West side neighbors hopeful, and cautious about Jordan River plans

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Larry H. Miller Company announced plans on Thursday to restore a section of the Jordan River.
Residents on Friday expressed optimism, but are concerned about potential gentrification in the Fairpark area.
Discussions focus on preserving community character while embracing development opportunities.

SALT LAKE CITY — Of all the places in Salt Lake City to live, Jeffery Olson said there's something special about the west side.

"I really love Fairpark," he said with a smile. It's a neighborhood he is proud to call home.

"We have wonderful neighbors. It's a great place," Olson said.

Now, there's a chance he might love it even more.

On Thursday, plans were announced by the Larry H. Miller Company to restore a section of the Jordan River near North Temple in the Fairpark community. It'll improve water quality, bring new green space, places to gather, and future development to an area that could use some attention.

The Power District could also be home to a future Major League Baseball team and stadium.

"It could be absolutely amazing," said Olson. "The potential is there."

The Jordan River has long been an asset for west side neighborhoods, but residents said it has also carried a reputation shaped by years of crime, homelessness and neglect.

Dan Strong, president of the Westside Coalition, said neighbors were sick of it.

"About a year ago, we had some real struggles with crime in the area," said Strong. "We advocated to the city and to the state to do more, and they did more, and it's gotten a lot better."

Strong said residents who live along the river were eager to see change, and relieved to finally see investment focused on people, not just infrastructure.

"All we're dealing with, freeways, railroads, airports, the prison, the inland port. All this stuff that kind of feels like, frankly, most people wouldn't want in their neighborhoods. I think we're more welcoming than most," said Strong. "The nice thing about this project is it's for people. It's for people to go live there, eat there, hopefully see some baseball there. And we're all really excited about that."

The plans have sparked optimism among many west side residents.

But that excitement comes with concern.

Concerns with Jordan River changes

When investment comes to historically overlooked neighborhoods, residents fear the people who held on during the toughest years may not be able to afford to stay.

"That is a real concern," said Olson. "It really is a dilemma, figuring out how to deal with that."

Olson said neighbors have already begun talking about how to protect the character of Fairpark as the area improves.

"How do we make sure that we don't gentrify it to the point where the people who've lived here can no longer afford to do it?" he asked.

Strong said those conversations are critical as planning moves forward.

"We want for ourselves to have more places to go that are close by. That's all great. We also want to make sure that the people who are here now can stay," said Strong.

Despite the concerns, Olson remains hopeful. He said Fairpark's strength has always been its people, and he believes growth doesn't have to come at the expense of community.

"Maybe build up mixed income residences because I think the best neighborhoods have a mixture. That's not easy to do, but I think it's doable," he said.

As change moves closer to the river banks, residents said their hope is that as Fairpark changes, it will still feel like Fairpark.

"We ought to just have the very best, so the whole world sees us and Salt Lake City as just amazing," said Olson. "It really is a great place."

Photos

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.