By james art To address the shortage of new construction homes for sale in the Salt Lake City market, developers are planning a 46-home townhouse project in Glendale that will be all-electric and zero-energy ready.
Just one block from amenities like the Jordan River Trail and the new, under-construction Glendale Regional Park, the 2.2-acre development at 1549 South 1000 West is a five-lot mid-block development that is zoned RMF-30.
Local firm Garbett Homes is looking to continue its role as a leading developer of energy-efficient single-family homes in the Salt Lake Valley. He proposed a planned development that requires three exceptions to zoning rules while adding a pedestrian connection in the middle of the block between 900 and 1000 W.
Let’s take a look at the application filed last week at City Hall, which will likely be seen by the Planning Commission early in the new year.
The project
BRIX on Tenth, designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning, will offer 46 three-story townhouses in the familiar format: garage, entry and mechanicals on the ground floor, kitchen and living room on the second, with bedrooms and laundry on the third.
The project calls for the buildings to rise 34 feet, four feet higher than the zoning allows.
12 of the 46 apartments will be three-bedroom (1,720 sq.m.), and 34 will be two-bedroom (1,335 sq.m.). Each home has a two-car garage.
The townhouses are all electric and zero energy ready. Each unit is pre-wired for solar, has an on-demand water heater and an energy recovery ventilation (ERV) heat exchange system.
Along with the slight height increase exception, Garbett is asking the Planning Commission to allow the second floor balconies to encroach on the required minimum 10′ setback on the north property line. In addition, the design of the project does not comply with RMF-30 rules for ground floor transparency, as the garages occupy most of the ground floor. Developers want small garage windows and placing them high on the wall.
No brick?
Despite the BRIX on Tenth name, the building’s exterior cladding is proposed to be an “attractive combination of durable clapboard and stucco,” application materials state.
Interestingly, the site plans include a new connection in the middle of the block between 900 and 1000 West.
The developer notes, “Allowing access to the midblock from 900 West to 1000 West creates additional opportunities for pedestrians and makes alternative modes of transportation easier and more efficient.”
Still, it’s unclear how wide the walkway is in the middle block and whether its winding design will actually attract users. In the site plans it looks narrow, almost hidden from the street.
The developers call the mid-block trail part of a “13,000-square-foot linear park” on the south side of the project that will be “accessible to all members of the community.”
Email Luke Garrott