Tag Archives: salt lake city

Salt Lake City Seeking Input on Inland Port Zoning

One of the effects of the Legislature’s special session addressing the Inland Port law was a deadline for Salt Lake City to establish a zoning plan for the new area. Right now the city is taking public input on the types of zoning restrictions or incentives to be codified.

Besides taking public input online, the city has conducted a number of open houses over the past six weeks. Two more are taking place this month; one took place on September 18th at the City Council and the next is September 26th at 5:30 pm for the Planning Commission. Additional details are provided in the previous here.

This process is the last major step the city has before the development of the Inland Port takes place in earnest. Your feedback is needed and appreciated.

Pedal in the City: Jordan Parkway Trail Finished!

A long awaited dream for Fairpark residents and bike enthusiasts all over the city has come true. Residents can now cycle the entire Jordan Parkway Trail without skirting around side streets between sections of trail. The Jordan River Trail Bridge was officially opened and dedicated at celebration event on November 18 at Fisher Mansion. This bridge completes Jordan River Trail, an urban paved trail that follows the Jordan River through Salt Lake City from Davis County through Utah County.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony included David Litvak,SLC Mayor’s office, Ben McAdams, Salt Lake County Mayor, James Rogers, Salt Lake City Council District 1, Stan Penfold, Salt Lake City Council District 3, Rep. Sandra Hollins, District 23, and Kyle Lamalfa, former District 2 City Council Member, who was instrumental in moving forward the completion of the Jordan River Parkway Trail.

More information is available at the Jordan River Commission (http://jordanrivercommission.com/) and the Salt Lake City (http://www.slcgov.com).

Renaming Jackson Elementary

Thank you to all the community members that have contributed to the discussion surrounding the renaming of Jackson Elementary. At this point, Jackson’s School Community Council has approved the formation of a committee to rename or rededicate Jackson Elementary. If you are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Jana Edward directly at jana.edward@slcschools.org or by calling the school at 801-578- 8165.

North Temple, Seeking The Return of Our Grand Boulevard

When you drive up and down North Temple, what do you see? (Besides Red Iguana.) Perhaps it’s a thriving transit stop, with busy workers headed to the office. Maybe it’s a challenging image, of a person in need? Or maybe you see a haphazard collection of local restaurants and retail shops, and a few vacant buildings. Well — the Fairpark Community Council sees opportunity, and we want to be ready for it when it comes. Economic development is on the forefront of our minds as we move into
spring. We want to retain the culture and diversity that makes our neighborhood great! Close to downtown, easy access to transit, affordable housing – these are all things that make Fairpark home.

What makes us different? We have a rich history, talented artists, and an emerging food scene. We reached out to our community partners, and not surprisingly, they share our vision. Chris Parker of GIV Development said, “There's tragedy in envisioning North Temple merely as some quaint and convenient bedroom extension of the Salt Lake. With support, this area could easily become one of the most diverse and authentic cultural destinations in the State.” We couldn’t agree more.

“North Temple is coming on fast as a place to work and live,” said James Rogers. “As the City Counci lrepresentative for District 1, I see every day the opportunities on these blocks. Many of the opportunities have already been realized, many more are on the way. We can do more to revitalize the area, much like the State Street effort. Working with all our partners, from residents and business owners, is key to a successful collaboration with the governmental agencies that will have a hand in any
sustained revitalization. I commit to helping bring those partners to the table, and vouching for the renewed vitality that will come from such a transformation.”

Things are buzzing in Fairpark, just like the spring bees. “Since the installation of light rail on the North Temple Grand Boulevard, it is exciting to see the increased pedestrian activity, the high usage of Trax and investment by businesses and housing developers that enhances the value and vibrancy of our neighborhoods,” said Maria Garciaz, of Neighborworks.

As Mayor Jackie Biskupski puts it, “North Temple has always been a diverse commerce and community center in Salt Lake City. We will continue build on this tradition through revitalization and economic development efforts with equity and opportunity at their core. The North Temple of tomorrow must be a neighborhood which supports those who have called the area home, often times for generations, while empowering new residents and businesses to establish strong roots to keep this corner of our City thriving.”

A reoccurring pattern is the need to work together to make our voices heard. That is the goal of the Restore North Temple coalition, of which Fairpark Community Council is a founding partner. Since 2016, Restore North Temple has focused on gathering community input and leading out on educational efforts related to reviving Neighborhood Watch, and building a working group around the Folsom Trail project.
Coming soon on Saturday, June 24 th , RNT along with the River District Business Alliance and the West View Media will be throwing a huge block party to celebrate the first annual West Side Arts, Food and Music Festival at the Sugar Space Art Warehouse. Check out www.facebook.com/restorenorthtemple for more information.

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Homeless Resource Center Discussion with Mayor’s Office

Now that the Homeless Resource Center Sites have been chosen and community information sessions held, you probably still have questions about how those Resource Centers will operate. Please come to the next Fairpark Community Council meeting, February 23 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the Northwest Community Center to learn more. There will be a discussion with Salt Lake City Mayor’s staff, David Litvak, Deputy Chief of Staff and Moana Uluave-Hafoka, Community Council Liaison.

The purpose of the discussion is to hear your ideas on how these Resource Centers can achieve their objective of assisting people experiencing homelessness into
homes. There will also be an opportunity for you to share your ideas on how the Mayor’s office and Salt Lake City Council can assist in the improvement of our community.
Your ideas are important! Don’t miss this chance to share them with officials from Salt Lake City. Please refer to the article on Homeless Resource Centers in the January 2017 edition of the Fairpark Gazette. The article is also posted at the Fairpark Community Council website.

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Explore the Jordan River by bike and boat during October!

A coalition of environmental groups has proposed the development of a series of nature park along the Jordan River corridor all the way across Salt Lake City. The plan is called “Nature in the City.”

To learn about this plan residents of the Fair Park, Rose Park, Jordan Meadows or Westpoint neighborhoods are invited to tour the river corridor with expert guides in a series of three FREE bike and float trips down the river. You’ll learn a lot about the river and have a great time meeting your west side neighbors!

For more information go to www.natureinthecityslc.org and to register for any of these trips contact Ray Wheeler at wheeler.ray@gmail.com

October 8, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm: 12-mile bike trip all the way across the city on the Jordan River Parkway Trail, with multiple stops to explore open space and parks. We’ll all use our own bikes and our own cars for the shuttle from the end point at about 2800 North, Redwood Road, back to the starting point in the parking area east of the Redwood Community Center (3060 Lester Street, West Valley City.)

October 15, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm: 12-mile bike trip all the way across the city on the Jordan River Parkway Trail, with multiple stops to explore open space and parks. This trip will end at a river party at 1800 North hosted by the West View quarterly newspaper to celebrate its fall issue devoted to the Jordan River. Food, music, and games for kids at the party.

October 22, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm: “multimodal” tour of the Jordan River corridor with expert guides who will teach you boating skills, . Any number of people can join us for the bike trip, and up to at least a dozen people on the canoe trip (we are limited by the number of boats.) Float trip participants will be shuttled back to their cars at 1700 South in the S’PLORE van, and their bikes will be guarded by a watchman during the float trip. You’ll not only learn about our plan for the river corridor, but will also learn paddling and river running safety skills from the professinoal river guides of S’PLORE.

October 29, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm: the itinerary, schedule and activities for this second “mulimodal” (bike/float) trip will be identical to those of the Oct. 22 trip described above.

Affordable Housing Development at 750 W. South Temple

A representative of the Vecino Group will attend the next community council
meeting (April 28, 6:30, Northwest Community Center, 1255 Clark Ave) to talk about their project at 750 W. South Temple (just outside our border in Poplar Grove) and answer questions of those in attendance may have. This visit is for informational purposes only as this development has passed the form based
zoning for the City and the City Council voted 4-3 to allow Salt Lake County Housing
Authority to build this structure in Salt Lake City.

The project planned is called Bodhi and will be a five-story building
including 80 units of one and two-bedroom apartments. 60 of the 80 units will be
held for those making 50% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). 50% of the
area median income for Salt Lake County is $36,100 for a family of 4. Of those 60
units, there will be 5 set aside for the chronically homeless, 9 units for the severely
and persistently mentally ill, and 9 units for those with a long-term mobility
disability. There will be full-time onsite services provided by the Salt Lake
Community Action Program.

This $12 million development is a partnership between the Vecino Group
and the Salt Lake County Housing Authority, and is being funded by Federal Low
Income Housing Tax Credits and $1 million from the Olene Walker Housing Trust
The Fairpark Community Council Executive Committee has been meeting
with stakeholders ever since we first heard about this development. Though we
welcome the higher densities that the Transit Station Area zoning provides along
the TRAX line, we are worried by the concentration of affordable units in this
development and along the TRAX corridor, and will continue to work with our city
council members to ensure that further developments along North Temple do not
have such a high proportion of affordable units.

Zoning Terms Primer

There is a lot of discussion about zoning, but what does it all mean?

Housing terms are often referred to in our discussions and presentations about housing: Affordable housing, Subsidized housing and Market rate housing. Here you can learn about things such as what “cost burdened” means, the percentage of Salt Lake residents who are cost burdened, how vouchers work, and what market value is.

Affordable housing: Families who pay more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care. An estimated 12 million renter and homeowner households now pay more than 50 percent of their annual incomes for housing. A family with one full-time worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the US. In Salt Lake City, 50% of our renters are cost burdened and 25% of our renters are severely cost burdened (meaning they pay more than 50% of their income on rent).

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Dirt2Table: A Great time of year!

Don’t you love it this time of year? I certainly do. Everything from the buds swelling on the fruit trees, dandelions blooming, willows and others flowering, to the birds getting more active, it sure feels like spring.

I just hope that a late frost doesn’t get some of our fruit trees this year. As you may know if you read these columns, the Fairpark Community Council is hosting it’s First Annual Get your garden STARTED Plant Sale. We are starting dozens of varieties of peppers and tomatoes. Lots of heirlooms as well as several varieties of Basil. In fact, as of March 7th some of the Lettuce Leaf basil is already up from seeds planted 8 days ago.

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Marmalade Branch Library Opens

Salt Lake City celebrated the grand opening of the newest city library branch in the Marmalade neighborhood on February 27th. This is the second branch library to open on the West side of Salt Lake City in as many years.

The building provides 18,600 square feet of space in its two stories, and includes a dedicated Children’s Library, a teen / young adult area, a small café, public access computer stations, quiet reading areas, adult collection, study rooms and a large, flexible multi-purpose room with tiered seating to allow small recitals, lectures, book signings and film viewings. The building is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification.

This new branch library is a great addition to our neighborhood, and we hope our residents will become regular visitors. Any Salt Lake City resident can get a library card with proof of residence. The Marmalade Library is located on 300 West and 500 North, and is open M-Th 10AM-9PM, Fri-Sat 10AM-6PM, Closed Sunday. The contact phone is 801-594-8680. Visit http://www.slcpl.org for more information.