Click on image above to download full resolution three-page file of land use alternative maps.
Consultants developing a new general plan for Tooele County’s unincorporated areas unveiled three alternative plans for public review at a workshop last week.
Those plans suggest a variety of concepts like completion of the Midvalley Highway, building a new highway that hugs the Oquirrh Mountain foothills and connects with SR-201 without using Interstate 80, and two new major east-west arterial routes across Tooele Valley.
The plans also suggest clusters of development with commercial centers surrounded by one-third acre residential lots, and a bike lane that follows SR-36 from Tooele City to Lake Point.
Nearly 50 people turned out for the workshop held last Wednesday in the Tooele County Building’s auditorium. When adopted, the updated general plan will be used by county officials to guide development of Tooele Valley for the next 10 years.
Each of the three alternative plans has a land use concept and a corresponding transportation plan.
“The first plan follows our current pattern of development,” said Tooele County Planner Blaine Gehring. “The other plans divert from our present pattern of development.”
The county’s consultants for the general plan update include Landmark Design, which is working on the land use plan and InterPlan, which specializes in transportation planning. Both firms are based in Salt Lake City.
The consultants worked with a local steering committee to develop the three alternate plans. The steering committee included property owners, developers, and residents of unincorporated Tooele County, according to Gehring.
The consultants and the steering committee used input from a July public meeting to form guiding principles as they developed the alternate plans.
Those principles included preserving open space and agricultural land, locating higher-density residential areas near population centers with services to support development, creating a network of multi-modal transportation alternatives, and developing Tooele County into a self-sufficient region with employment and service options.
The first alternative is a baseline plan, according to consultants.
The first alternative calls for a scattered development pattern with residential development to consist of large lots controlled by access to water and sewer systems.
The scattered development pattern means inefficient utility and infrastructure development. It also may mean Tooele County will remain a bedroom community to the Wasatch Front, according to the consultants.
The second and third alternatives include clusters of multi-use development. Each cluster includes a core mixed-use commercial area surrounded by higher- density, three homes to an acre, housing.
The clusters are tied together by the transportation plan with a network of roads, public transit routes, bike paths, and pedestrian walkways that crisscross the valley.
The clusters allow for higher-density housing areas while preserving land for open space and agricultural use, according to Gehring.
The second alternative includes clusters along SR-36 while calling for a strip of mixed-use commercial area along the proposed Midvalley Highway.
The third alternative differs in that it places clusters along both SR-36 and the Midvalley Highway.
Both the second and third alternatives place light industry in the valley core with heavy industry along the edge of the valley’s developable area.
“The second and third alternatives provide for better transportation routes to make use of the available commercial property in the county,” Gehring said.
By allowing for more commercial development, the second and third alternatives lead to more self-sufficiency for the county in terms of employment and services, according to the consultants.
The third alternative includes a new transportation corridor that offers a public transit route, bike path, and highway that runs east of Droubay Road.
It curves along the foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains from 400 South in Tooele City to Lake Point. In Lake Point the route doesn’t end at I-80, but instead runs around the point parallel to I-80 and connects with SR-201.
The second route in and out of Tooele Valley found favor with many of the people who attended last week’s workshop.
“I like the idea of connecting with SR-201,” said Thomas Karjola, a Stockton resident. “We need an alternate to I-80.”
“The county just doesn’t get it,” said Wade Hadlock, a Stansbury Park resident. “We need another connection to Salt Lake County like SR-36 to SR-201 more than we need the Midvalley Highway.”
However, not everybody at the meeting liked the proposed foothill route.
“I like the idea of the foothill route as long as it ends at Soelberg’s,” said Jonathan Garrard, a Lake Point resident. “I don’t want a highway cutting through Lake Point.”
The steering committee will take comments from the workshop and create a proposed final plan, according to Gehring.
“It will probably be a combination of the second and third alternatives,” he said. “I think the consensus was people liked some of the ideas in both of those plans.”
A third public input meeting will be scheduled for late November to reveal the new plan and solicit more comments, he said.
Possibly in January, the county planning commission will hold a formal public hearing on the proposed plan. The planning commission will then send the plan with any revisions to the Tooele County Commission for final adoption, according to Gehring.
Parts of the county’s current general plan date back to the 1990s, with the most recent updates added nearly a decade ago. Gehring said general plans are usually updated every five years.
The cost of the general plan update is $75,000. A $25,000 grant from the Wasatch Front Regional Council will pay for most of the transportation plan. The balance of the cost for the general plan will come from the county’s municipal services fund.
Information on the general plan update, including a form to submit comments and questions, can be found at www.ldi-ut\tooele.