Utah City: here’s what’s planned for the new community in Vineyard next to Utah Lake

On the shores of Utah Lake in Vineyard, the fastest-growing city in the United States in the 2010s, there’s a proposal for an ambitious new planned community.

The developers, Woodbury Corporation and Flagship Companies, are calling the project “Utah City.”

On the project’s website, it’s marketed as a place that will “offer living options that prioritize walkability and wellness.”

In a promotional video for Utah City, Jeff Speck, partner at Speck Dempsey, features prominently. Speck is famous — as far as city planners go. He wrote the book Walkable City and is known for promoting dense, mixed-use communities that allow people to drive less. According to the project’s website Studio McGee, DPZ Co-Design and a host of other planning and design companies are also involved with the project.

Prominent state institutions plan to build in Utah City. The Huntsman Cancer Institute will build a new campus on 20 acres of donated land (the Legislature allocated $75 million for the new research center) and Utah Valley University plans to build out a 225-acre Vineyard Campus just east of the new development.

“A bunch of really successful, highly effective people have staked their reputation on this turning out well, including me,” said Jeff Speck. “I think it has the momentum and the commitment to turn out well.”

Speck, who gave a talk at the Intermountain Sustainability Summit at Weber State University on Thursday titled “If It’s Not Walkable, It’s Not Sustainable,” spoke with The Tribune about the walkable project he’s helped plan in Utah County.

How to create a more walkable community

Early plans for Utah City zoned business and housing districts separately, Speck said. When he was shown the preliminary plans around early 2019 it was only “halfway” to being a truly walkable community.

He was brought on to help with the project and modify the plans for Utah City.

“There was an office area and housing area and the best thing you can do is combine office and housing,” Speck said, “both to create a 24-hour neighborhood but also because they require parking at different times of day so you can build half the parking if you put the housing and the offices together.”

The original plan also included a six-lane Main Street. Speck didn’t think the wide road would be attractive for pedestrians shopping and the plan now has fewer lanes.

“The vehicular blocks are still quite large, Mormon style, but each block is broken down further into sub blocks by pedestrian streets that we call paseos,” Speck said.

They also designed a square roundabout that allows the surrounding collector streets to maintain fewer lanes.

Will it be car-free?

Just because residents will have the option to walk or take public transportation, doesn’t mean they won’t also drive.

“We expect that most families in Utah city will own cars,” Speck said. “We expect that most will be able to own one fewer car, or perhaps several fewer cars.”

Speck said that close access to Frontrunner would help reduce commuting trips, but he imagines that being able to walk for small personal trips will allow Utah City residents to cut back on their drive time.

These small trips, often less than a mile, make up most of the driving in suburban communities, according to Speck. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that 52% of trips were less than three miles in 2021.

“The walk to school, the walk to sports, the walk to the meetinghouse, the walk to get cat food,” Speck said, “these are walks that aren’t taken in suburbia because you need to drive.”

A focus on sustainability

Families cutting down on vehicle trips is part of what will make Utah City sustainable, Speck said.

“My big critique of the way that the valley has been growing is that while you’ve been building transit and putting density at transit,” Speck said, “you’ve also been widening your highways in such an unrelenting, ongoing way that driving is still the more attractive choice for most people.”

Building more compact infrastructure like apartments that heat and cool each other will also make Utah City greener, according to Speck.

And while reducing driving means that less gasoline is burned — there’s also less particulate matter coming off tires and breaks.

Speck aims to make walking trips more pleasant too. For example, the path from Frontrunner to the shores of Utah Lake will vary — starting as a walk down Main Street, turning into a boulevard, and transforming into a park at the end.

Community input

Jacob Holdaway, a Vineyard City Council member, said his recent election win was largely over concerns with the plans for Utah City.

Some Vineyard residents have voiced concerns over the project. “We knew months going in, we couldn’t even find supporters of Utah City at all,” Holdaway said. “And it wasn’t based on the project. It was, ‘this is so un-American, that you guys are so wealthy, that you don’t even have to tell us.’”

The project planning process hasn’t been transparent, Holdaway said. He’s concerned about state funds being allocated to projects in the new development with little consultation or consideration of broader Vineyard community needs.

Speck said, “The project was planned through a series of public hearings, where everyone was invited and anyone was welcome to speak.”

People in quickly growing cities like Vineyard are used to growth, Speck contends. They’ve been part of it before.

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