Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith wants the option to bring new skyscrapers to Salt Lake City’s skyline with his proposed sports district, and he wants to sidestep the city’s planning commission when it’s time to build them.
Smith Entertainment Group is asking the City Council to do away with the typical planning commission review on tall buildings and replace it with an “administrative approval” for structures 250 feet or taller near the Delta Center.
It’s a request that has outraged at least one planning commissioner, who said the move would help the group hide decisions from the public.
“It’s not just about me, the scary planning commissioner, that SEG is obviously afraid of; it’s also about the public,” commissioner Bree Scheer said. “They don’t want the public to have anything to do with what goes forward from now on.”
A representative from SEG declined to comment on the proposal or Scheer’s criticism.
Smith’s request follows the planning commission’s denial in June of a proposal to eliminate building height restrictions. In rebuffing the request, the planning commission cited a lack of specifics on what SEG had planned for the district.
The commission’s rejection does not prevent the City Council from approving zoning changes. Council members, who have signaled their openness to staff reviews for high-rises, are tentatively scheduled to vote on the proposal Aug. 27.
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