Salt Lake:Official development news thread - Part 2

[Orlando]

Site demolition, port o'call almost demolished



sorry everyone. I am having problems with my flickr account. I will repost all of these when I get it taken care of.

[Orlando]

renovation of the old Hansen Planetarium building for the new OC Tanner store.

[Orlando]

Some random pics in downtown.




I saw these along 300 south in front of all the vacant lots. It's the Museum of Permanent Change? by Steven Goldsmith. I really don't know exactly what it is. Anyways, I wish a confident developer would come in and buy all these empty lots and put some great restaurant, and entertainment stuff in there. I think it would be hugely successful! Maybe place some businesses or apartments/condos above? 2 to 5 stories or so. You know, some vibrant infill!!! Restaurant row/entertainment district 300 west, Market Street, and Pierpont Avenue between Main and 200 west.





Amazing timing with the sun light on the Grand America and the contrast of the dark storm clouds above.

[delts145]

Becker, others promote new public-safety building

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705324066/Becker-others-promote-new-public-safety-building.html


Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker speaks to reporters following a press conference Monday. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)

...Now, the city believes it can get the most for its money by putting up two buildings on the block between 400 South and 500 South between 300 East and 400 East....

...The two new structures would include offices and a separate emergency operations center. Salt Lake City is talking with the state, county and federal government for additional funding...

.

[John Martin]

I went down to watch the odd-fellows move today. I was only there for ten minutes but it actually looked like they were doing stuff.
(my photos)





"MOVE ME NOW!"^

There must've been at least 20 spectators at around 1:30.

I was mainly curious to see how exactly they were going to move it. Well duh, with trucks loaded with concrete barriers.

Well actually I'm not really positive, it looked like they were still hooking everything up when I got there, or maybe they were just testing stuff out. One of the people watching said they thought it had moved a few feet. Unfortunately I had to go, but I passed by 3 hours later and it looked like it hadn't moved, and no one was there.

[John Martin]

Also got some semi-decent shots of the Shubrick, which was half gone when I came back.






Does anyone have any idea why they were bothering to cut that off?

[urbanboy]

I was wondering the same thing. Not sure, although the crown would look good on the new Green Pig Pub.

[urbanboy]

Salt Lake City seeking federal funds for streetcar

A Sugar House streetcar line could get rolling soon with some federal help.

Salt Lake City leaders hope to land a chunk of the $1.5 billion Transit Initiatives to Generate Economic Recovery fund to help pay for the project and get the streetcar line up and running earlier than officials originally anticipated.

In vying for a $35 million slice of the TIGER grant, Salt Lake City leaders know they'll be up against stiff competition from other cities and projects.

"Just in terms of odds, our chances are very low," said Redevelopment Agency director D.J. Baxter. "(But) I think there are some characteristics of the project itself that make it more competitive. One is the sheer price. It probably will be one of the least expensive, if not the least expensive, rail-transit projects requesting funds."

The Obama administration plans to fund at least one streetcar project with the grant, Baxter said. TIGER grants will also pay to fund road and port projects.

Baxter said the Sugar House project would be in "competition with five or six" streetcar projects around the country.

"There are only a handful of streetcar projects around the country that are at this stage of development," Baxter said. "They're far enough along that they've done some initial work and … could meet the construction deadline."

The $35 million grant required up to a $2.5 million match from both Salt Lake City and South Salt Lake. Salt Lake City pledged that amount Tuesday night.

"I know that the money we will commit to this project will be returned many, many times, in many ways," said Councilman JT Martin. "I think it's a very good, sound business decision. Of all the things we've done in Sugar House, this is going to be the No. 1 item that will move it forward and make Sugar House something that we're all proud of."

If the city were successful in securing TIGER money, construction would start next summer to beat a 2012 deadline, Baxter said.

If not, the project could be pushed back 18 months or more, when another round of federal funding is expected to open up.

The $46 million streetcar project is planned to run from the TRAX station at 2100 South to McClelland Street in Sugar House. Officials say the light-rail line will help reduce car traffic while bringing new life to the area.

Grants are expected to be awarded in January.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705324355/Federal-funds-for-SLC-streetcar.html

[urbanboy]

Salt Lake County hopes to sprout more community gardens

...Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, Montague reaches into a bag and shows off a red-speckled beauty from his Salt Lake City soil.
"Let me give you a tomato," he tells a reporter. "You can't buy tomatoes this good."
He is a believer in urban farming -- and in Bradley's proposal. Any plan that increases local crop production and enables more people to grow their own food, he says, would serve the community well.
"It is a really smart move in terms of strengthening the Valley," Montague says. "I'm totally for it."
So is County Mayor Peter Corroon, who described the proposal Monday as a "great way to bring sustainable development into the county and a great way to remember our agricultural roots."
Bradley's vision isn't to buy up farmland. Instead, he wants to put the public's vacant land to better use.
In Salt Lake City, for instance, officials have set aside 200 west-side acres for a future wastewater-treatment plant. But the city won't need the plant for at least 15 years. So the parcel could grow weeds -- or it could grow safflower, an oil-seed crop that could produce up to 10,000 gallons of biofuel each year.
Ben McAdams, senior adviser to Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, said the city is eager to participate in Bradley's program.
"We thought it was a no-brainer," he says.
While proponents of the Bradley plan haven't identified how much acreage could be used for agriculture, Dallas Hanks, a research scientist for the Utah State University Extension, says the farming potential on the county's open lands are "absolutely" worthwhile -- even on smaller strips of unused land.
Consider an 8-acre West Jordan swath outside Mountain View Golf Course, for example. That land, Hanks says, could produce a profitable raspberry patch or serve as a tree farm for the county's parks division.
The county also is considering farming possibilities on larger tracts such as the 64-acre Wheadon Farms property in Draper. Government wouldn't do the farming. It simply would lease the land to a farmer or help create a co-op.
On a smaller scale, Bradley's plan would urge the county and its cities to create more community garden space, potentially converting some neighborhood parks to that purpose.
"It's a beginning," the councilman says. "But I think there is a tremendous amount of potential."
Bradley will ask the County Council today to move forward with his urban-farming proposal by creating a technical advisory committee and assigning the county's open-space coordinator as the program's full-time manager. He says the program would tap the county's existing resources and require no additional expenditure.
If all goes as planned, Bradley hopes to have the county's properties ready to plant by next spring.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13146461

[urbanboy]

Chicago Tribune

...Council members in Missoula, Mont., on Monday night agreed to ban "aggressive" panhandling that includes overtly threatening tactics. In Salt Lake City, administrators are mulling an ordinance that would bar panhandling within 20 feet of sidewalk cafes, street vendors, bus stops and some other places, as well as on buses and trains and in public transit hubs.

Violence involving panhandling surfaced last month in Madison, Wis., where police say a beggar accepted $1 from a 50-year-old good Samaritan, then grabbed the rest of the donor's remaining $13 and punched him in the face...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-begginginbellevil,0,2161805.story

[urbanboy]

Struck Announces Merger with Axiom

It was a busy day in Mormon country as Salt Lake City shops Struck and Axiom announced their merger, thus forming a cleverly titled entity called Struck/Axiom that will serve as a hybrid creative/design agency.

According to the release, the newly formed firm will consist of 65 staffers that will meld Struck's design, interactive and advertising practice with Axiom's branding, motion graphics, licensing and identity development. Offices will be based in SLC, Los Angeles and Portland, OR to serve clients including DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, Adidas and the New York Jets.

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/agencies/struck_announces_merger_with_axiom_124668.asp

[urbanboy]

Salt Lake Council discusses allocation of captiol improvement project funds

This Tuesday, August 18, at 2 p.m. in Room 326, at the City and County Building, the City Council will discuss how to allocate approximately $4.8 million in remaining capitol improvement funds for the fiscal year 2010 budget. Capitol improvement funds pay for a range of City projects, including maintenance and major repairs to City buildings, debt service for major projects, parks projects, road maintenance and repair, traffic signals, lighting, road rebuilding and redesign, bike lanes, trails, and sidewalks.
City departments and citizens have submitted applications, and the applications have been ranked by the Community Development and Capital Improvement Project Board (comprised of citizens), as well as the Mayor. In FY 2010 there were approximately $31 million in requests for 73 projects. This is significantly more than the city has budgeted. The total amount budgeted for Capitol Improvement projects for FY 2010 is approximately $21 million in general fund dollars, and $2.9 million in "Class C" Road funds, funds which are allocated from the State. The Mayor has recommended funding for only 20 of the requested 73 projects.

The Salt Lake City Council will also receive an update from Mayor Ralph Becker's administration on the progress of building a light-rail line between Downtown SLC and the SLC International Airport.. The council is expected to give a broad overview on how it is working toward making North Temple Street into a boulevard that will enhance neighborhoods on the west side of Salt Lake and be the first and last impression of many visitors to the City.

http://www.examiner.com/x-18791-Salt-Lak...ion-of-captiol-improvement-project-funds

[urbanboy]

Utah set to run out of restaurant liquor licenses

SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah will likely run out of liquor licenses for restaurants on Thursday when the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issues its few remaining permits, leaving some applicants without the ability to serve liquor in a state increasingly dependent on tourism.

Utah uses a quota system based on the state's population to determine how many liquor licenses to issue. On Thursday, nine applicants will vie for seven remaining restaurant permits. Meanwhile, 10 applicants will apply for the 18 remaining bar permits.

Once the state runs out of liquor licenses, new ones are only granted if a business forfeits one or the population grows.

DABC Chairman Sam Granato has repeatedly said Utah's quota system for restaurants should be eliminated so business growth isn't stunted, but that is ultimately up to the Legislature and the governor to decide.

In Utah, where about 60 percent of residents and more than 80 percent of lawmakers are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, any changes to the state's notoriously strict liquor laws are politically sensitive, even as the state battles mounting job losses and a growing budget shortfall.

If Gov. Gary Herbert, a Mormon, had hoped to avoid the always-touchy subject of Utah's quirky alcohol laws before he's up for election in 2010, he's out of luck.

"Hopefully we'll be progressive enough as a state to understand if a restaurant needs to have alcohol as part of their concept for whatever it is they're selling, they're not going to grow, they're not going to add restaurants, they're not even going to look at our state ... if we're not able to accommodate their needs. So it does become an economic development issue," said Melva Sine, director of the Utah Restaurant Association. "A fine dining restaurant anywhere in the world includes a broad array of wines or spirits."

Sine said an existing state requirement that 70 percent of restaurant sales come from food is the only quota restaurants need.

The issue of whether to increase liquor license quotas or repeal them altogether is one of several still simmering in the state following the most sweeping changes to Utah's booze laws in 40 years that took effect earlier this year.

In an effort to make the state appear a little less odd to outsiders and boost the state's $7 billion-a-year tourism industry, former Gov. Jon Huntsman pushed through legislation that eliminated the need for customers to fill out an application and pay a fee for the right to enter a bar.

In exchange for eliminating what were technically private clubs, bars now must scan the ID of anyone who appears younger than 35 before entering. Information obtained through the scan is kept by bars for a week so law enforcement can track where someone might have consumed alcohol in the event of a crime.

Bars, customers and privacy rights advocates have complained that keeping the information smacks of Big Brother.

Utah also eliminated this year the need for partitions, often made of glass, to separate bartenders from customers in existing restaurants. Previously, bartenders were forced to walk around the counter to serve drinks.

However, in what Huntsman described as a step backward for the state, lawmakers insisted on forcing bartenders in newly constructed restaurants to mix cocktails in back rooms out of public view.

Conservative lawmakers contended that if children could see liquor being poured into a glass they might be tempted to drink it. Liquor bottles, advertisements and the serving and consumption of alcoholic beverages remain on public display in new restaurants.

Huntsman had pledged to eliminate the need to hide bartenders at the request of the Utah Restaurant Association, which says the requirement is inconsistent and confusing to business owners and customers.

But since Huntsman resigned earlier this month to become U.S. ambassador to China that effort could be in jeopardy.

Herbert, widely considered more conservative than Huntsman, is noncommittal on alcohol policy.

"This is not an issue he's been on the forefront of," said Angie Welling, Herbert's spokeswoman. "He would support taking a look at the entire system."

Herbert has said he wants to improve the state's sluggish economy by removing barriers Utah businesses face, but he has not yet identified what those barriers are.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/08/18/ap6791135.html

[Justnslcsugarhood.]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/70532...ral-funds-for-Sugar-House-streetcar.html

Sugar house street car may get federal funding.

[John Martin]

Originally Posted by urbanboy

Salt Lake City seeking federal funds for streetcar



http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705324355/Federal-funds-for-SLC-streetcar.html

Originally Posted by Justnslcsugarhood.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/70532...ral-funds-for-Sugar-House-streetcar.html

Sugar house street car may get federal funding.

?

[cololi]

Oddfellows is on the move. About an hour ago it was straddling the street. looks good so far.

[urbanboy]

U Car Share offers Utahns a new way to get around town

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7584771

[goldcntry]

Originally Posted by cololi

Oddfellows is on the move. About an hour ago it was straddling the street. looks good so far.

Pictures!!! Pictures!!! ... Or it didn't happen!!!

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by John Martin

Also got some semi-decent shots of the Shubrick, which was half gone when I came back.






Does anyone have any idea why they were bothering to cut that off?

What a shame!

[Orlando]

Once construction is under way on the new 'Borg' courthouse, should we create a separate thread for it?