The Granary District, southwest of Downtown, has attracted significant housing, office, hospitality, and food + beverage investment in the last decade.
What it hasn’t seen, however, is improvements in the public way. The Granary’s streets are some of the worst in the city, with sub-standard pavement conditions and design standards meant for light industrial use. Most streets lack curb and gutter, and are built to accommodate cars and trucks rather than the active transportation modes the public is asking for and the city wants to encourage.
That is set to change, however incrementally, with the completion of the Granary District Area Plan, recently released by the city’s Transportation Division.
The plan identifies intersections, midblock streets, midblock crossings, and “catalytic corridors” to reshape the area the city hopes will “improve comfort, connectivity, and access for people to and through the area.”
The plan is the first major application of the city’s 2023 Street and Intersection Typologies Design Guide, informally described as “zoning for streets” by Transportation. The guide, three years in the making, recognizes the fundamental connection between street design and adjacent land use. “People told us they wanted their streets to be safer, and slower, and smaller,” Project Manager Tom Millar stated in a video introducing the guide, “and they wanted more options for how to get around.”
Let’s look at how the Streets and Intersection Design Guide will shape the future of the Granary.
Projects and calendar
The Granary District Area Plan’s 13 projects are divided into near- (2-4 years) and mid-term (5-10), and are framed as “attainable” rather than aspirational.
The streets that are targeted for redesign are 800 South (between the I-15 underpass and West Temple), 400 West (600 S. to the I-15 ramp at ~950 S.), and 600 West (600 S. to 900 S.)
The plan also identifies five intersections to be redesigned and rebuilt in the near-term, as well as a new midblock street at 350 West, stretching 3.5 blocks from 600 South to ~950 South.
Prioritized “catalytic corridors”
The city is showing ambition in its plans for 800 South, 400 and 600 West, which it has called “catalytic corridors,” i.e “corridors that can or will undergo significant change.”
The changes proposed for those streets are substantial, and similar transformational change is planned for 700 South.
700 South
Identified as a future “Urban Village Street,” 700 South, at least near the intersection of 500 West, the plan envisions one car lane each direction, parking-protected bikes lanes, added greenery, and bulb-outs.
800 South
Meanwhile, 800 South is planned as an “Urban Village Main Street,” which includes protected bike lanes with the potential for transit islands or on-street parallel parking. One or two car travel lanes are recommended in each direction–although the rendering shows one.
400 West
Pegged as an “Urban Green Street,” 400 West, which still has exposed rail lines down the center, is the preferred alternative for UTA’s TRAX “Tech Link” extension between the 1300 South Ballpark station and its Central Station on 600 West.
The plan shows light rail–or a linear park–in the center of the street, and a likely TRAX station just north of 900 South, adjacent to ArtSpace Solar Gardens and the city’s Fleet Block redevelopment site.
One lane of car traffic in each direction, curb-separated bikes lanes, and ample tree canopy are hallmarks of the Urban Green Street.
500 West
500 West is also earmarked as an Urban Green Street, which, the plan says, “is recommended for streets in dense areas of the City where installing trees, landscaping, and parkstrips is a priority.”
In addition, the plan noted that during a workshop held primarily for developers and business in the district, “There was discussion and support for recommending the street [500 W] be partially or fully closed to vehicles from 600 South to 900 South, making it a pedestrian- prioritized, or pedestrian-only, street.”
600 West
Recommended as an “Urban Village Street,” the plan recognizes that 600 West is narrower than most streets in the Granary, leaving less space for pedestrians and bikes.
But it also draws attention to the street’s unique quality–it passes under the 400, 500, and 600 South viaducts, offering travel uninterrupted by having to cross those massively-wide and dangerous UDOT rights-of-way.
The plan suggests a public gathering space at the intersection with 700 South, adjacent to Kiitos Brewing. The railyard to the west of 600 West is identified as a major barrier, and as BSL readers know, the Rio Grande Plan would take care of that.
New midblock streets
Ever since 2012 when the Kentlands Institute, brainchild of the Alfandre family, held a week-long planning charrette in an empty industrial building on 700 South, separating the Granary’s 10-acre blocks into a finer grid has been on the agenda for the area’s future.
The plan envisions three new midblock streets:
- 350 West, from 600 to 900 South
- 750 South, from 500 to 200 West
- 550 West, from 600 to 850 South
Only the first, at 350 West, is scheduled for the near-term, i.e. 2-4 years.
We asked the Transportation Division how the city will create the rights-of-way and whether the timeframe was realistic.
Lara McLellan, Project Manager for the plan, responded, “Having the midblock connection recommendations identified in this plan will allow the City’s Development Review Team to reference the plan and encourage the inclusion of these recommendations when working with developers in the early stages of their project development.”
And what about the 350 West midblock – can it really get done in 2-4 years?
McLellan was optimistic: “At 350 W, there are already incoming private developments and the City-owned Fleet Block that will incorporate midblock connections, so some of that will be coming in soon. The City will continue to work with developers in the area to continue adding connections as new projects are constructed.”
500 S, 600 S to stay traffic sewers
While disingenuously labeled “Grand Boulevards” in the Downtown master plan and the Granary plan, changes will be minimal to 500 and 600 South, which UDOT owns and operates as on- and off-ramps to I-15 for a full six blocks (State St. to 500 West).
Curiously, the Street and Intersection Typologies guide rates the placemaking potential of the “Grand Boulevards” as “high.” How 4-5 lanes of speeding car traffic, noise, and air pollution will attract people to dwell at its edges is an open question.
With 4-5 lanes of cars either anticipating or exiting at Interstate speeds, 500 and 600 South look designed to fail as places to be. Unfortunately, the plan validates them remaining car sewers that drive all other users away and continuing to be major impediments to north-south travel.
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