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Old Town dwellers, better get passes for this weekend

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

People who live in Old Town must be prepared to flash passes during the daytime hours this weekend to drive to their homes, an annual exercise meant to keep the neighborhood from being overrun by people heading to the Park City Kimball Arts Festival.

The festival is scheduled on Saturday and Sunday on Main Street, and the passes have long been used to limit access on streets surrounding Main Street to people who live there or work nearby.

Checkpoints will be set up in two places:

The Deer Valley Drive-Park Avenue intersection

The Deer Valley Drive-Heber Avenue intersection

The passes are required from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Saturday and from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Access passes are available at the Kimball Art Center. The center’s hours are from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. People must show a utility bill with an address in the restricted area or a driver license that shows they live there. For more information call the Kimball at 649-8882.

The access passes must be shown at the checkpoints in order for people to drive past the roadblocks.

The arts festival has long been established as one of the busiest weekends of the year. The access passes keep people who drive to Park City from driving through Old Town looking for places to park. Parking on many of the streets close to Main Street are restricted to people who live there.

Meanwhile the Kimball is providing separate access passes for Main Street businesses that allow them to receive deliveries on Swede Alley during the festival. They do not allow them to park there, though. Wristbands that will allow people who work on Main Street to get to their jobs are also available.

Access passes for the small number of people who live on Swede Alley will be distributed as well.

Organizers plan to close Main Street to traffic at 5 a.m. on Friday to allow crews to set up the artist booths, stages and other temporary tents for the festival. The street is expected to reopen to traffic at 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Max Paap, who manages special events for City Hall, said cars left on Main Street past 5 a.m. on Friday will be towed if their owners cannot be found.

Organizers are encouraging people driving to the festival to park in satellite lots that will be served by shuttles to the Old Town transit center. The lots are at Park City Mountain Resort and outside Snow Park Lodge.

Paid parking will be available in the China Bridge garage on Swede Alley, with prices set at $10 per day. Approximately 500 spots are available to the public in the garage on a first come, first served basis.

Paap said the arrangements in 2009 are similar to those in the past two years. The last major change was allowing paid parking in China Bridge, instituted in 2007.

"It’s pretty established," Paap says about the plan. "All in all it’s pretty similar to the past two, three years."

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