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Show City council OKs D.V. unit increase by Rick Brough Developer Harry Reed only wanted to add two more units to his Sterlingwood development in Deer Valley. But opponents said that from those two units a large problem could grow. The debate was resolved at last Thursday's City Council meeting. It voted 2-1 to allow Reed to apply the unit equivalency formula of city code in counting density in the second phase of Sterlingwood. This allowed Reed to expand from the 14 units allocated to him to 16 units. Councilmen Bill Coleman and Tom Shellenberger voted for the proposal, with Jim Doilney dissenting. The proposal was rejected by the Park City Planning Commission at its March 13 meeting. The problem arose, said city planner Dave Boesch, because of the difference in treating the two phases, of Sterlingwood (located in Silver Lake, at 7800 Royal Street East). Reed built 18 large units in the first phase, not using the formula, according to staff. Now he had 14 smaller units left in his plan. But he wanted to apply the equivalency formula to expand that number to 16. The commission had a problem, said Boesch, because o the precedent it might set. For instance, some Deer Valley subdivisions have begun construction, the city has approved their densities (not using the formula) and are planning based on those numbers. However, the later phases in those projects have not actually received their final site plan approval. If those phases now used the equivalency formula, and ballooned in their number of units, the city might be faced with an unanticipated higher demand for water and sewer service. Acting on that concern, said Boesch, the Planning Commission voted 3-2 to deny Reed's proposal. Two other important issues, he said, were that Reed also requested a parking variance and a height variance on his revised phase. The unit equivalency formula works this way: A developer is allocated a certain number of units by the city. But with that, he can achieve different densities depending on the kind and size of unit he builds. For instance, suppose a development is allocated 20 units. Under the formula, an apartment of more than 2,500 square feet is counted as 1.5 units. Thus a developer would build 13 apartments and use up his unit allocation. However, a hotel room, not more than 500 square feet in size, would ''ount as one-fourth of a unit. A, developer could thus build 80 hotel rooms to use up his allocation of units. The formula thus tends to encourage maximizing a plan with small units and discourages the maximizing of larger units. The Record discussed this point with Councilman Jim Doilney, who said that under the Sterlingwood precedent, a developer could "get the formula both ways against the middle." He would maximize large units in one phase not using the formula, then maximize smaller units in a second phase, by using the equivalency technique. However, Councilman Tom Shellenberger, who supported Reed, said Sterlingwood would not lead to a bad precedent. He said City Attorney Tom Clyde was instructed oy council to write an amendment to the City Land Code to prevent future occurences. He also said it is u"'lkely developers now will plan added units, considering the current state of the real estate market. |