Planning commission conditionally approves parking exception for Wabi Sabi at 198 East Center

The Moab City Planning Commission on Jan. 30 conditionally approved Planning Resolution 02-2025, granting a parking special exception and a payment-in-lieu arrangement for Wabi Sabi’s proposed change of use to retail at 198 East Center Street. The commission vote was 4-0.

Planning staff told the commission the property’s total retail square footage used for the parking calculation is 52,100 square feet (including an outbuilding and auxiliary areas), which yields an 18-space code requirement for retail. Staff proposed crediting five existing on-site spaces and identified a remaining shortfall of 13 spaces. The staff presentation set out alternative pathways: if the parcel is rezoned to C3, the project could access payment-in-lieu calculations available in that zone; if it remains C2, different limits apply. Staff structured a conditional approval designed to cover both pathways and tied parking relief to the site-plan approval process.

Dina Charles, representing the Wabi Sabi board, described the organization as a nonprofit resale store that works with other nonprofits and said the group seeks a temporary downtown location. “Wabi Sabi is a nonprofit trade store, so it's not only benefiting itself. We're working with many other nonprofits,” Charles said. Owner Taylor Lawrence told commissioners the store’s customers are often pedestrians and that recent streetscape changes on Center Street increased available on-street parking. “We believe those are pedestrians that people who visit Wabi on by on the feet... so that's why we think we don't need many parking as the code required,” Lawrence said.

Commissioners debated whether the proposed exception would unduly burden future users of the parcel and whether relief should be limited to the current applicant and use. They also discussed code deficiencies staff has noted previously and the precedent set by earlier downtown exceptions. Commissioner Jill Tatton moved the conditional approval; Commissioner Carolyn Conant seconded. The motion passed 4-0.

The resolution approves parking relief tied to the Wabi Sabi change-of-use site-plan application and includes specific conditions: resolution is contingent on meeting outstanding staff comments before building-permit approval; payment-in-lieu and exception options differ depending on whether the parcel is rezoned to C3 or remains C2; and parking relief is linked to the current applicant’s approved change of use. Staff said final implementation requires the applicant to address outstanding staff comments during the site-plan process and that any future different use that would alter parking needs would trigger re-review under code.