Salt Lake City Council approves sports district rezone for 600-foot buildings downtown. 

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The Salt Lake City Council met Tuesday and passed two highly anticipated ordinances—one adjusting downtown zoning regulations to facilitate the development of a Sports, Entertainment, Culture and Convention District; the other allocated $58.1 million in funds for Capital Improvement Projects.

The Council also heard public comments on a potential salary adjustment for City Council members and a rezone on State Street that could facilitate the construction of a new hospital.

Sports District Zoning
The Council voted unanimously to adopt amendments to D4 zoning regulations, which will facilitate the development of a Sports, Entertainment, Culture and Convention District around the Delta Center and Salt Palace.

The new zoning regulations will permit buildings up to 600 feet in height. However, buildings between 200 feet and 600 feet must go through a design review before approval. The ordinance also expands the regulations around billboards and other promotional signage at the Delta Center to also apply to the blocks containing the Salt Palace Convention Center.

“This allows more flexibility for signs related to the entertainment venues within the overlay,” the meeting’s agenda read.

The D4 amendments also permit stadiums and commercial parking, which previously were allowed only on a conditional basis. These zoning changes moved forward despite a negative recommendation from the Planning Commission in June.

The city is now waiting for the Revitalization Zone Committee to review a proposed agreement between the Council and the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG), which will be developing the sports district project. Once the Committee reviews the agreement, it will be sent back down to the Council to give a final stamp of approval.

Improvement Project Funding
The Council officially allocated $58.1 million of funding to Capital Improvement Projects (CIP). Both city departments and Salt Lake City residents can submit CIP proposals. The application for constituents to submit project proposals for FY2026 will open this fall.

The funded programs include a variety of projects for city parks, streets, transportation and maintenance. Of the 42 projects awarded funding, 14 were submitted by constituents.

The Parks and Public Lands Department received funding for the most projects. These include a restoration of the Liberty Park greenhouse, repairs in Memory Grove Park, the installation of playground shade canopies in five parks and a project to revitalize the Jordan River.

Two Complete Streets projects were awarded $8 million and $15 million was allocated to capital maintenance. This one-time funding will address a backlog of city maintenance projects.

More information on this year’s CIP projects can be found at tinyurl.com/SLCFY25CIP.

Salary Increases
During the general comments portion of Tuesday’s meeting, the Council received comments on a potential adjustment to City Council compensation. The Council has adopted legislative intent language to evaluate the city’s ordinances regarding the salaries of elected officials.

City Council compensation is currently set at 25% of the Mayor’s salary, per city ordinance. In the FY2025 budget, the Council approved a 26% salary increase for the Mayor. The increase raised the Mayor’s salary to $211,765 and consequently raised the City Council's salary to $52,941.

“You just received a 26% raise, and some of you want more,” said Keiko Jones. “It seems ungrateful and greedy, considering the struggles of your constituents with raised taxes and utilities.”

According to Salt Lake City’s webpage on this consideration, some City Council members believe their current salary does not accurately represent the time they spend on Council duties.

Being a City Council member is currently considered a part-time position. However, a staff analysis estimated that Council members spend anywhere from 21 hours to 35 hours a week fulfilling Council duties. Council membership could be changed to a full-time position through a vote by Salt Lake residents.

Margaret Holloway said that she wasn’t made aware of this consideration until recently. “I guess maybe you didn't want anybody to know that it was just going to go ahead,” she said. “And to me, that's not right. That's not what we elected people to do.”

The Council briefly discussed this compensation adjustment during their work session on Tuesday. However, future discussions on this topic have not been scheduled. More information can be found at tinyurl.com/councilcompensation.

Sears Block Rezone
The Council also accepted public comment on an ordinance that would amend regulations for D1 zones to permit hospitals and ambulance services. This ordinance was heard alongside another proposal to change the zoning at 754 S. State Street from a D2 zone to a D1 zone.

Intermountain Health currently owns 10 parcels located around 754 S. State Street. They intend to build a hospital campus on this property, should these zoning amendments pass. The property was previously home to the Sears building, which was demolished in 2022.

Isaac Atencio argued that building a hospital on this parcel would diminish the efforts of the Midtown Business District to activate State Street and uplift the economy.

“We've been working fairly tirelessly over the last number of years to champion this district as an arts and entertainment district, really highlighting the unique businesses that we have in the area,” Atencio said. “Ultimately, a hospital really does not fall well in line with that vision of what we see for this area.”

Darren Piccoli, owner of The State Room, expressed a similar sentiment. “It’s very important to us to have a community benefit agreement,” he said. “A development agreement in place to make sure that what we've talked about with IHC over the past several years is actually implemented with true ground [level] street activation, with cross-block walkways, with public space areas for passersby.”

Other commenters emphasized the need to keep an open line of communication between Intermountain Health and businesses in the district if development plans continue.

The Council is tentatively scheduled to act on this item during their meeting on Sept. 3.