Six CitiesTurn Talk Into Plans Monday, January 3, 2000   BY BRANDON LOOMIS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE     Envision Utah planners are ready to turn their urban-growth ideals from talk and philosophy to bricks and mortar.     Consulting planners for the nonprofit growth-planning partnership already have drafted plans for city blocks or entire neighborhoods in six Wasatch Front communities. The plans are meant to bring about Utahns' desires for more compact, walkable cities.     In Salt Lake City, that means mixing a central library with up to 200 private apartments and town houses. In Brigham City, it's as simple as returning to prewar traditions of front porches, rear-entry garages and apartments atop storefronts. In Provo, it means using a proposed multipurpose train station to reshape an aging neighborhood.     Other previously reported plans capitalize on the Utah Transit Authority's new TRAX light-rail line or potential bus expansions to create transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods in Centerville, West Valley City and Sandy-Midvale. Except in Salt Lake City, each of the plans cost $30,000, with expenses shared among the cities, Envision Utah and the state's Quality Growth Commission. The Salt Lake City plan cost $15,000.     The proposals, while not yet adopted, have drawn praise from staff planners in each of the cities that contracted with Envision Utah consultants at California-based Calthorpe Associates. They are the results of community workshops attended by dozens of neighbors and affected landowners.     "This is the best thing we've done," said Envision Utah Executive Director Steve Holbrook. Best, he said, because it gets neighbors discussing and planning the future of their own neighborhoods, rather than just reacting to development plans.     "It's clear that people are willing to do some of these things if they have a chance to sit down and try it," Holbrook said.     Brigham City asked for help developing neighborhood design standardsfor a vacant area that is expected to grow into a residential community because of its location south of Highway 91 near Interstate 15. Although the city of 17,500 is on the Wasatch Front's northern edge and, at less than 2 percent growth annually, has not experienced the overheated expansion of other cities, officials wanted to change development patterns to avoid the traffic congestion they now see in Logan.     City Planner Paul Larsen said the city wanted to start telling developers what it prefers, instead of waiting to review the plans.     "We wanted to be in a position where we weren't just reacting, saying. 'We don't know what we want but we don't want that,' " Larsen said. "We wanted to come up with something we want."     The results were guidelines from Calthorpe Associates requiring front porches on every home and street-facing apartments. The porches must cover 30 percent of the street frontage on a large home. The guidelines also limit the width of neighborhood street lanes to 10 feet, and place apartment buildings nearer streets with parking hidden behind. Apartments would be allowed above street-level shops, with pedestrian corridors through the buildings.     Larsen expects the city to tinker with the guidelines during the coming year and approve a final set and possibly a new mixed-use zone for the area. "The final product will probably look quite a bit different from how this design looks," he said.     In Salt Lake City, planners wanted to use construction of a new Main Library north of the old one at 500 S. 200 East as a chance to redefine the entire government-owned block. The dual goals are to create a popular public plaza ringed by private retailers and to provide a steady stream of people by including homes and orienting the block toward the light-rail line and station planned for 400 South.     The Calthorpe plan would place 200 homes above street-level shops. Some of the homes would be one-level flats and others would be two-level townhouses, with multi-level parking hidden in the center the same way it is at the ZCMI Center mall.     There would be up to 100,000 square feet of office space on the block, and retail shops between the new library and the old building, which would gain a new, yet-to-be-determined public purpose. Other government buildings, including the Metropolitan Hall of Justice, would be removed.     "If we have housing there, we get people there all the time," said Salt Lake City Planning Director Bill Wright. "There are people living there now, but they're in jail." Salt Lake County's Metro Jail on the library block will be closing next month when a new Adult Detention Center opens in South Salt Lake.     Like Larsen in Brigham City, Wright said city officials probably will stray a bit from the Calthorpe plan. Mayor-elect Rocky Anderson wants to re-evaluate the master plan starting in January to ensure the first floor of every building serves a public purpose and leaves enough room for the plaza, Wright said.     "He wants to make sure that the whole pedestrian level on that block is exciting," Wright said.     But the Calthorpe plan will influence the final product, and probably many other blocks in the area, Wright said. "It's certainly transferrable to many of the blocks in the east- or south-downtown area."     In Provo, the city is hoping to use a new Amtrak train depot promised by Union Pacific to revitalize the Franklin neighborhood, where up to 6,000 people live on 21 blocks between downtown and the Town Centre Mall. The plan would allow neighborhood shops and entertainment, and use traffic-calming methods such as roundabouts or narrower roads so that busy traffic on major streets will not isolate Franklin pedestrians from downtown Provo.    The plan includes a mixture of medium- and high-density housing, putting people within walking distance of a train station that eventually could provide commuter service to Salt Lake City.     Kevin Callahan, Provo's assistant community development director, said the city wanted to provide some benefits to Franklin residents in exchange for their accepting what will become a major train and bus hub. So the station itself may include a neighborhood meeting space and arts facilities for events such as children's dance recitals.     Callahan said the retail shops throughout the neighborhood should be unique, selling high-quality items to compete for shoppers who otherwise might drive to discount centers.     "People are more mobile," he said. "What is it that makes a place interesting now? It's got to be something different. It's got to be something that brings people together for other purposes -- like bringing your friends to an interesting bookstore or coffee shop, a different urban experience."     Provo will continue working with Franklin neighbors to hone the Calthorpe plan, Callahan said, then possibly create a multi-use zone that will encourage landowners to do something different.                 © Copyright 2000, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on Utah OnLine is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.