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Originally Posted by delts145
I agree big-time with you Urban Logic. For me, whenever people friendly neighborhoods are established in a new area such as Daybreak, we should cheer on their success. IMO, this is a very positive development. I'm all for people having the choice of living in this style suburb, as long as those who would rather live in more of a downtown setting also have excellent choices. I do think there are many positive trends emerging along the Wasatch.
Speaking of trends, I happened to pass by the soon-to-open Walmart at Cedar Hills, which is adj. to Highland and Alpine. I was shocked at what I saw. This is probably the most attractive Walmart I've seen yet, and hopefully it will set a much higher bar. I'm hoping that the Walmart replacing the ugly old K-mart at the top of the east bench will take its cues from this one in Cedar Hills. My only change for this new Walmart would be that it is attractive enough that additional floors should have been considered as residential. I really think that there would have been a market for it in that area. Particularly with young couples and seniors.
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Yes, I love how they have based styllish, contemporary designs on older, more classical designs. As you said, this provides an "option" people really didn't have before - it was either run-down suburb, nice but far-flung suburb with limited ammenities, or dense urban core. Now, people can choose a nice suburb (quite, low crime, newer houses) with the addition of plenty of open space/trails, a wide veriety of home styles and sizes, light rail, and local community/commercial centers all with easy walking access. I noticed on the master plan that they will be building a "town center" - which is significantly larger than the village (commercial) centers - just west of what has currently been built. It will be right off the new freeway (Mountainview Corridor) just west of the Daybreak South TRAX Station. Maybe this will be like a mini-core
I also like how green it is - the use of recycled materials, built to Energy Star Standards, etc. According to the website, it is the largest Energy Star community in the nation, which is a tramendous green accomplishment! I recently read an article about how Austin, TX was going to build another fossil fuel-burning plant to meet growing energy needs. But instead of going that route, the mayor used the money it would have cost to build the plant to instead provide incentives for people to buy Energy Star appliences to replace their old ones and businesses to only sell Energy Star. Pretty soon, any applience that wasn't Energy Star stopped being carried by local stores because there wasn't any demand for them. After a few years, the city cut enough energy consumption through these Energy Star appliences to elliminate the need for another power plant. The point is, I am glad to see that Daybreak is doing this from the very beginning. I praise Austin for its accomplishment, but I am so much more proud of Daybreak for doing this from the start. This way, it will soften its impact on the county electrical grid. Then, with TRAX, it can soften its impact on the traffic grid as well. I do praise Daybreak as being truley innovative, sustainable, and unique. I hope it can set a model that can be replicated up and down the Wasatch Front. We need more Daybreaks!
You're talking to an all-out anti-Walmart activist here, but I am glad to see that they are finally starting to alter designs to fit into local architecture. I think the main reason I hate Walmart (beside building over ancient historic sights in Mexico, ruining entire economies in Central America, denying hundreds of thousands of hours of breaks/lunches to employees, etc, etc) is how they will just invade a small town and overrun the local economy. When you look at Target, they build in urban and suburban areas (seriously, have you ever seen a Target in a rural area?) Then, when Walmart does invade such a town, they build a white and blue box that toally clashes with the town. I am glad to see that they are fixing this. I understand that the area you speak of is suburban, so that's good. I'm glad they're not killing another helpless small town. I just hate how Walmart competes with small businesses - Target competes with other big boxes. Walmart is like the nasty 6th grader who beats up the little, helpless kindergarteners. Target, on the other hand, picks fights with fellow 6th graders.
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