Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith wants the option to bring new skyscrapers to Salt Lake City’s skyline with his proposed sports district, and he wants to sidestep the city’s planning commission when it’s time to build them.
Smith Entertainment Group is asking the City Council to do away with the typical planning commission review on tall buildings and replace it with an “administrative approval” for structures 250 feet or taller near the Delta Center.
It’s a request that has outraged at least one planning commissioner, who said the move would help the group hide decisions from the public.
“It’s not just about me, the scary planning commissioner, that SEG is obviously afraid of; it’s also about the public,” commissioner Bree Scheer said. “They don’t want the public to have anything to do with what goes forward from now on.”
A representative from SEG declined to comment on the proposal or Scheer’s criticism.
Smith’s request follows the planning commission’s denial in June of a proposal to eliminate building height restrictions. In rebuffing the request, the planning commission cited a lack of specifics on what SEG had planned for the district.
The commission’s rejection does not prevent the City Council from approving zoning changes. Council members, who have signaled their openness to staff reviews for high-rises, are tentatively scheduled to vote on the proposal Aug. 27.
How zoning for the district could change
The city’s existing zoning restrictions cap building heights in the area at 75 feet, but design reviews can allow for buildings up to 125 feet, or about 11 stories. SEG’s new proposal seeks to increase that cap to 600 feet, or about 50 stories, with design review “at the staff level” for buildings surpassing 250 feet, cutting the planning commission — and its usual public hearing — out of the process.
If approved, high-rises near the arena could surpass Salt Lake City’s soon-to-be-tallest building — the 450-foot luxury Astra Tower at 89 E. 200 South — by about 150 feet.
The district’s current zoning already allows SEG to do most of what it wants within the area, Scheer said, but when exemption requests come to the planning commission, there’s a public comment process with open meetings and notices to neighbors on potential impacts.
If the council gives the nod to allowing design review of tall buildings at the staff level, Scheer warned, “it’s all just snatched out of public view.”
In an informal work session straw poll Tuesday, the six council members present — council member Alejandro Puy was absent — indicated their support to retain the planning commission’s current process for design oversight of the sports district, but with review at 200 feet and a maximum building height of 600 feet.
Council members also indicated, however, that they support having the option to switch to an administrative review if SEG provides sufficient construction details in a yet-to-be-considered development agreement.
Whitney González Fernández, a spokesperson for the council, confirmed some design reviews may not happen in the public sphere but would have to adhere to standards set in the future development agreement, which she said would be finalized in public.
Staff review not unprecedented
Before a 2019 ordinance, all design review applications were eligible to be approved at the staff level, according to a document submitted to the council.
“The Planning Division can review and decide design review applications,” the document states, “because we have past experience doing so, the design standards have been improved since that time, and most design review approvals made by the planning commission follow the recommendation of the staff.”
Scheer said an argument to maintain transparency is something the council may take into account when weighing the new zoning rules.
“On the other hand, usually when things get to this point, they’ve already been decided,” she said. “So it sometimes becomes a moving train that’s very hard to stop.”
In addition to building height changes, SEG proposed a special allowance to add a plaza for the district and a midblock walkway running north between the district and the Japanese Church of Christ. SEG also wants advertising flexibility for building signage within the district, along with an established curfew for the district’s digital signs.
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