Bangs McCoy

Demolition of 1812 West Temple

September 12th, 2007

This spring, a very old (and large) residence at 1812 West Temple (very near our home) was abandoned, and the property was sold for redevelopment. Kinda sad, since the old house is/was very cool. However, it is decrepit, and is sitting on a big piece of land. It was only a matter of time before someone offered enough money to purchase it. The family that previously owned it went through and removed all the useful bits (like banisters and moldings), and it has been sitting there empty ever since. There were rumors that apartments or condos would be built in its place.

We received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago, stating that the new property owner had filed for a demolition permit, and we were invited to attend the meeting to voice our opinion on the demolition of the building. I could tell from the letter that the meeting would not be a place to voice our opinion about what would be built there, just whether or not the existing structure could be torn down. The meeting was today at 1:00 pm in the City County Building downtown. I’ve never been to such a meeting, so I was interested. I was even more interested in learning more about the plans for the property.

The meeting was being held to decide on demolition permits for several properties (I did not know this until I arrived). I was a few minutes late, but another property was being discussed first, so that was not a problem. The first property discussed was a small home in the Federal Heights area of Salt Lake. It was interesting to watch, but the situation there was much different than 1812. We were next up. The property is owned by the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, and they have plans drawn up to build 102 (!) apartments and a clubhouse on the site. 60 low-income, 42 market-value (but actually only 80% of market value). Not what we wanted to hear. There is an adjacent property they have also purchased that changes the total plot into an “L” shape. The city ended up denying the demolition permit because of our complaints, but that only delays the demolition by 90 days, and of course has no effect on the plans for the site. That will be in an upcoming zoning meeting, since the land will need to be re-zoned for high occupancy in order to build apartments there. Joe (with the Housing Authority) seems like a nice guy, and told us that he would be at the next People’s Freeway Community Council meeting to further discuss the project.

So, the news so far is not good, in our opinion. But there will be more to come, so for now we’ll just wait and see.

Entry Filed under: I care about my community, I do stuff