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- Salt Lake City allocated $1.16 million for two new 9-Line Trail land purchases.
- One property is a "community node" for retail, the other a "neighborhood node."
- Locations are undisclosed until deeds transfer; the deals could close by end of summer.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's capital city is close to acquiring a pair of properties that its leaders believe will help enhance a critical east-west connection trail that runs through it.
The Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency approved an additional $1.16 million toward property acquisitions along the 9-Line Trail project area during its board meeting last week.
Of that, $355,722 will go toward the final price of an undisclosed property along the trail, according to a city document. The city had already allocated $1.98 million toward acquiring a property at a "specific intersection" within the project area, but it was determined through negotiations that the agency would need to purchase another property within the same intersection, leading to the additional costs.
The property is only described as a "community node" within the Westside Master Plan, meaning that future redevelopment will focus on "retail and services uses that attract people from the larger area," the document states.
The remaining $805,000 would go toward another property within the project area. The second property is described in the document as a "neighborhood node" within the same master plan, which calls for "small commercial establishments" to be developed in the area.
Neither location was disclosed and will not be released until the deed is transferred over to the city, said Tauni Barker, a spokeswoman for the Community Reinvestment Agency. The 9-Line Trail currently runs along 900 South, from Redwood Road to 1100 East, but the agency's reinvestment area spans from a few blocks north and south of the line, from I-15 on the east boundary to I-215 on the western boundary, in the Glendale and Poplar Grove neighborhoods.
She told KSL.com that one was previously listed in a public auction, but the land owner was able to pay outstanding taxes to remove the property from auction. The other property is being sold by a private owner but is still in the "early stages" of the due diligence process, which includes inspections and evaluations of the site.
There's no timetable for when the city will close on each sale, but the city is hoping to finalize the agreements by the end of summer, she added.
The funds were previously budgeted through the 9 Line Project Area Fund-Strategic Intervention Program, but members of its board, who are all Salt Lake City Council members, conducted a straw poll to signal support to authorize the money to go toward the acquisitions. The fund still has an outstanding balance of $2.3 million toward future projects, according to the document.
