Trolley overhaul faces hurdles

Developers hoping to overhaul Trolley Square face an uphill battle as they attempt to persuade Salt Lake City's planning commissioners to buy into their plan.

The Planning Commission held a hearing Wednesday on the planned revamp of the historic shopping center at 700 East and 500 South. And from trees to traffic, there were lots of questions.

Among the biggest sticking points is the plan for a 52,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store on the block's northeast corner. Commissioners and residents worry the 35-foot-tall building will close the relatively open block, hiding street views of the historic buildings on the interior.

"Why do the buildings have to be so big?" nearby resident Luke Garrott, who is running for City Council, asked rhetorically.

The answer, in the case of Whole Foods, is parking: The grocer will propose a two-level parking structure atop the building because groundwater prevents underground parking.

"Please, parking should not be the tail that wags this dog," Garrott said, saying the site plan is "foisting on us a suburban mentality of shopping setup. This is a plan where the auto is dominant, one that will take us decades in reverse."

Mark Blancarte, vice president of the project's development partner Blake Hunt Ventures, said the developers are doing what they can to build enough parking to accommodate the shopping center in as unobtrusive a way as possible.

"This is a very challenging site," Blancarte said. "It's not very big. There's a lot on it, and there's a lot that needs to be on it in terms of parking."

Blake Hunt and its partner, ScanlanKemperBard, which owns the mall, foresee a shopping center that maintains Trolley Square's historic mood. They hope to emphasize its unique mission-style architecture while modernizing and adding new retail options.

Three new buildings are planned for the mall's west end, along 600 East, to replace a bulky parking structure that is being demolished. That will include an addition to the building on the northwest that currently houses Restoration Hardware, a parking garage and a new southwest building.

The west side would also be the new home of the historic Sand House, which once held sand for de-icing rail tracks in the winter and is currently the location of Wells Fargo on the block's interior.

The Sand House would be dismantled and rebuilt on the block's southwest. In fact, the plan calls for moving four historic structures. That includes perhaps the mall's most distinctive landmark: the water tower. To make way for Whole Foods, the developers want to move the water tower 20 feet to the south.