With a state deadline pressing down, Salt Lake City is hurrying through new zoning rules for swaths of Fairpark along North Temple to allow for a stadium and large mixed-use redevelopment project aimed at luring Major League Baseball.

Its planning commission voted 7-1 Wednesday to reluctantly endorse creating the Jordan River Fairpark District, with loud complaints that the plan for 93 acres of fairgrounds, industrial land and river corridor west of downtown was being rushed.

The politically charged package of land use changes being pursued by property owner and Utah-based developer the Larry H. Miller Co. now moves to the City Council for review, public hearings and a vote before the end of December.

If approved, new zoning for the proposed district straddling North Temple at about 1500 West would allow buildings up to 200 feet tall outright and 400 feet with city review, while also waiving or loosening regulations on setbacks, minimum lot sizes, signage and other planning standards, giving the developer wider latitude on how the land might be overhauled.

Roughly 10% to 20% of the area being eyed for a stadium complex and commercial and residential development spread between the river, North Temple, Redwood Road and Interstate 80 would be green space — but it still is unknown if all the city’s rules for added setbacks and buffers protecting the river’s riparian corridor will be enforced.

Under conditions set by the Utah Legislature, if city leaders and the developer can’t ink an agreement by year’s end, any direct control the city has over land use in the area seems to evaporate.

Crucial portions of the plan, meanwhile, remain in flux with two months left for City Council review and potential approval.

Wade Budge, an attorney representing the Larry H. Miller Co. at Wednesday’s hearing, acknowledged the tight timeline. “We’ve all been put in a box,” Budge told the planning commission, “relative to the timing and the negotiation period.”

While members on the panel said they supported the public-private sector venture to bring a Major League Baseball team to Salt Lake City, several raised concerns that the proposal to wipe away existing land use provisions and replace them with zoning customized to suit the Fairpark development was moving too fast.

“The expedited process that has been dictated to us is not beneficial to Salt Lake City,” said planning commissioner Mike Christensen, “and is not respectful to Salt Lake City’s west-side neighborhoods.”

Lots of unknowns, little time left

If all this sounds vaguely familiar, that’s partly because the Jordan River Fairpark District bears similarities to the recent process leading to the city’s hard-fought pact with Smith Entertainment Group to create a sales-tax supported sports, entertainment, convention and cultural district downtown near the Delta Center.

Earlier this year — and also on a compressed timeline mandated by lawmakers — the planning commission recommended a thumbs-down to that proposal prior to its ultimate adoption by the council.

State lawmakers set the clock ticking on the Fairpark proposal with HB562, dubbed the “Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District,” which spans the Utah Fairpark and the so-called Power District, where Rocky Mountain Power’s aging facilities and trio of landmark smokestacks are located along North Temple.

That legislation, which imposed a Dec. 31 deadline on the city to clinch an agreement with the developer, also rejiggers how new taxes raised from the area will be spent in order to help fund stadium construction.

District backers say they are planning for retail, entertainment, new jobs and housing as part of a walkable, mixed-use community centered on a new baseball stadium, in keeping with state benchmarks driving the process.

It remains unclear right now, though, what types of housing might be built in the district, how many units would be constructed or how affordable they might be. The underlying state law calls for an unspecified percentage of workforce housing within the project’s boundaries.

As of late Wednesday, the Larry H. Miller Co. had reportedly not signed off on a set of community benefits the city is hoping to secure as part of its pending pact for redeveloping the land.

Conversations are also said to be underway with the Federal Aviation Administration on how city regulations for constructing towers in the flight paths for Salt Lake City International Airport will apply.

‘No housing’ to be demolished

An initial motion Wednesday recommending the council to turn the whole thing down failed.

For all its reservations, the commission then recommended approving the district but urged the council to impose a list of conditions. Commissioner Brian Scott, representing the city’s District 5 — which includes the Ballpark, Liberty Wells and East Liberty Park neighborhoods — cast the lone opposing vote.

Among the panel’s caveats were requests for more affordable housing; further review of protections for the Jordan River and airport traffic regulations; design standards for street-facing parts of the redevelopment — and incorporating the changes into the city’s existing plans for North Temple to make them binding on future property owners.

“I’m just trying an imaginary scenario: two years down the road, no major league stadium, no major league team. Very sad,” said commissioner Brenda Scheer. What’s then to prevent a subsequent property owner, she asked, from building “a Walmart or a gated community with 10 gigantic homes, or a car dealership.”

Aimee Burrows, commission chair, said public comment so far had also raised worries about building heights, use of the district’s tax money outside the area and the possibility of “displacement of people who live there and love living there.”

A couple of community members also spoke up to warn the redevelopment could force out current residents and accelerate gentrification taking hold elsewhere on the city’s west side.

City planners and the developer say there is no housing located within the project’s boundaries, although there are homes located adjacent to it. The 93-acre district does include a vacant motel and restaurant, offices for Rocky Mountain Power and a state liquor store.

“We’re not replacing any housing whatsoever,” Budge told the commission. “Not a single home.”

But the developer already is overhauling portions of the former industrial land that have been discovered to need an environmental refresh, the attorney added.

Budge said the Larry H. Miller Co. has five voluntary pollution cleanup projects underway within the district’s proposed boundaries, administered by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

He said the company’s work has also detected what is likely an upstream pollution source in that segment of the Jordan River and it is seeking to deploy up to $10 million in grants and other funds for overall environmental remediation.

“We’re taking very seriously,” Budge said, “the opportunity — but also the challenge — to clean up this area.”