Third District Judge Leonard H. Moffatt has issued a temporary restraining order stopping a local construction executive from opening a throughway through the parking lot of the Learning Tree Daycare, 4540 S. 900 East.
The order, signed this week, was requested by attorney Denver C. Snuffer on behalf of the day-care center's owner, Bob Hosking. According to Hosking, legal action was initiated against his landlord, F.C. Stangl, after attempts to negotiate a settlement to the construction dispute out of court failed.Stangl did not return Deseret News calls about his construction project, which has prompted the protest of angry parents, concerned about their children's safety.
Against the advice of Salt Lake County's planning staff, Stangl won permission from the Salt Lake County Planning Commission on June 12 to connect the parking lot of the 3-M Building with the adjacent Learning Tree parking lot during a construction project that converted 19 parking spaces next to the 3-M building into storage space. A curb that previously separated the two lots was removed.
Hosking said Stangl's request to connect the two lots was made without his knowledge or approval.
"He did not notify us. He didn't give us the courtesy of a telephone call," Hosking said. "The first we were aware of it (the expansion) is when his construction crews ripped out our sprinkling system."
Neither was Hosking notified of the commission's hearings, he said.
"When we complained, Planning and Zoning's suggestion to us was to write a letter outlining our concerns. In that way, they said, there would be a paper trail so if a child did get injured, we wouldn't be liable."
Glen Graham, plan services section manager, said the staff recommended denying the application - not because it perceived a through-traffic problem, but because the loss of the 19 parking spaces that were converted to storage left the 3-M building short 10 spaces. The staff was concerned additional cars would want to park by the Learning Tree as a result.
Stangl won permission to connect the two parking lots after agreeing to re-configure spaces in the lot closer to the 3-M building to make up for the 10-space shortage.
Hosking's concern is not the parking places; it's that a "child will become a hood ornament" when drivers exiting on to 900 East during rush-hour traffic cut through the day care's lot.
"Our attorney notified Stangl that we would yield the parking spaces to meet his planning and zoning requirements, but there would have to be a permanent barricade to prevent making the school's parking lot a throughway," Hosking said.
Hosking said that between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. approximately 160 children exit the building. He and the children's parents don't want additional traffic moving through the lot during rush hour.
"Mathematically, sooner or later a child is going to get injured - at no fault of the child, no fault of the driver, but just the way the drive-through is constructed," he said.
A court hearing on the matter is scheduled on Aug. 29 at 1:45 p.m.