A proposed rezone to allow for a seven-story hotel on the western edge of Sugar House Park drew the endorsement Wednesday of Salt Lake City’s planning commission.
It now heads to the City Council for final approval.
Despite concerns from neighbors over obstructing mountain views, traffic congestion and impacts on the popular park and its watershed, commissioners voted 7-to-1 to recommend approval of Millcreek-based Magnus Commercial Properties’ request to permit the 145-room boutique hotel and allow it to rise up to 90 feet tall.
Commissioner Amy Barry was the sole vote against, saying she was concerned the developer’s traffic study was inadequate and feared that giving the 0.86-acre park-side lot at 2111 S. 1300 East more permissive mixed-use zoning would lead to a continued “creep” of higher buildings in the Sugar House business district.
“It will just continue to expand,” Barry warned during the panel’s two-hour hearing.
Many neighbors spoke out Wednesday against the proposal, though it also had a handful of vocal supporters.
“Even though it’s at the edge of the business district,” said nearby resident and former City Council member Søren Simonsen, “it is something that we desperately need.”
As part of the council’s ultimate approval of any rezone, it would also craft a detailed development agreement for the property. It is unclear how quickly those negotiations might go and when the council might schedule hearings on the matter.
City planners, who endorsed the zoning change with key conditions, said it was in keeping with treating the site as part of the Sugar House town center. Other commissioners spoke in favor of a series of community benefits the developer is offering, including meeting rooms for local groups and retail spaces with subsidized rents for local businesses.
Hotel to ‘capture the essence’ of Sugar House
(Magnus Commercial Properties) Rendering of a seven-story hotel proposed for the western edge of Salt Lake City's Sugar House Park. The city's planning commission endorsed a zoning change Wednesday that would make the hotel possible.
John Potter, with developer Magnus Commercial, said the requested zoning and master-plan changes would allow for an upscale hotel with a rooftop restaurant for “a large and growing group of travelers that are seeking, when they go to a city, to capture the essence of that city.”
“What better neighborhood than Sugar House, from our perspective,” Potter said, adding that hotel would also be a bridge between the business district and the park by offering amenities such as its lobby, coffee shop, retail spaces and an activity center to park users.
Potter said aspects of the hotel proposal still required approval from the nonprofit Sugar House Park Authority, which manages the park.
He said a third-party study has found that at peak hours, that busy adjacent intersection of 1300 East and 2100 South would see a 2.7% increase in traffic with the hotel, or roughly 50 more cars per hour.
“I’m not going to sell anyone that that’s a good thing,” Potter said, “but less than one car a minute added is a relatively minor impact.”
Others, including Barry, dismissed those findings as an undercount of the likely vehicular and parking impacts.
“Please be forewarned,” said Yalecrest resident Jan Hemming, “this hotel proposal will cause traffic congestion and will cause traffic problems. Anyone on this commission who thinks this is not true is simply ignoring reality.”
Effects on the park
(Magnum Hotel Management via Salt Lake City) A rendering shows plans for a seven-story hotel next to Sugar House Park.
The zoning change — from what the city calls MU-3 zoning to more permissive MU-8 zoning — would permit the hotel as a use and lift its permitted height from its current 40 feet to as high as 90 feet, subject to city review and approval of its design.
Planners said in their their 349-page report recommending approval that the zoning change matches many of the city’s wider planning goals while supporting redevelopment of an underused parcel and the expansion of the Sugar House business district as the neighborhood’s population continues to grow.
Neighbors and members of the Sugar House Community Council worry about expanding the permissive zoning on taller buildings prevalent in its business core eastward across 1300 East — as well as the seven-story hotel’s potential impact on the the 110.5-acre park, the city’s largest.
Judi Short, who chairs the community council’s land use committee, said the hotel’s height and round-the-clock activity would be “incompatible with the purpose of the park, which is the quiet, recreational, educational, historical and cultural enjoyment of all residents of Salt Lake City and the county.”
“The very idea that a seven-story building erupting from the smooth space of Sugar House park could ever be considered an active bridge to the park is nonsense,” said Short, “and considering it to be the town center is ludicrous.”
The commission’s recommendation for City Council approval includes requirements that 75% of the ground floor of the hotel see active business uses; and that the developer install new signs for that entrance to Sugar House.
Among other requirements are that the hotel include free meeting spaces for community groups and that it help to add a new bike-sharing station at the park. The city would also mandate public access to a portion of the 180-stall, $13 million underground parking garage that is part of the hotel’s designs.
City urban designer Amanda Roman said because the property is located within an area protected as a city drinking water source, the developer’s plans would trigger a drainage study by the city Department of Public Utilities.
And, Roman added, any construction close to The Draw at Sugar House, which provides a pedestrian and bicycle link from the business district and Hidden Hollow to the park, would require approval from Salt Lake County Flood Control and the state engineer.