American Fork plans ahead of development

(Daily Herald) When development eventually comes to American Fork's south side, the city wants to have an organized plan at the ready.

Planners want to know in advance what types of land use will be allowed where, what lanes need to be set aside for transportation flow and how much land will be needed to meet the city's required 6.2 acres per 1,000 residents park ratio.

Planning Director Rod Despain and Senior Planner Adam Olsen met with members of the American Fork City Council Tuesday to discuss the three elements of the plan, which were approved unanimously following a bit of amending.

Although the city's master plan already includes conceptual intentions for the area south of Interstate 15 to Utah Lake, the Utah Department of Transportation's Vineyard Connector road was not on the plan.

"We needed to update our plans to reflect UDOT's Vineyard Connector," Olsen said following the council meeting.

The connector road, as proposed by the state, would wind diagonally from Pioneer Crossing south-southeast to 800 North in Orem.

Before approving the transportation element of the city's plan, council members asked that a preferred city route for the connector would follow north-south property lines rather than cut diagonally across people's property, as currently suggested by UDOT.

Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback asked planners to include the city-preferred route on the master plan, in addition to the UDOT route.

Mayor James Hadfield said the diagonal bisecting of pieces of property makes much of the land very difficult if not impossible to develop.

Original Article