Park City Housing Leader Wins Lifetime Award, EngineHouse Takes Green Honor

Park City’s affordable housing push got a public nod in Salt Lake City, but the real measure of success is still on the ground in Park City, where rent and resale pressure continue to outpace wages. At the Utah Housing Coalition’s annual awards dinner on April 29, Rhoda Stauffer, Park City Municipal Corp.’s housing program manager, received a Lifetime Achievement Award, while EngineHouse, the city’s newest workforce housing project, won Green Project of the Year.

The recognition came as EngineHouse moved from construction site to occupied housing at 1875 Homestake Road, near Kearns Boulevard. Park City says the public-private development, built with J. Fisher Companies, will deliver 99 deed-restricted units aimed at households earning 60% of area median income, out of 123 total apartments. The mix includes 28 one-bedroom units, 88 two-bedroom units and seven three-bedroom units, along with 140 parking spaces, bike parking and a planned Summit County Bike Share location.

City officials have presented EngineHouse as more than a housing project. The development was designed to meet IECC 2021 energy codes, lower its carbon footprint and reduce utility costs for residents, a point that helped it stand out for the green award. Park City says the site also includes indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, child play rooms, storage, bike maintenance rooms and music rooms, with convenient access to shopping, transit, jobs and recreation.

The project has also become a marker of how long Park City has been trying to widen the housing pipeline. The city and J. Fisher broke ground on EngineHouse on October 4, 2023. Park City later announced a ribbon-cutting for December 19, 2025, calling it the city’s largest public-private affordable housing partnership.

Stauffer’s award reflected a much longer arc. Park City says its housing program began with the first local housing policies adopted in 1993, and Stauffer now oversees affordable housing programs, large projects, compliance with deed restrictions and city rules, sales and resales of affordable units, the waitlist and the employee housing program. The city says it has 674 affordable deed-restricted units, with 69% rental and 31% owner-occupied.

Those numbers still sit well below the need. Park City’s recent housing needs assessment says the city must create another 1,100 units over the next seven years to support workforce and middle-income residents. Across Utah, Zoe Newmann of the Utah Housing Coalition has said the state faces a 44,000-unit deficit in deeply affordable housing at or below 30% of area median income.

That gap is why EngineHouse matters beyond the awards. Park City’s inclusionary housing requirement, now 20% of residential units in certain developments, has made the city one of Utah’s most aggressive local players on affordability. The question for Summit County remains whether the pace of delivery can keep up with the people who need a place to live near their jobs, schools and daily routines.