Canyon Center development closer to reality

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Ghosts of the past are making way for skiers and others in the future now that a public-private funding mechanism is in place for the Canyon Center development, on the site of the old Canyon Racquet Center.

The $60-million-plus development will get a $14 million tax increment boost. Public amenities are to include a 1,200-stall parking garage and a pedestrian walkway crossing Wasatch Boulevard that could be used by skiers and a public park. The development also proposes restaurants, hotels, office buildings and office space. Financing includes a pledge of future tax revenues from several taxing entities that overlay the 11-acre site, including the Canyons School District.

Ghosts that have haunted successful development at the site include numerous ownership and management changes since the Canyon Racquet Center was built in the early 1970s, and community opposition to development proposals more recently. The original racquet-sports complex was razed almost three years ago.

The property, in a prime location at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, also has some more pragmatic ghosts, "one of which is the fault line," said developer Chris McCandless. "Actually there are five. It's nice that they're all clustered together."

He said archaeologists worked with planners to organize development plans around the faults. Numerous meetings with special interests fed into the mix of other projects in the development. "We've taken some of the ideas for farmers markets and trails and features that will embrace the community," McCandless said.

The project has the backing of City Hall. "I think it's going to be a fabulous gateway for our community and to the canyons," said Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore.

Opposition to the plan from CHVoters Inc., a citizens group that scrutinizes new development at the mouth of the canyon, is focused on the public financing plan, not the development itself.

"We think the newest proposal by the developer is a fine use of the property. It's substantially better and has more public benefit than the earlier version," said Will McCarvill, president of CHVoters.

McCarvill said he would rather have seen the public portion of the financing go to voters in a bond proposal than have taxing entities like the city, Salt Lake County and the school district pledge future taxes.

But the mayor swiftly disagrees. Funding pledged will come from tax revenues above current levels — revenue that would not exist without new development, he said.