With a crucial deadline looming, Salt Lake City Council members are set to vote Tuesday on the final zoning rules and contracts that will clear the way for the Larry H. Miller Co.’s west-side Power District development.
And the public won’t have a dedicated chance to weigh in on the draft accords.
Council members are slated to consider two contracts — one with LHM and another with the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District, the state-created taxing authority that will oversee the development along North Temple.
Although the city has hosted two public hearings about a potential development agreement with LHM, neither has included specifics about what would be contained in a final contract to guide construction.
The pact with the taxing district, which would dictate how Utah’s capital is reimbursed for city services like police and fire, has not gotten a public hearing and is not required to have one, council spokesperson Whitney González Fernández said. Lawmakers passed a bill during this year’s legislative session diverting taxes, which would normally be used to fund such services, to the new district.
González Fernández said both contracts are set for a vote Tuesday because it is the last scheduled meeting of the year and both accords have a Dec. 31 deadline. Another meeting, she said, could be scheduled if needed.
If the development agreement and associated zoning guidelines are not finalized by year’s end, Salt Lake City’s authority to regulate what gets built in the district disappears, leaving negotiators in City Hall with little leverage.
During one public hearing on the development agreement last week, many — including Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, director of University Neighborhood Partners, an office of the University of Utah that serves the west side — highlighted LHM’s outreach to residents.
“I’m sure that they’ve been hearing what I’ve been hearing, which … is hope and fear,” said Mayer-Glenn. “Hope that what the community is hearing about the investment in the west side will be real, and fear that this will increase property taxes on homes and also on rental properties, resulting in more people getting pushed out.”
The multibillion-dollar development could bring immense change as it replaces a 70-year-old power plant with gleaming apartments, buzzy restaurants and, possibly, soaring towers as tall as those downtown. If LHM gets its way, a Major League Baseball stadium would infuse fresh energy near the banks of the oft-neglected Jordan River.
Despite the stakes of the fast-approaching deadlines, staff reports at last week’s City Council meetings were largely positive as aides noted many of the city’s goals line up with LHM’s. Council members, who have at times sparred with the company publicly and bemoaned the project privately, thanked LHM for staying at the negotiating table.
What’s in the development agreement?
(Larry H. Miller Co.) The Larry H. Miller Co. released new renderings of the Power District development on Feb. 15, 2024.
As of Monday afternoon, the city had yet to make a draft development agreement available online. Negotiations over details in that agreement were ongoing last week.
On the zoning front, the company wants to be able to build towers up to 400 feet tall with city review and loosen standards over setbacks, minimum lot sizes and other typical requirements.
As part of negotiations over a 40-year development agreement, LHM has requested that two ordinances not apply to the project: the city’s rules for protecting surface-level waterways, allowing for some construction up to the Jordan River’s edge, and restrictions on building heights near the airport.
On the city side of the table, officials had narrowed their wish list to a handful of items: a mix of housing types, public access to open space, free-expression guarantees and a requirement that a professional baseball team would play its home games at the proposed stadium.
“Both parties care greatly about workforce housing and family-sized housing,” City Attorney Katherine Lewis, who is leading the negotiations with LHM, told the council, “and know that that is something that is very important on this side of town and in this particular development.”
(Larry H. Miller Co.) The Larry H. Miller Co. released new renderings of the Power District development on Feb. 15, 2024.
On housing, open space and free-expression issues, the two parties found some common ground but were still working out details. Lewis pitched the home-game guarantee to the council last week and planned to formally introduce the idea to LHM in negotiations.
The public comment period during the council’s Dec. 3 meeting was largely positive, with many — including several who run west-side nonprofits with existing relationships to the company, the Miller family and the family’s foundation — saying they felt LHM was committed to the west side and had captured feedback from its residents. Others said they believe the project would boost economic development along North Temple.
Some commenters, however, feared the project would only push existing unsheltered homelessness into other west-side neighborhoods and that the development could displace residents who already make less money than their east-side counterparts.
LHM representatives have said the project will not replace any housing within the development’s footprint.
City services the new development
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Jordan River flows through the Power District in Salt Lake City on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
At the Dec. 3 meeting, the council also publicly discussed a municipal services agreement with the newly formed taxing district for the first time.
Under the state law that set the stage for the development, the city is entitled to the property tax revenue generated by the few properties that currently operate within the district. As the area grows, the city will capture 25% of the tax revenue that comes from new development.
That equation concerned officials in City Hall because the swelling district would require more city services than the current tax base there could support, even with the fraction of revenue from new growth.
State law requires the city and the taxing district — not LHM — to reach an agreement on how services like water and sewer line upgrades, police resources and fire responses will be reimbursed.
Under a draft agreement posted online last week, the city would have received an escalating amount of revenue from new growth until eventually securing all of the district’s tax revenue in 2055.
On Monday, however, the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District board voted to approve a deal allowing for a one-year extension of the city collecting the current tax revenue plus 25% of new growth while a longer-term agreement could be negotiated.
West-side council member Alejandro Puy, whose district includes a large swath of the development, said last week that he wants the city services deal to protect residents against possible tax increases down the line.
“I want to make sure we don’t have to potentially raise taxes on water for every citizen in the city because of this project ...,” Puy said. “Certainly, our neighbors are already concerned about increases.”
