Take me to the latest Progress Report
Our
History
It took imagination and hard work to create our Park City Senior Center. In 1976 Union Pacific Railroad donated its abandoned Keetley Depot Station to the Park City Seniors. Located under what is today’s Jordanelle Reservoir, the building took two years and a lot of manual labor and money to move it to the current location at 1361 Woodside Avenue in Park City. Since then, two wings have been added, and the Center has become a warm and lively gathering spot for us Park City elders.
Our
Future
The “Silver Tsunami” has arrived! Over 16% of Park City and Summit County’s population is now age 60 or more; and that percentage is growing as Baby Boomers join our ranks. This is a nation-wide phenomenon.
The Park City Senior Center is also growing to meet the demands of this active, engaged group. Our membership has increased from about 70 seniors a few years ago to over 500 today and we continue to grow.
We are currently in the planning stages with Park City Municipal Corp. to build us a larger, better designed building next door to our current facility in order to accommodate all the programs and activities our membership enjoys. The center will be part of an affordable housing complex which will include some senior housing. Our planning also includes discussions with Summit County about their continuing (and, hopefully, expanding) role supporting our group.
Eventually we would like to be open for lunches five days a week instead of the current two, and open daily for a variety of activities. We are making progress though. Beginning March 2024, we have expanded our days of operation. We are now open 4 days each week, Monday through Thursday. Until we can figure out additional lunches, it’s ‘bag lunch’ days on Tuesday and Wednesday
Continue reading below for our latest progress report
Our Building
Progress – Senor Center
2025 Update
by Craig Weakley
The purpose of the meeting was for the City to provide us a preview of staff’s update to Council on its review of the Mawhinney site as a possible location of the new senior center, and to share the materials that were being provided to the Council at its meeting on Thursday, February 27. The staff report and exhibits are currently available on the City’s website along with the Council meeting agenda.
The materials review the history of the site, speak to the zoning and planning considerations, and discuss parking issues, soil concerns, and right of way and utility requirements. So far, no major roadblocks or concerns have arisen, though the City needs to undertake a more complete study of parking requirements and soils testing for the site, both of which will be done by hired third parties. The results of those two studies are expected by April, and another update will be provided to the Seniors, and then Council, shortly thereafter.
A couple of interesting points that came out of the discussion include the following:
- If the new senior center building is no more that 9,999 square feet in total size, then it would fall under conditional use guidelines from a planning perspective, and may have the easiest path to approval.
- If the new center exceeds 9,999 sq. ft., then it would fall under the MPD planning guidelines, which would, among other things, trigger an affordable housing component to the project plan. There would also be additional setback requirements, though the lot appears big enough to accommodate those.
- Either way, the project will be subject to an Historic District compatibility review, or HDDR.
- The soils testing will also involve a geotechnical investigation, which involves certain engineering considerations. For the purposes of that review, our suggested building and layout (design) considerations are being forwarded to the vendor.