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It's too big.
That's what dozens of residents told representatives from the Boulder Ventures development firm Monday evening in regards to its 492-unit apartment complex proposal in the heart of Sugar House.
"It's a monstrous project that will exacerbate congestion," said Sugar House resident Gerard McDonough.
"This looks like it will destroy the neighborhood," said former mayoral candidate George Chapman. "It looks like a 10-story monolith."
Kobi Lucas, the firm's development director, presented the plans to more than 60 residents who crammed into a small room at the Sprague Library for a meeting of the Sugar House Community Council. In a series of slides, she showed the audience the sleek design that is pared back at the third and fifth stories before hitting its 10-story limit.
She explained to the intense but polite audience that Salt Lake City ordinances allow for the height and density.
Lucas and architect Russ Platt told concerned residents that the structure, located at 2189 S. McClelland St., also would supply 750 parking spaces. It's planned to supplant the Granite Furniture warehouse at the terminus of the S Line, also known as the Sugar House Streetcar.
If it is approved before Nov. 2, 2016, the development firm would save $1.5 million in impact fees. The moratorium, supported by Mayor Ralph Becker, was approved by the City Council in a 4-2 vote last month.
"I'm really concerned about the size," said resident Thea Brandon. "I want to know how much of that $1.5 million impact money you can use to make it smaller."
Platt explained that he grew up in Sugar House and wanted to make it a better place.
"We want to bring a good and vibrant community," he said of the Boulder Venture proposal. "We want to bring people to Sugar House."
The complex would comprise one- and two-bedroom units, he explained. The one-bedroom units would range in size from 500 to 750 square feet, while the two-bedroom units would run from 950 to 1,250 square feet.
They will rent at market rates, and there is no "affordable housing" planned, Platt said.
But Tina Escobar-Taft, a member of the Community Council, wasn't buying it.
"We will be extremely impacted by this," she said. "You are going to put our lifestyles at risk."
Many in the audience said 750 more cars would add to automobile congestion in the area. One resident said people already avoid Sugar House because of the traffic congestion.
Over the past three years, about 900 apartments have been built or are under construction in Sugar House, according to Judi Short of the Community Council's land use and zoning committee.
The chorus of "it's too big" was repeated over and over.
Resident Deb Henry called it "a classic failure of urban design."
But Lucas attempted to assuage their fears, saying Boulder Ventures would take into consideration residents' concerns.
She added that the mass of the building is not greater than the furniture warehouse. "What we're trying to do is not create a project that is larger than what's been here."
Lucas said she also would seek data from other areas that have seen rapid growth, like that in Sugar House, and bring it back to the Community Council that meets next on Dec. 2.
The Community Council will make a recommendation to the Salt Lake City Planning Commission — the body that would ultimately approve or deny the project.
No date has been set for the Planning Commission to hear the proposal.