An apartment tower that could reach up to 225 feet tall risks rattling and casting shadows on a nearby cathedral, church officials say. <\/p>\n
(Silverado\/Method Studio via Salt Lake City) Rendering of new 420-unit apartment tower proposed at 265 E. 100 South in Salt Lake City, near St. Mark’s Cathedral.<\/p>\n
As Salt Lake City\u2019s downtown skyline pushes upward, the latest tall tower in the works is raising some worries over its height and potential to shake and throw shade on a revered neighbor.<\/p>\n
The residential tower<\/a> could rise up to 225 feet, or between 15 and 23 stories, from a corner lot just east of historic St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Cathedral<\/a>, which is located at 231 E. 100 South in the Central City neighborhood. <\/p>\n The prominent Cumming family, which owns the commercial property on that northwest corner of 300 East and 100 South, is asking through an intermediary for the most intense zoning the city has, precisely so it can go big. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Provo-based Silverado Management \u2014 representing a firm called Raven One LLC, which is, in turn, owned by Cumming Capital Management \u2014 is touting the 2.19-acre plot as one of the last major footprints available in Utah\u2019s urban core to help solve one of the city\u2019s most vexing challenges: a lack of housing.<\/p>\n David Hunter of Silverado Management said the owners have a longtime devotion to the health of downtown. The 1953-built office and residential building on the property now, Hunter said, would give way to a complex of up to 420 apartments, with 20% rented at more affordable rates and a smaller portion devoted to three bedrooms suitable for families.<\/p>\n \u201cIn their hearts,\u201d he said of the Cumming family, which also owns Snowbird ski resort, \u201cthey want the very best for downtown Salt Lake. They\u2019re impassioned about it.\u201d <\/p>\n Worries from neighbors<\/p>\n (Salt Lake City) A site map with zoning of properties at and around the site of a proposed apartment tower at 265 E. 100 South in Salt Lake City, near St. Mark’s Cathedral.<\/p>\n Neighbors that include the the Episcopal church to the west, however, say they\u2019re taken aback by the scale of the proposed tower. They assert the construction threatens to rattle and disrupt the foundations of the adjacent 155-year-old cathedral.<\/p>\n Seismic risks to the historic church\u2019s unreinforced brick and sandstone masonry \u201cjust cannot be contemplated,\u201d the Rev. Elizabeth Hunter told the city\u2019s planning commission last fall. \u201cWe\u2019re concerned that with a building of that size, with pile driving and excavation and blasting, that it would have a serious impact.\u201d<\/p>\n (Silverado\/Method Studio via Salt Lake City) Rendering of some of the ground-floor amenities of a new apartment tower proposed at 265 E. 100 South in Salt Lake City, near St. Mark’s Cathedral.<\/p>\n The apartment tower, planned with ground-floor businesses, is also sure to cast shadows on nearby properties, including a substantial solar panel array that Episcopal Church officials have installed for the sake of sustainability.<\/p>\n The planning commission has signed off by recommending approval of the rezoning request, which would change its current mixed-use label to the most height-permissive downtown zoning the city has available, known as Central Business District, or D1. <\/p>\n (Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune) The City Council will have a final say in the coming weeks, and key council members are already signaling their reservations.<\/p>\n \u201cThis council and this city have been in the forefront of height and density,\u201d City Council Chair Alejandro Puy told the developer. \u201cBut, ultimately, we are concerned about what the community is saying around your project.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Hyper-aware\u2019 of historic church<\/p>\n (Silverado\/Method Studio via Salt Lake City) A rendering of the view looking northwest at a new apartment tower proposed at 265 E. 100 South in Salt Lake City, near St. Mark’s Cathedral.<\/p>\n Hunter, the Silverado Management representative, said the project would deploy state-of-the-industry construction techniques to guarantee no seismic impacts on the church. <\/p>\n \u201cWe use only the biggest contractors in the state,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s people that have been building in downtown environments since the beginning of their companies, and we are hyper-aware of the significance of that church.\u201d<\/p>\n Council member Eva Lopez Chavez, who represents District 4 spanning much of downtown, called for better plans to mitigate the loss of sunlight for the church\u2019s substantial and recent investment in solar panels. <\/p>\n Hunter said possible solutions included paying to move or replace the panels or reimbursing the church financially for any losses. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t love your answer on that,\u201d Lopez Chavez told him.<\/p>\n Council member Victoria Petro said that the developer was asking for the city\u2019s most aggressive zoning with regard to height, while having \u201cno real strategy.\u201d The developer hasn\u2019t given council members enough information, she said, to fully weigh the proposal.<\/p>\n She called for exploring the project with the existing zoning \u2014 and diminished height.<\/p>\n While Petro said she was thankful that wealthy property owners continued to build in the city, \u201cthe counterbalance to that is our neighbors who are feeling disenfranchised every day and need to be equally represented in this.\u201d<\/p>\n Hunter said the mixed-use zoning already in place for the property would allow a building tall enough that would block the church\u2019s panels. <\/p>\n Given that, he told the council, \u201cthe damage is done, and we\u2019re going to block the church.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cSo then,\u201d he continued, \u201cwhy wouldn\u2019t we try to solve the bigger problem and add more affordable housing in downtown Salt Lake?\u201d<\/p>\n Note to readers \u2022This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An apartment tower that could reach up to 225 feet tall risks rattling and casting shadows on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[207537,2967,207538,207539,228,226,227,207540,70070,229,88,2483,790,45570,11903,24,3324],"class_list":["post-440107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-207537","tag-2967","tag-207538","tag-207539","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-catout","tag-december","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-salt-lake-city","tag-signs","tag-usa","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLeaders of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, shown in 2017, are worried about the planned high-rise.<\/p>\n