Salt Lake City, UT, and the City of South Salt Lake, UT (kind of confusing, but two separate cities) have a very unique opportunity to create a streetcar corridor that runs from the Trax stop in South Salt Lake up to Sugar House totaling 2.74 miles of track.
Existing Streetcar Corridor
Both Cities are trying to figure out the best way to capitalize off the streetcar line. What will the engineering be? Can developers front buildings to the tracks and have the auto loading in the back like it currently is?
There are a lot of questions to be answered, and it’s going to be an uphill battle, especially working with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA)— who is really good at what it does— projects on-time and under-budget, but seem to be rigid with safety requirement— big, tall chain link fences.
Don’t get me wrong, safety should be a top priority. But streetcars are slow people movers that extend the walking distance as opposed to getting people from point A to B as quickly as possible. The tracks are meant to be crossed easily, to promote access and street vibrancy.
If I owned all the land along the streetcar corridor, especially in South Salt Lake City where there are more warehouses and industrial spaces, I would turn this …
Existing streetcar corridor
To this …
South Salt Lake streetcar-activated corridor
How amazing would it be to have (in parts of the corridor where appropriate) a strictly pedestrian/ streetcar/ bicycle corridor with all buildings facing it?
If I had property to develop along the line, I would see tremendous value in this kind of neighborhood identity, density and the corridor amenities. It would be unlike any other place in America— urban, mixed-use neighborhoods sans automobiles (along the streetcar the corridor)!
Do you think this is possible and would you want to live somewhere like this — a human-centered, compact, walkable mixed-use neighborhood?
We do, and we’re trying to help make it happen.
More about this topic forthcoming.
