Commission approves High Point Office Building II site plan and parking deviation, removes staff time restriction

The Draper City Planning Commission on March 12 approved the site plan and a parking deviation for the proposed High Point Office Building II and voted to remove a staff-recommended condition that would have restricted hours of operation for an on-site reception center.

Staff presented the project as a roughly 25,806-square-foot office building to be added to an existing campus; staff reviewed a parking study submitted by the applicant’s engineer and found a small shortfall in spaces under conservative peak-demand assumptions unless the reception center operates primarily in the evening. Staff proposed a condition limiting the reception center’s daytime use to align the parking study with expected peak usage.

Applicant representative Greg Goffin said the engineer’s field observations indicate the overall campus regularly has available parking and that the code-derived deficit is small (about a five-space gap under the applicant’s corrected assumptions). Goffin also told the commission the reception-center tenant has an existing lease that does not restrict daytime hours and that imposing a new city condition inconsistent with that contract would create a legal problem for the property owner.

Commissioners debated two options: keep the time-of-day condition (making the parking study justify the deviation) or accept a process under which future tenants must demonstrate compliance with site-wide parking as they come in. The commission ultimately removed the staff’s condition number 4 and approved the parking deviation and the site plan by majority votes. The parking deviation passed with a 4–1 vote (Lisa, Laura, Mary and Christine yes; Susan no). The site plan approval carried the same tally.

Because the commission removed the time-of-day restriction, staff retains authority during future tenant review to require tenant-specific parking data and to deny tenant improvements or business licenses that would cause noncompliance with the approved parking plan.

Next steps: applicant will return to staff for building-permit review and must meet any remaining site-plan conditions, including ADA access and landscaping requirements noted by staff.