Commission forwards positive recommendation on Housing and Transit Overlay; developers present Market Center concept

The Planning Commission on June 19 voted unanimously to forward a positive recommendation to the City Council for amendments to Title 17 establishing a Housing and Transit (HT) Overlay District for downtown South Salt Lake. The HT Overlay is designed to permit large, phased, mixed-use, transit-oriented developments that are not well served by the existing downtown form-based code.

Before acting on the zoning text, the commission heard a detailed presentation from the Blazer Ventures development team and architects (MBN Partners) about the proposed Market Center master plan at State Street, Central Point Place and Haven Avenue. Presenters (Peter Berger of MBN Partners, landscape architect Alonzo Rhodes, and developer representatives) described a multi-building development that would include:

- Building 1: a podium-wrapped six-story building with an internal structured parking floor (about 490 stalls), rooftop public amenity space (including approximately 2,800 sq ft of interior rooftop area and a pool) and 255 dwelling units; - Building 2: a five-story building with ~138 units and nearly 8,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail; - Building 3: a five-story residential building of about 85 units on Main Street; - Building 4: a single-story commercial/retail building of roughly 7,600 sq ft; - A public plaza at the S-Line (rail) stop, improved pedestrian connections and streetscape changes to encourage walkability.

Staff explained the HT Overlay's primary components: a 5-acre minimum contiguous ownership requirement (multiple parcels under single ownership that abut each other qualify), an average density minimum of 50 units per acre and an average building-height threshold greater than 50 feet (the overlay averages building heights across the project to allow variety and skyline interest). The HT Overlay requires the developer to enter a development agreement with the city prior to rezone, which gives the City Council discretion and tools to govern phasing, public improvements and public-access commitments (for example, guaranteed short-term public parking on lower parking levels).

Commissioners asked questions about public access to the rooftop amenity, parking allocation and sharing (staff and the developers described a planned agreement for limited public parking, short-term parking and resident parking on upper decks), pedestrian and bicycle access, unit affordability and phasing. Developers said the project is planned to include an affordability component (units targeted to households at 60% area median income, delivering a level of affordability below market rents) and a mix of unit sizes including 2- and 3-bedroom units (about 35% of the mix). The team expects phased construction with Building 1 starting first; full build-out estimated at three to four years.

Staff recommended forwarding a positive recommendation to City Council for the Title 17 amendments and creation of the HT Overlay; the commission voted to forward the positive recommendation unanimously. Because the HT Overlay is a zoning tool that only becomes available to projects that meet its criteria (contiguous ownership, minimum acreage and density requirements) the overlay is not automatic for individual small-lot developers; smaller projects will use existing downtown code.

Commissioners and staff noted the overlay is intended to channel large, master-planned redevelopment into a clear process while preserving the existing downtown code for smaller, lot-by-lot projects. The next step is City Council consideration of the Title 17 amendments and any associated development agreements with projects that seek the overlay.