SALT LAKE CITY — A former Village Inn east of Trolley Square could soon be coming down to make way for a new type of village.
Members of the Salt Lake City Planning Commission voted Wednesday evening to approve a plan to turn the shuttered restaurant within Salt Lake City’s Central City neighborhood into 20 new “family-sized” townhomes that will go for sale once the project is complete.
“We feel we’re providing something that the market wants in a great location that will encourage walkability,” said Stephen Alfandre, a founding principal of Urban Alfandre, the company that is behind the project. “We’re excited for this.”
The plan calls for three buildings ranging from 32 feet to 45½ feet in height, located at 910 E. 400 South. The site, near the bottom of the S-curve leading to the University of Utah campus, was home to the Village Inn before it closed last year.
Each four-story unit would come with amenity spaces on top and a two-car tandem garage included, while the property is also within 300 feet of a Utah Transit Authority TRAX station, said Olivia Cvetko, a principal planner for the Salt Lake City Planning Division.
The project went in front of the planning commission for approval on some design elements, such as an exemption from a requirement that the ground floor be used for something other than housing and a few ground-floor and entrance design requirements.
“My company is on a quest to provide more owner-occupied housing throughout the city. Unfortunately, we don’t have many zones, any really good zones at all, to provide owner-occupied townhomes. Every single one we’ve come in for, we’ve had to ask for exceptions and variances,” Alfandre said. “We’ve tried to design these to look very attractive and timeless (for what) we think is a very important, prominent corner.”
While some elements of the plan raised questions from the commission, most of the discussion revolved around plans for a fence and wall between the roads and homes.
Several commission members said they could hinder walkability in the area. Alfandre said they’d help with security, while Planning Commissioner Richard Leverett said he could see them being protective of vehicles along the busy 400 South, as well.
The board ultimately voted 6-2 to approve the design review along with a few notes. Members called on a lighting and signage plan to be submitted for review when the project reaches a building permit phase and that pedestrian/vehicle access along 900 East be “transposed to allow for continuous pedestrian access flow into the site.”
The project’s development plan was also approved with conditions, including a cost estimate and other documentation, as well as a note that any fence along 400 South contains some “see-through features” if it’s as high as 6 feet; otherwise it must be only 4 feet, as written in the code. The commission voted 7-1 in favor of it.
A preliminary subdivision application was also approved. It wasn’t immediately clear when construction would begin or be completed, but the commission asked that developers submit a final plat for review within the next 18 months.
“We look forward to this being built,” said Planning Commissioner Aimee Burrows, after the votes.
The project would add to several new mixed-use developments that have already been constructed in recent years.
It’s also located across the street from a vacant OfficeMax store that could bring even more housing to the corner of 900 East and 400 South. The developer Cole West recently initiated a design review for a 252-unit student housing project at the site, which will go in front of the Planning Commission as early as this year.
That project would provide yet another type of housing that is urgently needed, providing 696 total beds near the university campus.