Rocky's dream: dorms downtown

For two years now Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has been dreaming about bringing student housing — maybe even college dorms — downtown.

Those energetic, wild college kids, after all, could be a key part of the ongoing effort to raise downtown from its economic doldrums.

Now the mayor has a site picked out — along the east side of State Street between 200 and 300 South — and is set to move forward with his college student plan.

"The mayor's very enthusiastic about the idea and he thinks it would be a great location for student housing," Anderson's spokeswoman Deeda Seed said.

Next Thursday, Anderson's plan could get its first public airing before the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency Board, which is technically the City Council. RDA Board Chairman Eric Jergensen said at that meeting he and his fellow board members may seek to discover more about the mayor's plan.

At this point, Jergensen said he has some reservations with student housing and suggested mixed-income housing may be better for the site near 250 S. State, which the RDA recently purchased.

"I don't know if the dorm scenario is what we want because I don't think a dorm is really what we want in downtown Salt Lake City," he said. "The university has dorms and the university does a good job of operating its dorms . . . I think we want to have a broad mix of people in our downtown. I don't think we want to have a clear preponderance of any one demographic in our downtown."

There are also questions about whether new student housing is needed: The university opened new dorms shortly after the 2002 Winter Games and has three vacant dorm buildings on campus.

Dan Adams, the university's assistant vice president in charge of residential living, was out of town and unavailable for comment on the plan. U. spokeswoman Coralie Alder said different U. administrators have met with Anderson about downtown student housing.

Anderson's proposed downtown site is along the east side of State Street between 200 and 300 South where the Tivoli Gallery, 255 S. State, and some very low-income housing currently exist.

RDA executive director Dave Oka said the current housing there is so run-down it will likely be razed and any potential new housing built in its place.

"That seems most logical," he said. "If you look at the buildings they aren't really usable."

Still, Oka admits evicting the low-income tenants from the buildings could be controversial, and he noted the Tivoli Gallery has a long-term lease for the site.