SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — City officials in South Salt Lake are working to help fill vacant ground-floor retail and address an area that was classified as a food desert.
Their solution, beer.
FOX 13 News spoke with Jonathan Weidenhamer, the Community and Economic Development Director for South Salt Lake on Thursday.
He says the area near 3900 S and West Temple was labeled as a food desert in a study that was conducted by Columbus Community Center and Parallel Strategies.
Weidenhamer says a storefront on the ground level of Harmony3900, an apartment complex at that intersection, has been vacant for quite some time.
"We do have requirements in a lot of places that require commercial storefronts and in this case, this one has gone empty for a number of years or months," said Weidenhamer.
He says they have been working with developers to try and loosen up the rules. One solution discussed, allowing for off-premise beer sales.
"We think that limiting it to beer sales will be enough to get in, you know, a restaurant or, you know, a small retailer, bodega or even a little convenience store," said Weidenhamer.
Currently, off-premise beer sales in South Salt Lake have been restricted to convenience stores that were attached to fuel pumps or stores that were larger than 60,000 square feet.
A change in the ordinance, Weidenhamer says, would not allow for the sale of vapes or tobacco products at these locations.
"What making this change does is it opens up a different deeper variety of users to the developer and it provides amenities to the residents in the neighborhood," said Weidenhamer.
Residents, like Jacob Malone, are on-board with the idea.
"It's a good option to help with the redevelopment and like just taking all these empty stores and like storefronts and actually giving them a purpose," said Malone.
The South Salt Lake Planning Commission discussed the ordinance amendment at their meeting Thursday night.
"Anything that brings extra walkability is huge, any time that somebody can maybe not get in their car I really appreciate, also anything that helps welcome small businesses," said Mary Anna Southey, South Salt Lake Planning Commissioner, District 3. "If this makes it a little bit easier, let's bring it."
The recommendation was unanimously approved.
It will now head to the South Salt Lake City Council. It is anticipated they will take up the issue at their next meeting on September 25th.
