04/07/2021 - Minutes MINUTES
FROM THE MEETING OF THE
REDEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
4:00 p.m.
This meeting was an electronic meeting pursuant to Salt Lake City Emergency Proclamation No. 2
of 2020 (2)(b).
Chairperson Doughty read the following statement:
I, Brian Doughty, Redevelopment Advisory Committee Chair, hereby determine that conducting the
Redevelopment Advisory Committee meeting at the anchor location presents a substantial risk to the health
and safety of those who may be present at the anchor location. The World Health Organization,the President
of the United States,the Governor of Utah,the Salt Lake County Health Department,Salt Lake County Mayor,
and the Mayor of Salt Lake City have all recognized a global pandemic exists related to the new strain of the
coronavirus, SARS- CoV-2.
Due to the state of emergency caused by the global pandemic, I find that conducting a meeting at an anchor
location under the current state of public health emergency constitutes a substantial risk to the health and
safety of those who may be present at the location. Moreover,the City&County Building,which is the anchor
location for Redevelopment Advisory Committee meetings, is presently closed for regular occupation due to
damages sustained during the March 2020 earthquakes.
1. Roll Call
The following members were present:
Brian Doughty, Chairperson Mojdeh Sakaki, Vice-Chairperson
Claudia O'Grady Rosa Bandiernha
Mark Isaac
The following members were absent:
Jason Head
Also Present:
Tammy Hunsaker, RDA Deputy Director; Robyn Stine, RDA Office Facilitator; Lauren Parisi, RDA
Project Manager, Ashley Ogden, RDA Project Manager, RDA Corinne Piazza, Project Manager,
Cara Lindsley, RDA Project Manager, Jim Sirrine, RDA Property Manager, Amanda Greenland,
RDA Communications and Outreach Manager, Ben Kolendar, DED Director, Allison Parks, Senior
City Attorney, Luke Garrott, Building Salt Lake
Roll call was held to introduce new committee member, Rosa Bandiernha.
2. Briefing by the Staff
A. Japantown Design Strategy—Corinne Piazza, Project Manager— 6minutes to 18.:11
Ms. Piazza introduced herself to the new members and shared her screen.
Ms. Piazza said since 2018,the Agency has been working with the Japanese American community which
began when staff was tasked by the RDA Board to work with area stakeholders and the Japantown
Community on ways to mitigate the potential impacts of the West Quarter development on Japantown
Street at 100 South between 200 and 300 West. A result of the facilitation process was the
recommendation for a consultant to help the Japantown Community articulate their vision for the public
right-of-way improvements they'd like to see, and the Board allocated $100,000 in Agency CBD
placemaking funds for the Design Strategy. This Design Strategy is intended to be a tool for the
community to consolidate their ideas in one place and begin seeking funding for the improvements that
they want to see. Ms. Piazza said the Agency worked with the Japantown Community to select GSBS
Architects as the consultant for the Japantown Design Strategy and began work on the study in January
2020.
Ms. Piazza explained that the Design Strategy was created through extensive community engagements
and based on the community's vision. These are the four main points of the strategy:
1. Community Engagement
2. Due Diligence
3. Implementation/Maintenance Cost Estimates
4. Best Practices
Ms. Piazza said the community engagement entire process was crafted with the Japanese American
Community including representatives from the Japanese Church of Christ (JCC), the Salt Lake Buddhist
Temple (SLBT), and the Japanese Community Preservation Committee (JCPC). In addition, there was
a sub-committee of approximately 20 community members that reviewed drafts, processed ideas and
fine-tuned some of the ideas from the community. Ms. Piazza said that area stakeholders were engaged
as well as there are several stake holders with a variety of uses for the street, explaining how the Salt
Palace utilizes the street for loading and unloading for their events. She said the community created a
vision statement and design guideposts to be a guide through the process so as the community begins
seeking funds for the actual design stage, they have these guideposts for how they want the look and
feel to be for the area. Ms. Piazza said the vision statement is Okage sama de which means "I am who I
am because of you." She added that it was important to the community because it respects previous
generations and what they have done and what came before them as well as looking towards the future.
She said the community wanted the area to be a place of vibrancy, generations, gathering, senses and
of intrinsic beauty.
Ms. Piazza said GSBS based the initial three concepts on community feedback and asked the community
to pick from all three what they liked, what worked, and what does not to begin finalizing what the street
could look like. Ms. Piazza said a big consideration for the layout of the street are the two main festivals
that the community puts on every year. She said GSBS worked with the festival committees to
understand the requirements to ensure that whatever the new layout was, it could accommodate those
needs. She added that the three focus areas were functionality and the creation of a festival street and
a combination of everyday uses, safety and placemaking.
Ms. Piazza said based on the community feedback, the placemaking ideas were broken down into three
categories:
• History and storytelling
• Art Elements
• Functional placemaking
Ms. Piazza said that this was a preference exercise as the pieces have not been designed yet. She said
that bollards and decorative pavement were discussed and that and entryway that symbolized the entry
to a special place was important to the community, preferring a vertical sculpture rather than an archway.
Ms. Piazza said GSBS architects incorporated the place making elements into the final preferred street
design, and the next step was to create three phases of improvements as the community would be
applying for funding and a phased approach would allow for improvements to happen over time, and
each phase would build upon the other with each phase having the three including elements of
functionality, safety and placemaking.
Ms. Piazza said that GSBS worked with the Japantown Representatives to select three Japantowns to
learn from and they were San Francisco's Japantown, San Jose's Japantown and Sakura Square in
Denver. She said they specifically looked at how they were funded and managed and found there was a
variety of different ways they are managed. She said some have their own land development corporation
that oversees the area, some are nonprofit, some have state funding for the preservation of Japantowns.
But even though that varied across the Japantown structures, one thing that was absolutely across the
board and important for their success was they had a clear management group and decision-making
process to oversee the work that comes with funding and programming of an area. Ms. Piazza said based
on the best practice report, GSPS recommended that the next steps for the community would be to
establish a Japantown Management Group that would create a decision-making process, prioritize the
elements in the phasing from this study, seek and manage the funding, oversee the programming of
Japantown street, and work with area stakeholders and community partners to engage and interact with
Japantown street overall.
Mr. Doughty asked will the West Quarter Development have any street engagement on the Japantown
side of the building? Ms. Piazza said they are required to have a setback and some outdoor engagement
and seating for their retail. Additionally, the RDA required a mid-block walkway to connect to the parking
lost so when the SLBT and JCC are ready to develop their property, it can be created into a pathway to
connect the development with Japantown Street.
Mr. Doughty asked what plans do the Churches have to develop the parking lots? Ms. Piazza said it is
on the radar, but likely will not be for a while as the churches get used to the concept and the ideas of
what they want to build.
Ms. Sakaki asked what the anticipated timeline is for each phase. Ms. Piazza said there is not a timeline
associated with them yet. She said the next part will be the community organizing a management group
so that they can have the structure necessary to oversee that type of funding and implementation.
Ms. Sakaki asked if there were any remedies thought of for the expected congestion in the area. Ms.
Piazza said that as part of the due diligence, GSBS worked closely with our key departments,
Transportation, Fire, Streets, Utilities, and incorporated all their feedback.
Mr. Isaac said he was impressed with how thoroughly the design guideline was and is looking forward
to the project being executed.
B. RDA Equitable & Inclusive Development Work Plan —Ashley Ogden, Project Manager
Ms. Ogden said she was going to share about the initial efforts the Agency has taken to encourage
more equitable and inclusive development strategies. She said over the past year RDA staff has been
working to educate themselves about the history of racial and social inequities within the real estate
industry while also considering the Agency's role within that context. Ms. Ogden explained that a few
examples are included in the packet of how the industry has used tools like redlining to intentionally
suppress and segregate minority communities. She said that these same communities have historically
been disregarded and displaced when it was time to build big economic development projects like new
airports, freeways, convention centers or sports arenas. She added that when cities like Salt Lake City
are experiencing tremendous growth, it is the same groups of vulnerable people who are feeling the
pressures of gentrification and displacement now that their neighborhoods, which were previously
considered undesirable, are seen as attractive to developers or new homebuyers. She said it is the
Agency's job to make targeted investments in these parts of the City that often by design, have
experienced disinvestment and neglect. Adding that when it comes to the City's racial, social, or
economic equity efforts, the RDA is a powerful tool to have available.
Ms. Ogden said Staff has developed the RDA's Equitable and Inclusive Development Work Plan and in
its current form, it is meant to be an internal guidance document for Staff. She said it is to be used for
project prioritization and budgeting efforts outlining the Agency's equitable and inclusive development
goals, next steps to be taken to support those goals, and some initial ideas for new programming that
would directly support the plan. Ms. Ogden said this section of the purpose statement contained in the
work plan, gets to the heart of it:
As part of its mission to revitalize neighborhoods and business districts in a way that fosters
livability and neighborhood vibrancy, the Agency is in a unique position to ensure the inclusion
of equitable development strategies that encourage everyone to participate in and benefit from
new investments being made in their neighborhood.
Ms. Ogden explained the goals included in the work plan:
1. Utilize socioeconomic data to define needs and inform where/how Agency resources should be used and
prioritized, for both existing project areas and as part of the project area creation process.
2. Provide opportunities that make it more financially feasible for existing residents/business owners to remain
living/doing business in their neighborhoods(or return to the neighborhoods that they were already priced
out of).
3. Support the creation of opportunities for those who have historically rented in the community to build wealth
and establish permanent roots through home/commercial ownership.
4. Provide opportunities to establish new services, amenities, or underrepresented business types in the
neighborhood that the local community identifies as lacking and desires.
5. Preserve and protect neighborhood character and cultural assets—once a neighborhood's culture is
displaced,we will find ourselves expending effort to recreate that local character, but it will never be as
authentic.
6. Help strengthen local organizations and support leadership building by partnering in community-led
initiatives.
7. Strengthen the Agency's community outreach efforts in ways that provide a platform for community
members' life experiences and knowledge to inform and influence the Agency's work.
8. Enhance capacity of non-traditional applicants to apply for Agency programs and offerings by providing
more education and technical assistance than what may be typical.
Ms. Ogden then shared a list of action items for Staff to use to implement the plan and begin to infuse
equitable development strategies into their work. She said the first task identified would be to assemble
a database of indicators related to residential and commercial vulnerability and displacement risk, as
well as opportunity access. She said there are examples listed within the packet and are largely factors
that would pressure a household to leave their neighborhood. She said the concept of opportunity
access measures the proximity one has to things that are shown to improve one's quality of life and
potential for upward mobility.
Ms. Ogden said action item number two identified is to amend the RDA Guiding Framework and
Livability Benchmarks. She said this document outlines the RDA's project evaluation process, mission
and values and it lists focus areas for the livability benchmarks, which are used to evaluate funding
requests received and to gauge the level of public benefit the project includes. She added that the RDA
prioritizes funding for projects that provide significant community benefit and the more boxes a project
can check, the more willing the RDA would be to participate and help fund it. Ms. Ogden explained that
the RDA would slightly amend the Guiding Framework to communicate a clear value for racial and
social equity, and also in the Benchmarks to encourage developers to include some equitable and
inclusive development strategies in their projects.
Ms. Ogden said some ideas Staff discussed for new benchmarks would include:
• Giving a developer credit for setting aside commercial spaces with rents set below market rate
value for preferred tenant types, including minority or women-owned businesses, the relocation of
existing businesses already in the community, new businesses created by existing neighborhood
residents, nonprofit services, or underrepresented businesses that the community desires.
• The inclusion of affordable for-sale housing units.
• The inclusion of family friendly housing forms or unit types and sizes.
• Affirmative marketing of new affordable housing units to preferred tenant types, such as current or
former community residents, family members who are current or former community residents, or
those with strong community ties or utilize essential services in the neighborhood.
• Encouraging more robust community engagement efforts, such as the developer attending local
Community Council meetings, mailed notices to property owner owners or tenants within 300 feet
of a project site, and for Staff to work with the developer to ensure that all feedback received was
thoughtfully considered and incorporated into the project where possible.
Ms. Ogden said the third action item is to identify opportunities to amend existing programs and
policies or design new programs to address the Agency's goals. For example, the RDA property
disposition process is when the Agency has the most control over what is developed and how it is
programmed. She said the Agency wanted to take the opportunity to include items like explicit tenant
preferences or affordability levels for both residential and commercial spaces. She said Staff also
discussed an affordable storefront activation program, where the Agency could gain control of ground
floor commercial spaces through ownership or master lease and lease the spaces with certain levels of
affordability and tenant preferences. Ms. Ogden said another goal of that program would be to activate
ground floor spaces which sometimes are underutilized and serve as residential amenity spaces rather
than true commercial spaces.
Ms. Ogden said a funding program for community led initiatives where nonprofit or community-based
organizations could apply for funds for non-housing projects, was also discussed. Adding the intent
would be to strengthen local community groups, support leadership building and strengthen the
relationship that the RDA has with the communities they work in. Ms. Ogden said the Agency is
considering an ADU incentive or loan program, which would apply mainly to the 9-Line and State Street
Project Areas. She said the final action items are to identify areas where the Agency could provide
more technical assistance to non-traditional applicants; use best practices issued by the Salt Lake City
Civic Engagement team to develop intentionally inclusive and culturally specific community
engagement to empower the residents to make their voices heard; to communicate a clear value for
racial and social equity in RDA communication materials; and identify opportunities for marketing or
outreach tools to reach a broader range of project types and a broader applicant pool.
Ms. Ogden explained the next steps for implementing this work plan. First, the City is planning to
commission a Citywide Equity Inclusion and Belonging Plan as well as a Citywide Gentrification
Mitigation Plan. She said when the two plans are finalized, the RDA will incorporate some of those
recommendations into this work plan.
Ms. Ogden said one of the primary ways to implement this plan is through the budgeting process, and
by directing dollars towards these types of initiatives, which would be an ongoing process that RAC
would be involved with as well as the RDA Board.
Mr. Isaac said this is fantastic and suggests other City departments get on board with the RDA
guidelines it would give it added strength.
Mr. Doughty ask if this is a program that has been implemented in other cities. Ms. Ogden said many
other cities are taking similar steps and one that Staff referenced is Portland's Redevelopment Agency
which underwent a total rebrand and now call themselves Prosper Portland with every action and
investment they make being considered through this type of lens. She said Salt Lake City is not the
first, but many government entities are starting to implement these types of initiatives and priorities.
3. Approval of the minutes of the December 2, 2020 and March 3, 2021 meeting(s)
Ms. O'Grady made a motion to approve the minutes from the December 2, 2020 meeting. Ms. Sakaki
seconded the motion. Upon roll call, the motion passed unanimously.
Ms. Sakaki made a motion to approve the minutes from the March 3, 2021 meeting. Ms. O'Grady
seconded the motion. Upon roll call, the motion passed unanimously.
4. Business
None
5. Adjournment.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.
Brian
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Brian Doughty, Chairperson
This document along with the digital recording constitute the official minutes of the Redevelopment
Advisory Committee held April 7, 2021.
2021 -04-07 RAC Minutes final
Final Audit Report 2021-06-02
Created: 2021-06-02
By: Robyn Stine(robyn.stine@slcgov.com)
Status: Signed
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