A Heber City man says now’s the time to create enjoyable issues to do on Main Street, and he has a plan for one historic constructing. That would require an exception from present parking guidelines or change to how they work in Heber, and metropolis planning fee members mentioned on Tuesday they have been .

Smith just lately informed the town council he’s shopping for the previous Ideal Theatre and desires to show it into an leisure middle with an arcade and efficiency corridor. On Tuesday, he informed the planning fee the objective is to create a enterprise that may deliver extra life and enjoyable to the realm.

“I personally have a very vested interest in downtown with a couple developments I’m working on currently,” Smith mentioned. “I think downtown has so, so, so, so much potential. I would love to work with the city to create something where we have foot traffic coming downtown — we have people that come into Heber and they are in downtown and then they go out and ski, or they mountain bike, or they ATV — but the parking is the issue. I mean, I want to make this as awesome as possible and have our youth out of their houses and doing active things.”

On February 7, Heber City Council members said they were interested in the idea. Some resembling Mike Johnston mentioned it was a ok concept that it outdated the parking considerations. He argued Heberites already make do with a scarcity of parking areas for occasions such because the Thursday Market on Main in the summertime.

Because the thought contains including a second flooring and extra sq. footage, metropolis code requires the enterprise to offer new parking — about 75 areas, in keeping with metropolis planners at Tuesday’s assembly.

City planner Jamie Baron described two choices to permit Smith to hold out his concept. He mentioned each align with the town council’s current directives to discover a means across the parking requirement.

First, the town might approve a growth settlement and permit Smith an exception to the rule. When planning commissioner Oscar Covarrubias requested if that may set a nasty precedent, Baron mentioned the town can nonetheless deal with future functions on a case-by-case foundation.

“We’re not required to give anybody else a development agreement just because we gave somebody else one,” Baron mentioned. “We look at it — what are the merits? Then we find that it’s something that benefits the city and is something that we think is good, or do we find that its merits are not good, right? And so, we judge it by its merits.”

Another choice is to alter the town zoning legal guidelines. Planning commissioners mentioned sooner or later, they could have a look at making parking necessities rely on how a lot visitors a enterprise is anticipated to generate, not the sq. footage of its constructing.

The planning fee didn’t take motion on the assembly, however Smith and metropolis workers mentioned they’d work collectively on a proposal to deliver again for the formal approval course of. That hasn’t been scheduled for a future assembly but.

If the planning fee makes suggestions about Smith’s proposal or parking guidelines general sooner or later, the town council must vote to verify them.

This is a growing story. KPCW will proceed to offer updates as they change into obtainable.