Mountain home

DRAPER — Some call it Traverse Mountain; others call it South Mountain. And a growing number of people call it home.

The hills that divide eastern Salt Lake County from Utah County have long been used for everything from hiking to hang-gliding, but in recent years, housing developments have been working their way up the hillsides. Today, there are entire neighborhoods perched on the top of the ridge. Some residents can actually see the Salt Lake Valley from their front porches and Utah Valley from their back yards.

These homes are on streets with numbers like 16000 South and 2000 East — addresses that represent some of the county's farthest extremities.

Southeastern Salt Lake County is just one area of the valley dealing with the Wasatch Front's rapid growth. But with Sandy and Draper already nestled against the foothills, a lot of the growth is pointed uphill. And the two cities are handling the growth a little differently.

In Sandy, city ordinance prohibits building homes within 20 feet of a hillside slope of 30 percent or greater. In Draper, according to planning manager Grant Crowell, there is no hard-and-fast ban on steep-slope development, though city ordinance regulates development on slopes of at least 30 percent. Often, rules on hillside slopes are made in agreements with individual developers rather than by city ordinance.

Crowell said such steep-slope development is "strongly discouraged." However, "it doesn't stop someone from asking."

Some of the new developments in Draper's foothills were approved by the city as long ago as 1987, Crowell said. The 4,000-acre Suncrest development, at the top of Traverse Ridge, was built under the terms of an agreement the city made when Draper annexed the hillside land in the late '80s.

And the hillside growth will continue for the foreseeable future, Crowell said.

He said there are plans for a 6,000-acre development farther west on the mountain, near where hang-gliders can regularly be seen launching on breezy afternoons.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints plans to build a new temple in the Corner Canyon area at about 2000 East and 14000 South.

Why so high?

Residents at lower altitudes may wonder why anyone would want to move to the top of the mountain, where winds are worse and snow is deeper and deer graze in front yards.