Lehi City News
Lehi residents share frustration about lack of parking in Lehi neighborhood
Nichole Coombs | Lehi Free Press
One Lehi neighborhood is feeling the stress of adding new businesses without adding additional parking.
The Foxhunt neighborhood, located at the southeast corner of 3200 North 1200 West in Lehi, welcomed a new strip mall to the area. Businesses include a bagel shop, Italian ice, pizza and a special needs school.
“We are glad the businesses are here,” said Kyrk Wright, who lives in the neighborhood. “It’s nice to walk over in the evening and enjoy a treat.”
Wright and his neighbors say it’s not the businesses that are the issue but parking, or lack thereof.
“I’ve lived here for 16 years,” said Wright. “Most of the houses in the area have young kids or teenagers. One of the businesses in the mall is a special-needs preschool, and it has a large number of employees. Those employees don’t have anywhere to park, so they fill our streets. Between 30-40 cars per day.”
Wright says about 20 houses have cars parked in front of them all day. The problem has become so bad that neighbors signed a petition asking Lehi City to enforce residential parking in their neighborhood.
“A few cars once in a while or for a few hours aren’t a big deal,” said Wright. “But when you can’t get out of your own driveway, or there’s nowhere for the AC repair guy to park or even your own children, it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.”
Wright and his neighbors spoke at a Lehi City Council meeting in June, asking the city to start patrolling the area or enforce the parking codes already in place.
Fabian House is a preschool that teaches children ages 2.5 to 3.5. In addition to the preschool program, the business offers programs for neurotypical children and children on the spectrum from kindergarten through 5th grade, including applied behavior analysis therapy for children with autism.
Cori Fabian, the owner of Fabian House, has met with several residents to try and stay ahead of the issue. In a written statement, Fabian says the business is within city code.
“By code, our building’s square footage requires a minimum of 16 parking spaces. Because our specific lot was too small to accommodate this, our landlord, George Bori, who owns the adjacent commercial lots to our north and east, proposed a shared solution with the city.”
Fabian says the agreement would allow her employees to park on his adjacent property, formerly the New Hope Academy. However, Fabian says those agreements weren’t honored, and the property is now being managed by Bori’s partner Jeff Southard. As the strip mall developed, they lost access to the adjacent lot and have been forced to use just the 16 spots designated for Fabian House.
“The State of Utah’s minimum commercial childcare ratios require one caregiver to every eight to 15 children,” Fabian said. “At Fabian House, we adhere to best practices of one caregiver for every three to four children. Because we employ a significantly larger number [of staff], we naturally require more parking spaces than a standard childcare or preschool facility.”
While Wright and his neighbors understand the code allows Fabian House to operate with only 16 parking spaces, he says it’s a matter of safety.
“When you have cars parked on both sides of the road, you can’t see to safely pull out of your driveway, and we have lots of little kids who are running around. It’s just a safety concern.”
After the city council meeting in June, neighbors said Mayor Binns and the city fire chief visited the area.
“A firetruck could get in here,” said Wright. “But a truck couldn’t turn around. There’s an assisted living center nearby with a locked gate that the fire department does have a key to open, so there is that option. I’m worried that if there was an immense amount of urgency, they wouldn’t have the room to do what they need to do.”
Fabian says she has actively worked to mitigate this issue for neighbors.
“We paid to lease the lot to our south for several months,” said Fabian. “We lost that lease when it sold.”
Fabian says she sees a solution by expanding their parking into the adjacent developer-owned ‘green space’ currently zoned residential.
“This is a viable option requiring cooperation from landlords, residents and the city,” said Fabian. However, this option would require rezoning the lot.
“Most of the employees parking in the neighborhood are 20-year-olds who just want to do their day job and love those kids,” said Wright. “This isn’t their fault. It’s a combination of things. If we want someone to blame, it’s the city and the owner who have allowed this to happen. I don’t want to see these kids getting parking tickets for doing what their boss told them to do. [The owner] needs to find a place for them to park even if it’s at the park, and they are shuttled in.”
Fabian House holds a lease to continue operating from the strip mall location for the next 10.5 years. Residents are hoping the city and Fabian can find a solution soon.
