35.7% shoulder55.7% ski↑ Ski +3% YoYPark City Chamber / STRShoulder avg May–Oct 2025. Infrastructure sized for 100%.
A5. Transient Room Tax revenueEnter monthly——PC Municipal Council reports · parkcity.govDirect proxy for occupied resort-area room nights
A6. Transit ridership — Old Town routes900K+ (winter)~865K↑ +4% YoYPark City Transit · annual reportsDec–Mar 2024-25. Spring/summer +6% YoY.
A7. Permitted special events (city)61 (2024)78 (2023)↓ −22% vs 2023PC Special Events Dept. · public recordRequest Main Street location breakdown separately
A8. Anchor event attendance138K (Sundance 2023)138K— StableSundance Institute · FIS · Kimball ArtsSundance $118M Utah economic impact (2023)
B — Commercial outcomes (lagging — group audit)
B1. Ground-floor occupancy rateAudit required—— BaselineGroup walkthrough · no public source existsWalk Main Street, classify each storefront. 20-min exercise.
B2. Local independent ratioAudit required—— BaselineGroup walkthroughCity workshop (Dec 2025) flagged "national chains erode identity."
B3. Year-round operating businessesAudit required—— BaselineGroup audit (May + Jan comparison)Gap between May and January = seasonal fragility measure
B4. Average business tenureSurvey required—— BaselineHPCA member surveyTurnover is a stress signal even when occupancy looks stable
B5. Owner-operator ratioSurvey required—— BaselineMember surveyOwner-operators are more resilient in downturns
B6. Quarterly tenancy turnoverOngoing tracking—— BaselineGroup ongoing observationTrack openings and closings separately — net alone masks churn
B7. Citywide sales tax revenue$8.3M (Feb 2025)$8.1M (Feb 2024)↑ All-time recordPC Municipal Council reportsCitywide — not Main Street-specific. Context for outcomes.
C — Event & corporate activity
C1. Permitted events — Main Street61 total (2024)78 (2023)↓ −22%PC Special Events · request location breakdownCity permits ~80/year total. Location breakdown requestable.
C2. Anchor event attendance138K (Sundance)138K— StableEvent organizers / Park RecordTrack whether peaks show in Main Street commercial outcomes
C3. Private / corporate events (voluntary)Not yet tracked—— Create this dataVoluntary business compact · no public sourceThe unmeasured category. Group creates this through compact.
C4. Old Town hotel room nightsRequest required—— PendingSTR / Park City Chamber sub-marketRequest Old Town breakdown from Chamber or STR
Direction for all metrics where data currently exists. Trend arrows populate as the index matures over time.
Known trends — public dataPre-loaded from documented sources
Permitted special events (2022 → 2024)71 → 61↓−14% over two years
Park City transit ridership — winter YoY+4%↑900K+ riders · positive signal
Snowpack SWE vs. median — 2025 water year83%↓Below median · long-term trend down
Shoulder-season lodging occupancy (May–Oct 25)35.7%—Baseline established
Citywide sales tax — ski season peaks+2.7%↑Feb 2025 all-time record $8.3M
Citywide sales tax — shoulder months (Sep 2024)−10.9%↓TRT down 10.85% vs Sep 2023
Baselines to establish — group auditNo public source exists · group creates this data
Ground-floor commercial occupancy rate——Conduct walkthrough to set baseline
Local independent vs. national chain ratio——Classify storefronts in walkthrough
Year-round operating businesses (%)——Compare May vs. January open count
Average business tenure (years)——Survey HPCA members
Private / corporate events per quarter——Voluntary compact with anchor businesses
The diagnostic insight: Citywide sales tax hit an all-time record in February 2025. Transit ridership is up 4% year-over-year. Deer Valley East drove record group bookings. The demand environment was strong. The open question — which only commercial outcome data can answer — is whether Main Street captured its proportional share of that demand.

Economic levers worth discussing

Main Street is not struggling for lack of effort. It is operating without a shared strategy, in a more competitive environment than it has ever faced, with a failed plan process as the only recent attempt to create one. The levers below are actionable. None requires unanimity to initiate.

The plan problem: Park City commissioned the Main Street Area Plan in 2024, engaging the firm Happy Cities to make Main Street "more economically resilient." The process surfaced real disagreements — pedestrianization divided the business community, parking changes had no consensus, the gondola concept attracted attention but no funding path. The plan generated controversy rather than coalition and stalled. The result: Historic Main Street is entering its most competitive period without an agreed strategy. Deer Valley East is open. Canyons Village has roughly 50% of its entitlement left to build. Quinn's Junction is in active development. Each of these adds room nights, food and beverage, and retail that competes directly for the visitor and local dollar. Main Street cannot match their infrastructure. It can be more genuinely Park City than any of them. That is a strategy — and it requires agreement, and data to know whether it is working.
Legislative and policy levers
Lever 01
Re-enter the Main Street Area Plan with data, not positions
The 2024 Area Plan attempt failed because competing interests showed up with opinions rather than a shared diagnostic baseline. The vitals index this group is building is precisely what was missing. Re-entering the Area Plan conversation with occupancy data, tenancy mix, year-round ratios, and a published gap score shifts the question from "what do you want Main Street to be" to "what does the data say it currently is, and what are we willing to do about it."
PolicyCoalition City process is ongoing and open
Lever 02
Commission a formal carrying capacity study
No published carrying capacity assessment exists for Summit County. Development approvals proceed without a documented resource ceiling. A water-based capacity study expressed as a population-equivalent gives every future development decision a reference point it currently lacks. This is not an environmental argument. It is a planning discipline — and a non-oppositional ask that any business owner can support regardless of their position on specific projects.
LegislativePlanning Request to City Council or County
Lever 03
Audit development incentive parity
Current incentive structures — tax increment financing, facade grants, density accommodations — may be available to new large-footprint peripheral developments on the same terms as adaptive reuse of existing Main Street properties. If so, the incentive structure actively subsidizes uses that compete with Main Street rather than strengthen it. A staff audit is a reasonable ask. If parity exists, no argument is needed. If disparity exists, the case for rebalancing makes itself.
LegislativeIncentive reform Request to City Council
Lever 04
Require water demand disclosure for major development applications
Any application for 10 or more hotel rooms, 20 or more residential units, or 5,000 or more square feet of commercial space should include projected annual water demand in gallons and as a percentage of current average annual supply. This does not block any project. It changes what information is on the table when the council votes — making the resource cost of each approval visible in the public record at the time of the decision.
LegislativeDisclosure Request to Planning Commission or Council
Organizational and economic levers
Lever 05
Establish and publish a Main Street Commercial Health Index
The vitals index this group is building does not yet exist anywhere. No public body tracks Main Street commercial vacancy rates, tenancy mix, or year-round operating percentages. By conducting a quarterly walkthrough audit and publishing the results, this group becomes the only source of that data. Every future discussion about Main Street policy — at the planning commission, in the press, at the council — happens with reference to numbers that this group produced.
OrganizationalData Group-initiated · no external permission required
Lever 06
Build a private and corporate events compact
The private event category — buyouts, corporate dinners, retreats, group meetings — is currently unmeasured on Main Street. A voluntary compact among eight to ten anchor businesses to report quarterly private event counts would create the only published figure in existence. It would also quantify the gap that additional event-oriented hospitality infrastructure on Main Street would fill — making the case in numbers rather than assertions.
Organizational Voluntary · group-initiated
Lever 07
Develop a year-round event programming strategy
Permitted special events dropped from 78 in 2023 to 61 in 2024 — a 22% decline with no apparent policy driving it. Main Street businesses are uniquely positioned to host events that do not require city permits: private art openings, tastings, pop-ups, corporate activations, gallery walks. Coordinated into a coherent shoulder-season calendar, these give visitors a reason to come in May, September, and October — and require coordination among businesses, not approval from the city.
OrganizationalProgramming Business-initiated · no permits required for private events
Lever 08
Advocate for workforce housing on or adjacent to Main Street
The Main Street Area Plan identified workforce housing as a priority concept. It is the single most direct lever for building a year-round resident population within walking distance of the commercial district. A resident population in the Old Town core anchors demand for local goods and services in every month that ski visitors are absent — supporting year-round employment, reducing seasonal staffing crises, and sustaining the civic life that makes a place function as a community rather than a resort amenity.
PolicyHousing Main Street Area Plan process · City Council
The competitive framing: Every lever above strengthens Main Street's position relative to the districts it now competes with. Deer Valley East, Canyons Village, and Quinn's Junction are building coherent destination experiences with capital and strategy. Main Street's response is not to match their infrastructure — it cannot. Its response is to be more genuinely Park City than any of them can be. That is a strategy. It requires agreement on what it means, and data to know whether it is working.
These documents are the analytical foundation for the dashboard data. Written to establish shared facts before any policy conversation — not to advocate for a predetermined conclusion.
Policy briefing — full version
Growth, Resources, and Where We Build
Data every decision-maker should have

A six-section briefing covering Summit County's water constraints, how different development types consume resources, what the current planning framework does not measure, and one framework worth considering. Written for residents, business owners, and elected officials.

Covers: 2021 reservoir crisis data · Hotel consumption vs. system capacity · Location-based resource cost framework · Planning questions the data raises · Recommended actions that don't require opposing any specific project
Available as .docx — contact the group coordinator
Business group brief
Some Things Worth Knowing
Resource data and a question it raises about where we grow

A shorter, meeting-ready document designed to put shared data on the table before positions compete. Starts with five numbers most people don't have, explains what they mean together, and ends with a question — not an answer.

Covers: Five numbers that frame the resource argument · What those numbers mean together · What the planning framework doesn't currently measure · The location question · What the group might consider
Available as .docx — contact the group coordinator
Data sources used across all documents
Summit County Eastern General Plan (2025 draft)
Park City Public Utilities Water Division (parkcity.gov)
Utah Division of Water Resources (water.utah.gov)
U.S. Drought Monitor — Summit County (drought.gov)
Governor Cox Drought Executive Order, April 25, 2025
Seattle Public Utilities Hotel Water Conservation Pilot Study
Park City Chamber of Commerce lodging occupancy (via KPCW)
Pew Charitable Trusts — Utah Energy Mix Fact Sheet, March 2025
Park City Planning Commission Work Session Notes, Aug. 2010
U.S. Census Bureau — 2020 Decennial Census, Park City
Park City Special Events Dept. — permit records
Sundance Institute — 2023 Economic Impact Report