September 11, 2001, seems like a lifetime ago. That date, burned into many of our brains, was when almost 3,000 people died and the twin towers fell in New York City.

At the time of the terrorist attack, the World Trade Center's twin towers were the tallest buildings in NYC—1,369 feet tall and 1,362 feet tall, respectively. They were later replaced by One World Trade Center at 1,776 feet tall, which is the tallest building in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere.

Why mention this? Salt Lake City is undergoing a massive push by some to allow even taller buildings in the capital city, mostly touted as a necessary improvement to our zoning rules by the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG), who are attempting to redesign and build in an integral part of downtown.

Currently, the residential/business project known as Astra Tower on the corner of State Street and 200 South is hovering over pedestrians at 450 feet and 40-stories tall.

But the Salt Lake City Council unanimously approved a zoning change last week that increases the maximum building height in the SEG's sports and entertainment district—in and around the Delta Center—from a current 125 feet to 600 feet. There was one caveat, though; "Any structure that is 200 feet or taller will need to go through a design review by the Planning and Zoning Commission."

It's my opinion that our Planning Commission is made up of pretty tough volunteer planners who have proven in the past to have foresight as to how our city should grow, and I'm glad they will be involved in the design review.

As a planner myself for eight years with the city, we worked for more than a year, month after month, with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to get the City Creek project off the ground, including not just the teardown of Crossroads Mall but the build of the retail mall on two sides of Main Street and the condo/apartment buildings surrounding it. There were a ton of variances required and rules changed to get certain aspects of the project to fruition.

You may have strong opinions about high rises filling up Salt Lake's downtown. Depending on whether you're pro-development or anti-growth, you probably had strong feelings about the Hines Group tearing down the historic Utah Theater at 150 S. Main Street to build an apartment tower.

Now the developer is putting a pause on the project and wants to fill in the gap on the street with a temporary parking lot until they actually launch their project and bring in the construction crews.

Hines got a sweet deal from the city's Redevelopment Agency—"buying" the property from Salt Lake City for zero bucks in exchange for building new housing with plans for public amenities in and around the building—but have postponed plans now for two years with what they allege are the high costs of construction.