Salt Lake City hearing officer takes under advisement appeal over historic status of 58 E. Hillside Ave.

Salt Lake City appeals hearing officer Matt Wortham heard arguments on an administrative appeal over the historic-status determination for a building at 58 East Hillside Avenue and said he would take the matter under advisement, issuing a written decision within two weeks.

The appeal, filed by Hillside Avenue LLC and represented at the hearing by Amy Walker, challenges a zoning administrator’s determination that a rear outbuilding on the parcel is a contributing structure to the Capitol Hill Historic District. The city maintained the building was identified as contributing in historic surveys and retains sufficient aspects of historic integrity to remain contributory.

The hearing focused on three criteria in Salt Lake City’s Historic Preservation Overlay District code (cited in the hearing as Salt Lake City Code 21A.34.020): whether alterations are generally reversible; whether the building contributes to an understanding of the district’s period of…