Sugar House Community Council
LUZ Committee

Sugar House Hotel Open-House

Mon, Aug 18, 2025 06:00PM • 1:48:32 • Audio Transcription

This transcript was generated using automated transcription software (Otter.ai). While it provides a useful record of the meeting, it may contain errors, omissions, or misinterpretations due to the limitations of computer-based transcription.

Summary Keywords

Hotel project, rezoning process, community benefits, parking concerns, local design, Sugar House Park, traffic impact, height concerns, community feedback, economic benefits, retail spaces, local art integration, pedestrian access, construction impacts, development agreement., traffic concerns, environmental impact, setbacks, community amenities, parking issues, water table, geotechnical studies, liquor license, park access, staff parking, traffic flow, neighborhood impact, development impact, community benefits, Sugar House Park

Speakers

Sarah Young - City Council, Jackson Ferguson - Architect, Public #14 - Camille Gorp, Soraya Snipes (Mic Assistance), Public #2 - Francis Lilly, Public #7, Public #16, Speaker 1, Public #18 - Jean Daly, Public # - Second Appearance, Public #5 - Richards, Public #3 - Soren Simons, Judi Short - LUZ Committee, Public #4 - Sydney Crummer, Public #9, Public #17 - Roxy Christensen, John Potter, Public #6 -, Audience, Public #8 - Richard Wayman, Public #15 - Jim Burris, Public #13 - Dylan Munn, Public #19, Cris Hogan - Contractor, Public #1, Public #10 - Karen Ferry, Public #11, Public #12

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Sarah Young - City Council 00:01

If I could give one recommendation, they would need to make sure you get your comments to Judy in addition to those other spaces, because it does make a difference in terms of the voice of the community. So with that, we're handing it over to the applicant.

John Potter 00:20

Hello everybody. Thank you for joining tonight. We're going to go through a lot of information and then have a nice question answer period at the end. So that's, as I've told a few people in the room already today, that's the part I'm really excited about, is to hear what you all have to say. But we've noticed, as we've talked about this project over time, that it's good to lay out a few things before, to give you a little more knowledge about the project. So as most of you know, right, we're looking to develop a hotel project on the former sizzler site as part of Sugar House Park. To do so, we have to go through a rezoning process, which is, as Sarah touched on, this is one of the early steps.

John Potter 01:03

Just to give a little taste on that project. It's a 145 room hotel. It's an upscale hotel, to put that in perspective, outside of the hotel industry that puts it as nicer than Spring Hill Suites that is in Sugar House already, but not as fancy as, say, the Grand America hotel downtown. Responding to some community feedback, we know that parking is a concern, we’ll talk about that further, but we've worked hard for 180 parking spots to try to help mitigate some of the problems we know local businesses have with short parking. We'll talk today too about some of the community benefits that we see, and hopefully you all see, and the city sees as part of our request to do that via a re-zone. Reminder, that's really what we're here about. But we think that the hotel is a valuable amenity to the community. Our benefits to the community and the things that it will bring are positive. So even though it's a rezone request, we want to talk a bit about about a specific project. We officially have the open house till eight, if, if the questions start to slow down at the end, we will probably do the end a little early. But then stick around if you have a question you want to share, maybe that's… obviously we welcome questions front of all the group. As teachers I had growing up used to say, if you have a question, someone else does, but if you'd rather answer it, maybe not front of the big group, we could try to answer a few select questions privately afterwards. So officially, ends at eight, but we might try to tail it off. So So yeah, there's a short version of our of our project, and then again, hopefully we have got plenty of details.

John Potter 02:40

First, a little thought about us, right? So I'm John Potter. I'm a few of these boxes here. I'll be the one of the owners will be a small partnership group, and I'm the developer, which is why I get to speak to all of you tonight, and makes me very familiar with the project, right? I'm local here, right? I used to live in Salt Lake City. I don't anymore. I have kids. I did move to the suburbs, I confess, right? But my wife right down here used to live just a few blocks from here until, I guess, I pulled her out and we got married and moved to the suburbs. But she used to live in the Sugar House neighborhood. We still live nearby. My My office is just a few miles down the road on Highland Drive. Local Opertator, my company, with myself, will indeed be the operator of the hotel. Same thing, we’re here local. I’m not coming to you as some distance person who doesn’t understand it. And of course I don’t fully understand the same traffic struggles you might have on a busy rush hour day, I do understand that. I understand it takes, of course, I don’t claim to understand it all, but, I try to respond and tried to develop the project, and we partically succeeded I think, of recognizing our influence and recognize some of the positions that you are all going through

John Potter 03:58

We have a local design team too, and we'll touch on that, right? Our architects, FFKR, our engineers, etc, engineers, they know the area too, right? And we wanted to, we want to build a hotel that's part of the community. Something I should have touched on, on the previous slide is, I mentioned upscale hotel. It's actually what's called a soft brand hotel. You know, I touched on the nearby Spring Hill Suites across the way. That's a cookie cutter shape. You can see those in any city. Our goal is to fully affiliate with Hilton. Our goal is to build a hotel that captures the local character, right? This isn't a hotel you've seen in every city, right? So our local design, local ownership, local operator, local developer, all is to bring this hotel to truly capture the spirit of why, where the modern traveler is going. I think it's a great neighborhood. I think you guys are right to show up because you should have passion for this amazing space that I stole my wife from. And so I'm excited, and I'm trying to take some feedback in to reflect that, and I hope again, that comes through additionally, of course, how we build it is a concern, certainly, right? And I'll bring to our final one here, the local builder, and they'll talk more later. Certainly, that process, we all know the construction impacts of that from previous, from other projects, hopefully we'll be able to address some concerns. Bottom line for this is that we have a full local team, and I think it'll reflect positively on the project. A few more details about our projects, right? And we like this site plan, I like this image. I like this rendering because it really shows you touches at that goal I touched on earlier. The uniqueness we see of the site is to provide a link between the park and the city, right? It has a unique location at this corner, and we take that responsibility seriously.

John Potter 06:00

So when we set about doing it, we had to look at design a hotel. And I'll give the architecture team a lot of credit with this that reflected that connection, bridged it truly. We'll talk about in a few minutes how the inside,with no backside to a hotel. That's the amazing part of what we did with this design, is where do you put the dumpster? Where do you put the trash? We can talk about that later, but we wanted to respect both sides. We wanted activation on the street. We wanted liveliness. We also, of course, respect the park. How could we combine those? And I think we worked that out, and we'll go through that more in detail, just a few amenities to touch on for the first time tonight, like you'll see in the hotel, right? First floor, we have our retail and restaurant, both on the street and accessible to the hotel. A cafe in the lobby and look at this as something that's missing currently attached to the park. This is a great thing, obviously, for hotel guests, but also for local community members using the park. You know, we didn't want it to just be for a hotel guest. And on that note, I'll add one of the positives to a hotel use is that hotel customers have a lot of the same concerns as you all. Want a place to eat, they don't like noise, they don't like traffic, want a cup of coffee in the morning. Want to go for a jog, they want to walk their dogs. We imagine being that friendly hotel. And so some of these first floor amenities have a great dual synergy with the community as well as the hotel. Second floor will look more detailed. We have size for meeting rooms, great for local events, as well as, of course, traveling groups. Third floor is, of course, up is hotel rooms, and then the seventh floor rooftop has a rooftop restaurant, outdoor terrace, great banquet space, and we'll look at it all later. And these are great amenities, again, for hotel users, but we see the banquet spaces. It's a great place to host a retirement party, a wedding, birthday, etc. Right now, we'd say that there's no real great way to take in from this area, at least, and take in the great views of the park mountains. We think a positioning relative to the park does that without interfering with the rest of the enjoyment on the ring road, given its settings close to the city.

John Potter 08:20

Additionally, too. We'll look at it north on site parking, certainly neighborhood concern, before we get too into a floor by floor look. Wanted to talk about site history. We know from past meetings, there's been some unknown, some questions raised, certainly, as to what's the source of this hotel development in the park, right? And I just want to touch on it. We've got a fun map here from 1949 a few more pages later, showing how the history of this site predates the park. I should clarify. We had a call with the landlord's representative today, so some of the information on these slides, actually we need to update, but we only got this today. Current family hasn't owned it since then, but it's been in private ownership since then. Current family actually bought it in the late 90s. Previous owner had owned it for 60 years before that. Right? Past commercial uses include a gas station, a dry cleaner, and of course, everyone knows, everyone knows the best place to get a $10.99, all you can eat steak package too. Point being, though, that it's been a commercial site separate from government owner for an excessively long time, relative even to the park. I believe the park's 1957. This has been a commercial site for longer than that. And then we just wanted to help explain that, that the city is not involved in any way in this. It's a private except for, of course, our rezone request, Design Review, community feedback, etc. But there's been some misconception out there. We just wanted to share a little bit of the history. Final note up here, the city and park we've heard of in. This did pass. Have made offers to purchase, and the landowner declined. I probably should use it as a good time to say that my position here is as the ground lease assignee, meaning I myself don't actually own it, or our group doesn't own it, and we actually won't own the land. The landowner is so refusing to sell, which is her right to do, certainly, that our hotel will be built on their property, pending approvals. Of course, here's just a few more site pictures. 1951 right? You see the prison site and other developments. And of course, the.. I like this one for a little fun history, you can actually start to see some of the grading they did in 58 to start putting in some of the improvements apartment. Well let's start the journey through the hotel right.

John Potter 10:56

We wanted to approach it from how a guest or a person or a member of the community might use, we have two entrances here, which is down from the current three curb cuts that the Sizzler had. We have this entrance here, right in, right out, which is currently proposed. We certainly, this meeting here, and regardless, who wouldn't want to dump that exit for traffic. We're really excited about this entrance here, which is right in, right out as well, right? We think that should provide really great flow, in here, around and then out one of the… out one of the two exits to the property. You see some of our proposed integrations with the park. As I mentioned earlier. We see this as a great opportunity to bridge the city in the park, and we wanted to do that, A., by building this plaza here, right, a very pedestrian friendly Plaza for car, but pedestrian friendly, and with the park's permission, we don't have it yet. I don't want to represent that, but haven't had any conversations about trying to do some of these Park integration improvements. As you'll notice, they come outside the hotel so it has, it's beyond just the hotel users that will benefit from that, right? And of course, at our cost, you'll also notice from our site plan, some of the enlarged, this is more indicative, I believe, of the current sidewalk, some of our enlarged sidewalks that help also channel that track around the hotel. In a minute, we'll show you the inside of how people can come through the property as well for where the cars go. We have 100% of our parking is underground, right? We're not scarring the area park with a above ground parking or even a parking garage. You'll see it on a later. Plan right here, under the pool is the entrance to our 180 car park. So come in here, right turn, drive car, drop off, or self Park. Enjoy the hotel, enjoy the amenities, enjoy the park, and then exit through one of the other, one of the two entrances. Thank you. And for the question period, happy to come back and revisit any of these points too, relative to any questions, continuing our journey through the hotel, as mentioned, here's where one could drop their car off. Obviously you see the sidewalks for plenty of walking access for its integration with the city. We've also tried to focus on great activation for all the pedestrians, right? So we have entrances in each arrow trying to liven it up and provide that close integration between the city and the park. Some of the uses we have here include our activity center. Really proud of this one, this, again, is for guests and for locals to be able to come and rent a bike, rent a sled, use, rent, borrow a frisbee, you might use, sell the frisbee. Still, a few details can be worked out, but to acquire those items, that everybody at some point or another is probably wanted to use in the park, but forgot at home, or didn’t think about it till they got there? We have our cafe here on this side. Again, a great place for a cup of coffee. If we can make it all fit, some gelato too for a hot day. Again, the kind of thing that, of course, very available in Sugarhouse, its not quite so close to the park. It provides a great walking amenity to people using the park.

John Potter 14:24

We think of the jogger, speed Walker, the dog people walking dogs in the morning social groups. We see this as a meet up spot at the end or the beginning of there. First the lobby right to try to have great activation here. Additionally, though, we have entrances here to our three, now three proposed retail spaces. Well, a lobby for the hotel from this side, from this is 13 piece and then access to our retail from these two, these several aerial locations. You know, our goal is to redefine the city. Obviously. It supports this too, but we've tried to go above the city standards in creating that interaction and activity along the front of our roads. It goes with our theory of truly making up its own, to integrate on both sides. I think we've all seen particularly older buildings in…. and Sugar House and other areas that have colder, colder in terms of use. And we wanted to provide in the city for this to give them credit activity on themselves, right? And we try to look beyond putting in a gym for, I think, a hotel in downtown Salt Lake, I won't name, but has their employee breakroom. We try to go a little beyond that to create true community benefits from these locations here, and we'll talk about how things really hit that later on, underground parking. Not much to say here.

John Potter 15:59

One little note on the back here. I touched on it. I appreciate that we… Earlier I touched on the fact how hard it was to design a building with no back end. And what do you do? Because, of course, we produce garbage. We have food coming, right? We didn't want to just have this Sysco truck block the streets. The Garbage Truck be ugly burden. So we have actually found a really neat way to integrate back here. You'll notice here in this zone, it's grayed out because it's back of house, so it's a little hard to see. But this is our interior garbage spot, right? We have a roll up door. The idea is that the trash truck can pull up here. You'll note, actually, that this road is under the hotel. You see this is holding up the guest rooms above. And as we travel up the hotel, you'll get more pictures. So you got the trash truck can load up here, keeping it relatively out of view, and 100% off of the city street. Same for the food delivery and the other things that any operating building has to do right here is our is our loading dock. We try to tuck it in. It's something you can coordinate timeline, timeline wise, not be too much of a burden the community or the hotel guests. We see these being used for not only the hotel, but for the retail uses as well, right? So our goal is to find a way to keep those traffic producing impacts off. Just a short note on underground parking. We're projecting two levels of underground parking, a self park level and down below a valet Park level, in 180 spots. We've done an independent third party study. There's no bias that enters into it for me to to document the amount of space we need. We believe we have more than enough spaces to justify our use so that no cars, we wanted no cars to roam the neighborhood. We've heard the community comments many times in our process, even though that was a critical component, and we think we address it, we'll talk more. Level two floor plan. I'll be a little short on this one for now, obviously some same level and guest rooms, and certainly more hotel amenities, less community amenities. Again, we welcome everybody and their families to stay, but certainly less common community amenities here, with the one exception of these two meeting rooms here, these media rooms are pointed south along the 13th East Road here, and they're in the South with views on three sides. We'll touch on it more with some of our community benefits later. But these are great meeting rooms for the business meeting, the collaboration discussion, or even more, that we look at more of a day, party day, day gatherings. Great views here, as I said, access here to the stairs to the lobby. So these really are our most integrated to the park meeting spaces. Finally, to the top floor for a run through we're very excited about this one. Certainly this floor is, as you see, no hotel rooms on it. We have many things that we think are probably popular with both the hotel guests and we hope all of you, and certainly, admittedly selfishly, when we're designing this, I see my company Christmas party maybe right here in this space, but I'll back up for the second obviously, kitchens and whatnot grayed out because we have outside the tenant spaces all our food beverage service on the top floor.

John Potter 19:19

As I said before. Right now, there's a missing element in both the neighborhood into the city as a whole, for such rooftop amenities to take great advantage of our amazing views the Wasatch Mountain. So starting over here is our restaurant and rooftop terrace. You know, these windows look out towards the Wasatch Mountains. Here we have this library here, which is a library in the daytime and a private event space at night, right? 32 seats for my idea, great Christmas party type opportunity. And then we have our banquette room over here, which we see as being for many uses, but weddings are certainly part of it. When you see some of those weddings, perhaps having, we have a photo shoot at the park. The day, and then, of course, the dinner party at night, right? It's great interaction with the hotel, and it's a great local thing too, right? Now, it's something that is not, at least to be used, is not available in the local neighborhood. We've actually, we're so excited for waiting potential to get into the weeds a little bit here, we set it up with these doors here, and this library connection, and this bathroom here, we actually see this as sort of a bridesmaid brides area with some privacy in the bathroom, while actually being able to have a wedding there as well. But of course, perhaps it's just a dinner menu, either way, we get some great adds here. Oh, and the only other thing I’ll add too, we actually look back to our first floor. We have here, this yellow entrance. Here is our separate restaurant entrance, right? You know, someone told me, when I was getting into this, how many times they asked me, How many times do you go to eat at a hotel restaurant as a local and of course, the answer is not a lot. But what we've tried to do here is give the restaurant, despite being on the top floor of its own, dedicated entrance, a dedicated elevator, right? So your welcome, of course, to come through the hotel. We encourage that in some of our other amenities, but we also offer this direct access to this elevator comes out here and to the restaurant even though it's on the top floor and it has the great views. We've tried to give it that as direct of a connection as we can to the ground floor, so that you also don't feel like you're walking by hotel rooms to get to a to get to a restaurant. I'll give it over to Jackson here for a few words on material. He's the…. Jackson here. I should introduce him. Is with FFKR Architects. He and his team have done a great job making the design and bringing some of these elements forward.

Jackson Ferguson - Architect 21:52

Thank you very much, John. As a note, I hope you all realize John's passion for the project. He's not coming here to fly line disappear. He's here to create a legacy project, something that he can be proud of, and Sugar House can be proud of. So I think this is fantastic opportunity for for the community to have a legacy Gateway project into the sugar house. We also really wanted to make sure it fit in sugar house. We picked materials, brick, stone, stone look on the base that kind of create in similar fashion in some of the different ways in the neighborhood.

Jackson Ferguson - Architect 22:32

So it feels like it belongs, like it belongs to this district. So it should be long in the neighborhood, along with using, we've also looked to keep it similar in size. We do realize that the height is more. It gives some more opportunities for more rooms, but it also relates to all the buildings across the street. We really want to help it feel like it belongs. So it's the same height, the same set of stories as you read in the building, and so it works to in that fashion. You can also see how we're activating the street. We've highlighted the different colors in the same arrow as the floor plan to show where the entrances are off the street. So we've worked to have the enhanced active space on that lower level with easy access from the 10 foot sidewalks, as well as on the street trees, creating a safe location for people to interact with the street and then with the park. Then I will turn it over to our contractor, Cris Hogan, who can help understand the impacts.

Cris Hogan - Contractor 23:44

I know you're all really excited to learn about construction and how to build this as Jackson mentioned, my name is Chris Hogan. I'm the president of Hogan and Associates construction. We were founded here locally in Centerville in 1945 by my grandfather, and been here ever since we we are involved. We call ourselves Utah's community builder because that's our passion, is being involved in communities in any way we can be. We have built a lot of community centers, community buildings. Great portion of our work is public work with the local municipalities or school districts. In fact, we're next spring, we'll be starting a project here at Highland High School to replace Highland High School over the next four years. So local, local contractor, we've been here for this is our 80th year. We're excited to be part of this team. One thing I wanted to emphasize that you'll be interested in is our good neighbor policy. Whenever we have a construction, you know, heavier construction. Direction that will impact the neighbors. Our superintendent goes around and put a flyer on your door, has his phone number to let you know kind of what to expect over the next few days, so that you're aware of what's happening and you have a way to give us comments feedback so that we can address your concerns and address our concerns through the construction time. This you can't see that picture very well. That's Brighton High School. We were the contractor on Brighton high and I wanted to show that picture to illustrate just the intricacy and interaction both of the neighborhood. We redid the road at the roundabout in front of Brighton High School, if you're familiar with that, as well as working with all the 2000 plus students that were in the school at the same time it was building on both sides of the school with no injuries or impacts to those students. So we're very conscious about our impact, and understand construction can be, you know, can be impactful, and so we try to minimize that.

Cris Hogan - Contractor 26:13

What some of the these are some of the ideas that we try to put forth. John mentioned the right in, right out for the traffic, same thing we'll do with deliveries, and we'll schedule those during off peak traffic times so we're not causing traffic issues in the middle of the traffic. So also for our workers, we'll have off site parking with a shuttle to bring them to the job site, so all of their cars are all over the neighborhood, and also, safety is a huge issue for us. We have an industry leading safety record that we're very proud of, and we don't want to have any issues with safety. So we'll have covered covered walkways, boardwalks, whatever we need to do to keep the public safe is our and

John Potter 27:00

thank you, Chris, you know, just to reemphasize the point from earlier on, is that, right, these guys didn't all fly in here for this meeting. We really are local, right? It's and I know we're not as local as you, as I mentioned. This is from a few miles away, but I know I'm from a couple miles away, but we really do care. We really do get hurt, not as bad as you, but we do get hurt with traffic. We do get hurt with problems, and we live in this community, right? Hogan's… sort of inspired this comment. Hogan's been here for eighty years. I have not been here that long. So well done too. But I I'm you not investing money. Obviously, the project, it's from, it's from local. It stays local. I'm in the community. I want to keep doing projects. I want to keep doing right just like Hogan has been doing for eighty years. Honestly, it's inspiring to me from a business perspective, and I think we can on this project. There's still a safe way for inspiration from that. Of course, we know from past conversations we've had with many people, there are some issues we want to talk about in advance, certainly a few things that are worth noting that the community has raised in the past that are very valid concerns. So the first one we're going to start with is traffic. Right? In short, on traffic, and I'll explain what this graphic is in a second. I wish I could come here and tell you there will be zero impacts on traffic. Anyone would, any developer would stand up and say that would be incorrect, right? And I know it's easy to look at it and say one or two cars is additional is bad, and I can't say that one or two cars is good, but I think I can show you what we're expecting, and then at least you'll all have the knowledge and hopefully something to think about when we go home. So what you're seeing here is the result of our third party traffic study as Hales engineering. Again, they do a lot of work with UDOT with Salt Lake City. No influence from the owner to do this, right? They're not biased. Their UDOT contracts are worth far more to them than my contract with them. So they would only perform as required under statute. So what we've done here is we've shown what is the 2030 projected traffic for this intersection. If anyone's curious, the Q and A, I'd love to talk more how they got here, but it's the 2030 projected traffic of the intersection with the hotel in place. And, of course, a little background on traffic studies. They do run the numbers many ways, but I didn't want to have 20 slides on traffic. Again, it's actually been submitted to Salt Lake City. It is public record. Now, if you do want to read the whole study, but here's the summary. So here's where it goes, assuming we get the rezone and build a project as described. In short, community has rights to be concerned. This would be my conclusion, because it is a busy intersection. So what we've done here is, this is, this is rush hour, evening time is what they read. One more note on traffic studies, they look at the morning commute and the evening commute the busiest times. I took the worst of the two right. Figured we talked worst case scenario. So this is the evening commute. I'm sure I don't need to tell you all that's the worst time for the intersection. I believe five to 6pm I think it's that hour. So in one hour, right? You'll notice here that 2,015 cars in one hour, projected in 2030 with the hotel anyway, to approach that intersection. It's the short time 41 of those cars will turn into the hotel, right, presumably factoring demand of the hotel. I only say presumably because I can't swear someone won't turn around in the hotel. Of course, all the many things people do while driving cars. So basically, 41 out of all those cars, I added the 2,015, plus 41. So 41 out of 2,056 car, little under 2% of the total cars who reach the intersection will turn into Hotel. I've done a little calculation here based on the exiting number to put in about 2.7% of total so of the of all the cars running to that intersection of rush hour, our independent group has estimated up to 2.7% are generated from that hotel. Now, I do wish it was zero. As I said, it isn't zero, and I realized that one, especially if the driver is a jerk, one car is bad. I recognize that, but I argue it's manageable. I'd argue that again, I won't say it's nice. I'm not selling you a bill of goods here, but I think it's manageable and it's workable. And again, I showed you the independent study here. I actually believe we can do better with this. I'm happy to talk a little more about that in a second, but this is what the data said, a key reminder, we wanted to be fair, so we're showing you this number, and the engineer did this number assuming it's current use, which is to say it's a vacant restaurant. So current traffic is zero. Reminder, of course, we are here to discuss a rezone. So I will say that under current zoning, the 40 foot building was built, the traffic would not be zero. We, of course, can't actually model that without a plan to use to the engineers, the engineers, we need to know what it is. But I think it's probably safe to say, just based on height, that if we're at 2.7% to the traffic, it's very safe assumption to say that maybe one and a quarter percent would be at the current use and again, I'm trying to be fully open with it, so our rezone request does have probably a 1.5% increase in projected traffic. Again, this is me trying to be forthcoming. I argue it's manageable. I might be a little biased, but I wanted to share the data with you, as I know it's all a top concern. And our conclusion here, that we hope you take away, is that for 1.5% additional cars, which comes to be 20 cars. To put that in perspective, at this peak time, that a lot of the benefits you bring to the community are worth it. If this was my car collection area and John Potter is the only one that receives the benefit, I might not think it was so worth it for being the community with that. I hope people agree about the benefits, and I know you're going to have more questions on this. Happy to address them. Happy to address them. Wanted to bring up another concern, certainly the height.

John Potter 33:36

The height is another top concern of the neighborhood, as it should be with the rezone. The best way to address it, because I certainly don't need to tell you exactly what what a foot looks like, what two foot looks like. Recap, we are requesting MU-8 zoning, which does allow up to 90 feet, and our current plan does. It does call for us billing to 89 feet, right? So we will be using, if approved, that 90 ft zone. We wanted to sort of show you the area as it looks now, sort of point out distances and give you the information and, of course, answer questions. So here's our current, current site, obviously, as is me three zoning, 40 feet of height is what's currently an MU three, with the city's rezone. As you see immediately across the street is the mu 11 zoning, which is 125. I don't believe any building, I'm pretty confident no buildings conform to that height. Now, as most of you know, because I know you're very informed members of the community, this zoning was just approved. So a lot of the buildings are of a lower than a new 11 height. But I will say a sum of the buildings, a number of the buildings are similar heights to what we are requesting to build. Here we cite one of them. Here is the Redmond building. It's a great example. We think it is Six stories with a tall top on it, so it's very similar to our seven story requested building here. But just to re emphasize the point under mu 11, this chevron here, for example, which is very low, will, speaking as a developer, probably be redeveloped at some point into a much taller building from a highest and best use standpoint under current zone, as you'll see from these distance markers here, we try to take a look at the residential are the nearest residential sites are these. Obviously many other homes, but the nearest are about 390 feet away here, and using the red building as example, about 240 feet to that existing use, certainly imagining mu 11 developing more. Because whether that Chevron example, or redevelopments in this retail development here will certainly produce taller, taller heights. We don't, we don't want that tall, right? We… our initial application was for mu 11, because we felt that there was a justification in the cohesiveness of mu 11, touching mu 11 across the street as our plan evolved and in conversations with the city, we looked at it, and we were maybe 94 feet in height, right? So we looked at it. We looked at other community feedback for other projects, and we saw that, quite frankly, there's a lack of trust in real estate development. And I totally understand why you people have been through the ringer on a certain project I won't name because it said, Oh, it's a bad thing to talk about. Maybe it's over here somewhere, and we know that they sort of destroyed some trust with what they initially asked for. And we looked at it and we were like, well, we are asking only for that 11 because we had a few feet extra, right? We thought that the lobby being a little taller, the restaurant being low, it's hardly the reason for our ask, but we didn't want to leave the community vulnerable to feeling a base, which we tell you it's 90 something feet, and then we build 120 feet. The best way we could see to, sort of relax that concern, was to take a few feet away. I don't think anyone here could object to that and then lock ourselves in legaly, assuming our re-zone was approved, of course, to an MU 8 zone with the 90 feet of height. And again, I welcome questions on your concerns of that height, but we hope at least our request gives more confidence in our intentions, and hope build some trust that at least it won't be 125 feet because we changed our mind, which I would, of course never do, but now you will have the security room. We also this little side. We never saw the back, even with our ideal limit, as I mentioned, 94 feet, or whatever it was, exactly, because we really do see ourselves, as I've said several times, as a bridge between the city and the property, right? These are tolerable. They should be taller, right? There's no need to. We don't want this height because there is a part here. We wanted to provide a step down. We wanted to provide a feel we didn't want to provide a lot of build on living towers, right? It should be cohesive. It should feel good. How can I tell you that it would connect if it literally was a sore thumb, and so we hope we avoided that, with our in between ask, for these two areas and reflective of height relative to residential, happy to answer questions on this later. Of course, you can bring this slide back up. Anyone has a question, I would say this slide here, we're getting near the end, and have a little bit of questions really sums up, sums up why we're here today. We want you, as members of the community to know what we're trying to do. In short, we need the rezone to do what we're trying to do.

John Potter 38:57

The conclusion is, with the rezone, we can provide many of these community benefits, community amenities that we would not otherwise be able to provide under currency, right? And that's, that's sort of the key takeaway, I think, that hopefully…there might be a few downsides. There is some traffic increase. For example, it is taller than existing zone, but with approval of the project, not without, we can bring certain things, some of which I touched on before, but I like to run down through some of these community, community benefits, again, that are only possible with the rezone of this site. Some will be brief on. Some will be a little bit wordier on the full details. Of these are actually laid out Sugar House Community Councils. They have our application to the city. It's seven pages. You're definitely welcome to read into the full detail. Economic Benefits, I'll touch lightly on this one, job creation, tax revenue, no government. Money towards this project, right? There's no connection. There's no sales tax that's been passed for the development of this project. It is, is 100% private project. As members of the community, we wouldn't have it anymore. Added amenities. This is a generic line for many things we've talked about. The coffee shop. It's something in the park that's currently unavailable. The Activity Center to get your bikes on it, or you have friends in town to get your Frisbee, to get your sled in winter, right? The… including the… I have a separate line for this, including the restaurant on top affiliate, have a party in the park, a rain event, right? We're happy to what we hope to be trying to work with the sugar house Park Authority. We hope, we believe, they'll still have great venues, but now they have a rain, space, area, parking improvements, right? We touched on this one earlier, and this is take a big, we think, a big infrastructure improvement. In past meetings, we had many people express concerns about parking. We've studied it, like our traffic study. We did an independent study on the parking counts. I feel I know the hotel history well, but I'm certainly biased, right? So we got a third party group. They concluded that we have needed 154 stalls. I'm happy to go to details on this before, the size of our hotel, including the retail and all spaces. As you might remember from the first slide, we're at 180 stalls. We believe that those excess stalls are a great community and then an improvement to infrastructure. I maybe just speaking for myself, and maybe some of you walk to it, but every time I try to go to the Dodo, the biggest problem I have is ability to get a place to park, and it certainly hurts everyone in the community, especially you, because cars circle endlessly, endlessly, endlessly. Now you have a traffic impact and a parking problem, we aim to solve, full disclosure. We do plan to charge for the parking I'll admit that is it's not a charity, but it is still a publicly available for fee amenity for the community that wouldn't otherwise be provided. And I guess I should touch back on that. Well, I'll touch back on some of that. In the end, why these are so tight local community spaces, retail and meeting spaces, right? So we've touched earlier, the retail spaces on the first floor, the meeting room spaces on the second floor. We're actually really excited about this one. And actually, just to give a little personal side again, on this is, I mentioned earlier, we're building a soft brand hotel that's integrated in the neighborhood. We want people to stay in Sugar House, to stay in Salt Lake City, right? You can stay in 300 square foot box up in the sky. Many locations I've built, own, and managed, some of them, they're very nice places to stay. But we need local character, alright? And we want the guests have local character. The best way we can do that is through these two items here, right? So what we pledge to do to the city and happy to bind to it in a development agreement, is to provide incentives to local businesses in the form of discounted rent and interest free financing to come and be our retail tax on the first floor. I mentioned the community connection at my desk because we love it, because it's, quite frankly, we think a win, win win, right? We think that the local community wins by helping businesses, quite frankly, avoid you'll all agree, if you have any of your friends operating the businesses or you do avoid very high rents in this market that perhaps leads to some excess closure, right? So, win for business, win for the community, because they more retail outlets, more thriving businesses in the community, a win for the hotel guests, because they're shopping. Local, local, Salt Lake City, local. It's truly an experience.

John Potter 43:51

So this one, quite frankly, we see amazing synergy for everybody involved, tied with that local partnership promise buying this one as well make sure that it's fulfilled it ties with the interactions of the hotel in the community. I don't want to sell Starbucks coffee, right? You can get Starbucks coffee anywhere around the world, right? We want to partner with local groups, right? We want to sell local things in the shop. We want to support local businesses, because that's part of our business, and obviously we're happy to bind and obligate ourselves to that, but we would do that anyway, without requirement dedicated local art spaces, right? We show some example here. I believe this is the is up in the west side of Salt Lake. We see our front entryway and perhaps some of the art in the hotel rooms is a great place to encourage local artists, again comment earlier. We want people to know they're not just an engineering 300 square foot box right our roundabout area and our plaza is a great example for some art created by a local artist, local photographers to do the art in the guest rooms, perhaps some painting opportunities, not painting walls, but painting in public areas, right? We again, really want to provide that integration to our guests and see opportunities in the local art community as well. And we'd love to work with the city on that housing neutral. Of course. We just just all go shorter. On this one, we're tearing down zero houses for it, which I think is a positive in this day and age of overpriced housing. And at the risk of offending anyone who does an Airbnb rental, we do see hotels as taking off, taking a little bit of capacity out of the short term Airbnb rentals, which has at least some claim itself, that can make some marginal improvement on housing affordability by freeing up stock to long term enhanced activities. And we've touched on this earlier. I'll revisit it briefly again, our project seeks that lively, yes, and achieves it very well. And I'll talk in a second on why 24 hour security presence for the final one listed here one of the feedback pieces of information I've gotten, in fact, I've actually received this as a concern of why I want a new project, actually, is, is the park safety and I'm not one to say it is or isn't. It's just feedback that I've received. So I believe, to those people, a hotel is a great there's a great security presence. It's late, it's cameras, it is open 24 hours with a great team of people. Just want to recap the front of all these slides that our zoning request is from maximum 40 to the 90 feet, which is noticeable by doing that. It allows us to build a hotel as a hotel, and go more into this can't function economically in 40 feet of height. That's too short the amount of guest rooms. As you notice, we covered three floors earlier. I think you saw about 12 guest rooms on those three floors, parking improvements, or the infrastructure improvement of the garage is something only feasible with a larger project on top right, two stories, possibly three short story, short stories. It's not fully, it's not fully bring that does not bring that at all.

John Potter 47:28

The community spaces is a big one. If we were simply doing a 40 foot building, we or this, we would not be able to offer discounts, tenant financing, etc, for the retail units down below. The reason why is, if we were doing a 40 foot building, that would be our entire business model. We fortunately have, because of the extra height of monetization of all the hotel rooms, which allows us to not only have the synergy I mentioned with local groups, but also be able to offer those discounts and financing that you wouldn't see from other offered other tenants, local art spaces as well. We're happy to bind ourselves to this. Again, it's easy to do we want to be part of the community, so advanced, active use, obviously, is required for many projects. We've actually proposed layouts that, again, because of our connection between the city and the park, that is beyond the code minimum of this it's easy to offer because with the space level above we can we can do that we can justify in the garage down below, where we put housekeeping and inactive uses, we can have the active first abilities to provide life to this vital intersection in Sugar House. I think, I think I'm happy to take some questions. Let me ask my team here, anything else that I should address before we move on.

John Potter 49:01

Great well, before we turn over, I'll just say, I appreciate you all this. I know it's a lot of volume, and I shouldn't receive any awards for public speaking. I wanted to speak tonight personally, because I know the project, I love the project, I believe the project. And we may all we may some of us may have different opinions at the end, but I really do want to hear your comments. I really value your perspective, and I hope we can work together on this. Oh, and if, of course, if you have any questions, we have, sorry, we have a microphone over here. If... for asking questions.

Soraya Snipes (Mic Assistance) 49:38

Can you hear me?

John Potter 49:42

And if there's a line, watch the form. We recommend a line where you could or you could ask to turn here see whatever you're comfortable with.

Public #1 49:55

Okay, I'm going to try and start this on a high note. It with the height doesn't scare me. Basically the same as the redwood building, basically the same as the drawer the student housing across the road, like the idea of the rooftop, restaurants on the deck, traffic doesn't scare me. I'm local enough I can walk and find a way around it. I don't really ever use that intersection anymore, because it's complete my hair if I'm gonna get onto my at I got parties by a loop back. I think MTV once said, if you're not part of the problem, or if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. So I just don't use that intersection. So my car's never there. I don't know the rest of the community, but the derelict, vacant lot with a police camera on it doesn't really fill me with joy, and that's what we have at the moment. We've already learned the city can't buy it. The landowner is not interested. They've talked about, talked about that a few times the traffic volume pack for a hotel. There's nothing like it would have been had this become a gas station. Um, not trying to diminish the concerns about what could happen 20 years from now, if someone tries to rezone poverty up near Baskin riders, for example. I understand that's a concern. We don't have a crystal ball. We can't guess what's going to happen with developers in the future. I will sooner see a hotel here now and now is not be a negative community that constantly says no to these projects, because I have a fear. The one thing I am afraid of is if we keep saying no, eventually the city is going to regard us as the community that always says no. And if that happens, they will stop listening to us, and then we'll have no control over what happens. That's my 10cents.

John Potter 51:44

I appreciate that. Thank you. Just a note back. I appreciate the gas station. Relevant comment, obviously, that's been killed, so I didn't want to bring that up. To the traffic point, I believe drive throughs right now, are banned in sugar house, I believe to that point, there are probably guys can't come to them for exact examples, uses under existing zoning that might generate even more traffic, even at a shorter height, is one of those straight again, I give you a good reminder that the benefits of a hotel, the symbiotic relationship with residential users. It's not a heavy traffic use relative to other things and relative to heightened stuff.

Public #2 - Francis Lilly 52:24

Thank you. My name is My name is Francis Lilly. I live at 916 East Queensland, which is about three south, just off the ninth East here in trigger house. And I've been watching this property with interest in dread for a number of years. I was truly horrified at the prospect of a C store next to the park, and when I heard about this proposal, I was actually pretty happy. I think we're lucky to have a use that that faces and incorporates the park, and that's something that can be done to develop agreement and rezone. And I know there are a whole bunch of uses that are permitted by right in the commercial zone, that would not have that ability, or would not have that or we would not have that leverage over the over the future goose. I think it's also worth noting that the owner is not compelled to sell. I'm aware of the history of this project. I'm aware of the history of this site. And also, you know, even if we as the city were somehow able to, you know, wrangle several million dollars and the willing seller to, you know, organize a purchase of this relatively small piece. I think that brings to question a whole bunch of equity issues that money is better spent less secure in Sugar House, we are extraordinarily lucky, and we already called our shot with with with protecting the Island Park, and we shouldn't be too greedy. I don't mean that in a mean way, but we should be really thoughtful about how we expect our city council to deploy public resources. And also, I don't have the $7 million or whatever it's going to take myself to, you know, get what I think would be the best option, which would be just expanding the park. So that leads us to the next best option. I think in this case, height impacts are relatively negligible. Unless you're irritated by height, all right, April, by visiting the park. You know. Again, I would feel differently about this, and this were on the north side of 21st of South, up toward or a budding residential that's not the case here. I walked from the park yesterday, I looked up the hill of where that building would be, and the view of blocks is of the buildings across the street, the hotel. I think is is creative. I think it's well thought out, particularly with the with with the four sided architecture that it has, looking at other uses that are next to parks across around the world, around the country, and I love parks that go to these places, particularly in urban context. I can't think of a better use here, even if it is 90 feet tall. All. And you know, I commend the applicant for actually being thoughtful. I hope that the city would consider development agreement to find the applicant all the things that he has committed in this meeting. But I do think this is good for the park. I think it's good for the neighborhood. I can say that as a resident, and I would be thrilled having your meeting.

John Potter 55:19

Thank you. I appreciate that. And to add to that, note, yes, no, we're excited to enter into that development agreement with the city to bind us on these points. I wouldn't be worried. I am a trustworthy guy, but too many people have been burned. We're super supportive of the development agreement process. If I could have one more note, actually, I obviously Thank you . I agree with you 99% of what you said, and the only thing I know, and I know that you meant this potential, is is I meant that what I said at the beginning, I really respect you all fighting for your community. So I again, I know you guys, I don't see greed or anything. But with talk of trying to… should we buy back? Right? You guys are fighting for a neighborhood that I think is so valuable I want to share it with business. So I would be a hypocrite, if I go wrong for being involved in something that I think is so special. And of course, I hope just to clear up, in case it's asked that the hotel we're building a small..140 room. The Grand America has 800 rooms, right for 145 to not spoil something so great, but you guys are right to defend it, and thank you for the time.

Public #3 - Soren Simons 56:27

Thank you. My name is Soren Simons. I'm out of just a little bit east of SugarHouse Park and High School. Thank you for coming and spending some time to introduce us to the project. I'm actually familiar with it. I spent a lot of time online, looking at the plans and drawings and things like that. And as an architect, I appreciate a lot of the thoughtful ideas that have gone into this. I will just say, as background, I was really supportive when this was being considered a few years ago for a Condo development. My youngest child is now a sophomore at Highland right here, and which is being rebuilt soon. I think a lot of you know that we're excited for that project as well, and we'll be empty esters in a few years. And I would love to see condos that we can move into and stay in the community that we love, because I would love to make our home available for other families when we don't have a family in ours anymore, but I want to stay close by that said, I really appreciate the thoughtful ideas. There's a lot of things that could go on this property, and among all of the things that I know are already allowed and permitted, although this one changes the zoning, it does it in a way that I think is really thoughtful and respectful, and I love the amenities. Let me just say three things that I really appreciate about the project. First of all, I have loved the development of the art project. It's part of parties trail the crossing under 13 B's. We saw a lot of it in plan view, but when you're on it, you don't really get the full perspective. And I love that there's a place in the future where you can go out on a rooftop terrace and see the great inspiration of Patricia Johansen in the development that amazing art project from a whole new perspective that you won't get except from a drone, maybe. And that is lovely. I love to see the activation around the parties trail. It's an incredible asset to our community. The park's already active. Many of us spent are there frequently on there walking my dog and riding my bike for family events and other things. And I love that this will add to activation and population. It will, I think, also of Sugar House Park. I have a lot of family from out of state, and when I bring them here, we can't always fit them in our home, and sometimes it's embarrassing that we don't have a hotel close by, that people can stay, that that is a real quality experience. And so I love that there will be a place that I can bring family from Texas or California or other places to visit and offer them something, if not our place. That's really lovely. So I appreciate the thought thoughtfulness three things that concern me a little bit. Obviously, there's a lot of concern about traffic, and I do note that this is not a traffic high traffic generating use. The restaurants may generate more traffic, but I'm encouraged also that it's also a great example walkable kind of development, and that while people may drive here, there's also a lot of people that can get here as pedestrians, and I appreciate the thoughtfulness to pedestrian and bicycle enhancements. You know, there's concern about something that's unknown, and many of us have seen and experienced developments that are not done very well and don't add a lot to our community. So I think that's obviously concern. You know, many of us have the same concern about the 20 ones project at 21st south and 21st East, including members of my own family and I was delighted when they were at the new market tile at 21 the other day, and said, This is even better than Jolie's store in immigration market neighborhood. So I hope that you're really thoughtful. It sounds like you have some great intentions with the retail spaces. I hope you're really thoughtful in bringing retail, it will really be an added amenity to the neighborhood. And then the last one is, there's a lot of impervious surface that you're bringing this is a really sensitive watershed area. There's a lot of pollution that enters the Jordan River and Hardee's Creek via this, this waterway that goes through our community. And so I would just encourage really thoughtfully paying attention to the ways that you can manage stormwater so that doesn't add to pollution in parties Creek and eventually, Jordan River, Great Salt Lake, and be really thoughtful and intentional about how you might use that stormwater and collect it, or whatever, treat it through thoughtful landscaping and things like that. So just a few cautions as you move forward. Thank you for being here. Thank you for investing in our community and hopefully making it even better.

John Potter 1:01:26

Well, thank you. I appreciate all that feedback, and I, I mean my community and your community, right? I mean I’m miles away, so let me and I, I will do, will there anyway? If I'll let them

Public #4 - Sydney Crummer 1:01:41

I only know how to speak in two minute segments. My name is Sydney Crummer, and on the way here, I drove past the Sago Lily landmark, I was aware how difficult it was to create that, that art element, and I do not see a sensitivity to encroachment into the space around the Sega Lily. It's looking to me like you're going to borrow land from a park, disguising it as some kind of park amenity, and it's going to slam right up against the saga Lily. To me, I want, want you to think about what it would be like to put an eight story building next to the spiral jet. Okay, that's what I think.

John Potter 1:02:26

I appreciate that .... as well. And I'll try to talk quick, because I agree with Judy. I didn't want to say that some of the great community feedback we've had has been related to that we've sort of as you see here. In short, I'll be quick, the Sego Lily here, the dam overlay behind it. It's actually officially, was flagged to us by locals that it is part of the emergency stormwater system. And of course, for both beauty as well as safety and protection of water, as the previous person asked, and wanted to stay away from that, legally obligated to, but we certainly want to regardless. And so, this is not the best picture. We don't have our civil plan, but we are, we have made sure, we’re more than outside, both the obvious Dam and the overlay did not develop over open space, but definitely a valid concern, and certainly does no good for anybody to have any issues. Next question. Sorry. Coming back.

Public #5 - Richards 1:03:23

Hi, I'm my name, Richards. I live sound from the local vest up here. I just have a question. I know we didn't address alcohol, and I know that adjacent to the park, there are some regulations. I'm wondering how you plan to address that, and if it doesn't work out, would you continue to build ahotel?

John Potter 1:03:40

That's a great question. I'll be very fast to you, I promise it's, definitely no concern. No, I apologize. But yes, Oh,gotcha. I'm sorry for that. I will try to talk slower and quickly and say that known issue. Hope to sell alcohol certainly. Can't now. Work in progress. It will build a hotel regardless.

Public #6 - 1:04:14

Okay, brief, am I talking into the same room? Okay?Thank thanks. My name is [Name], and I live in the neighborhood. I've been in Sugar House for 20, 25, 26 years or something. And of course, I'm really concerned about this corner. I really appreciate your focus on making local benefits to the local residents, as well as opening it up to guests from elsewhere who might really want to stay into their house, particularly the offer of financial help to small business retail, because all the other developments here, of course, have driven out are small. Office and really destroy the park, what made sure how special. So that's the the up part of my comments if you're interested. And I like the idea of a boutique hotel and a lot of really clever parts to the design and integration of the park. However, I really question the need for a pool in a boutique urban hotel. It's not LA. This is not LA. You know, we don't need a pool in a boutique hotel. You can ditch that pool. Ditch the banquet. My main concern about this hotel is the mass. The height is one thing. You can't really compare it to the Rendon building, because the Redmond building is very small. The mass of it is nothing like what you what you're suggesting. And I understand the need for a certain amount of, you know, financial gain, but I think that perhaps you could maybe amend the plan somewhat. You know, do you really need a library? You really need a pool? Do you really need a Bangor group? Maybe you could cut back on some of that stuff and make the mass a little bit smaller and and on that note, your your request for the waiver of step backs totally, absolutely disagree with That building that huge on that corner overlooking that card you need to have step backs. So that's my two cents. Thank you very much,

John Potter 1:06:52

Thank you.Valuable comments. I appreciate it. Only quick note I'll give back, I may ask the architect here. I believe maybe others know step back question is not related to this directly type of zoning, is that, technically, part of the design review process

Jackson Ferguson - Architect 1:07:14

On step backs, it is involved with zoning. We will go through the design review process, which is a public. So on MU-8 step backs on the west side start at 85 feet, and so we were asking them to not have to do a step back in the Top Five feet. There is also an open space required next to open space having a step back, and we were looking to use a segment for amendments. The pool will take those things, but we will be going to do that design process with the City Hall, which is, which is a fully public process.

John Potter 1:07:58

Afterwards, if your question isn't asked, I promise

Public #7 1:08:12

Thank you for coming, and thank you everybody for coming. My main concern as a 35 year old neighbor here is Sugar House is that we don't get enough community out for these particular changes to our community. Everyone, as you said, want to bring more people here to enjoy the community. Unfortunately, by doing that, it changes the community greatly. And certainly, that's a concern that we all have it, I would appreciate if you do a better job of reaching out to everybody we know. So we have a true voice here. As I've said it before, 15 years ago, that didn't happen. We have 150 feet. Why does everybody want to come into our community and change the zoning laws? It's just beyond me that we can't. It's not just saying no all the time, then they will listen. It's okay to find something that works for us and for them. Bottom line is what I want to say at the same time. It's probably the best plan I've seen so far for this area. I don't like the height and I don't like the size of it. I have some concerns. One is, obviously you've got it right up against the two streets. I hate that for the pedestrian traffic and your your traffic issue is not just how many people will be going through. My concern is, is you have food trucks, business, trust, and everything else coming out of that little space all the time, not to mention to say that you're only going to increase by 2% You're just saying that you're going to be a part of the problem. Get over it. The problem I have with that is, is the streak coming into going up 21st it's already backed up to the next life. You. It's already backed up to the next slide, and you have tons of runners and everything else. I don't know how to solve this, but it is a danger, and it's certainly one of the reasons why I don't like the project the way it's built. The last concern, I would say, is the geological and how deep you're going to dig this, and I think you're doing all the correct geological searches for the potential plumes and toxicity that we have in this area due to gas stations, due to clean or cleaners. Thank you.

John Potter 1:10:29

Thank you. Finding a short response local engineering team very aware on the environmental risks. As far as this goes, under existing zoning we have, I believe it's zero to 10 foot setbacks are mandated by Salt Lake City, so even without a rezone, it would be on the street or near on the street per city code, like the lead under MU-3

Public #8 - Richard Wayman 1:10:51

My name is Richard Wayman. I'm speaking individually, but I am on a Sugar House board or park board, which is divided on this project, so we're not taking an official position, but we each will be communicating our positions to the city. So I'm going to communicate in advance my position most people. I'm not an architect. I've been a planner, most people seem to miss the point that by being zoned neighborhood zoning, and that the stuff across the street is zoned low scale is because it's a gateway to the neighborhood, which, until you get to Foothill, has no buildings taller than two stories. It's not an addendum to the highly intensive rezoned Sugar House mixed use zone, which is the master plan for the area. So in a weird way, this is kind of a proposal, was spot zone, other spots to increase their revenue potential. Hey, that's capitalism. That's fine. I joke that the more I learn about real estate development, the more I become an intellectual narcissist. But it's key to think, no, it's I would have no problems with your project across the street. I don't think it's the right project for that site. It's unfortunate that 95 years ago, the property was sold off, probably by the state, because the state held the whole lot. We can't go back in time to fix that. We can, however, deal with the ground West Sea for alternative uses. Just to reiterate, so the use you're proposing is significantly different from from neighborhood survey. I'm not denying that that's that it's not a decent use. In fact, my comments that I'll submit will probably be no but if it's approved, this, um, the point the one gentleman made about, you know Parker buddings buildings. I understand that. I know about it maybe more than that person. Central Park doesn't have a hotel on one of its corners, through across the street. The other thing is, again, about sugar house in the mixed use, high density zone, it's all going to be changed. I mean, some of us, including me, since I have heart disease, will likely be dead by the time it all happens. But the fact is, that it's already understood the mixed use zone between Highland dry and 1300 will be intensified over the next 10 to 20 years as the real estate market changes, and that includes being able to satisfy needs people are expressing here, like condominiums, boutique hotels. I don't know what else with regard to the point about architecture. When this was first presented to the Sugar House park board, I said 60% there it's maybe it's less now, because it hasn't changed. The problem is it takes its architectural cues from the modern crap across the street, without delving into the architectural history or cultural landscape history of the site, which was a prison. But that prison was built with red brick, Red Rock and White Rock, and it could be more of a warehouse type design. There are plenty of designs across the country of rehabs, like the pork factory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, or others, um, it's just when you think about, when you think about the brick, true architectural tradition of the Sugar House houses, they're not red brick, but they're fantastic buildings that don't have, I don't know what the architectural term is, but the crap filled Earth, it looks like party board or whatever, rather than continuous bread. And I guess I'll say the community, yeah, Romney won't sell the property, but Maverick has a really long release. We can propose alternatives to Maverick separately. That being said, I respect the work that the various partners have done. You know, I worked on this kind of stuff in Washington, DC for 20 plus years, and I learned a lot. I basically became a planner because of it. And in the beginning, when I first worked on stuff, DC was crap. It hadn't been invested in for decades. We're talking about circa 2000 and when I would see new footings go in, I would say, oh, that's the role, that's investment, but then the design would be crap. And the thing is, what I learned is, better than cinder block, better than a parking lot, isn't the level that we should be satisfied with. I'm not knocking this project. I'd buy Wendy's and put it there in second. But I'm saying for its spot, it's the wrong thing. Just to point out to Mr. Sorenson, you probably wouldn't want this on the Jordan River across from three confluences Park.

John Potter 1:17:20

Appreciate the honest feedback.

Public #9 1:17:24

My main concern is, why do this at all? And if you look at that map that you have talked about the residential field twine behind the low density Avenue tubes, and totally ignored that side of where I live, which on Ramona Avenue and but the other thing is, we don't need this, and you're just trying to make a profit out of it. But the other thing is, you should have built that down there, where it is dense, not here. There's so many problems with this. You're creating a precedent, precedent for the rest of 13 piece in both ways. And know that that's only one down to one lane in both ways. With the with a turning point all the way, all the way from holiday to friendship Manor, which is the first high building on the east side of 21st 31st out, you see how it reduces and that, you know, I respect that FFKR, just, I think this is great, great design.

John Potter 1:18:48

I appreciate that. Maybe just a quick note, I'm happy to talk a lot later, after longer afterwards, so I don't go too long, we revised the zoning down to MU-8. Before we revised the zoning down to mu eight from our 11 request… Little speaker problem.

John Potter 1:19:06

We revise the zoning down from mu 11 to mu eight. Part of our thinking was to try to make sure to reduce or not establish that the precedent do, sort of not establish that the precedent of value as a concern, and he tries to look at it, which is why we explained earlier as a step down from from 11 to this, to try to get ahead of that and point out the proximity of the of the side relative to other housing. It is actually harder for housing than certain other developments. Your point is super valid.

Public #10 - Karen Ferry 1:19:55

Hi. My name is Karen Ferry. I live up on 17th east and 15th south. Lived in the area for 40. Years, and I appreciate taking the time and everyone here, and the thoughtfulness I think that has gone into a lot of these things that is noted and appreciated. I share a lot of concerns around the mass, the location, making those things without duplicating that, because I haven't been to these before, have a little bit better understanding of the analysis with the engineers on the traffic as someone who, yes, parlays, but unfortunately, most of the time we have to use this intersection to get to our area or to places that we need to go. The amount of time that it takes for someone to pause right now on that to turn is that calculated in for the travel club right now, we have that right lane that's been added in, and you come off of the freeway down 13th and north, it's already backed up. I don't, I just don't know. You know, you talk about the percentage to me, it's a time and the same on the other side, on the 21st south side, again, somebody else noted, trucks. I live up here, immigration market. I love it. Love having the neighborhood market the size of trucks that have started coming in in the last few years compared to what it used to be. Tulou. They come down all the back streets. I'm not saying necessarily here, but they're gigantic now for the food suppliers, and not just the little ones. One came down the other day. It's like a huge semi compartment making around the turn. I just think that part, I cannot imagine adding this, frankly, with, I mean, I really can't. It's just crazy right now, in that traffic there. So that's one point. Bill you mentioned was you saw as a plus security could be I view that as a potential problem. With a line of other people talking about some environmental concerns, I really have a hard time with all white CAC, the impact it has on birds and other life that is around SugarHouse park that we're trying to just have in that area. So I guess if there's some thought on this and have downlining or something like that, I interested that's a huge concern to me when you said that. And the other thing I would just say is to reiterate setbacks clearly that I cannot believe we've given up in the city by letting all these places not have the width we used to have. We have apartments and buildings against every single street, and you go to so many other cities where you manage to maintain a field of a smaller, more friendly place with just having setbacks. So thank you.

Public #11 1:22:55

All right. My every time I go through here, all I think is I think is I want a place to have a coffee or tea, to look south and east as the character in this place is the view. So I see the cafe and retail spaces are all facing the street, and we redevelop this, or take those the pool with the conference room, so that that common area looks really good, so that the community can go there and have a seat with new already anywhere coffee.

John Potter 1:23:09

Is it easier if I talk without the microphone?

John Potter 1:23:14

Totally agree and I flag to this page. Here, this page here,

Audience 1:23:20

We can't hear you. Use the mic

John Potter 1:23:22

Oh, I do need sorry. I thought you said you don't hear me. I flagged this sorry. Some people over here might not be able to I turned to this page here to show our rooftop restaurant, which is open for three. Meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner with maximizing views, including from the outdoor space, you are correct, not trying to be cagey where he did put our first floor coffee shop for necessary layouts off the back. And funny enough, my wife's going to give me a hard time now because she said the same comment to me actually, when we were in currently design and the issue we had in doing layout is both due to city setbacks from the roads codes, as well as providing that integration between the park and the city. When we set our road our access on this side of the plaza, we did, unfortunately, make the coffee shop here wouldn't be as on the park as as we wish we could do.

AUDIENCE:

So you cannot put the roundabout to the West?

John Potter

We have between zero and 10 feet under Salt Lake City. I actually agree with the code, but no, it's zero and 10 feet setback. So this could be here,

AUDIENCE:

So sort of like the pool will be so rarely used.

John Potter 1:24:38

Well, for those, the views absolutely important. And in fact, that's why we set up the restaurant this pattern. In fact, we did most of it as a side note indoors too, because we have seasons here, obviously, and we wanted you to be able to have that coffee, breakfast, meal, dinner, 365, days a year. Your concerns are very appropriate, though.

Actually, it's a really great question. You know, as I touched on earlier, try to slow down some more higher rate than Spring Hill, but a lower rate that's in brand America or other upstairs. It's, it's a darn zoning meeting, and we've done a lot of design work, and we've run some numbers, but it is a long way off, and you haven't even got fully affirm that. I hope that range helps. I can't imagine, I don't know numbers on bikes, even as well. I do hope to be able to partner with a local bike shop, and if we can pull that off, I would imagine similar rates to local bike shops around tech.

Public #12 1:24:04

Hi. I do want to say, on the drive over here, I was on 200 South, facing east, at 15th east, and I just thought, Man, I just need to see that view go. I do want to say I have spoken with folks within my business, and many neighbors, and time and time again. Folks, folks wanting something that really complement the park. They understand we can't have, like a little sweet cafes they can't really afford. How much that cop, that core is going for. So with that, I like to speak directly with the owner who's reaching here. Or can you ever hear this? Please sell to the city. I am so many people with sugar house. We really want something that complements this corner and for all the folks that lived here for decades, including myself. So this is actually the question. Maybe it's just I don't know the boards in the way that enough. But anyway, this is actually my question that I was going to ask you. I'm curious to know how much the rooms are going for and how much the rental spaces are for, like weddings, banquets, and how much sleds are going to go for, and how much the bikes are going to be rented for. So that's the question.

John Potter

Actually, it's a really great question. You know, as I touched on earlier, try to slow down some more higher rate than Spring Hill, but a lower rate that's in brand America or other upstairs. It's, it's a darn zoning meeting, and we've done a lot of design work, and we've run some numbers, but it is a long way off, and you haven't even got fully affirm that. I hope that range helps. I can't imagine, I don't know numbers on bikes, even as well. I do hope to be able to partner with a local bike shop, and if we can pull that off, I would imagine similar rates to local bike shops around tech.

Public #13 - Dylan Munn

Hi, I'm Dylan Munn. I live just south of 80 on the 13th corridor. Many sugar house residents, I would hope, agree that the 13th corridor is not a great doorstep to the sugar house community. It's not one that I'm proud of. Whenever our visitors come from out of town, it's really kind of a shame that you exit the interstate, and it feels more consistent with a suburban interstate exit than a strong community that we all want to live in with that said, I really support everything that you've done. I'm really excited with all the considerations you've taken with all of the comments. I think it's an asset that many of the park visitors, residents, visitors to our city can all utilize. I bike through that tunnel almost every day. Would be thrilled to have a coffee shop right there. But really, my comments are all about bettering our doorstep to sugar house. I believe this project could be a great catalyst for what I hope to see across the street with that MU 11 rezoning, I think you've done a great job of stepping it down to mu eight. So all that said, I really support it. There are many other people, friends of my generation that also are very thankful for the potential of this project. So great job.

John Potter 1:28:30

Thank you.

Public #14 - Camille Gorp 1:28:30

Am I in that generation? My name is Camille Gorp. My home is three blocks north of this corner, and I think the park is beautiful. I think your project is impressive, but I'm worried about walkability and the step backs as well, and being able to even have a stroller with a couple members to speak and to talk and to feel safe. I don't feel safe with the drawings here. What with what you've presented as walkability? I love the pools. Will I be able to swim in this pool? And is this...

John Potter 1:29:11

The pool is, I didn't list it in our guest amenities because it is, it is a guest or, sorry I didn't list it in our community amenities because it is guest only.

Public #14 - Camille Gorp 1:29:19

So I really like the fellow with the red hat that said, even though I love pools, it's not a pool that's going to generate or benefit our neighborhood. So I'd say, yeah, make that a hikeable platform where everybody can get up there and see the view. It feels very exclusive, and we should all be able to see the park.

John Potter 1:29:39

Thank you. I appreciate that. Just quick note on that, and again, the city is here, and they're going to provide them later, this is required by the city, so I'll give credit to the city for that. We do have sidewalks increasing around the edge to over 10 feet trying to it's conformed the code, yes, but also it provides that hopefully more. Walking friendly than is right now based on that size increase, and then the integration mark, as I touched on earlier, hopefully helps a little bit too. Super appreciated.

Public #15 - Jim Burris 1:30:12

Good evening, and thank you for coming. My name is Jim Burris. I've lived in sugar house for over 30 years. I think I can speak on behalf of many of the citizens here that we think Kim and Go was a disaster, and we raised a whole lot of concerns about that. And yet, your proposal, while probably better still, has some of the same concerns and relative impacts associated with stormwater, which was previously mentioned, and the depth of excavation proximity to the current aquifer and this high water table. So my question is to Chris, what specific geotechnical studies have been done and findings today on how you're going to mitigate for that close proximity?

John Potter 1:30:57

I mean, I could take that one if you I mean, Cris Hogan. Maybe Cris can present. Maybe Jackson, the architect?

Public #15 - Jim Burris 1:31:06

No, I meant Chris. I'm sorry.

Cris Hogan - Contractor 1:31:10

So I know we did the the geotech study both proposed the water table. I was proposed, the water table, 37 feet down to the water table. So the excavation for the two story structure is comes to doesn't come all the way to the ground, to the groundwater.

John Potter 1:31:39

So So Chris has his head in many, many other things. I believe excavation is 30 feet. I mean, I'll be technical here. I'll play the contractor role. Tell me if I say anything wrong. Cris, Eddy, believe the excavation is 30 feet. We chose technical for you. The mat footing means that we only have to go down two feet below that, in fact, right? Because there's no additional fill required, so there's no additional over excavation. So I believe that puts us 32 feet below to a water table, 37 feet which puts us above the water. That's at the deepest point. There is some and it's less somewhere else, I could show you the grade variation across the site, but these were choices we made with this in mind. Thank you for the question.

Public #16 1:32:30

I live just north west of that intersection. I love the view of the park, so I can understand how you would love it too, and I am being pissed as all hell that your building is going to take that away. I have great concern about the traffic at that intersection. Wondering where are people going to be going after they exit your building? Are they going to try to get on freeway by zipping up to parties. Are they going to try to zip across multiple lanes of traffic and do a u turn to get on the freeway? That makes it really uncomfortable, also nice amenities that you're putting in however, they really directly compete with what we already have here. We have coffee shops. We have shops. I don't need a 90 foot building in the way.

John Potter 1:33:30

One question you asked, if that's all right, which is the traffic in, the point that's been raised actually previously, about not dumping people, certainly here, and we're definitely looking onto this section here, and we're definitely looking for ways to increase traffic onto this road, 21st, 2100 South, which, per our traffic study from this point east is, has far more capacity than 13th and this road here.

John Potter 1:34:04

Appreciate it. Appreciate the...

John Potter 1:34:06

There is, there is, I believe, a bike lane that's going in there. I think that's what you're alluding to. Certainly. The traffic lane.

John Potter 1:34:17

I can't speak for the city, and I wouldn't dare try.

John Potter 1:34:28

No, I'm familiar, but I can't.. we did our study the t.. like I said, Hales, who did our study, works with UDOT Salt Lake City repeatedly, and accounted for all future projections. I'm happy to talk. Stay additionally later, take more questions over here, if you'd like.

John Potter 1:34:51

We do welcome more feedback now, and it comes to me, but it's great. We're sending it all through the Sugar House Community Council. We have a QR code here. You. To visit. I'm sure most of you come, in case, not here, there's also boards out to shoot with your phone or, of course, the domain names written on there. Welcome repeat comments you said tonight, new comments you didn't get a chance to send. Please log on and Judy does a great job. I'm sure it'll give her a round of applause for aggregating a ton of comments.

Judi Short - LUZ Committee 1:35:43

I can't take notes when you guys are talking that fast, so I want you to type it up and send it so that I can make sure it's attached to the letter. So the letter I write reflects our thoughts. Thank you very much.

John Potter 1:35:49

This is a combination of the Sugar House Community Council and our open house. If Judy's okay, I'm happy to keep taking questions. Okay, I don't have to step on the toes. Well, that's true. I'm eager to share.

Public #17 - Roxy Christensen 1:36:05

Hi. I'm Roxy. I'm a fellow board member with Richard Niemann. I don't speak for the board, but I am here with my own opinions as a nearby resident, and I've spent a lot of time in this park for the last five years, so I come speaking also from maintenance our I talk with our park crew all the time about the issues in the park, and you know, talking about parking, I know you're going to provide that on site, but when people have a wedding and you have 80 additional people, or 100 additional people plus normal guests, where are they in the park? And they're going to say, hey, sugary house Park is free. Let's park better. And we already have tons of parking issues. We normally are all the way filled on summers, on weekends, on events, and when people can't leave that park, because it's already difficult to they drive on grass, they drive on sidewalks. It's it has. We cannot accept more people in that park, except users of that park. So I'm very thinking about that. A study for the Utah tourism says 74% of people coming to Utah are in cars. So if you know we're thinking, everybody's riding by car, they need a park. It costs a valet. Those mechanisms can be slow to get your car out. What do you do for RVs? Where we have national parks, people are coming for vacation. They have racks. They have, you know, trailers, those who are going parking garages. Where are they going to park, shooting house, Park. We cannot afford to use city resources for parking violations. We can't get the police to come, because it's usually not high priority, something like parking right? So it's hard to enforce your your statement says that this is going to be 24 hour activation. The park has hours. We don't want 24 hour activation of the park. It needs to close, and we need to be able to keep people out of there. So that concerns me. Other things like light pollution, of course, with that property right there, as I said, enforcement, we've done a dark sky compliance in the park, we're pretty good, but the property right there in the corner will change that security. Of course, you mentioned, there's eyes on the park, but it's a large park, you can't see it all. We have people doing that, but I'm more concerned about people that are there here to have a fun time, that are using the park after hours. I know we've talked about fencing it at the gate, but we also know people don't do that, and I'll say that, as Richard said, Curie house Park is a central park of Salt Lake. If we let development come into the kind of the boundary of the park, what will that do, long term for it, my last thing is that the incorporation Park Authority is to maintain and hold the park for users of all of the county. So I think I'm looking at it not just as a Salt Lake City resident, but people coming for that experience in the park. It's open space. That's the beauty of it, as we continue to grow in that business district just across the street, which I'm all for, density. We need it. We need housing. We need these amenities. We don't need it by the park. And so I'm here to say that for all users of the park that we need to maintain and hold that and that there is a middle ground, a solution for someone to develop there that is compliant and helpful with the park. So thankyou.

John Potter 1:39:58

No. Appreciate that. In the interest of time and hearing more comments, if I can, I'll only respond to one of those notices as a reminder that the land is not currently zoned as open space for part of the park, right? So under current Salt Lake zoning, in a retail environment, we would have a very low parking requirement if it was developed under MU three. With the hotel, we're able to offer the community benefit of enough parking. The mu three, existing zoning would be more likely to burn the park with the illegal parking that she's concerned about. I certainly can't promise it won't happen with our hotel guests, but the existing zoning cannot afford or justify the garage amenity to mitigate that.

Public # - Second Appearance 1:40:38

Sorry, to jump back in, but I used to get in, get out. I forgot two questions that I have. That I have for you. The main concern of these two questions is, do you think you're going to get a liquor license for your restaurants?

John Potter 1:40:49

You know, that's like, that's the big question. And I really don't know. I'm not being cagey with you. It's totally unknown. We're hopeful. Theoretically, with the Olympics approaching, we hope for more liberalization. But yes, per your head, I … response as well. And it is not a… We call it a restaurant. We don't use the word bars. You probably noticed on page trying to reinforce that.

Public # - Second Appearance 1:41:11

Yeah, well, I would say totally against that. But sitting next to the park, there's a reason why you can't have a liccor license. So I would say to everybody, that's a big issue. The other one is, as she had said, you take that property takes full advantage as a business on the park, full advantage, and I would hope I'm not. I'm close to your plan. But I would hope whoever gets it, we make a strong effort that they participate in the expenses of that land. This is a city run park, but it's also needs independent investments in order to maintain it, to do a better job with it. And if somebody on that property is there making money, they should be able to throw some big money down on the park, because it would be the reciprocity needs to be there. Thank you.

John Potter 1:42:12

I appreciate that. Just the only note to re-flag for later thought to the community benefit document, as we do see, some community benefits in addition to the amenities.

Public #18 - Jean Daly 1:42:19

My name is Jean Daly, and I'm going to give you a little background. I was a real estate banking attorney in New York City till 911 I worked in the building across the street from the towers, watched the towers come down, retired from law and went into search and rescue. Be talking about your water table. Appreciate that, by the way, that story, that's not why I'm up here. I currently have a search and recovery dog that spent the month of July in an area where water. Don't worry about the water, as we found dead child after dead child you want to put in a garage on a water table? That's very important to all of Salt Lake City with only a five foot leeway, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

John Potter 1:43:18

I appreciate that. Thank you for flagging it again. It's definitely a concern of ours.

Public #19 1:43:22

So it looks like I'm the last one, but I actually live three doors down from the dodo. So if the people that that go to the dodo Park in your hotel, that relieves some issue for me, in that my street is usually their cars on both sides, all the way from 21st to Westminster. So but what it doesn't address is the fact that we already have people on my street, which is view Street and 14th east, and some two on 15 east, but that that want to get around traffic, so they'll be heading south on 13th. Traffic's backed up. They'll cut through our neighborhood, and they're in a hurry. So it's not like, you know, they're looking for little children playing in the street. They're they want to hurry and get out so they can get around traffic. The same for 14th East. And one of the issues with 14th East is it's really, really wide my street. Once you have cars on both sides, it narrows it, and that tends to slow people down a little bit. But on 14th The streets are so wide that people just fly down there. People fly through Westminster from 13th east to to do the same thing, to either turn down view Street, to turn down the 14th or even to 15th. The speed limit on 15th, I believe, is 2025 nobody goes 20 or 25 laps. Street. So that's a big concern for us, and I'm happy to say that we are seeing as people move out of the neighborhood, or that we're seeing more people with children coming in. So we have three houses now on my street that actually have children, oh, four that have children living in them. When we first moved there, there were two, two children. So we want, I don't know, what we can do, to make sure that the people that are coming out of the hotel don't turn right there and go down the street by the dodo or go down 14 in a hurry to get to catch the plane at the airport. So that's a lot of the concern that we have in our neighborhood, is that that it's, it's kind of congested already, with the fact that the dough goes there so and it's till 11 o'clock at night, you know, Sunday brunch, whatever. So I don't know the city. I don't know that you guys can do anything about it, but it'd be nice if the city could maybe figure out a way to slow the traffic through that neighborhood

John Potter 1:46:11

Appreciate that as a parent, as you can share your concern for child safety, no doubt, I will say that this, I’ll flag that at least, the hotel is a compatible use with many residential uses, uh, speeding cars and things are not the parking issues are not positive for the guests either.

Public #19 1:46:35

About how many staff do you anticipate? How many staff do you anticipate coming?

John Potter 1:46:42

Yes, and we'll answer that a second. Our parking study does account for staff, banquet uses, retail and hotel use, we've projected to answer your question, 50 full time equivalent staff for this hotel. So that's that's an ACA metric that's used to the advantage of the hotel industry, from a parking and traffic perspective, is our peak staff hours are separate from our peak guest hours. And if you think about it, you stay in hotels, I'm sure you've noticed that the rooms are all clean when you come back, right? Housekeeping, admin jobs, things like that. There are obviously exceptions here, with food and beverage related people, of course, but I just want to help give a little background into the industry with that.

Public #19 1:47:25

Thank you, and I appreciate that you mentioned that staffing hours are different from visitors hours, because that means that in addition to whatever parking spaces you need for hotel guests, you need that much more for the staff,

John Potter 1:47:41

because they're different hours. There's overlay, right? And we our study, I don't have the full study calculates it by hour, right? Peak hotel staffing is actually... standing right next to you is our HR person. What? Noon? Probably right, from 10am to to 2pm right? Which is obviously, as you know, when people travel, they usually are often gone earlier.

Public #19 1:48:01

Thank you, thank you very much.

John Potter 1:48:07

All right, Judy's calling time. I respect that. I'm happy to stick around in the spirit of a high school adventure in the parking lot afterwards. If anyone has any final words, Thanks, Judy.

Speaker 1 1:48:18