Walk or Drive?

Pedestrian Friendly C-4 or Automobile Friendly C-2

by Robin Johnson

What are the differences between Midway’s current C-2 zone and its proposed C-4 Zone? According to Michael Henke, city planner, one of the main differences is how customers access businesses located within the zones, by parking a car in close proximity to business for convenient access or by parking in a large parking lot then leaving the car and walking from one business to another clustered in close proximity to each other. Property on the north side of Main Street between about 400 East to 700 East is being considered for the proposed C-4 zone Approximately three fourths of the twenty acres is currently zoned C-2. The remaining one fourth is zoned for residential use as R-1-11.

In the city council’s public hearing, held on May 17, Henke said regarding the twenty acres proposed for inclusion in the potential C-4 zone, “The idea is to limit the uses that are not vehicle oriented type uses, so it would create that safe pedestrian atmosphere.”  Henke said automobile friendly uses “have been removed from what’s currently allowed on the property, so really there’s not any uses in the C-4 zone that aren’t already allowed right now in the C-2 zone; we’ve just reduced the amount of uses for this area” to uses that are walkable and pedestrian friendly.”

 Storage Units were removed from the uses in the C-2 zone after three separate storage unit applications were received by the city in the last couple of years, each one failing to reach the point of development for varying reasons. Henke gave some examples of uses still allowed in the C-2 zone that will not be allowed in the proposed C-4 zone which includes mortuaries and wedding chapels, new and used vehicle sales, and repair shops.

What is allowed in the proposed C-4 zone?

·         Retail, grocery, and service stores (boutiques)

·         Tobacco sales

·         Bazaars

·         Professional offices and clinics

·         Alcohol dispensing establishments

·         Day cares,

·         Recreational activity businesses like craft, art, and photo galleries, and retail show rooms

·         Cafes and restaurants,

·         Barber and beauty shops, massage therapy, and day spas,

·         Short term lodging facilities,

·         Outdoor and indoor theaters,

·         Mixed Use Commercial with residential PUDs,

·         Private academies or studios for education, art, dance, sports, etc. (music)

Many citizens addressed the appropriateness of a walkable and compact retail area with large scale parking in Midway.  Most of their comments are included below, it is lengthy. Some speak for the C-4 change, others against. All agree taking time and making decisions cautiously are important.

Katie Nobel said, ““I’m going to be speaking on behalf of Pure Midway tonight. Pure Midway is dedicated to smart growth and open space and we’re a fairly new non-profit so we been spending, maybe not as much time as you have, and we wanted to thank you very much for all of your time … endless patience, and even keeledness throughout the process.

“I just wanted to say that the population of Provo Orem is 525,000. The population of Midway is 4500. Riverwoods does not belong in Midway. Having said that, this is me personally, I do support the arts center, I think it’s a wonderful project, so this isn’t about the arts center. It’s about C-4.

“We think there should be more open space, at least 25 percent open space, which would be the requirement they have in Summit County. I always get so … we think that needs to be reduced. We think there should be a 50 to 75 foot buffer zone from the neighbors. We think the height should be limited, probably 35 feet. Its 32 feet in Summit County in commercial right now, it could be larger by building with conditional use permit. “

Noble added some additional ideas for use of the C-4 space. “We think that it’s critical to limit the building footprint and the size of the buildings. We think that there should be a Memorial Hill dedication spot that is a requirement; a place for reflection, meditation, and remembering what the hill is all about. We also think there should be points added for amenities that would celebrate Midway’s rural heritage, for a Midway History Museum, a farmer’s market, farm to table restaurant, a 4-H club, something along those lines.

“Personally, again, I don’t support density reduction on the rest of Main Street. I don’t think that that’s fair. I think that that needs to be balanced out; it’s not fair to take from one and give to the other. Pure Midway thinks that we need to be thoughtful, careful, and postpone the decision. In summary, they don’t make any more land; you’ve got to be really careful with this.”

Pat Vaughn said, “I think we need to be very careful in our city that greed is not controlling us. We talked about build it and they will come. Why don’t we let them come and we will build it. We already have a restaurant that’s turned into a funeral home. We also have vacancies that have lease notices, that we can’t rent out, that is commercial property. ... Is it fair to reduce density down on Main Street to accommodate this particular zoning? I say no.”

Courtland Nelson, Wasatch Mountain State Park, said, “Appreciate the opportunity to speak. I’m speaking in favor of the switch to C-4 … in terms of the opportunity to congregate those businesses and pool them together at the east end of town. It also makes some sense for what I think needs to be done for what we are doing with our own enhancements, our signage, and making ourselves more of a destination as people pass through the valley."

“Further, I think we’re at an important juncture here, that we approve the C-4 and then take some time that everybody is talking about to get down to some details. You have the architectural committee, there are no reasons there can’t be more meetings about a number of the specifics.  I think it’s important that you commit to other opportunities for people to come forward and to review (the C-4 proposal), that’s really the only way we can do that. If we’re not going to go down this road then I suspect we are going to be having a meeting with you all about increasing our taxes so we can buy that land, so we can protect it for all the reasons that people are talking about. That seems like a big leap to me and I think there are some steps between this (proposal) and doing that.

“In my mind this balances out the wonderful frantic time of Swiss Days. We have a place that’s going to bring in people on a very steady basis year round, and it will help with the tax base that all of you have talked about. We’ve been through these committees over the last year. I had a conversation with you mayor three or four months ago about the need for … more Monday to Friday kind of businesses that are routine, and regular, and flat … I think this achieves that. I also like the tie from what we’re doing as a community with the state parks and the businesses that are there, this square, the retail that’s down Main Street  … and then the final piece would be this zone down at the other end and I think that makes lots of sense for smart people to do that.”

Millie Medbe said, “I am concerned about trying to bring in a lot of new businesses into a completely different part of the city. I sort of refer to it as a mini-Midway. I don’t think we need another mini-Midway. I don’t think we need a second ice rink. This is a lot of duplication. I love the arts, I’m not against an arts center, but we have to do things carefully.

“The things I wanted to focus on were, I don’t see that there’s been a financial analysis where we even know if this thing can fly. Traffic studies, when we moved here almost 25 years ago from Los Angeles, we moved here for all the reasons everybody is talking about. And we live on River Road and in those days you could be going this way on the street, you’re neighbors going this way, you could both put your car in park and have a half hour conversation. It was awesome. And now I can’t sit on my front porch because I can’t hear the person I’m trying to talk to and its really, really disappointing and sad. There are all kinds of opinions on all of these things, but I do think we need to do a serious traffic study because we’ve got some big problems. I also think there’s going to be a lot of costs run up considering there’s maintenance of this whole thing, there’s a ton of maintenance in the city right now that is just not happening.”

Rochelle Dominique said, “As a former retailer I looked around town. There are plenty of places that are available for rent and I don’t see any of the local people getting rich, except maybe Galleria, they keep adding cars, but there’s not enough retail business, and if we have empty store fronts, that could be horrible. I mean I’d rather see a development like The Hamlet, it’s very pretty, it’s down at the end of town, it’s not too tall, so it’s not that you can’t put something there, but commercial space is I think a real dumb idea.”

Hyrum  Daly, a teenager, said, “As I was sitting here listening to you guys I’ve been kind of thinking about how long I’ve been living here and how its developed over time. I moved here about six and a half years ago and I live kind of by the hidden church, and I remember when the subdivision wasn’t there and it was just this huge field and I could go out into the field and chuck rocks at whatever I wanted and have a great time. I was kind of sad when that subdivision was put in.

“The Olympics, that brought a lot of people in. And Swiss Days every year attracts people to look at this beautiful valley. And I think they want to live here for a reason. And I think don’t bring into this valley, Provo has a Riverwoods, I don’t think that we need another Riverwoods in here because Provo already has one. If we have something similar to Provo, it’s going to take away from Provo and add more us, and then more people are going to want to live in this valley, and so then we’re going to have people from Park City and Provo coming in and that’s just going to be a big mess.”

Robert Duncan, former art gallery owner on Main Street, said, “I feel strongly that we advertise a village on the signs as you come into town, and obviously we want a village atmosphere, and all the successful thriving village type towns that I know of have a core natural, walkable shopping area. We have it. But we haven’t taken care of it, I feel strongly. And we still have a bunch of for sale and for lease signs on Main Street.

“All the developments like this that have tried to create a village atmosphere like The Gateway, Riverwoods, Redstone, all have gone through a multitude of tenants who’ve given up and someone else has replaced them. But none of them have really succeeded as a walking village atmosphere.

“Destination, we have a natural destination village atmosphere and I really feel like the Tourism Overlay Zone should be in our natural downtown area where people love to go. Duncan described a situation in another town. He said, “I have a friend whose gallery moved off the town square, a block away, the traffic is nothing. They’re struggling.

“I don’t feel like this is a natural location to have destination tourism come and thrive. I feel like we have wasted a beautiful opportunity over 20 years of people who want to come here, but they don’t want to walk five blocks, and we’ll end up having a bunch of for rent signs down there and here, when we could grow from the natural village we have, out, and keep open spaces in the places where it needs to be, and so that’s just my feeling, strongly. That this isn’t going to bring what we really want it to bring.”

Susan Fox said, “I want to address the parking. I moved out of my home and closed my business, I’m not just open to the public anymore, I’m still doing business, but I am up in Swiss Oaks and they didn’t think about parking either when they built that back in the 70’s. When all the out of towners who only come on weekends all come up there is no parking because they only put one car parking spot for each unit.”

Regarding commercial parking Fox said, “If we’re only doing 250 square feet for every parking spot for your commercial, you won’t be able to go in there. We see that we have commercial businesses for sale here in town, the businesses don’t come here. We struggle every single year. And I don’t want a shopping center like Riverwoods, I don’t want a Blue Boutique or Victoria’s Secret or a strip mall like that, in my town. I’m glad to go down to Provo and go to … Riverwoods. I don’t want to do it here in my home town.”

Matt Krupp said, “We’ve decided lately to invest in the core of what has historically been our Main Street village. One of my big concerns is that by dumping a bunch of incentives in the form of C-4, and from what it sounds like, reducing density in what existing Main Street, we’ll kind of be shooting ourselves in the foot. This is a good idea in theory, but I really am scared of the execution of it, the way that I’m seeing it, all the details that I’ve come across so far.”

Andrea Allen said, “Moved here three years ago from California because I could breath .. I want to talk about a couple of things that the code actually states … ‘improve the efficiency of parking areas by allowing multiple use and shared parking spaces, curves, cuts, and circulation drives’. Again we’re looking at the parking issue and nowhere in the C-4 code; it doesn’t exclude large parking structures, so just wanting to look at that. With the amount of seats and parking, parking will be a major problem so you are going to have to address over 1500 parking spots, what’s that going to look like when we walk up Memorial Hill?”

Grant Johnson, a teenager, said, “My mom owns RHL, Race Horse Lane boutique on Main Street. We’ve had it about ten years, I’ve worked there and I’ve met basically numerous customers and all kinds of other people. When (customers) come into my mom’s business, I’ve seen a lot of them trying to escape the big city type feel, Riverwoods, and all that; … personally, I think we should renovate our Main Street instead of going outside of Main Street because when you come into a small town you always drive through Main Street, not very many people leave to far from Main Street to go to businesses. I think that’s one of the reasons why my mom’s business has been so successful.”

Other public comments addressing traffic study, financial analysis, residential density, height, and Memorial Hill yet to follow.