Focus sharpens on Sugar House planning
- Politics » City Council expands scope, adds $50,000 to transit-corridor study.
By Derek P. Jensen
The Salt Lake Tribune
Hamstrung by developers who are held hostage by the financial markets, the City Council is reaching for any tools it can find to plan a walkable future for Sugar House.
Earlier this month, the council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, got creative by shifting an extra $50,000 toward the area's transit-corridor study, which will influence what pops up around an eventual east-west streetcar near 2250 South.
The move is part of a goal to ease the sting from the stalled Granite Block development, and to ensure smart growth across a two-acre city-owned parcel on Wilmington Avenue near the ShopKo shopping center. Eventually, a streetcar could extend east through that chunk of land to 1300 East or beyond.
"There's a lot of interest in seeing a coordinated effort," explained City Councilman Soren Simonsen. "That's what's lacking right now."
The action fell short of what Simonsen and some residents favored -- the funding of a complete small-area plan -- which neighbors argue is necessary to keep the east-bench hub vibrant.
"What good is it to create a pedestrian-friendly business district without enhanced crosswalks and real pedestrian strategy?," asked Amy Barry, who lives nearby on Ramona Street. "As it is now, we are basically encouraging people to drive."
An outdated plan, conceived in 1986, is still on the books. The city also relies on a near-decade-old master plan for the area.
Simonsen would love to see the city break up the surface-parking dominated ShopKo block and plan connections to a streetcar.
But Councilwoman Jill Remington Love argued that extra money for a small-area plan would not achieve that goal. She noted the city's redevelopment area, with roughly a $4 million budget, is set to expire in just four years.
A majority of the RDA board opted with Love, voting 5-2 in a straw poll not to fund a new small-area plan.
In the end, the RDA agreed to extend the boundary of the transit plan (and add $50,000) a quarter mile past the streetcar terminus just west of 1100 East.
Resident Scott Kisling wonders if that's adequate. He expects a wave of commercial development in Sugar House as soon as the economy recovers.
"We need to be ready," Kisling cautioned, "for that dam to break."
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