Update, Oct. 16, 2024: The Ogden City Council voted 5-2 to limit new housing in commercial zones, effectively shutting down the Ville 3306 project. Our original story continues below.
A plan to create deeply affordable housing in Ogden is likely to get sidelined during this week’s city council in favor of a proposal aimed at promoting growth in more walkable neighborhoods.
Ville Property Management has sought approval from the city to convert the former Days Inn at 3306 Washington Blvd. into housing since 2022. The plan has the potential to house most – if not all – the families currently experiencing homelessness and receiving support from Weber County service providers.
In May, however, Ogden City announced a proposal to “place limits on new apartments in commercial zones C-2/CP-2 and C-3/CP-3.” The only new housing that would be allowed in those areas are senior multi-family dwellings, multi-family dwellings next to stations on the OGX bus route along Harrison Boulevard and large mixed-use projects.
A final vote on the proposal is expected Oct. 15.
That could impact the roughly 40 families that are working with Weber County case managers to access housing resources, according to Matt Jensen, deputy director of the Weber Housing Authority. Depending on the size of each family and their desire to live there, Ville 3306 could house them.
“One of the biggest needs in not only our community, but across the United States, is housing,” Jensen said. “And so anything that we can do to make it easier for more people to be housed, I am a huge proponent of.”
The project would convert the facility into 72 units, including 47 studio apartments, 12 one-bedroom apartments and 13 two-bedroom apartments, said Ang DeMarco, director of programs and supportive services at Ville Property Management.
At other Ville properties, studio apartments often house single mothers with one child, while more spacious units are for larger families, DeMarco said.
Rent would be subsidized by an Attainable Housing Grant from the Utah Office of Homeless Services, and DeMarco said they plan to build additional multi-room units on the land they own behind the old motel.
But an August report by Ogden Planning Manager Barton Brierley said the city has enough land downtown and in mixed-use and multi-family zones to accommodate projected need for mid-rise apartments through 2050.
It also argued that commercial zones are not good places to live, since they “lack features, such as parks, trails, schools, safe bike routes, quality transit stops, and community gathering spots.” Senior dwellings would still be allowed because they “do not necessarily have the same needs” as other types of housing.
Weber Housing Authority and Ogden Housing Authority are both developing new housing that will primarily serve individuals or couples rather than families.
Still, DeMarco believes the conversion of the Days Inn would serve the community well.
“It will take that dilapidated property and it will turn it into a functional space for families that are in need of housing, providing the services that they need to stay stable,” she said.
Residents would also have on-site case management, wraparound services including psychiatry and therapy, access to a food pantry and job coaching, DeMarco said. The property is across the street from Odyssey Elementary School, which could benefit potential residents with children.
Brierley said the city’s zoning amendment was crafted without any particular project in mind.
“We were getting a lot of apartments, not a lot of single-family” homes, including some in places lacking walkability, bikeability or parks, he said.
“They weren't really good neighborhoods, so we wanted to re-examine where we allowed apartments and make sure that they were in areas that had those sorts of services available to them.”
In response to a community member’s discussion of the Days Inn conversion, a July memorandum from Brierley stated former Mayor Mike Caldwell “went to the funding agencies to ask them not to fund the project” because it did not comply with zoning standards. Ville has since changed the sizes and number of units to comply with the code.
The document also stated that while “staff does not dispute the need for housing to serve those experiencing homelessness, staff does recommend spreading such facilities throughout the county instead of continuing to concentrate them in Ogden,” in part because the “former Days Inn is located in an area of concentrated poverty.”
The area around the motel has a median household income of roughly $2200 below the average for Ogden City, while its poverty rate is similar.
DeMarco noted there’s a market-rate apartment complex next to the property.
“The only difference is the population that we are serving and the services that we are providing.”
Jensen agrees with Brierley that housing “definitely has to be in the right area to be successful,” but he thinks the Ville 3306 project is well-situated. It’s across the street from Roads to Independence and a 1.2 mile walk or bus ride from Cottages of Hope and the Department of Workforce Services.
If the ordinance passes, Brierley said it wouldn’t stop motel conversions in other parts of the city, namely in downtown mixed-use zones, where the city is “encouraging new housing.”
“There we have good walkability, good transit. We've got parks [and] other amenities” like crosswalks.
Beyond allowing this project to continue, Jensen hopes the council will not make blanket changes that could prevent other housing opportunities.
Each project is “a big, multifaceted undertaking,” he said, and changing the code could prevent the city from taking individual approaches to different projects. Ville 3306, he believes, “could work out really, really well.”
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.