Paul Hunt, a prospective purchaser of the former Kamas fire station parcel, told the City Council Oct. 14 he plans to convert the property into a mixed-use art gallery and small-scale wine bottling operation.

Hunt said the business would be primarily a gallery and display space for local and visiting artists, with a small wine-manufacturing and bottling area sited in an existing garage. He described the wine operation as light manufacturing: the wine would arrive already fermented (in barrels), be transferred into modest stainless-steel tanks (100–300 gallon), bottled and labeled on-site, and stored in a refrigerated room. He estimated on-site inventory at any time would be a handful of 60‑gallon barrels (5–10) and gave an example of his current production scale of roughly 2,000 bottles per year.

Why it matters: Hunt says state and federal licensing is required for a manufacturing and package (retail) license to sell wine direct to consumers, and local zoning or a code amendment will be necessary because bottling facilities are currently allowed only in manufacturing zones. The council, planning staff and applicant agreed additional due diligence is needed, including distance measurements to nearby public spaces and review of whether nearby uses (a private group using the former theater as a meeting space) will qualify as a “church” under the city code distance restrictions.

Zoning, regulations and approvals
Planning staff explained two routes: (1) rezone the property to a manufacturing district where bottling is already allowed, or (2) amend the zoning code to permit a bottling or small-scale packaging use in the property’s existing general commercial zone. Either path would require a public hearing before the planning commission and a subsequent council action. Planning staff also confirmed the planning commission is reviewing a proposed definition of “bottling plant” that the applicant and staff discussed; the draft definition read, in part: “Bottling plant: an industrial facility where drinks are put into bottles and sealed for sale to the public.”

State and federal licensing
Hunt said he already holds federal authorization from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for his existing operation and that he would need a local sign-off from the city as part of the application package to the state (Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control or DABC) for a manufacturer/package license. He emphasized the intended operation is not a bar or on‑site consumption license; instead the package license would allow direct-to-consumer retail sales of the wine produced or bottled on the premises for takeaway only.

Council concerns and next steps
Council members and staff asked for precise measurements to ensure the front door and retail doorway would meet the statutory distance from the nearest qualifying public space, and requested staff check whether the group meeting in the nearby theater building is tax‑exempt and therefore qualifies as a “church” for distance calculations. Planning staff offered to research whether a waiver or agreement could be negotiated with the neighboring group if the distance requirement would otherwise block the license. Council members emphasized preservation of the historic structures on the parcel as an objective and asked that any approval preserve the station and the stone building facades.

No formal action was taken. The council instructed staff to look up applicable state licensing distance rules, check whether the theater group is tax‑exempt, and continue the planning commission review of the bottling definition. The applicant was advised to pursue the necessary planning steps (zone change or code amendment), apply for federal and state permits and provide the local required declarations as part of the state application.