Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City appeals officer upheld the Salt Lake City Planning Commission's decision in April to deny a conditional use permit needed to build a gas station at a vacant lot by the entrance of Sugar House Park.
City appeals hearing officer Mary Woodhead wrote in a document posted on the city's website Wednesday that the planning commission was justified in its vote against Midwest convenience store and gas station chain Kum & Go's permit request because of a report that found the project could be "detrimental and could not be mitigated."
"(It) was within the scope of the planning commission to consider that a gas station off a freeway exit would bring additional traffic to an already difficult intersection and that given the purpose of the use, mitigation in the form of fewer cars is not possible," Woodhead wrote. "As a result, the planning commission conclusion that increased traffic at the site could not be mitigated is not illegal, arbitrary or capricious and is supported by evidence in the record."
The argument for and against the permit
A representative of Kum & Go first applied for a conditional use permit for the abandoned Sizzler restaurants located at 2111 S. 1300 East in February 2022. The 0.83-acre lot, leased to the company, is located between the 2100 South and 1300 East intersection and Sugar House Park's northwest boundary.
After some snags and revisions over the course of a year, the company settled on a plan for a 3,957-square-foot convenience store and gas station at the property.
However, the Salt Lake City Planning Division released a report in April that raised several concerns about the proposal.
Environmental impacts were the biggest factor. Diana Martinez, a principal planner for the city, wrote that both the park and the private property are located within a special area of the protected Groundwater Source Protection Overlay District, an area set up to help recharge groundwater as a secondary drinking water source. Underground storage tanks are among the "restricted uses" within this overlay district.
In this case, Martinez wrote that the proposed gas storage tanks could be a "potential contamination source" because they would be located within 350 feet of the park's pond, a retention basin for Parleys Creek that continues west into the city from the pond. Her report added that surface water runoff could also end up "contaminating the soils and water sources of the park," because the park is downhill of the property.
The report noted that 54 of the 768 underground storage tanks inspected in the state last year had some sort of fuel leak, indicating that a possible leak wouldn't be terribly uncommon.
"Research shows that one gallon can render 1 million gallons of water undrinkable. The average fuel leak is 524 gallons," she said, as she presented the report during a planning commission meeting on April 12.
Martinez also outlined potential traffic issues, as the project is located at the center of a busy neighborhood section. The projections indicated that a gas station would result in more than 350 additional trips per day than the site's previous use as a sit-down restaurant.
"Just because the roadway can physically handle the increase in traffic, does not mean the community can," she wrote, referencing the Sugar House master plan that calls for a "low-intensity" project on the property.
The proposal also garnered pushback from many residents. More than 500 public comments were collected over the past year, "the majority of which opposed the gas station" because of its proximity to the park and potential traffic impacts in the area, Woodhead acknowledged in her report Wednesday.
Chris Hogle, an attorney representing Kum & Go, countered during the April 12 meeting that there are already several underground storage tanks within the recharge zone outlined by the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. He also questioned the use of the park's groundwater because of its history as a superfund site.
He added that the project satisfied about a dozen standards outlined by the city, arguing the state leakage report didn't indicate the age or condition of the tanks that leaked in the past year.
Hogle asked the commission to delay its permit decision so the company could have time to review the report and respond to its concerns about groundwater, fuel vapor, runoff and traffic, asserting that they only were made aware of some of the report's findings two weeks ahead of the meeting.
But referencing sections of the city and state code, he said the project followed everything by the books.
"The city has already determined that there can be a gas station at this very location," he said, pointing to the zoning of the property. "Now they're saying ,'You can have the convenience retail part of this, but you can't have the petroleum sale part of this.' ... They can't ask you to deny this application because we can't guarantee a perfect site."
A vote, appeal and ruling
The planning commission considered tabling the vote during its April 12 meeting before it ultimately voted 9-1 to deny issuing the permit, citing all the issues outlined in the city's staff report.
Representatives of Kum & Go appealed the decision soon after, calling the commission's decision "illegal and arbitrary and capricious" because it argued the commission held the company to a "higher standard than allowed" and violated laws along the way. They also brought up issues they found with the staff report, writing, "Speculation and public clamor are not substantial evidence."
"The planning commission denied the appellant's conditional permit due to vague and unsubstantiated claims of supposed impacts," they wrote in the appeal. "The commission's grounds for such impacts are speculative and conclusory; they are a far cry from 'substantial evidence.'"
The appeal led to a June 15 meeting with the Salt Lake City appeals hearing officer, where both sides of the argument were heard. In her decision Wednesday, Woodhead sided with the planning commission's decision.
She wrote that the commission was presented with sufficient evidence about the project's potential impacts and voted on that evidence instead of "public clamor," which is "not a legally acceptable basis to deny a conditional use permit."
"The planning commission decision was not illegal in that it has a duty to assess the project pursuant to the city's ordinances and state law regarding the parameters of conditional use review," she wrote.
It's unclear what's next for the vacant plot of land after Wednesday's decision.
KSL.com reached out to representatives of the Kum & Go project for comment Thursday morning, but did not receive a response by press time. The chain, which opened its first Utah store last year, was acquired by Salt Lake City-based FJ Management, the operator of Maverik gas stations, in April, days before the appeal was filed.
