Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[EPdesign]

If 2019, 2020 and now 2021 has taught me anything, it’s that we’re just a bunch of monkeys still trying to figure it out. With that said, I say Salt Lake City just declare war on west valley city and try to take it by force and as it is happening, Murray can sneak in and claim both. Might as well.

[EPdesign]

I apologize for my previous comment. I was watching Lord of the Rings and might have been slightly influenced.

[Always Sunny in SLC]

Originally Posted by EPdesign

I apologize for my previous comment. I was watching Lord of the Rings and might have been slightly influenced.

If only I had a nickel…

[Atlas]

Activity at the Astra site (December 1)

[allh]

More pics I also took that offer no difference to Atlas' photo:

[mattreedah]

Originally Posted by bob rulz

This is why I think the best thing that could happen to Salt Lake City would be getting the Olympics again. It's one of the few times that the interests of the state and the city would align. Salt Lake City saw a lot of real, substantial positive developments from the Olympics, and it could happen again.

I would bet on the Grand Boulevards plan happening if the Olympics come.

[allh]

Originally Posted by mattreedah

I would bet on the Grand Boulevards plan happening if the Olympics come.

I haven't even heard of this, wow. Not sure why it wasn't done years ago.

https://le.utah.gov/interim/2016/pdf/00002310.pdf

[mattreedah]

Originally Posted by allh

I haven't even heard of this, wow. Not sure why it wasn't done years ago.

https://le.utah.gov/interim/2016/pdf/00002310.pdf

There was a big push in 2016 and it seemed to have a great deal of bipartisan support — and then it died. I’m not plugged in enough to know why.

[rockies]

If trax does get extended farther west on 4th south wouldn't there be a weird junction on 4th and main? Maybe I'm misinformed but I've always thought those types of track intersections were bad and they seem to be at least uncommon. If anyone knows I'm curious

[i-215]

Originally Posted by Atlas

With just those three cities in tow, SLC would have a population of 420,000 people right now.

Be careful what you wish for. I'm dealing with the opposite problem. Los Angeles is so ungovernable because of its size, the entire San Fernando Valley gets screwed over.

LA spends all its transportation money on Wilshire expanding the subway. Meanwhile, the valley (which has a population larger than Utah) has ZERO miles of rail transit (excluding commuter rail). And nothing on the horizon.

True, 420k vs. 3,900k is apples and oranges. But bigger has its limits.

[delts145]

The transportation-related makeup of 'The Point' remains to be seen. I'll be glad when the transportation infrastructure is finally settled on and we can argue the pros and cons more accurately.

However, I would put very little if any value in the building design iterations of 'The Point' that we've seen so far. They're purely a fanciful exercise in killing time and I think actually giving us very low expectations from an architectural
design aesthetic viewpoint. This will not be a low-rent district but a prestige location. I predict the actual physical designs of the buildings will be varied. Many architectural firms/developers who will participate in this project will want to put
their legacy stamp on this center. It's far more likely that we'll get some very attractive commercial designs rather than the boring renderings we've seen so far. More along the line of the West Quarter upgrades.

Originally Posted by Atlas

UTA should prioritize extending the Blue Line to Lehi since the ROW already exists and it would actually be useful for commuters between the counties. The proposed BRT Line is useful to exactly no one right now and it's baffling that it's getting built before the Blue Line extension. Hopefully they can still share the ROW in the future.

I swear that every version of the POM plan gets incrementally worse, to the point where now the plan calls for 40,000 parking spaces (no joke). I like the open space and the mix of uses, but without a good connection to SLC's transit system I think it's a complete missed opportunity.


count the parking garages in that second image

Meanwhile, a somewhat comparable-but-much-better project in Denver, the River Mile, will have a similar number of new housing units (15,000) on a tenth of the acreage.

[Makid]

Originally Posted by rockies

If trax does get extended farther west on 4th south wouldn't there be a weird junction on 4th and main? Maybe I'm misinformed but I've always thought those types of track intersections were bad and they seem to be at least uncommon. If anyone knows I'm curious

These crossings are not overly common, they are reliable with good maintenance. Additionally, if things continue as they look, SLC may see more of these types of crossings in the future.

While we hope for a change, the current long range plans are:

Trax extended West along 4th South to 6th West and connecting to existing track at the Intermodal Hub.

Additionally, the Downtown streetcar will run along 2nd South from 2nd East to 4th West, then South to 300 South. The Granary streetcar will start extend the Downtown line to 900 South along 4th West. A short Trax extension will go from 700 S and 2nd West to 700 S and 4th West.

This will create an Inner and Outer Trax loop. It will also include a streetcar route that bisects the downtown area.

This is all in the 2050 transit plans.

Now, there is a decent chance that if SLC is awarded the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics, that SLC will get direct funding for the Innovation Center (Hub) / Research Park rail link.

One draft I have heard for the line would be the 4th South Trax extention and the Granary + Downtown streetcar lines extending east on 2nd South to 7th East before turning South to connect to the 4th South Trax line. An extension would be made from the Stadium turn off towards Sunnyside Ave before eventually going into Research Park. Stops would include both the VA Hospital and the Zoo. The extension east of the Stadium would operate like Trax with more limited stops.

This plan does envision 4th South sharing 3 routes from 7th East to the Stadium. Streetcar (Link), Red Line, and the Black Line. The Black line would run from the airport, to the Intermodal Hub, to Research Park.

Lastly, there is some discussion regarding Rio Grande. There is work being done to look into keeping the Hub as a Central Bus Depot / Greyhound station. It would be served by Trax as today. The Rio Grande would be a FrontRunner / Amtrak station served by the Streetcar along 4th West and a pedestrian connection to the Central Bus Depot along 300 South.

This would still allow for large redevelopment areas opened up by moving rail into the trench, it would also allow UTA to build out their Bus Center and provide additional redevelopment opportunity areas for UTA between 2nd South and 4th South.

If this plan is ultimately adopted, only the 4th South viaduct would be removed in the next 25 to 30 years.

This is still early in the process but felt people would like to hear any discussion/progress regarding the Rio Grande station.

[delts145]

PAC-12 CHAMPS

.

[mstar]

[QUOTE=delts145;9468287]

PAC-12 CHAMPS

.[/QUOTE

I was there! Most fun football game that I can remember. GO UTES.

[ThePusherMan]

Anyone who doubts that Salt Lake could support a NFL team can look no further than last night.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by delts145

The transportation-related makeup of 'The Point' remains to be seen. I'll be glad when the transportation infrastructure is finally settled on and we can argue the pros and cons more accurately.

However, I would put very little if any value in the building design iterations of 'The Point' that we've seen so far. They're purely a fanciful exercise in killing time and I think actually giving us very low expectations from an architectural
design aesthetic viewpoint. This will not be a low-rent district but a prestige location. I predict the actual physical designs of the buildings will be varied. Many architectural firms/developers who will participate in this project will want to put
their legacy stamp on this center. It's far more likely that we'll get some very attractive commercial designs rather than the boring renderings we've seen so far. More along the line of the West Quarter upgrades.

lol

[wrendog]

Bummer about the Utes.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by allh

I haven't even heard of this, wow. Not sure why it wasn't done years ago.

https://le.utah.gov/interim/2016/pdf/00002310.pdf

Oh man. This absolutely needs to happen. This gateway into the city is so embarrassing.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by wrendog

Bummer about the Utes.

Ya, absolutely terrible. Not! Go Utes!

[rockies]

Originally Posted by Makid

Lastly, there is some discussion regarding Rio Grande. There is work being done to look into keeping the Hub as a Central Bus Depot / Greyhound station. It would be served by Trax as today. The Rio Grande would be a FrontRunner / Amtrak station served by the Streetcar along 4th West and a pedestrian connection to the Central Bus Depot along 300 South.

This would still allow for large redevelopment areas opened up by moving rail into the trench, it would also allow UTA to build out their Bus Center and provide additional redevelopment opportunity areas for UTA between 2nd South and 4th South.

If this plan is ultimately adopted, only the 4th South viaduct would be removed in the next 25 to 30 years.

This is still early in the process but felt people would like to hear any discussion/progress regarding the Rio Grande station.

Oh wow thank you! I don't wanna be a hater but I feel like it would be much less practical to separate trax/frontrunner. Trax on 400 W would even be great for Rio Grande plan, why are they taking trax out to central when they could just go north on 400 W along pioneer park and save costs by leaving the viaduct. It just seems odd to keep using central at all if frontrunner is already at rio grande...