Northgate residents fight car lot proposal Print E-mail
Rette Speight - FOR THE DAILY HERALD
The developing Northgate Village is having a hard time drawing in retail and restaurants, but current residents refuse to settle for a car lot.
"The fact is, something else was committed to us when we bought a condo. We bought according to that plan, and we certainly did not expect a car lot," said Tuscan Villas resident Ty Rasmussen to the Orem City Council on Tuesday night. Rasmussen is one of several upset Tuscan Villas residents, a condo development on the southeast corner of the village.
Northgate developers presented a rearranged plan to the council to build a car dealership on the corner of 1200 West and 800 North. The current code allows motor dealerships only to be "built facing and along" 1200 West. Developers Paul Washburn and Bill Fairbanks went to the council to find out if their plans would still meet the requirement if the greater side of the dealership was along 800 North.
The City Council decided that due to legal concerns a decision about which street the dealership faces and borders could not be made at that meeting. The council will address the issue again in its March 18 meeting.
When the Northgate Village was planned, the developers lured condominium residents in with the promise of a "village-like community," said City Councilwoman Margaret Black. By moving there, developers aimed for residents to be able to live, work and shop -- all within walking distance.
Residents weren't just upset at the location of the proposed car dealership, but also the idea of it.
"Many of us there are professionals, and we looked at other places and specifically bought in Northgate according to the community it promised," said resident Kari Wood. "A car dealership is both visual and auditory pollution."
Resident Al Spencer urged the council to stick with what was promised to the residents, which wasn't a car dealership.
"What am I going to do, walk down to the Hyundai dealership and buy a car? Even rich people don't buy cars every week," said Rasmussen.
When the first plans of Northgate came to the council, it was divided into three parts, with specific retail and residential requirements. The plans originally called for a 70 percent retail ground level, which developers hoped to change according to their growing needs.
The village currently will hold the new Utah Career College, a hotel, a bank, shopping centers, a gas station and professional offices and restaurants. The problem, developer Washburn said, is that he has had to turn away potential investors because they are not retail.
"It's awfully hard to market a building to someone when you have to say 'we'd like you to move in, but you can't until someone else who sells retail moves in,' " Washburn said.
The purpose of the required retail ratio was to increase city revenue in order to keep taxes down and provide the city with additional funding. This has made Orem the "envy of every city in the valley by thinking like this," Fairbanks said.
The car dealership would produce an accumulative sales tax comparable to a mall anchor store, Fairbanks said. He sees no problem with constructing the dealership.
By including the lot's car display area as part of the retail requirement, Fairbanks and Washburn said that it would be much easier to attract other businesses that do not provide direct sales-taxable items and services. Since only the ground floor of the hotel and exact square footage of gas station's building count towards the required percent, Washburn said he would like to get credit for what they have done already.
The two argued that the dealership's effect on residents would be minimal, since all condominiums would be at least two football field-lengths away from the dealership's main building, with even more distance from the cars.
"It's a tough balancing act," Washburn said. "When you sit on a project this large, you lose a big dollar every month."
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