A candidate trying to unseat a Salt Lake City Council incumbent is pitching a plan to voters to create more housing in the Avenues neighborhood.
Here’s the idea: if Intermountain Health were to close the LDS Hospital — opting to move its services to the yet-to-be-built Downtown hospital on the old Sears Block — the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) and the city government should buy the land and redevelop it into housing, parks and public assets.
That’s the plan being pitched by Blake McClary, an Avenues resident running to unseat Council Member Chris Wharton in District 3. McClary is one of four people vying to unseat Wharton in the upcoming municipal elections.
McClary told Building Salt Lake that if elected, he would, “convene a task force for assessing whether or not the CRA would be able to acquire this land or form some sort of public private partnership with Intermountain Health.”
“This land is so strategically important to Salt Lake City that this is a value to be proactive and reach out now, as opposed to just waiting for something to come hit the planning commission,” McClary told BSL.
The District 3 candidate said the numerous IH parcels should be redeveloped to include park space and small-scale retail, but most importantly housing.
Blake McClary. Image via Blake McClary
“We know that we have a dire need for housing in the Avenues, and this would be a fantastic project for a sort of blank slate approach to development, very similar to what you see with The Point development in Draper with the prison moving, you have a blank canvas,” McClary told BSL. “This allows us to be very thoughtful and proactive, rather than just reactive, which is what we typically see on city projects.”
The plan’s “north star” for housing is to offer for-sale townhomes for under $500,000. That’s easier said than done, especially with real estate in the Avenues being some of the most sought after in all of Salt Lake City. Townhouse or rowhouse units built in the 1990s near the hospital are currently fetching between $850,000 and $975,000, according to listings on Utah Real Estate.
McClary knows hitting that price would be a tall order, but he said that’s the point. He said the city or the CRA could buy the land outright or through some sort of public/private partnership with IH. He added that the city can expedite building permits and provide other cost-saving measures to try and drive down the price of housing.
“We have to have a big, audacious goal that we’re going after, otherwise we’re just going to do more of the same, which is townhomes that cost $1 million that sit vacant. Is that really what we want?” McClary said. “That’s exactly why I’m advocating for the city to step in here and play a vital role, because otherwise you’re really not going to get a townhome for $500,000 in the Avenues.”
As for worries about congestion and parking, McClary said the area already sees thousands of hospital employees and visitors on a daily basis. He argued replacing the hospital complex with housing and smaller retail spaces would be less disruptive than the current traffic flow. He added that the hospital already has two parking garages and is serviced by UTA Route 209, which McClary said could remain as part of the redevelopment.
McClary, who lives near LDS Hospital, said the Downtown hospital plan raised a number of questions for those who work in and live by the aging Avenues hospital.
According to McClary, IH has, “told their staff, for example, that they are going to be moving most of the hospital operations to this new (Downtown) hospital, that the (LDS) hospital is seismically unsound, the main building, and that this could happen within the next five years.”
It would make sense to move services out of LDS Hospital, which first opened in 1905 and expanded numerous times since, though that plan isn’t certain.
When asked whether LDS Hospital will transfer services to the new Downtown hospital, IH spokesperson Jess Gomez said in an email, “We continue to focus on providing world-class health care at LDS Hospital and plan to do so in the future.”
Gomez added that IH has not been involved in any discussions with Salt Lake City regarding the future of LDS Hospital.
Chris Wharton, the incumbent council member for District 3, is seeking his third term representing the Avenues and surrounding neighborhoods. When asked about the proposal, Wharton said it’s, “really premature and a little bit confusing to be holding planning exercises for the LDS Hospital site, especially without the landowner at the table.”
Chris Wharton. Image via Chris Wharton
“I communicate regularly with the CEO/President about the current and future needs of the hospital, its patients, and the neighborhood,” Wharton said in a statement to Building Salt Lake. “Intermountain is still several years out on deciding how to move forward with the property, including the possibility of keeping the hospital there in some form or another.”
Wharton said he was born in LDS Hospital, and it’s been a staple of the Avenues for over a century. He added, “I’m as eager as anyone else to find out what its future holds, but that process needs to be initiated by the property owner and guided by the needs of residents, not by speculation.”
Other candidates running for the District 3 seat, including Liddy Huntsman-Hernandez and Jake Seastrand, did not immediately return emails seeking comment on McClary’s proposal.
McClary said the prospect of Salt Lake City redeveloping the hospital is a bold plan, but in a city that’s seeing homeownership become less attainable, he’s willing to take a big swing.
“This is an audacious goal, it’s a huge undertaking, it might even be impossible. So what?” McClary told BSL. “That’s what we have to figure out. That’s what the city has to do, is solve hard problems, and obviously we don’t have that on (the City) Council today. That’s why I’m trying to be as aggressive as possible here.”
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