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Originally Posted by CountyLemonade
That's exactly it. Folks should absolutely be able to decide whether they want a little slice of '60s Americana with the garage-oriented house and the non-walkable neighborhood that requires a car to do anything meaningful. But we're still skewed heavily in that direction, rather than in the direction that places like the Avenues and Sugar House are, or the direction that Daybreak is heading in. To this day we're still moving way too heavily in the direction of sprawl, and places like Layton that place a moratorium on new apartment construction (completely market-driven, by the way) are what stand in the way of better air quality.
Look. It boils down to this. If we keep the balance skewed toward building as we are in Pleasant Grove, in Lehi, in southern Draper and in Sandy, the health of our city will continue to suffer.
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But is it really sprawl to fill in Pleasant Grove or Lehi? Your dwelling in a lot of gray area here. I get the frustration amongst certain purest with an Eagle Mountain, but a Pleasant Grove? Castigating communities like Pleasant Grove for their growth patterns, which are at the hubs of their interregional areas, would be like dissing Murray. It makes little sense. If we're going to condemn certain patterns let's at least be sensical about it. No metro community, not Paris, Rome, London or New York starts as a single entity. All of our major world capitals are composed of many historical communities, which eventually grow together. It is at the point when they grow together, that they then begin to grow upward! Cities such as Pleasant Grove or American Fork have every right to fill in, and very quickly now they will become built out. At that point they build upward. Pleasant Grove is already moving forward aggressively with plans to increase the density of it's historical downtown core area where it is feasible, without destroying historical buildings. Anyone who has driven the 89 core in the past decade understands how rapidly the area is evolving. What was open land a few years ago, separating towns such as Lehi, American Fork and Pleasant Grove, are now filled in with commercial enterprise and hundreds if not thousands of new multi level apartment and condo units.
Sugar House? Here's another area rife with questions of how urban purest you are, and where we must draw the line in the interest of density. How quickly we forget what a pariah Mr. Mecham recently was. And all he wanted to do was build density in the heart of a community that sorely needed it. But it was very painful for many. Also, there are many beautiful neighborhoods in Sugar House that hardly meet an urbanista's required density barometer. Should we plow down those beautiful old homes and cottages in order to put up more urban appropriate apartment buildings?
Another interesting dilemma or gray area. We often site the Avenues as doing it right. Many would choose to live there,
if they could afford to. The Avenues are built out, but is it really dense enough? I mean, don't most who live there drive a car to work? It's the heart of the city, and certainly it should demand a lot more height? Should we tear down it's picket fence charm in order to satisfy greater density? Of course not. I'm very proud of the fact that Salt Lake City has at it's very urban core, a large beautifully kept human scale neighborhood, that doesn't reek of urban decay.
Anyone who has stood on the mountains above Utah Valley understands what little land there really is on the north and east sides of the Lake. What farmland is left will be filled in shortly. We now talk of Murray as Salt Lake Valley's second emerging downtown. The day is almost upon us, where Pleasant Grove and Lehi will be seen in the same light as Murray. Speaking of Murray. A lot of purest were alarmed at the size of the parking lot surrounding the IHC Campus. At the time it was constructed it was not economically sensible to build large multi-level parking structures. However, there is a future vision(happening sooner than later) that warrants more commercial square footage, which in turn will change parking lots to parking structures and more vertical commercial.
But it is a naturally occurring evolutionary process, which almost always involves unavoidable economics.
Salt Lake City is emerging as a metro of excellent options. There are innumerable studies by prestigious institutions, which site the Wasatch as evolving into one of the most well rounded commuter metros in the nation. One can live minutes from downtown, and at the same time minutes from a world class ski resort or endless recreational opportunities.
Most can, and in my opinion should be able to still live in affordable single detached housing, yet have among the shortest commutes in the nation. It isn't an accident that well placed nodes like Thanksgiving Point make that short commute possible. I know, we often pine, myself included, about how nice it would be if Thanksgiving Point were all Downtown. But in the real world, why should thousands of residents in historical communities like Alpine or Lehi have to all go the extra commute to Downtown Salt Lake?
In addition to dramatically evolving multiple downtowns, charming walkable village centers are now beginning to emerge and increase in size all over the metro. Certainly there are mistakes, but the point is that there are now lifestyle options that did not exist a few years ago. Those island nodes of alternative options are increasing in number and size. If anything, the pace of their development is ever quickening, not skewing toward more sprawl. Sure there are pushes outward, but at the same time, there is a lot of infill and density occurring where it is economically feasible.