West-bench plan would focus on 2 urban hubs
Kennecott proposes linking the centers with a 'transit spine'
The plan, which was announced Wednesday at the second of four west-bench planning summits at the E Center, would focus on two urban centers — areas of about 1 million square feet of retail space mixed with some residential and office space — connected by a "transit spine" running parallel to the Oquirrh Mountains, running along U-111 in some areas.
The two urban centers would be at Kennecott Land's new Daybreak community in South Jordan and another at the far northern end of the company's land holdings, west of Magna along I-80. That new development is listed in the draft plan as a "near-term" project, possibly the next development Kennecott will get to work on.
Kennecott Land owns 93,000 acres of undeveloped land along the county's west bench, seen by many planners as the nexus of future growth in the valley. The land is a holdout from Kennecott Utah Copper's mining operations, but as those operations wind down and change focus, Kennecott Land is looking to use the land for master-planned development.
Kennecott Land wants to bring all the key players in the early stages to make a master plan for growth along the Oquirrhs. That approach — involving community decisionmakers in the planning instead of seeking government approval of a development at the end — is being called an unprecedented opportunity.
The plan is based on a series of "centers," ranging from the two large urban centers down to neighborhood centers, small gathering places that include schools, community centers, recreation, churches and other community facilities. Of the estimated 162,800 new households expected along the west bench by 2060, about 68,000 of them would be within walking distance of such neighborhood centers under the plan.
It calls for about 4,300 housing units within a half-mile of an urban center, 7,400 within a half-mile of smaller town centers and 66,000 within a half-mile of "village centers," which would include services such as grocery stores and other commercial and civic facilities to serve the surrounding neighborhoods.
Most employment would be incorporated into residential areas rather than segregated into office and business districts, said Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates, the company behind Kennecott's plan. Dr. James Wood of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research said his group projects 106,000 jobs located along the newly developed west bench — though the entire project, including construction and other off-site jobs, could generate 262,000 new jobs in the county.
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