The Sandy City Council held its first city council meeting under Councilman Stephen Smith’s chairmanship after not meeting over the Fourth of July week with a brief scheduling meeting and project update from the Mayor’s office on July 12. 

Mayor Tom Dolan was absent from the meeting to speak with potential sponsors of the Sandy Amphitheater and had Economic Development and Redevelopment Director Nick Duerksen give an update on several projects. 

The council approved Boulder Venture's application to rezone as part of its consent calendar. It was originally approved at the June 21 meeting. But due to clerical error, the ordinance language creating the zone was not presented to the council and delayed to the July 12 meeting. 

Two contiguous plots north of the Latter-day Saint Chapel at 300 East were zoned to PUD (8). The plots are restricted by the East Jordan Canal on the west, UTA tracks to the east, 10600 South to the south and 10200 South to the north. 

The rezone application originally asked for a PUD (10). Applicant Jeff Vitek said the for-sale, town home project reduced the total number of units by 27 percent to reach the PUD (8), which allows for eight units per acre. 

In the planning meeting, Councilwoman Linda Martinez Saville said she wants The Sandy Club, a boys and girls club, wanted “to do something nice for our police officers” in light of the police killings in Dallas.

Councilman Chris McCandless said that the cost to get a permit to build in Sandy City has jumped from about $2,000 in 2000 to $22,000 in 2016. He said this has potential to stifle affordable housing units, noting that today's cost could be up to 10 percent of below-median cost home.  

Nick Duerksen then updated the council on several land development projects throughout the city, many in The Cairns project area.

First, he spoke about a development project proposed by McKay Christensen of Mac Development for the vacant lot west of the Super Target, on the east side of Centennial Parkway. 

Duerksen said this lot has been vacant since 1997. The master plan for the Centennial Parkway area called for residential developments in the area. The city made a deal with Super Target that didn’t allow Super Target to building their building all the way back to the parkway. In return, the lot had several restrictions placed on it like the use of any building built there as well as building size. 

Mac Development submitted a sketch of six story, shallow U-shaped building with units that wrapped around a parking structure in the core of the building. The main floor would be two story units on the ground level with the top four floors being single level flats. 

However, Super Target has one major reservation with the project. 

Super Target wants to have signage on the west side of the building and the apartment building would hide that signage. The Mac Development has proposed to put a sign in their building despite their own concerns over branding and the city code. 

Christensen has proposed making Super Target a tenant in the building by making a cart service one of the amenities to the apartments, meaning Super Target customers could walk their carts to the apartment and leave them with a designate service that will take the cart back for them. 

According to Duerksen, the developer is even considering altering hallways to accommodate carts. However, the process of working getting city permits and working with Super Target on the special restrictions makes the project nebulous at this point. 

However, in the 17 years since this lot has remained vacant, Duerksen said in the meeting and in an interview that this is best project to come to the city over this property. 

Next, Duerksen said the Shops at South Towne would see several renovations to come. One was the renovation of the interior and exterior of the Forever 21 store front on the north side of the mall. Forever 21 would move exclusively to the main floor and the upstair would house an entertainment center called Round One Entertainment. It will have a bowling alley and other arcade, fun center games. 

The Forever 21 building would allow for a ground-to-second-floor access to get to round one and a “reskin” of dark faux wood slats. 

Duerksen said Dillard’s will close within the month of July. There are several “anchor tenants” interested in the space, but said the mall is a year away from solidifying cotnracts 

A wrinkle for the area and possible space for new mall buildings is Hyatt is interested in building a hotel that would attach to the mall. There is no other mall with an attached hotel. 

The Hyatt House north of the property will remain open if there is another hotel built on the Shops at South Towne property.