City officials have big plans for Sandy in the coming years

The city council and mayor’s vision for Sandy City’s central business district over the next 30 years is close to becoming a reality. The Civic Center Master Plan has been in the works for several years and was recently unveiled to Sandy residents and the Salt Lake Valley.

The plan is to use the master plan to build up the central business district from 9000 South to 10600 South stretching from the I-15 corridor to 700 East.

Sandy City’s economic development director Nick Deurksen has been working to come up with a plan that encompasses high rise residential housing, new retail developments, hotels, entertainment and night life and new restaurants.

“We have the opportunity to create an urban resort, which is rare in this country,” he said. “Our canyons can’t support a ski town like Aspen, so Sandy is the next logical choice.”

The project will be broken into phases over the next 30 years. The first phase could start as early as this fall and would include a transit system that would link Frontrunner to the TRAX station at 10000 South.

Duerksen said the city is still weighing its options but is looking into several different choices to move people between the two mass transit stops and eventually around the entire project area.

One method the city is examining is employing a personal rapid transit system that uses a car on a dedicated guide way to move people between points. Duerksen said this system will cost about 30 percent less than a standard train or monorail system. One downside is that the PRT cars can only move six people at a time, unlike trains.

In addition to the transit system, phase one has tentative plans to include a new park near Madeline’s restaurant and Neff’s Grove, the first row of new restaurants, a hotel and high rise buildings for residential and office space.

A major component of the plan is high density housing without acres of parking lots. City officials have traveled to several major cities including Vancouver, Canada, to see projects with similar high density office space and housing. Duerksen said one way to accomplish high density housing without the feel of a concrete jungle is to put the parking behind the units.

“Instead of having a sea of asphalt, the areas we saw in Vancouver that would normally be parking lot were used for green space,” he said. “The key is really hiding the parking.”

Another aspect of the plan which is new to Utah is inclusion of what’s called a “form based code” where developments are regulated based on previously determined building types and styles. This helps to streamline the approval process and ensure consistency throughout the project area, Deurksen said.

Duerksen said it’s hard to estimate how many phases the project will have and that even the first phase could has several parts to it. Later phases will include more residential housing, office space, restaurants, night life such as dance clubs and bars and entertainment venues. Hale Center Theater has expressed an interest in possibly relocating to the project in the future.

This plan is different from other developments in Utah because each phase of the project has to not only fit in with the larger concept but also be able to stand on its own. Duerksen said the city can’t build the first phase but city officials know that it won’t make any money until the 11th phase is complete.

Local developer Stan Castleton, who was hired as a consultant on the plan, is working with a European investor to secure funding for the first phase.

“It’s a comprehensive, complicated plan. It will take years to get it all implemented,” Deurksen said. “We think we have the components here to make that happen. We have a lot of things that a lot of suburbs would love to have --.the Expo Center, Rio Tinto Stadium, Jordan Commons and a million-square-foot mall, stable neighborhoods, good income and high education levels. All these things really lend themselves to do something unique.”

The city held some open house meetings to inform residents about the project in January and is planning another open house at City Hall on March 6 at 7 p.m. and at the senior center on April 3 at 7 p.m.