Planners brief Salt Lake City Council on Avenues community plan update; LDS Hospital site and housing options top concerns

Planning staff briefed the Salt Lake City Council on Sept. 16 on the Avenues community plan update, describing the existing conditions report, public engagement to date, and the timeline for the plan process. Staff said the plan — last adopted in 1987 — is being updated to align land use and implementable policy actions with citywide plans such as Plan Salt Lake and Housing SLC, and to set a vision through 2035.

Staff reported outreach that included six in-person events, eight stakeholder interviews, an online open house, and an online survey with 265 responses. Common themes in the engagement included strong support for preserving the neighborhood’s historic character and walkability; residents also identified housing costs, transportation safety and access, lack of neighborhood-serving businesses, redevelopment of the LDS Hospital site, and bike infrastructure as priorities.

Planning staff described preferred strategies for accommodating housing while preserving neighborhood character: adaptive reuse of existing buildings, new small-scale mixed-use development, and infill housing types such as duplexes, townhomes, and 4–9 unit multifamily buildings. Staff said the plan could legalize some existing nonconforming uses in the Lower Avenues to better reflect current housing patterns.

Council members asked several detailed questions about plan boundaries, the potential for rezoning, and the role the city can play regarding the LDS Hospital site. Planning Director Nick Norris said many plan boundaries date to a reorganization in the 1970s and that the city does not own the LDS Hospital property; the city’s leverage is primarily through future land-use designations and zoning. Staff explained that portions of the Intermountain Health/LDS Hospital site are zoned institutional and could be adaptively reused without a zoning amendment, while other portions would require rezoning for residential conversion.

Staff said the Avenues plan team will continue the "big ideas" phase this fall, hold further in-person engagement sessions through September and early October, and draft a final vision later this fall into 2026. The briefing was informational only and no council action was taken at the Sept. 16 work session.