A push to reinvigorate downtown Salt Lake City with more city dwellers could bring families downtown with demand for more schools, grocery stores and transportation in tow.

An ordinance approved by the city's planning commission last month could heighten that possibility if the City Council also votes to allow ground-floor housing throughout the city and along Main Street.

"As more housing moves downtown, it will be a huge mushroom cloud that will burst," commissioner Babs DeLay said. "I think it will be a much friendlier, warmer environment. After 5 p.m. at night, you'll still see people on the streets."

But DeLay is quick to point out that Salt Lake is still missing a few critical pieces to become a full-fledged city of urban dwellers. Most notably, downtown schools and grocery stores will be key to providing new residents with amenities that make downtown living feasible.

"More and more people with children, particularly newborns or older children from second marriages are wanting to move downtown and be where the arts are happening and where events are happening," DeLay said. "Schools are a high priority."

A law by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, however, prohibits school buildings within 600 feet of stores that sell alcohol. That rule, DeLay said, makes it hard to find a spot for schools that could serve children living downtown.

Ideally, DeLay said she would like to see that restriction lifted altogether in some instances or simply loosened to allow more chances for schools to build downtown. Other cities, she said, issue strict warnings to bars and liquor stores that they cannot try to entice children onto their premises.

"Now we're wanting more urban living, and having schools downtown is urban living at its peak, at its best use," she said. "You have schools in New York City that are across from bars; it's just the nature of commercial and urban living."

Jason Olsen, spokesman for the Salt Lake School District, said the district has not started looking for possible downtown sites just yet. If and when the school-aged population in Salt Lake goes up, Olsen said, the district will have to identity new needs based on where the most growth occurs.

The district also has two vacant schools close to downtown Salt Lake that could be used for new residents.

"Some schools in the area are fairly full, but we have room in other schools. It just depends on where the growth is," he said.

Besides new school considerations, Salt Lake Planning Division Director Alexander Ikefuna said the city is also trying to recruit more grocery stores and to expand the city's light rail. Although he said the city has always promoted grocery stores downtown, an influx of residents would heighten the need for quick access to neighborhood market-style stores.

More transportation options, including an augmented light rail system, and recreation opportunities could also accompany more families moving downtown, he said.

"There are always plans to expand access to light rail downtown as a result of people moving downtown. The need is gradually evolving," Ikefuna said.

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