Salt Lake City OKs major zoning changes tied to Smith’s Delta Center plans

A zoning change approved Tuesday paves the way for Smith Entertainment Group’s plans for a “sports, entertainment, culture and convention” district surrounding a remodeled Delta Center.

The Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously to approve changes to Salt Lake City's D4-Secondary Central Business Center zone.

"No one is going to say this fell apart because the city didn't give it its all; it didn't work hard to make it work," Salt Lake City Council Chairwoman Victoria Petro told KSL.com after the vote.

The vote took place after council members hashed out any remaining questions about the proposal earlier in the day. For example, city officials agreed that the partnership agreement can be amended to include new language about where signs are allowed and other key sign regulations in response to concerns residents brought up about electric signs and billboards overrunning downtown.

Under the new zoning, the maximum building height is moved from 125-375 feet to 600 feet. Any building 200 feet or above will need to go through a design review. A building must have an 8-foot setback except for plazas or similar spaces.

Stadiums and commercial parking lots are considered permitted uses, while the Delta Center sign overlay is expanded out toward the Salt Palace blocks. On top of sign rules, the partnership agreement is expected to outline building heights and setbacks near buildings like the Japanese Church of Christ — another concern brought up during the zoning change process.

The proposal had drawn criticism from residents, including the Salt Lake City Planning Commission, which voted unanimously on June 12 to give it a negative recommendation over multiple concerns.

Commissioners suggested “buffer zones” by Abravanel Hall and elements of Historic Japantown. They also voiced concerns about the speed of the project and the impact a drastic building height increase could have on the city, where the tallest building is now 450 feet.

That didn't change even after the participation agreement was settled in July. Bree Scheer, a member of the commission, doubled down on her concerns during a public hearing on Aug. 13 , adding that she believed increasing the building height review threshold could eliminate any public process since most buildings would not need any review as long as they fit within a wide-ranging zone definition.

"What this zoning amendment does is take the whole process out of the public sphere," she said. "This amendment freely allows every use that (Smith) may ever want to propose."

Despite this, the City Council voted without much discussion. Petro said the turning point was finding ways to fit the main concerns into the city's development plan with Smith Entertainment Group so that the massive project doesn't include the concerns residents had with building buffers and signage.

That left council members more willing to adopt the changes. On top of that, the city recently lifted building heights in its primary downtown zone to encourage more density as a solution to the city's housing shortage.

"The amount of hours we've spent (on it) cannot be overstated. We have done a lot of work to get to this," she said, adding that the development plan's language is "more explicit" than anything the city could have written in an ordinance.

Tuesday's vote marks the first major move since the city reached a partnership agreement with Smith Entertainment Group in July over a plan sparked by the arrival of the Utah Hockey Club earlier in the year.

Salt Lake City has yet to formally file its agreement with the state, but that is expected to take place soon because it has until the end of this week to meet a deadline outlined in a law passed earlier this year, setting up the whole revitalization process .

Some city leaders met with members of the Revitalization Zone Committee Tuesday afternoon to go over details of the plan before the city formally files the document, according to a city spokesperson. Once it's filed, the state committee will have 30 days to accept the plan, reject it, or request the city to make changes.

The City Council will now wait and see what the state has to say about the plan. Its final feedback would likely be handed down by late September since the participation agreement hasn't been officially filed yet.

Once that's down, the City Council will be tasked with finalizing the deal.

It will also have until the end of the year to vote on whether to approve a 0.5% sales tax increase associated with repaying up to $900 million in bonds for arena and district projects. But the agreement would include funds sent to the city for affordable housing in return, among other concessions .

“I’m optimistic we created a participation agreement that allows at least some dimension of benefit to be public,” Petro said. “I know the risk that we’re taking is one that constituents are a little wary of.”