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Show Council might favor Depot rezoning if west side of Park Avenue is excluded by CHRISTOPHER SMART , Record staff writer The tug-of-war that pits good planning against fairness to individual individ-ual property pwnersin-thepropdsed ' Depot rezoning area is set for a showdown at city council, with some of the little guys holding enough cards to gain a commercial designation. designa-tion. A number of issues surround the new zone that would designate all land between Park Avenue and Deer Valley Drive between Heber Avenue and the Park Station hotel as a single commercial zone. The first of those controversial topic is whether four relatively small properties in that area should receive commercial designations. Currently they are zoned residential. A second issue is whether the residential area on the west side of Park Avenue should be included in the commercial zone as residents there have requested. A straw poll indicates the city council favors commercial use on the east side of Park Avenue but not on the west side. - t City Councilman Jim Doilney maintains the four small properties surrounding the Depot area should be zoned commercial. He characterizes charac-terizes the issue as one of fairness. "The big guys have already won and now it's a question of fairness to the small guy." The balance of that area gained commercial designation in the late 1970s. In the coming weeks, the council will address a recommendation by the Park City Planning Commission that favors commercial use on Park Avenue if the businesses don't front on the street and have limited access from the roadway. The commission earlier defeated a motion by a 4-3 margin that would allow commercial uses on the west side of Park Avenue. The Historic District Commission ;i has recommended that none of Park Avenue be zoned commercial. . . Councilman Bill Coleman said in a July 18 council work session that he does not favor high-density commercial commer-cial use on Park Avenue. He said he fears that Main Street could be extended down Park Avenue under such a zone. Coleman explained that presently the Depot area is zoned to accommodate about 50,000 square feet of commercial space. A commercial designation along Park Avenue could mean another 25,000 square feet of commercial space. The additional commercial designation will further dilute the Main Street business district, he said, which currently has about 75,000 square feet of commercial space standing empty. According to the city council discussion, Doilney as well as City Councilmen Bob Wells and Al .liirngart favor commercial use on Park Avenue. Wells said he favors ' more than a single-street access for those properties, as was suggested by the planning commission. While the three favor the planning commission's recommendation with some modifications, no clear consensus con-sensus has been reached on the specifics of the zone. According to City Manager Arlene Loble, specific language for a zoning ordinance has yet to be hammered out. Presently, the council does not favor including the west side of Park Avenue in the new zone. There remains a variety of options on how that residential area should be zoned. |