By Travis Barton | [email protected]

Sugar House, Utah - Houses and apartments are sprayed across Sugar House. A proposed development of townhomes is next.

The development plans, to be called Liberty Place, have been submitted to Salt Lake City for the property at 640 East and Wilmington Ave. along the streetcar line.

The development comes from Cowboy Partners, a real estate development and property management company based in Holladay, who built the Liberty Village apartment building in Sugar House.

“We’re excited to make this available to the community…it’s a great site,” Dan Lofgren, President and CEO of Cowboy Partners, said.

Construction is expected to begin in late September, early October with a timeline of 14 months to complete the project.

The developers presented the project of 70 townhomes in nine different structures at 35 feet in height at the Land Use and Zoning Committee meeting and the Sugar House Community Council meeting on July 6.

After listening to comments made during the Land Use and Zoning Committee meeting, the developers made some adjustments with the feedback they heard.

Entrances were created along Wilmington Avenue on the north side as well as some pedestrian entrances along the south side. The west side along 600 East has been “livened up” with a stoop as well as entrances.

Lofgren said the property is actually zoned for a much greater density and height but they’ve kept the buildings to three stories in a townhouse format.

“We’re trying to be responsive to the character of the neighborhood,” Lofgren said.

Lofgren said townhouse units aren’t readily available in this section of the market bringing more activity to the area.

“[The townhomes] are going to continue to support and strengthen the viability of the restaurants and shops in the area,” Lofgren said.

With quick access to the streetcar line to be readily available for the Liberty Place residents, Lofgren said the townhomes will help fulfill the function of the streetcar line.

“It is sort of the bearing out of the value and purpose of the trolley line,” Lofgren said.

What concerns residents the most is a common theme across Sugar House: parking.

The minimum of parking stalls per unit is 1 and the maximum is 1.25 bringing the count to 87 stalls which doesn’t include the tandem stalls or on-street parking spaces.

Amy Barry, Sugar House Community Council Chair, said the biggest concern for the neighbors around the development will be overflow parking.  

“The solution we always try to advocate is for the neighbors to think about restricted parking,” Barry said.

Restricted parking, where people can buy a parking permit to a specific street location like the front of one’s home, is an option offered to anyone who lives on that street which would include those who live in the townhomes.

“So those residents [who live in the townhomes] have a right to purchase this permit just as anybody else who lives on the street does,” Nick Norris, Salt Lake City Planning Manager, said during the community council meeting.  

Lofgren said the permit system should help ease the parking pressure off the neighborhood but that’ll be up to the city.

“We think it’s a great idea,” Lofgren said.

Not all of the residents agree, voicing their concerns about a lack of control over the front of their house.

“It’s public street, the whole point of the permit program is somebody is asking the city for some exclusive right to park on that street over the general public,” Norris said.

To see plans of the townhome development, go to sugarhousecouncil.org.