Cottage homes underway in Central Ninth
Residential construction in Salt Lake may be booming but for residents looking to buy, the options are limited. Over the summer, Zillow, an online real estate and rental marketplace ranked Salt Lake City as the worst metro area for first-time homebuyers assigning the city the low ranking due to a limited housing supply. Construction is underway on the Jefferson Walkway development in the Central Ninth neighborhood. The project will consist of six new construction cottage homes, the renovation of an existing historic home and a new construction accessory dwelling unit.
The development is a result of years of planning by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City. The RDA selected Benchmark Modern to develop the project in 2014. Benchmark Modern focuses on building energy efficient homes and the Jefferson Walkway homes will be built to consume less energy through energy efficient insulation, solar panels and energy efficient appliances.
The project replaces three single family homes, on 0.5-acres and will front both Jefferson Street and 200 West directly east of the 900 South TRAX Station. Connecting both streets will be a pedestrian walkway that will be privately owned but open to the public.
The home at 830 S. Jefferson Street will be moved several yards to the south of the new walkway and will have a rear two-car garage below the new accessory dwelling unit. The six new cottage homes will be directly north of the walkway with four homes fronting the walkway and the two exterior homes fronting 200 West and Jefferson Street.
As cottage homes, the housing units will have a small footprint with each home occupying around 50 percent of its lot. The lots vary in size between 1700 and 2482 square feet. The four interior homes will each have a 750 square-foot footprint (1600 square feet altogether) while the remaining two homes fronting the residential streets, will have an 864 square-foot footprint (1664 square feet altogether). The homes will share a small six-stall surface parking lot that will be at the center of the block. Both the parking lot and garage will be accessed via an alleyway that bisects the block.
The Jefferson Walkway project is one of two RDA projects that will add for-sale units to the Central Ninth neighborhood. LandForge Inc. plans to break ground in the spring on the Central Ninth Lofts, a mixed-use project at the intersection of 900 South and 200 West. That project will include 23 for-sale units with ground floor commercial below two floors of residential fronting 900 South and townhomes along 2oo West and the adjacent alleyway to the east.
