Council Deep-Sixes Villa ExpansionMarch 26th, 2009
A victory for a group of citizen activists who appealed to council members to hear their voice
By Tom Callan
"You can now clap," quipped Councilman J.T. Martin after the vote. The audience erupted into cheers, hugs and handshakes. "We should have a block party in the Villa parking lot," one resident joked after the Salt Lake City Council unanimously rejected a push by St. Joseph Villa to gobble up part of the Liberty Park community for a new Alzheimer's and assisted-living building.
The council refused to amend the city's master plan, the first necessary step to allow the Villa to demolish 7 houses to build a 3-story building on 5th East. "I believe future expansions will put things out of balance," said Councilwoman Jill Remington Love, taking the lead in urging her 6 colleagues to reject the blueprint submitted by the Catholic home. She said the significance of the master plan would have been diluted had the Villa been allowed to expand and admonished the Villa to preserve the homes they had planned to tear down.
"They will have to work inside their own campus if they want to expand," a smiling Miriam Hall-Hansen said. She led the community fight against the Villa. She complained that they, the Villa board of Directors, had submitted 4 different plans in recent months. She emphasized that she felt none of the proposals "were conducive to our neighborhood." Before the vote, one resident, who lives near the Villa, said, "It's 7 homes today, but how many more in the future?"
Galen Ewer, the Villa's administrator, says the home's board of directors will now review all options. He suggested any future expansion will either be confined to the home's existing property or possibly outside of Salt Lake City. Ewer indicated that expansion will now be more expensive; he suggested that one option would be to build two buildings instead of one. The "1959 building" would be torn down after construction of the first in the garden area. Despite the Villa's defeat, Ewer expressed no bitterness with the city council.
The top brass at the Villa had argued that the existing "1959 building", home to its Alzheimer's patients, failed to meet the state code and that corridors were too narrow to maneuver wheelchairs from bedrooms into the existing bathrooms. They also said the building's current sprinkler system no longer met city codes and has to be updated by 2013.
The Villa had hoped city council would delay its vote until summer, at the earliest, so they could cobble together yet another plan. But time was not an ally of the Villa. Nearly 200 area residents showed up at the council's March 10 meeting to denounce the home's proposal to demolish the 7 homes for the 3-story building. Nearly 60 attended the March 24 meeting, many sporting 'just say no expansion' paper stickers affixed on their shirts, blouses and jackets.
Councilman Soren Simonsen echoed Love's concern that the master plan should not be tweaked to do a favor for the Villa, "I encourage the Villa to work within the master plan." He said the Catholic home should be a "good neighbor." Simonsen said destroying the existing homes on 5th East "could not be justified."
Councilman Van Turner said the existing "1959 building" for Alzheimer's patients does need to be updated and improved. "There is no question about that," said Turner. "I like all of those beautiful homes and I realize we need to keep them," he told the packed committee room. He said he was also concerned that there would not be sufficient parking if the Villa had expanded into the community. He recommended a shuttle or valet service is needed to alleviate parking problems.
After at least two years of debate and delay, it took all 7 members of city council less than 20 minutes to reach their decision. Outside council chambers, a celebrating, boisterous throng of residents from Liberty Park lined up for pictures under a 2nd floor chandelier, a kind of late night block party inside city hall.
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