Planning Commission backs zoning text amendment to clarify downtown parking garage design standards

The Salt Lake City Planning Commission voted March 26 to recommend that the City Council adopt a zoning text amendment to reorganize and clarify downtown parking regulations and design standards.

Planner Riley Hall, presenting the amendment, said the change was initiated by the mayor and the planning division to “clarify the applicable standards, eliminate conflicting code language, and to support the adopted plans that apply to the downtown area.” The amendment would apply to the D1, D2, D3, D4 and GMU downtown zoning districts.

The amendment reorganizes parking regulations currently scattered across multiple code sections and narrows allowances for surface parking lots. Under the proposal, new surface parking lots would be permitted only when co-located on a property with a building and would be limited to locations behind or to the side of that building; side-lot parking would face additional size and proximity limits. Hall said the overall intent—“to screen parking garages and to limit parking at the street level or in front of buildings is not changing.”

Staff proposed changes to reduce overlapping and conflicting design requirements for parking garages. The packet and presentation explained that applying both general downtown building design standards and a separate set of garage-specific standards at the same time created practical and cost conflicts for upper-level garages—particularly ventilation openings, glass-percentage requirements and material compositions. To address that, staff recommended removing the requirement that upper levels of parking garages be “wrapped” by another use, removing the glass percentage requirement for upper levels, and clarifying which building-material standard takes precedence when a garage is incorporated into a larger building.

Commission discussion addressed how the rules would treat “open” parking garages (those that rely on natural ventilation) and how screening could be achieved with perforated metal, louvers or other materials short of fully solid walls. Commissioners also asked how the co-location rule would interact with shared parking agreements and property combinations; staff said shared (off-site) parking is already allowed under code and that new standalone surface lots would be restricted by the proposed language and by standard zoning reviews at permit time.

Commissioner McCall Christiansen moved to recommend adoption of the text amendment; Commissioner Scott seconded. The commission voted to forward a positive recommendation to City Council with all present voting yes.

The commission’s recommendation does not itself change the code; it forwards the proposed ordinance language to the City Council for final action.

Votes at the meeting and the staff report cite multiple city code sections that would be reorganized and referenced by the amendment, including provisions in the downtown zoning chapters and the off-street parking and loading chapter.