Mining company to build New Urban towns – One of the largest landholders in the Salt Lake Valley is switching from mining to community building.

Kennecott Land plans west-side towns

As the owner of nearly one hundred thousand undeveloped acres, Kennecott Land Co. will have a large say in how the west side of the Salt Lake Valley evolves in the coming decades.

Kennecott Land President Peter McMahon on Thursday laid out the company’s vision for its vast real estate holdings before a group of community political and business leaders in downtown Salt Lake City. The key words were sustainable development.

By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/mar/03122004/utah/147039.asp

"The west bench is a new concept for some," McMahon told his audience, assembled for a breakfast hosted by Envision Utah — the state’s growth planning partner — at the Grand America Hotel. But it is one that will gain increasing currency, he predicted, as people discover the attributes of walkable neighborhoods, a variety of housing types, easy access to transit and close shopping and employment.

"Kennecott transformed this community over 100 years ago," McMahon said. With the company’s new plunge into residential development, "we intend to build an enduring legacy."

The beginnings of that effort will come later this year, when Kennecott Land is scheduled to begin construction in South Jordan on Daybreak, the first large-scale planned community to be built in the Salt Lake Valley.

Kennecott Vice President Vicki Varela says the company expects to build 300 homes by the end of the year. Within 15 to 20 years, the company projects that Daybreak will include nearly 14,000 homes and 30,000 residents.

In many ways, McMahon says, Daybreak will be the prototype for what could end up being a whole series of Kennecott-developed communities in the southwest end of the valley — which is where most of Salt Lake County’s growth is expected to occur in the next three decades.

"Many of these people will live on property owned by Kennecott Land," said the company president, a signatory earlier this week on the Mountain View Corridor agreement, a conceptual land-use plan for the valley’s west side.

Daybreak, located along South Jordan’s west side, will be anchored by a town center that will include both retail and business development, as well as a TRAX light rail station, located at the end of the planned mid-Jordan line.

The entire development is being planned with "quality growth" principles in mind, McMahon said, which means Daybreak’s residents will be within walking distance of shopping and business. They will also have access to large swaths of open space — 30 percent of the total development — including a network of trails and a planned lake.

In addition, McMahon says Daybreak will power itself with renewable resources, such as secondary water and retained storm water for irrigation, and recycled household waste.

That innovation, he added, will also extend to schools planned for the development; one idea: to merge a planned elementary school and a community recreation center.

"We are going to be different," McMahon said.

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© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.