Popular SLC trail could gain more neighborhood attractions
Authored by Alixel Cabrera
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
EPA grant will allow Salt Lake City to clean up west-side site and possibly bring restaurants, coffeehouses and other commerce to the Folsom Trail.
A vacant building near North Temple someday may host longed-for small businesses on Salt Lake City’s west side.
It might also become a commercial attraction for those hiking and biking the popular Folsom Trail.
First, though, it needs to be cleaned up.
The spot at 22 Jeremy St. — near South Temple and 900 West — housed Schovaers Electronics, an electroplating shop, for nearly 40 years until its 2017 closure. An environmental study of the 0.34-acre site found contamination from heavy metals and volatile organic compounds in its soil and groundwater.
The city’s Redevelopment Agency owns that plat now and has plans to convert the former industrial zone into a neighborhood center with 100 feet of frontage along the Folsom Trail.
“After this cleanup is complete,” Cara Lindsley, deputy RDA director, said, “we plan to renovate and reuse the existing site to begin establishing a node of small-scale, trail-oriented commercial spaces that are suited for small local businesses and nonprofit organizations.”
An engagement process will be in the works when the site becomes ready for renovations to ask community members what kinds of businesses and organizations they would like to see in the area, Lindsley said. As of now, the general idea is to include restaurants, coffeehouses or bike repair shops, along with organizations that could serve the surrounding neighborhoods.
Potential designs are not available but may be released along with City Creek’s “daylighting” project by fall.
About the Folsom Trail
The Folsom Trail officially opened in June 2022 as a paved off-street walking and biking path that connects 1000 West to 500 West and the North Temple FrontRunner Station.
But it still has a long way to go.
The city allocated $5 million for Folsom Trail improvements in the bond voters approved in November. The money would add amenities, native plants and a tree canopy, while completing the paving and continuing the path to the Jordan River Trail.
The RDA and Seven Canyons Trust are also studying plans to resurface City Creek north of the trail and will present design and programming alternatives to the public this summer.
Last fall, that team finished an engagement process in which respondents said they would like to see landscaping, lighting, trash cans and seating areas along the trail. They also expressed concerns about maintenance, safety and homelessness.
The visual preference survey found that residents favor murals, creative seating, natural play spaces and a plaza.
“It could be this really interesting juxtaposition between sort of an industrial area with restaurants, places to live, with kind of that natural [area],” Brian Tonetti, executive director of Seven Canyons Trust, said. “A really, really cool green space.”
In addition to these plans, a multifamily development is underway around the corner from the former Schovaers Electronics site. TAG SLC is constructing Folsom Flats, a mixed-use building that would open up 188 units along the corridor.
