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A group of Sandy residents is seeking to overturn a decision allowing a boys and girls club in the city's historic district, saying the facility will generate traffic and parking problems in the area.
The opponents have submitted a written appeal asking the City Council to deny a conditional use permit to the Sandy Club, a Safe Place for Boys and Girls, that would allow the nonprofit to operate out of a building it plans to construct at 8768 S. 280 East. After a Feb. 20 hearing, the Sandy Planning Commission voted 5-1 to grant the permit and to approve a site plan.
The project approved calls for a 12,918-square-foot building rising in one part to 30 feet, with 36 parking stalls.
Neighbors who opposed the move said the proposed building was too big and would be out of place in the area.
The appeal argues that development regulations prohibit negative impacts from the community center beyond what could be expected from a normal permitted use. But, the appeal adds, the center would attract three times the cars and more than five times the people in the neighborhood than six single-family homes on the site.
Residents Katie Bradshaw and Brooke Christensen filed the appeal and also submitted a petition signed by some 50 residents.
Proponents say the site is a good location for the club — which is operated by Sandy City Councilwoman Linda Martinez Saville, who is the executive director — because most of the participants can walk there and the property has been used for a community or public service for more than a century. Tim Zuver, a neighborhood resident and vice chairman of the Sandy Historic Preservation Committee, pointed out there already are home businesses operating in the area and that the LDS Church runs a recreation center in the neighborhood for its members.
Sandy City staffers had recommended approval of the conditional use permit, saying "reasonably anticipated negative impacts will be adequately mitigated through site planning and site improvements."
Twitter: PamelaMansonSLC —
The Sandy Club, a Safe Place for Boys and Girls
The nonprofit holds after-school programs for up to 120 elementary, middle and high school kids a day in the basement of the city Parks and Recreation Department, 440 E. 8680 South, about 1,000 feet from a site where it plans to build a new facility.