Rose Park’s lone bar wants to triple its square footage — and it’s exactly what Salt Lake City Planning Commissioners worried about when they first granted the bar a conditional use permit back in December.
Paris Social Bar, located at 910 W. 1000 North, filed an application with Salt Lake City last week to update its conditional use permit just two weeks after new blanket city zoning rules took effect.
The bar was initially granted a conditional use permit under the Community Business (CB) zone, though that zone was later changed to MU-3 as part of the city’s efforts to simplify its mixed-use zoning code.
According to a project narrative submitted to Salt Lake City, Paris Social currently uses around 2,200 square feet — which was under the limit for a bar establishment with a conditional use permit — and wants to bump up the proposed square footage to around 6,600.
A floor plan attached to their conditional use application indicates that, if approved, the bar’s maximum occupancy could be up to 739 people. The floor plan estimates the seated area of the bar could hold up to 115 people, while the standing-room area of the bar could hold up to 624.
For context, the Commonwealth Room in South Salt Lake has a capacity of around 650 people.
“The mentioned squared footage will be used for special events and to use the complete space that we are currently leasing,” the project narrative says. “We are currently only using a third of the building that is being leased and not being used to its full potential.”
A floor plan for the Paris Social Bar in Rose Park. Image via Cook Surveying & Associates
The MU-3 zone doesn’t have a limit on the operating size of a bar establishment. That lack of a limit concerned members of the Planning Commission back in December, as the bar was approved to operate with a capped amount of space and was required to have a temporary wall cut off the remaining area. The bar can hold around 150 people, according to a city staff report from that time.
MU-3’s lack of a ceiling on bar establishment sizes caused concern among some commissioners. Then-commissioner Bree Scheer said during the December meeting that she wasn’t worried about having a bar in Rose Park, but she did worry about the size.
“I think a bar is very compatible with the neighborhood and a great place for entertainment,” Scheer said at the December meeting. “… But it’s an entirely different thing when it’s a very large dance hall.”
Scheer proposed approving the conditional use permit, so long as the bar area did not exceed past a temporary wall that essentially cut the bar in half, and that vote was approved. The resubmittal under the MU-3 zone, if approved, would do away with that restriction. Paris Social was awarded their liquor license through the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services in February and later opened to the public.
The project narrative says Paris Social staff has talked with residents just south of the bar along 1000 North and to the northwest of the building. The narrative says that some residents were concerned about noise and litter on the property, but others said they enjoy having a bar nearby.
“The local residents are happy to see the property being put to good use and are also excited to have a ‘place close to home’ that will allow them to enjoy a ‘cold one’ without the hassle of traveling and dealing with downtown,” the project narrative says.
The conditional use application will be once again screened and voted on by the Salt Lake City Planning Commission, though it’s not clear when that could happen.
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