Some neighbors of the Jewish Community Center near the University of Utah are upset over expansion plans that would more than double the center's size and, they say, make it incompatible with the Federal Heights neighborhood.
David Rudd, whose home backs onto the center's property at 2 N. Medical Drive says Jewish leaders did not go through proper procedures in getting city approval to expand the center, and they did not involve the neighbors.
He appealed the city planning department's approval to renovate the existing 28,000-square-foot center and build a 40,000-square-foot, three-story addition. The city's board of adjustment denied the appeal, and Rudd has appealed that decision in 3rd District Court.
"This will change the entire nature of the facility and the neighborhood," he said. "They didn't follow the appropriate process — in fact, they totally kept the neighborhood in the dark."
Jewish leaders and city officials say the process was done by the book. "His real argument is that he doesn't want us blocking his view," JCC board member Michael Wolfe said.
Rudd's primary contention is that a planned "early childhood center," providing pre-school programming for 150 children, is a school, which is illegal in the open-space zone the center is in. Wolfe and city planning director William Wright say it's an allowed use since it is limited to center members.
"It's what a community center does," Wolfe said. "We're building something that the entire Avenues community is entitled to join and use and have fun in. I think it's going to be a beautiful addition to the neighborhood."
The Jewish community purchased the 5.3-acre site, the old Fort Douglas Country Club, for $3.1 million in 1997. Center officials broke ground for the $10 million expansion last October, though construction work hasn't actually started yet.
With the expansion, they plan to make the center a full-service community center with the early childhood center, basketball gymnasium, indoor track and other fitness facilities. The existing building will be renovated to provide offices, meeting rooms and easier access throughout the facility.
There are also plans to create a Holocaust memorial garden at the main entrance.
The expansion is part of an overall Jewish facility expansion plan involving the old JCC on Foothill Drive, which will expand its elementary school and add a middle school, and Congregation Kol Ami, which will add a youth wing, classrooms and mikvah (purifying bath).
You can reach Alan Edwards by e-mail at alan@desnews.com.