Salt Lake City planners want Intermountain Health to increase the amount of active uses on the ground floor of the hospital it wants to build near the middle of the city in exchange for a major upzone.
The planners said the healthcare provider should be required to include at least an acre of open space at the center of the development that would be accessible by the public from new mid-block walkways.
In exchange, it could build the roughly 200-foot tall hospital on nearly 9 acres of vacant land between 700 and 800 South, Main and State streets.
Some of the details have been previously shared. But the city released the concepts it wants to see cemented in a development agreement that would guide development on the property as Intermountain looks to replace its aging LDS Hospital in the Upper Avenues with what a more centrally located one on the Sears Block.
At its meeting in August, the City Council pushed back against Intermountain’s request to rezone the property from D-2 to D-1 zoning, the zone typically applied to the Central Business District in the heart of Downtown.
Such a rezone adds millions of dollars in value to the land and would allow a current or future owner to build under the D-1 zone.
Given that Intermountain hasn’t released detailed renderings of its planned hospital, the City Council requested the development agreement to make sure that Intermountain carried out the project and avoid allowing a suburban hospital without meaningful activation for the public.
Concepts of that development agreement were released on Thursday and are set to be before the Planning Commission at its meeting on Wednesday. The City Council will have the ultimate say, likely later this year.
What’s in the agreement?
The Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the City Council about what it thinks should be included in the development agreement. But planners provided their thoughts on what should be put in place.
Intermountain has previously said that its plans call for some activation on street-facing ground-floor spaces through a series of food truck space, mid-block walkways and other uses.
- 79 percent of State Street
- 64 percent of Main Street
- 66 percent of 800 South
- Unknown amount on 700 South
The staff report calls for increasing that activation to 90 percent on Main, 70 percent and 800 South. It wants at least 70 percent on 700 South, which might be difficult to solidify until Intermountain finalizes its parking setup.
That would still fall short of what’s required by the D-1 zone, but the planners said Intermountain could use artwork, landscaping and seating to make up the remaining gap.
“In the past, the commission has accepted other means of activation, such as artwork, landscaping, seating, and other outdoor features,” the planners wrote. “The commission may consider recommending that the DA include these types of features on Main Street if adding more ground floor uses is not compatible with the floor plans and use of that portion of the hospital.”
The updated plans show Intermountain would build either a surface parking lot or structured parking garage facing 700 South. Planners recommended the city reject that use.
Intermountain previously showed it may build a large parking structure on land it recently purchased on Main Street near 800 S., with a pedestrian bridge over Main Street. If those plans are approved, Intermountain suggested it would expand its planned open space from the middle of the block to 700 South. But it could also lead to a gaping hole in the middle of Main Street.
A food truck park that’s 150 feet long would front State Street, immediately south of Sapa’s holdings on the block. That provides a likely place for the popular taco vendors to remain on site, possibly even through the lengthy future construction process.
Planners suggested requiring that all ground-floor uses are immediately accessible either from the sidewalk or new mid-block walkway. They want the food truck area to be at least 150 feet long along State Street and include shade for visitors and electric hookups for vendors.
That requirement, which Intermountain has previously included in its high-level plans for the site, means the city is on its way to creating a full-time, year-round food truck park. (Though the details about heating for the winter and access for trucks that are required to relocate to a commissary kitchen after closing could make or break the year-round viability.)
Other items to consider
Intermountain didn’t answer a list of questions about whether it had issues with the development agreement outlined in the staff report. But it did confirm that it was working closely with the city.
“This development agreement is one of several steps in this process that we’re working on closely with the city so that we can move forward with our planning to turn this blighted and unused parcel of land into a shining star for Salt Lake City,” spokesman Jess Gomez said.
Intermountain wants the following to be considered ground-floor uses.
- Hospital reception and admitting areas
- Emergency Department and Instacare reception areas
- Clinic reception areas
- Gift shop
- Human Resource lobby and reception area
- Conference center
- Cafe
- Local coffee shop
- Salon
- Art therapy spaces
- Outpatient pharmacy
Planners said all the items on the list are generally considered active uses, though they did recommend that a conference center could count if its lobby is accessible from a street and the windows aren’t obscured.
That likely means the public should expect the ground floor uses to remain largely in service to the hospital and its patients and employees, rather than as retail options for the broader public.
Planners suggested requiring that the open space be at least 1 acre and include enough trees to cover at least a third of the space once they reach maturity.
Intermountain could build a driveway on 800 South that is 100 feet wide, or about the width of State Street from curb to curb, and planners recommended the city allow up to 100 feet on 700 South, as well.
What about Sapa?
Expanding any zone into a new area comes with the possibility that nearby property owners try to use it as a precedent to rezone their own holdings, and that’s already proving to be the case here.
Intermountain’s hospital campus will surround the popular bar and restaurant options owned by the investment group called Sapa.
Those include the Japanese restaurant called Sapa, as well as the currently closed bar called Purgatory.
The investment group behind those restaurants appears ready to ask the city to rezone its properties to D-1, according to a permit that appeared online briefly last week.
A city planner confirmed to Building Salt Lake that another property owner on the block requested the rezone. Business entities registered to Mai Nguyen, Sapa CEO, are the only other property owners on the block.
The city hasn’t yet processed the application and declined to offer further details. Sapa didn’t respond to a request for comment.
0 Comments