Neighborhood fights for identity

The home on Hubbard Avenue is visible from a dozen houses away.

Three garages dominate the facade of the flat-faced home. The beige stucco on the second floor contrasts with red brick on nearby homes, and the roof peaks above a set of windows with new casings and new double-paned glass — tell-tale signs of fresh construction in this neighborhood of windows that have gentle waves from imperfect construction decades ago.

"One of the nicknames for it — and I understand that there are quite a few — is the garage-mahal," said Marilyn Peterson, owner. Other neighborhood monikers for the building include the "firehouse," "Hubbard hotel," "Minute-Lube," and "everybody's favorite bad example." It's unfortunate the house doesn't blend with the neighborhood, Peterson said, but neighborhood pressure on the city led to changes in the building plans that shifted the house toward the street.

Given the pool already dug in the back yard, "the only place it could come is up and forward," to its present setting near the front sidewalk and side lot lines, Peterson said.

Peterson's house is two to three times the square footage of the average home in the area and it has been in various stages of construction for more than seven years. It towers over its neighbor to the east, a tiny cottage built of brick.

Peterson's home offended neighbor Lisette Gibson so gravely that she and a few sympathetic neighbors have crafted an ordinance that would regulate height, setback and garage placement in the Yalecrest neighborhood. "That house is so, so out of scale with the neighborhood and the houses on the street," she said. "It ruins the front line of the whole streetscape."

Gibson has the support of the community council and the endorsement of the Salt Lake City Planning Division. The ordinance's boundaries are from 800 South and Sunnyside Avenue to 1300 South between 1300 East and 1900 East. Gibson and a handful of stalwart neighborhood residents are waiting for the ordinance to come before the City Council, which it should do in the next month or so, said Dave Buhler, a council member who represents the area.

But to Peterson, the neighborhood's reaction was so hostile that she and her family are no longer planning on moving into the home. They will keep their house in Carrigan Canyon, a pricey enclave that sits above the east bench of the valley, where they get along with neighbors and have all the square footage they need without the hassle.