Salt Lake City leaders seek ways to promote development along North Temple TRAX line

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) — With construction crews already working on the North Temple TRAX line, city leaders are looking for ways to promote "desirable" development along the path to the airport.

A new transit station area zoning district that makes the process "easier and shorter" for developments that meet certain guidelines would be one way to do that, some officials say.

The city "does not have an existing zoning district that would adequately implement the (community's) vision for the corridor," the city's administration said in a transmittal to the City Council this week.

The city's zoning ordinances primarily separate incompatible uses. The proposed change would focus more on the physical form and layout of new development.

In the proposed transit station zone, the approval process would use a tiered scoring system that rewards certain development concepts, such as affordable housing and historic preservation.

A development that scored in the third tier would have to go through the Planning Commission and public hearing. A development in the second tier would have to go through the administrative hearing process.

A development that scored in the top tier would go through the normal building permit process, a substantially shorter endeavor.

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