Designers and developers: Salt Lake City’s design review standards look to change in the near future. Super-long facades may be on the way out.
On Tuesday, members of the City Council heard a briefing on potential changes to the design review process, which could lead to changes needing to be made on projects that are in the works. Amanda Roman, an urban designer for Salt Lake City, briefed the council on the proposed changes, prompted by the city Planning Commission concerns in 2023, say planners.
Massing is one of the aspects up for adjustments, as Roman explained the proposed changes would aim to, “reduce the visual mass of buildings and relate them to the human scale.”
“Staff aims to enhance the architectural quality of buildings by focusing on depth and conventionality of larger facades,” Roman said.
To do this, the planning staff proposed two changes.
One standard would require buildings taller than 50 feet to have a base at least 20 feet tall, while buildings taller than 100 feet would need a minimum three-story base or be consistent with the existing street wall. Another proposed change would be to require window openings to be recessed by at least three inches.
However, she noted that affordable housing developments would be exempt from these potential standards, which she said would help keep costs low for those housing projects.
“We do understand that window reveals might lead to higher construction costs,” she noted.
Roman pointed to the six-story Dixon Place apartment building in Sugar House as an example of massing done well. She noted the building’s clearly defined, glass base and the upper floors are stepped back. The windows are inset, she said, and the building also has other architectural elements like balconies and awnings.
Council Member Darin Mano, an architect by trade, said he was concerned about the window adjustments. He said that type of change could increase costs quite a bit to buildings, and he also questioned if that change would negatively impact buildings made of glass or other materials.
“There’s a lot of high quality building styles that would not have a revealed window,” Mano said. “So I’m not sure that I think that’s appropriate outside of local historic districts at all.”
The new code language would exempt buildings clad in all glass from the window requirements, Roman noted.
Another proposed change would limit the length of street-facing facades. Currently, there’s no cap on the length of a building if it goes through the design review process, Roman said.
The proposed change would only allow building length to be increased up to 25% of the prescribed maximum building length. Roman said this would result in a maximum building length city-wide of 250 feet.
“We reviewed buildings that were granted additional building length, and of the 15 buildings that I reviewed, only one building exceeded 100 feet in height,” Roman said. “It’s actually not going to be built —the property was sold — but many of the other buildings did not reach the maximum height permitted in the zoning district. So this is a result of both allowing the density to extend out instead of up, and also due to building code and construction types changing from podium construction to high rise.”
Roman said another proposed change would prevent ground floor use requirements from being reduced if a building is going through a design review for additional length. She said, for example, additional length wouldn’t be able to be used for ground-level parking. If a building’s zone doesn’t require a ground floor use, a building would then have to have active uses for 75% of the ground floor — which is lower than the 90% required Downtown, for example.
However, some buildings would be exempt from these possible changes. Schools, stadiums, convention centers, government offices and utility buildings are just some of the buildings that would be exempt.
“While reducing the maximum building length may be controversial, it does play a significant role in shaping our overall development pattern,” Roman said. “And we also recognize the need for flexibility.”
A number of apartment developments around Salt Lake City would exceed the 250-foot facade length, and the proposed change, if approved, has the potential to force developers to switch up their project plans. The ground-floor use requirements also have the potential to shake up plans around the city.
Roman added Tuesday that, “One option we’ve discussed internally, but it’s not included in this proposal, is allowing greater building length in exchange for public benefits, such as including percentage of affordable housing or affordable commercial space. This would help balance the need of larger buildings being built, and then also by tangible community benefits.”
Council Member Sarah Young said she would support that type of incentive for affordable housing to have a longer allowable building length, though Roman clarified that aspect has only been a topic of discussion and is not actually in the proposed changes. Mano also said he hoped there could be an exemption on the proposed window rules for affordable housing projects.
One other proposed change would require a “defined entry feature” for each primary building entrance — or an individual unit entrance — if there’s residential uses on the ground floor, according to a slide deck presented to the council Tuesday.
Another proposed change would require corner lot buildings to have “a publicly accessible, transparent and unobstructed corner entrance.”
As of Wednesday, the potential changes are set for a public comment hearing in August, and the city council could vote on the changes the same month.
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