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Salt Lake City Council unanimously backs the plan to reimagine downtown

Salt Lake City is poised to chip in $900 million to help fund an ambitious project to renovate the Delta Center and redevelop several blocks around the arena into a downtown “sports, entertainment, cultural and convention district” alongside the Smith Entertainment Group.
Sean Higgins
/
KUER
Salt Lake City is poised to chip in $900 million to help fund an ambitious project to renovate the Delta Center and redevelop several blocks around the arena into a downtown “sports, entertainment, cultural and convention district” alongside the Smith Entertainment Group.

With a unanimous council vote, Salt Lake City and the Smith Entertainment Group now have a deal to help fund a downtown sports, entertainment, cultural and convention district. In addition to an agreement on the project area and scope, the city is also expected to enact a 0.5% sales tax increase to fund $900 million of the total cost, which could be in the billions of dollars.

Other provisions include $1-$3 fees for each ticket sold for an event at the Delta Center, the epicenter of the project. That money would go toward a city fund that helps pay for future affordable housing projects.

Additionally, no less than $5 million in city funds would be used for improvements to historic Japantown as well as SEG working with the city to bring about the “recognition, revitalization, and/or redevelopment of the Japantown community” that was largely demolished in the 1960s to make way for what is now the Salt Palace Convention Center.

“I know we didn't get everything we wanted in this participation agreement, but please stay at the table,” councilor Darin Mano told members of the Japanese-American community.

“We have a lot of work to be done and many more opportunities to fight for Japantown. And I just hope that you feel as encouraged as I do tonight about what we were able to accomplish in this and the future that we have for Japantown.”

What’s next?

Under a state law passed this year, the agreement now goes to a state committee, which will happen in the next 30 days. If that body approves, the deal then goes back to the city for a final vote and adoption of the 0.5% sales tax increase.

The deadline for the agreement to be in place is Sept. 1. The deadline for a city decision on the sales tax increase is Dec. 31.

Council Chair Victoria Petro acknowledged the fears and frustrations she heard from constituents throughout the process, but said there were more benefits than drawbacks. She added she was not voting yes “under any sort of duress.”

“I'm not doing this to disenfranchise one constituency over another,” she said. “I'm not doing this for any reason except this is scary and big. But it is in the best interest [of the city] and we've risen to challenges before.”

Zoning changes

Happening at the same time as the final agreement approval is a request to rezone the area around the Delta Center to allow increased building heights and additional uses for that land.

“It allows for more development potential and more flexibility in how that [project] happens,” said planning director Nick Norris. “There's a number of parcels and surface parking lots and things like that where there certainly is development potential that would benefit from the zoning changes.”

The original proposal includes eliminating a maximum building height requirement. It was not given a positive recommendation by the city’s planning commission. Despite the speed bump, the planning commission only advises the council and some members indicated they were leaning toward approving it anyway at a July 2 meeting.

“Going high isn't a super concern for me, even though I empathize with people who don't like it,” Petro said. “The truth of the matter is we're just like Manhattan, except instead of rivers boxing us in its mountains. We have got to go taller if we're going to house people.”

Norris is confident there will be something adopted” in the coming weeks.

“Based on the direction they gave us last week, I think for the most part, it's going to be adopted unless they start hearing a lot of valid other public input and input from others about what's on the table.”

The city council will hold a public hearing on the zoning request on Aug. 13.

Potential hold-ups

The participation agreement between the city and the Smith Entertainment Group depends on a separate agreement with Salt Lake County. The county owns and controls the Salt Palace, Abravanel Hall and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. No timeline has been made available for that process.

On the city’s side of things, as long as the major signposts are hit for the participation agreement, rezone and tax increase, Norris expects the district planning process to be pretty straightforward. The only real hiccup he can foresee is if the Smith Entertainment Group proposes anything that was not included in their rezone proposal. Or if a separate development agreement is made between the county and SEG.

“There's always those externalities that could complicate things,” he said. “We'd have to balance the county agreement and the city agreement and then our zoning.”

Despite all the things that could happen, Norris’ work starts once the final agreement is in place and a funding mechanism is enacted later this year.

Then it’s not just planning, but the city's transportation division, engineering and public utilities as well. That's when all of our legwork really begins.”

Sean is KUER’s politics reporter.
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