SANDY — The Utah Transit Authority is promoting a mixed-use housing development near 10000 South that could double or even triple the current allowed density.
And with the development, UTA is expanding its role from bus- and train-service provider to developer.
The 35 acres at what is now the south end of the TRAX line is owned by UTA, and potential plans include two hotels and two restaurants, in addition to multi-family housing, according to a Tuesday presentation to the City Council.
Once the project was built, UTA would continue in a profit-sharing and leasing arrangement that would supplement the transit authority's operating budget, said UTA development coordinator Kathy Olson. It's unknown how much money UTA, a quasi-private-public agency, would make each year off the deal of leasing its land to the developer.
"I don't have a figure on that currently," said UTA spokesman Brandon Bott on Friday. "In general, we are very supportive of transit-oriented development."
The Deseret News is seeking paperwork related to the development through a government-records request.
Last year, UTA announced a "request for qualifications," a kind of announcement to local developers that it is seeking proposals on how to develop the land. In May 2008, Dell Loy Hansen's Wasatch Property Management won a bid for development of the civic center TRAX station project.
The company has built several multi-family projects throughout the United States and is in the middle of transit-oriented developments in Midvale and South Jordan.
Tuesday, UTA and Wasatch Property executives showed the Sandy City Council on a tour of those projects in an attempt to convince them that high density doesn't have to equal poor quality.
"Just because you don't have money doesn't mean you don't have taste," Hansen told the city council, pointing to an open design and granite countertops in a two-bedroom apartment.
Hansen also told the council that the higher a project's density, the more expensive it is to build. The break-even point between density and cost is about 23 units per acre, he said. But higher density is feasible with government subsidies.
UTA is recommending at least 30 housing units per acre for the site. No plans have been aired officially, and the project isn't likely to move forward until the TRAX line is extended, but that figure could rise to 60 units per acre with subsidies from both Sandy and UTA. The extension is due for completion in 2015, possibly earlier.
Current mixed-use zoning for the parcel calls for about 15 units per acre, but that figure isn't set in stone.
"UTA had a lot of foresight acquiring these parcels of land at the same time they did the rail line," said Olson. "We're looking long-range. All federal programs for (transit-oriented developments) insist on density."
So far, Sandy elected officials — who control zoning — aren't convinced that the huge influx of population that would come with that density is a good thing.
Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan, for example, is concerned that streets in the area would not be able to handle so much additional traffic.
Council member Bryant Jorgenson said the federal government is notorious for promoting high-rise housing that turns into slums. He doesn't want that for Sandy.
"I don't mind some density," he said. "I just don't want the driving factor to be UTA profits."
As proposed, the UTA development would add about 2,500 residents — the same number that currently occupy historic Sandy, said Anderson.
For now, the space UTA plans to develop is just asphalt, but the 1,200 parking spaces are well-used by commuters headed to downtown Salt Lake City. UTA plans to keep about 700 of those spaces when the TRAX line is extended into Draper, Olson said.
UTA has become interested in development in recent years, believing that housing near a transit hub will promote ridership. They call such developments "transit-oriented development," and believe people will live in communities where they can shop and hop on a train to get to work. UTA has been promoting transit-oriented development in Draper, too, except in the Draper development, UTA owns no land. The developer would donate 10 acres of his land to UTA to build a future FrontRunner South Commuter Rail station.
UTA also could build a stop in Bluffdale, where it does own property.
Bott, the UTA spokesman, said that UTA's support of transit-oriented development comes at the heels of federal government discussions of the issue. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Transit Administration presented a report to Congress last year recommending a working group to promote affordable housing near transit.
The report was based on studies of transit-oriented developments in Boston; Denver; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Charlotte, N.C.; and Portland, Ore.
e-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com, lhancock@desnews.com