A veteran of the finance industry has started a campaign for the Park City Council, describing a platform that will include radical ideas to address some of the community’s key issues.

Bill Ciraco, 53, lives in Aspen Springs and has lived in Park City on a full-time basis for three years. He is retired from a career in finance that included a partner-level position in an investment fund that focused on mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies and restructuring. He worked in finance for longer than 20 years. He has experience as the president of a homeowners association in Aspen Springs as well.

Ciraco grew up in the summer resort village of Westhampton Beach, New York, a Long Island destination for wealthy New Yorkers.

---

---

“From day one I have involved myself in the community,” he said about his time in Park City.

Ciraco’s platform will include development matters and transportation, two of Park City’s core issues that are closely related.

---

---

If elected, Ciraco said, he would seek support for a moratorium on development in a swath of Park City known as Bonanza Park. He defined the boundaries of a potential moratorium as Park Avenue, Kearns Boulevard, Bonanza Drive and Deer Valley Drive, a swath of Park City where City Hall itself has important land holdings in addition to the privately held ground.

He said a moratorium — a City Hall action that can become controversial — would allow time for leaders to consider, through an ongoing study, the growth possibilities for the acreage at a moment when there has been turnover in the Park City Planning Department. A moratorium, he said, would allow time “to get our planning house in order.” 

He will also stress transportation issues, including an ambitious concept of a rail line to address traffic along the S.R. 224 corridor that serves as the primary entryway into Park City. He said there is a “huge opportunity” for a line that would connect Kimball Junction and Park City. Such a line, he predicted, would remove “thousands of cars” from S.R. 224 on a daily basis as drivers instead move to the train.

He envisions a line with a terminal at Kimball Junction, a stop at the Canyons Village base of Park City Mountain and another terminal on Kearns Boulevard, where he said a transit center would be built as part of the overall rail project.

Ciraco acknowledged the cost of a rail line like the one he describes could top $100 million. He argues, though, that a rail route would be more cost effective than other transportation options along the S.R. 224 corridor. Ciraco is not an opponent of a system known as bus rapid transit, with lanes dedicated to buses, but he prefers a rail line. He said grant monies from the federal and state governments could offset much of the cost of a rail line.

“It has impacts on other issues we have” like workforce housing and childcare, he said about transportation.

There are three City Council seats on the ballot in November. The periods when candidates must file the required campaign paperwork are June 1-2 and June 5-7. More information is available on the City Hall website, http://www.parkcity.org. The direct link to the election information is: https://www.parkcity.org/government/election-information.