The Park City Planning Commission held its third public hearing on the 5-acre Bonanza Park proposal Wednesday.
The developer came back with reduced building heights for the six buildings with residential units. All were previously above the zoned 35-foot maximum and the 40-foot exception for gables.
Now, five of those buildings meet the code for the most part. Steven Swisher from GTS Development said the centers of each of the buildings are 35 feet from the floor to the parapet, and 40 feet to the top of the gable.
“That's the heights at the middle of the project, but the site does slope up on one side and down on the other, which leaves a portion of the building higher than that 40 feet,” Swisher said.
Swisher said the variation on most of the structures is about 1.5 feet. For the building bordering Bonanza Drive and Munchkin Road, the difference is up to 4 feet.
To be closer to the zoned maximum, the new proposal shrinks residential floor heights from 9 feet to 8, and the commercial floors from 12 feet to 10. Instead of 12-by-12-foot gables, the pitches were reduced to 4-by-12.
Commissioners were in favor of the reduced heights. But two — Matthew Day and Seth Beal — said the 4-by-12 gables don’t look as good as the originals. Day suggested coming back with 12-by-12 and 7-by-12 options with the new height as those pitches match the historic district.
“I think now it kind of looks more massive,” he said. “I'm glad that you dropped it to the 35, but I would put those peaks back to 12-by-12 because it's actually not the entire thing that high.”
Commissioners John Frontero and Grant Tilson were not in favor of adding height even to portions of the building for aesthetics.
A sixth building, which borders Munchkin Road and is four stories, would still require a height exemption. Reductions in floor heights would put its overall size at about 40 feet to the parapet and 49 feet to the top of the gables.
The commission was open to granting the exception.
Commissioners also reviewed traffic and parking mitigation plans for the project. Based on the developer’s evaluation, the Bonanza site would add a 1.4-second delay at the Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive intersection during the morning peak, and 2.6 seconds in the evening peak.
Site plans have 280 stalls in an underground garage; code requires 208. About 130 are for those living on the site; the rest are for employees and visitors.
Frontero and Shand said there were too many stalls. Shand emphasized the city’s push for locals and visitors to use public transit.
“I do believe that less parking is going to change behavior,” he said. “The way not to do it is to offer more parking spots to encourage more people to drive and not find other, you know, kind of means of transportation.”
The plans return to the commission Sept. 9. There will be no public hearing that night, but there will be more opportunities for public comment in the future.
Park City Municipal is a financial supporter of KPCW.
