Adjacent to the LDS stake center that is just south of us is an empty field. It is hidden behind the houses that line the east side of 600 E and the north side of 1000 N. Back in February, the city planner, who was about to retire and go on a mission, submitted a 460 page document containing changes to the city "code" or master plan. On advice from a forward-thinking, property manager, he changed the zoning of that field and all the houses around it from the lowest density (single family) to the highest density (university student housing). The city council who approved the document didn't even notice the change because it was only indicated on one tiny map on one page of the document. The neighbors who would normally have been sent letters about the zoning change before it happened were given a tiny classified ad in the local paper that said there was a "code change" being discussed at a meeting. Needless to say, the 30 days to appeal the zoning change expired and several months later signs were posted on the lot showing a new 6 story high rise with room for 800 students and retail space.
At this point the neighborhood got together and tried to see what they could do about it. The most concerned became leaders of a group that hired a lawyer, organized neighborhood meetings, and talked to every city leader possible to figure out what had happened and what could be done about it now. In the end it was decided that ultimately we couldn't stop them from building, but we could try to mitigate the impact on our neighborhood. Our biggest concerns were not enough parking, 1.5 spots per 6 students (limiting parking is a city ordinance for high density, not the developers idea), traffic congestion, and having one of the tallest buildings in Cache Valley bordering houses and a residential neighborhood. Goodbye mountains, and goodbye to the Sister Fisk's pear and apricot trees. Her backyard is 5 feet from a 20 feet tall parking garage. The developer decided to reduce it to 5 stories and only house 500 students. That helps a little bit.
So here's how I got involved. At one of the neighborhood meetings I suggested that a visual would go a long way to prove our point with the planning and zoning committee. Everyone agreed and there were no other volunteers, so I got the job. One of my neighbors had a great camera (12mm fish-eye lens). We walked around and he took pictures of the angles I wanted of the lot. He also had the PDF document submitted by the developer which I superimposed on my pictures of the neighborhood. It took until 3am to complete but I was happy with the result. The wife of the man that took our wedding pictures printed the pictures on 3x4 ft signs and we displayed them at the planning meeting.
At the meeting about 20 of the 150 neighbors in attendance had been assigned various topics to address in their 3 minute allotment. I ended up speaking about the poster. That is Sister Fisk's home in front of the high rise. It is 10 ft tall and green part of the building is 20 ft tall. After I spoke, she got up grabbed the poster and said to the committee, "This is my house!" Sister Fisk told me later that one of the members of the council started crying. Sister Fisk is 85 years old and this housing project has been very hard on her. Oh, did I mention that all of the architectural drawings provided by the developer show a road going through her living room? The developer is assuming that the city will buy her home to straighten out the intersection near there. The next day the above picture was on the top of the front page of the Herald Journal with a photo credit to me.
My opinion is this, if the project were scaled back to 3 stories or less, and all of the homes were bought fairly before the project started, without upsetting the immediate neighbors and old people, it could make our neighborhood look nice.
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