South Salt Lake officials are hoping to lure more residents and businesses into their city with a transit hub that will include a five-story building with retail on the ground floor and four levels of condominiums. The development, called Central Pointe Station, will be just steps away from the 2100 South TRAX stop.

The transit-focused development will allow residents to hop on TRAX to get to work and also aims to bring other valley residents into South Salt Lake to shop, said Bruce Talbot, community development director for the city.

"It's a relatively small land area with a lot happening on it," Talbot said.

That idea of doing more with less is the key concept behind transit-oriented developments, said Michael Allegra, chief capital development officer for UTA. By increasing densities and building up instead of out, communities along the Wasatch Front can continue to expand despite physical boundaries, he added.

"This congestion is creating an economic choke-hold on our community," Allegra said.

Current ridership on UTA's light rail and bus system equals about one lane of traffic on I-15. For that number to increase, Allegra said development and transit will have to work co-dependently for each to thrive.

If they do, he said Salt Lake Valley has the chance to create a more complete transportation system to reduce parking lot construction, give residents more mobility, improve air quality and strengthen city economies.

Such potential benefits of transit-oriented development prompted UTA officials to work toward putting a bill before the Legislature in the coming 2005 session that would give developers a tax incentive for building at TRAX stations.

The bill would allow cities to rezone land around stations as an Economic Development Area to entice development on land that Steiner said is often a risk for construction.

Part of the risk, she said, is that developers will have to plan easy access to TRAX and will likely have to restructure UTA Park & Ride lots to free up more land for buildings.

"Spending the kind of money we're spending on transit and not trying to focus development around those stations is just silly," she said.

Steiner has been working closely with Sandy city officials to push the tax increment bill and hasten development along TRAX. Sandy planners have already rezoned the area around the 10000 South station for a transit-oriented development and are now looking for developers to implement their town center vision.

Nick Duerksen, Sandy planning spokesman, said the city's station is an ideal spot for a mixed-use, pedestrian friendly town center because it marks the end of the the TRAX line.

"We're kind of the economic hub of the south end of Salt Lake Valley," Duerksen said.

Dolan said the 70-acre area around the TRAX station will likely be turned into a large condominium complex linked to a retail center. While Proterra Co. has already launched a 148 townhome and condo project on the site, Dolan said it may take some time to nail down concrete plans for the rest of the land.

"I think the development community is still a little nervous about what is transit-oriented development in this state," he said. "We are a western community and we want our cars. But I don't think we've begun to see the impact of light rail."

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