The Salt Lake City council last night approved the final touches to the inter-local contracts that will finally bring UTA’s S-Line Streetcar in Sugar House to Highland Drive.
Members of the Salt Lake City Council voted Tuesday to approve an inter-local agreement between the city, the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency and the Utah Transit Authority to extend the S-Line streetcar to “the heart” of Sugar House.
The quarter-mile extension will bring the line from its current terminus at McClelland Street (1040 East), just north of Fairmont Park on Sugarmont Ave., to a new station just east of Highland Drive.
The new station will be built on a surface parking lot just south of the Cinemark movie theater, owned by Dee’s Sugarhouse Investments, LLC, aka Todd and Michael Olsen, according to state business records.
City staff told council yesterday that construction would begin in May and last around 13 months. Anticipated service start date is August 2027.
A look at the future S-Line expansion route. Image via Salt Lake City and the Utah Transit Authority
Extending the streetcar has been planned for years, and only recently have funding sources coalesced.
Project cost is $43,567,129, with much of that being footed by the state of Utah, according to a presentation to the council. Of that total, $12 million came from one-time state funding from 2021, while another $18.9 million came from the state’s Transit Transportation Investment Fund.
The remaining $12,667,129 came from Salt Lake City and UTA. The city donated property that totaled over $5.1 million, while the city and the CRA each kicked in $395,000 and $852,059, respectively. UTA contributed $3.75 million from its 2026 capital budget.
Lynn Jacobs, a transportation engineer in the city’s transportation operations office, told the council that the interlocal agreement essentially gives UTA the right to operate on city streets, while also outlining maintenance responsibilities. In addition to street and rail construction, Jacobs added the project will also create new water lines and storm drain infrastructure, as well as three new traffic lights along the route to accommodate the streetcar.
Council Member Sarah Young, who represents the Sugar House neighborhood, said Tuesday that she’s excited about the S-Line extension and thanked the number of government agencies that coordinated to make the rail improvements a reality.
“This is one of those things that not just improves our community’s access to public transportation, but also sets the stage for future needs that may come related to that transportation as well,” Young said.
Indeed, this area of Sugar House will see plenty of changes into the future. Just to the northeast of the future rail line is a proposed 16-floor residential tower, which would be built on the current site of a Zions Bank along Highland.
Just south of the rails along Simpson, an affordable, senior-centric housing project from the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City is slated to be built in the coming years. Fairmont Park itself is also planned for renovations in the near future.
In addition, 1.61 acres of land owned by the CRA, sandwiched between Parley’s Trail and Simpson Avenue, the former home of Salt Lake City Fire Department’s Station No. 3, will be developed into an affordable housing development, according to a CRA spokesperson.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that more changes are coming to Salt Lake City’s second downtown in the coming years, as the neighborhood’s proximity to open spaces, housing and businesses continue to make the area a magnet for new projects.
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