Vision begins to take shape in Salt Lake

Large-scale new urban community is planned for brownfield site. Sunrise, the first major new urban project planned in the wake of Envision Utah, is slated to break ground in 2003. The project is on 4,300 acres of former mining land within a new growth area in South Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. This is the largest undeveloped land parcel in single ownership in the Salt Lake Valley. Envision Utah, a planning project for the Salt Lake City region, revealed a preference among many residents for higher density, mixed-use growth. Envision Utah was led by Calthorpe Associates and sponsored by the Coalition for Utah’s Future, an organization made up of civic, business, and political leaders. Calthorpe was then hired by developer Kennecott to prepare a master plan for 10,000 housing units and 9 million square feet of commercial development. The plan calls for development around two major mixed-use town centers, and preserves 1,200 acres of land for open space. The first phase includes a town center and several adjacent neighborhoods. Sunrise will help to meet the demand for new housing generated by an anticipated regional population growth from 1.6 million to 2.2 million by 2020. “Utah is one of the fastest growing states, and it traditionally has favored large-lot development,” says South Jordan City Manager Ricky Horst. Together that leads to rapid sprawl, which he believes can be mitigated by more compact development. South Jordan’s population, currently at 33,500, is projected to double over the next 12 to 20 years. Tapping new markets One of the goals is to meet the demands of shifting demographics, says Kathryn Clark, Sunrise project manager at Calthorpe Associates. “We discovered is that there is a huge untapped market of empty-nesters and first-time homeowners. We’re hoping to address that market.” In addition, the community of South Jordan needs an economic jump-start. Many residents travel to other cities to work and purchase goods. Sunrise allows residents to work, play and live in the same community, keeping the flow of business within the municipality. extended clean-up process Kennecott is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining company, which purchased the Sunrise land in 1989 and entered into an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean it up. Twelve years and nearly $300 million later, the site is ready for development. “I think it sets a good example that you can either walk away from a brownfield site or you can invest money and clean it up,” Horst said. “Kennecott has proved they can not only clean it up, but also capitalize on it and provide the stability that our community needs.” Because population growth is expected to continue, Kennecott president Peter McMahon says more development projects could be on the horizon. Kennecott owns 40,000 developable acres in the western valley.