Hansen Flag Lot

Angie Lethbridge
I am completely opposed to everything regarding this project. I have previously written and spoken in a public comment period of a prior city council meeting about this - but I have not ever commented for a planning commission as I did not notice this until after the concept plan had been approved by both planning commission & council back in June. I will be out of town- or I would happily come and speak publicly.
. Only a handful got the notice (9 homes) and of those, few were available and/or understood what was going on and what to do about it. On the other hand – the applicant and the tennis coaches made sure to let all their students and families know to come and support! They don't care where this goes. They just want it. I understand their enthusiasm for something like this. I don’t question the need or the desirability. I question the location and all the ramifications that come with allowing it. I don't believe they even quite understood the land use issue here and put themselves in the position of having it in their backyards. It shouldn't have had to have residents come and oppose it.
I listened to both council meetings approving this concept. I talked with Jacob Curtis on planning staff. For comparison, I looked up information about Ivory Ridge Tennis club and drove over there. I spoke with some neighbors I know over by this proposed project. I did my homework.
I appreciate all the talk about if this project fails & I agree – but I feel that an important component of all of this was not addressed. What if the opposite is the case? The applicant himself gave you data about how great the need is. How “packed” the other facilities are in the county already. Oftentimes recreational commercial uses can be intensive uses and high impact uses. Residential uses should be protected from these commercial uses and that is why we have zoning and general plans. To protect and designate proper use. I am looking at this concept plan and looking at the parking. Have you ever tried to come and go at game times from popular soccer fields, baseball parks, indoor soccer facilities – or other recreational sites? They can be nightmares. And never have I been to a busy one that is in a location like this! This has one access in and one access out. What happens if lines of cars arrive to not find any parking? How do they turn around in there? How is the coming in, against the going out? or vice versa? Everything looks pretty tight to me. What if there is an emergency back there at a busy transition time – or any time? Can we get emergency personnel in? Can people get out if there is a threat inside? If the parking is in any way, shape or form – not enough? Where will patrons go? Park at the school? At the church? On the road? This road is in most respects – still a country road. More than half is still not curb, guttered and side walked – or widened out to its full width! Do we then justifying an expansion of this commercial into Boyd Wilkin’s property to the east – if he decides to sell? To use the NCN on the corner in the application, is not fair. There is no commercial on these corners. I also believe this NCN was removed on the most recent general plan. This is a problem if everyone uses NCN’s to justify commercial uses in or just outside of the node. The school is there – but to be fair, we all know that school’s can go where they want. This is a mega-block of schools, by the way and during the school year – the parking and drop off/pick up is terrible at Ascent Academy. Think about adding a commercial use now, that is used year round and will likely be “packed” according to your applicant. Now we have a possible large amount of cars coming and going all weekend, all summer and all year.

I also have concerns about visibility. This is back behind homes. Will there be a gate to the drive back, that is shut after hours? The only people who might see that someone is back there after hours, are the two – maybe 3 homes to the north. And that is only if there are not visible barriers, such as landscaping and fences.

I educated myself about Ivory Ridge and drove over there, also. On their website and looking inside – it has 5 indoor courts and 6 outdoor. They have roughly 125 parking spots. There is a community pool there – but it was closed when I came by. At 10 am, on a weekday in the summer, the parking lot looked to be about ½ full and that was with no pool patrons. This is a local use – private member’s facility, that only allows non-members to fill unfilled spots. Ivory Ridge fronts roads on 3 sides with visibility and more than one access to its parking. It is on a corner. It is across from commercial on one side and a busy high school on the other. Residents can also walk to this facility and do not have to drive. It is open from 6:00 am – 10:00 pm M – F and 6:00 am – 7:00 pm – Sat & Sun. They do classes, camps and tournaments. Tournaments are occurring most of the weekends in the summer that I could see on their schedules. Thinking about this facility – and cars, how many transitions of game starts/stops will there be and how many family members will come to watch play in tournaments? Can we guarantee that this will not be a problem in this location? The school traffic problem is just during the school year and only for daytime hours – ending around 3:30, I believe. This project will add a significant number of cars, including on the weekends, in the early morning hours and at nights!

Uses like these need to go where the general plan and zoning says they should go. Why does this applicant get special consideration over other commercial, or recreation uses? Did you allow the basketball & volleyball buildings mentioned in council (that have failed), to go in similar residential areas? I don’t agree with a recreational use zone to be used in residential areas. It is simply another label for the same problem we have here. In this case – the answer could have just simply been, that use is not allowed here. That is what the general plan is for. Just because we want it and we need it – does not mean we let it go anywhere. If this venture is going to be so wildly successful and packed with people – then they can afford to purchase property in the proper areas. Maybe they need to get more investors. Or maybe Lehi is too expensive for this applicant. It is not the city’s job to make this profitable and successful for the applicant, at the expense of maintaining the integrity of the city’s planning process and protecting our current residents and their properties, in the current zoning/land use.
This use could even be successful and still fail to make a profit. I'm sure they will do everything they can once you let them in there - to make it profitable.
The development agreement that was written to make this project work in here and that would turn it back into a residential use if it fails, I just don't understand. To think anyone would rip all that out and build on that small lot back there just seems crazy. where is the protection for residents it talks about in the first paragraph on your page about Development code? https://www.lehi-ut.gov/government/municipal-code/development-code/
What you did with this decision is 1. Tell developers - any piece of property is fair game in Lehi, come and get it. 2. Property owners - hey if the guy across the street can sell his back of his property to commercial - even in VLDR-A, you should be able to also! & 3. REsidents - you can't trust anything on the general plan map or zoning map. It can be rewritten so easily with developer agreements or general plan amendments and especially if no one is opposed.
This is so disappointing. It makes me so angry.