The closest neighbor to the property where Matthew and Tatiana Prince won narrow approval to build a new home overlooking Old Town has appealed the decision.

Eric and Susan Hermann argue the Park City Planning Commission in February erred in approving conditional use permits by two 4-3 votes and amending specific property notes 4-2 for the property at 220 King Road. The Princes aim to tear down two existing houses on the property and replace them with a home that the Hermanns and other critics say is too large for the historic district.

At stake is whether the Sweeney Master Planning District encompassing six other large homes in addition to 43 acres of open space supersedes the historic district and city’s land management code, as the Planning Commission found, or the other way around.

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An appeals board of three members appointed by the Park City Council will hear the case, and further appeals are possible through the court system.

The key questions in the appeal deal with the exterior height, interior height, the building footprint and whether the new home intrudes on sensitive lands, in addition to arguing that the city’s land management code should be the defining document guiding new construction in the Sweeney MPD.

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Among a long list of conditions, the Planning Commission allowed:

• 33 feet for a section of the otherwise compliant 30-foot-high roof line from grade to break up the long look. The higher section takes up 24 feet of the 117-foot-long roof.

• The measurement of the lowest finished floor to conform with the interior height limit of 35 feet, leaving the bottom two floors unfinished beneath the grade.
• That the property is not subject to sensitive land zone restrictions.
• That the building footprint would not include driveways, parking area and turnaround wide enough for firetrucks, or a separate home office built below grade.

Driveways and parking areas were excluded from building footprints of other homes in the Sweeney MPD, and several exceed the interior building height limits. The living space approved by the Planning Commission, 7,500 finished square feet, in the plat notes is the second lowest in the district of large homes above Old Town. The unfinished space is about 6,000 square feet. Under the commission’s conditions of approval, the Princes would need to return to the commission for permission to finish that space.

The current homes at 220 King Road, built in the late 1990s, also exceed historic district standards for exterior and interior height, and are slightly higher than the proposed home.

The appeal argues:

• “The Planning Commission’s decision relied on the incorrect assertion by the applicant that only the restrictions in the MPD and subdivision plat, rather than the land management code, apply to this property.”
• “The proposed structure does not meet the express requirements of the Park City Land Management Code as expressly required by the Sweeney MPD and the restrictive covenants.”

The appeal argues that the interior height is really over 53 feet and questions whether lowest finished floor plane refers to the lowest finished floor; that the exterior height is not measured correctly; and the same with the building footprint, which the appeal argues is really over 11,000 square feet.

The appeal asks that the appeals board reverse the Planning Commission’s approval “to ensure the LMC is properly enforced and the appropriate review process is followed.”

Planning commissioners Henry Sigg and Laura Suesser spoke out against the Planning Commission’s process and said they felt rushed to make a decision with a 45-day limit about to elapse Feb. 14, when the commission approved the proposal after several hours of deliberation.

Commissioner Bill Johnson voted for the plat note amendments and against the conditional use permits.

Commissioners John Frontero, Rick Shand and Christin Van Dine voted for the plat note amendments and the conditional use permits. Chair Sarah Hall broke the ties in favor of the conditional use permits.

The Princes own The Park Record.