Chapter Three
GROWTH MANAGEMENT
GROWTH MANAGEMENT
The City of West Jordan, with a current population of over 116,000 people, has developed about 75% of its available land. A growth management challenge is planning infrastructure for expansions west while providing capacity for infill and redevelopment on the eastern half of the City. How these areas develop over time will determine the City’s image and desirability as a livable and attractive community.
The pattern and economics of growth in the Salt Lake Valley are as much a factor of land availability, location of employment, shopping, and transportation patterns as it is of the individual community attempts to direct growth. Each local governmental entity has jurisdiction over its specific land use and growth rate. With regional factors driving growth, such as wages, housing costs, and location of employment, individual local governments experience the impact of these factors in their community.
Many of the trends and economic factors affecting growth in metropolitan areas nationwide are also being felt in communities like West Jordan. A few important trends and indicators the City should keep in mind as growth management strategies are developed include the following:
Growth Patterns
Most of the residential growth in the City has been single-family residential development. During the past 10 years, single-family residential development has steadily increased and much of this growth has been within large planned communities on the west side of the City. These include Dry Creek Highlands (592 acres, 2,960 units), Copper Rim (205 acres, 732 units) and Wood Ranch (635 acres, 3,068 units)
There have been a number of multi-family residential developments built within the past several years, particularly in the larger planned communities and near light rail stations. However, growth of multi-family residential development has somewhat slowed since the adoption of ordinances that limit the number of multi-family developments in order to keep the ratio of single-family residential to multi-family residential housing consistent with the goals of the General Plan. It is anticipated that future multi-family growth will develop primarily near light rail stations, the Mountain View Corridor and within 75- acre+ planned communities.
Industrial development has also grown substantially over the past 10 years, most of which has occurred in the southwest quadrant of the City and the area west of the airport. Growth of small industrial development has remained steady, while a significant surge of very large industrial projects has occurred within the past five years. These large projects include an Amazon distribution center, the Aligned Energy data center, the VAST data center, and the South Valley Regional Office Park/ West Jordan Business Park consisting of over 500,000 square feet of leasable warehouse/ office space.
The construction of public facilities has also surged significantly within the past several years, and much of this has been driven by Salt Lake County and the Jordan School District. The Salt Lake County Public Health offices and the District Attorney’s offices were built near West Jordan City Hall, while the Salt Lake County Public Works facility was built on Airport Road. The Jordan School District has built the new Antelope Canyon Elementary School on 6400 West, a large expansion of its bus facility, and has re-constructed West Jordan Middle School.
The City has also completed the construction of the West Jordan Public Works facility.
Much of the new commercial development in the City has been near the corner of 5600 West and 7800 South and within Jordan Landing. The largest of these projects has been the 24-acre Highlands Commercial and 14-acre Highlands Landing commercial developments on the northwest and northeast corners of 5600 West and 7800 South. Other infill projects within Jordan Landing include the renovation of the entertainment center around the Cinemark movie theater, the Rush Funplex entertainment center, Residence Inn, Bank of America and the My Place extended stay hotel.
Recently, office development has been much more tempered and has consisted primarily of small infill projects throughout the City.
Growth Potential
West Jordan has a sizeable amount of developable land remaining within its boundaries. As of April 2021, West Jordan has a total of 5,295 acres of developable (vacant or partially vacant) land, which equates to 25.6% of the total area of the City. This amount of land primarily consists of fully vacant or partially vacant properties, which comprise 56.7% of the vacant land in West Jordan.
Master planned communities that have been approved or are currently under review comprise 31% of the vacant land. The remaining vacant land is either owned by municipal, State or Federal public entities (7.7%) or is being held for future public utility or industrial business expansion (4.6%).
Loading...