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Show Saddle Condos Get Preliminary Approval space and mentioned that the commission had taken a tour of the site. "I think those of you who walked it feel the open space is very usable," he said. Johnson reviewed the history of the development, originally proposed pro-posed as 17 single family homes, but denied because the commission commis-sion did not want development near the ridgeline. "That part that would be most convenient for development is being left as open space because of the actions of last month," he said. Apparently referring to Preece's objections, Johnson said, "There gets to be personal feelings on a project like this, but we're trying to live by the ordinance." Preece denied that he was trying to fight the project, maintaining that he sent the letters "only to make sure he knew the questions I had. It wasn't harassment as much as pointing out." Although they approved the project, the commission indicated support for Preece's action. The project faces final approval later this month. Amid some controversy over it's lack of strict compliance with Park City's Land Management Code, the planning commission 4 last week gave preliminary approval to the 30 unit Saddle View Condominium project behind be-hind the Summit Medical Clinic along highway 224. The commission approved the project by a 4-1 vote, with commissioner Merrill Sanchez dissenting even though City Planner David Preece had pointed out that the project did not comply with the city's requirement require-ment for setbacks from public and private streets. Preece had also questioned whether the project met the city's open space requirement, since not all the space left open in the project might be considered "usable." Planning engineer Jack Johnson, John-son, who developed the plans for Salt Lake developer Neil Davidson, David-son, argued successfully that the project met the intent if not the letter of the ordinances, and indirectly blasted Preece by asking the commission to "decide under the ordinances instead of personal feelings." The project includes a two-car garage for each unit, tennis courts, a swimming pool and cabana area, and a barbecue area with six to eight barbecue pits. Local Realtor Rob Morris told the commission at an earlier meeting that he hoped to market the units, which would be priced in the neighborhood of $100,000 each. In his presentation last .week, Johnson read two letter he had received from Preece, which outlined conflicts planner had discovered with the Land Management Man-agement Code. In the first letter, Preece quoted the 30 foot setback requirement and also pointed out the "clusters" in a development must be separated by 50 feet. Most of the units in the project have setbacks from the private road of between 10 and 15 feet. In the second letter, Preece recommended that Johnson present pre-sent an extensive landscaping plan to the commission that would "justify the open space as usable." Johnson answered that the 30 foot setback requirement was not intended to apply to private roads and was only included in the ordinances because of an oversight. over-sight. He pointed out that the recently approved Racquet Club Village condos also failed to meet the requiremetn, but were approved ap-proved with no problem. "The purpose of the PUD concept is to encourage open space and allow design flexibility," flexibil-ity," he said. "I can see why the setback is required in a subdivision, subdivi-sion, for a public street, but I can't see it for a private street. If we met the setback requirement, the whole cluster concept would be a big blob." Johnson said he had changed the design of the project to comply with the 50 foot separation separa-tion between clusters, breaking the units up into four groups. He also maintained that nearly 80 percent of the project was open l r If v , is-5- y. 5- ...... Jack Johnson |