Alta Town Council directs staff to draft two-year lease with Alta Community Enrichment for Our Lady of the Snows

Alta Town Council on June 4 directed town staff and legal counsel to draft and execute a lease giving Alta Community Enrichment (ACE) primary occupancy and booking responsibilities for Our Lady of the Snows (OLS) under an initial two-year trial term, the council unanimously agreed.

The two-year term is intended as a “trial marriage” that the council and ACE will use to test shared operations, revenue sharing and maintenance roles before negotiating a longer-term arrangement, council members and ACE representatives said.

Council and staff said the draft guidelines the council approved for staff to follow call for ACE to manage bookings through an online platform, operate certain event staffing and day-to-day tidiness between events, and for the town to retain major maintenance and utility obligations as owner. Councilmembers and staff also discussed a three-tier revenue-sharing concept intended to let ACE recover administrative booking costs first, allow the town to recoup operating costs next, and then adjust the split to incentivize ACE as revenue grows.

"This lease will make us still feel like a little bit of ownership even though we don't have the ownership," said Sarah, an Alta Community Enrichment representative, explaining ACE's view that the arrangement provides the organization stability and continuity while preserving community access.

Town legal counsel Cameron described the termination language discussed during the meeting: termination for cause with a short cure or vacate window and a longer notice window for termination without cause tied to the short initial term. "The 90 days was really just a proposed term because it's a 2 year agreement," Cameron said, adding that timelines can be adjusted to suit both parties.

John, a town staff member who participated in drafting the guidelines, said the council and staff prefer starting with a short term to reduce pressure to get every detail perfectly specified immediately: "I like the 2 year period. It takes a lot of pressure off us to get every detail right." Several councilmembers echoed that view and asked staff to include statements of intent in the lease (for example, preserving community access and clarifying fee goals) rather than attempting to micromanage ACE's daily pricing decisions.

The council discussed fee examples in the packet: ACE has proposed an annual tenant rent in the draft materials (staff referenced a $4,000 annual figure for ACE), a nightly fee schedule for other users and a discounted rate for Little Cottonwood Canyon nonprofits (reported as $150 per night in the packet). Councilmembers and staff emphasized intent language — that the space remain a community asset and that town meetings and other town uses should be accommodated — while leaving operational fee-setting primarily to ACE, subject to oversight if fees became inconsistent with community expectations.

Staff told the council that legal counsel had provided sample termination and notice language and that the town anticipates closing on purchase of the building by the end of the month; the lease would protect ACE once ownership transfers. Councilmember questions and staff answers addressed responsibilities like snow removal, utilities and routine cleaning, with staff noting some maintenance costs will remain the town's obligation while ACE would handle day-to-day readiness for booked events.

Public comment included ACE staff member Megan Oliver saying she and ACE staff had discussed booking responsibilities and that she felt confident taking on bookings management if the council wanted ACE to do so.

After discussion, councilmember Jen moved that staff and legal counsel be directed to draft and execute a lease with ACE following the proposed guidelines; a councilmember seconded the motion and the council voted unanimously to approve that direction. The recorded action directs staff to prepare the technical lease documents consistent with the guidelines discussed and to proceed to finalize the agreement administratively, though a final lease could be returned to the council for formal approval if the council prefers.

The council and ACE representatives said they expect to use the two-year period to identify operational issues and compile a "squawk list" of items to resolve or bundle into a later negotiation for a longer-term agreement. Staff and counsel committed to refining contract language on topics the council flagged, including clearer intent statements, wording alternatives to "ensure" for operational obligations, explicit maintenance responsibilities, and more straightforward explanations of the proposed revenue split.