Snyderville Basin residents and the Summit County Council have expressed concerns about the proposed redevelopment of Junction Commons into a mixed-use neighborhood because of the potential for increased traffic in Kimball Junction, but the county’s transportation planning director said the project likely wouldn’t cause major issues in the area.
Summit County Transportation Planning Director Carl Miller and the development team behind the Junction Commons project presented information on a traffic study to the County Council on Wednesday. The conversation was part of an ongoing dialogue between councilors and developers as the two parties work on the details of the redevelopment, which has not yet been approved.
Hales Engineering, a Lehi-based consultant specializing in transportation planning, spearheaded the traffic study and noted two areas of concern if the development were approved: the entrances to Walmart and Whole Foods on Landmark Drive.
Miller said the traffic study showed there had been 38 crashes across those two intersections over the last five years. However, none of those crashes involved serious injuries.
“These are already background or existing conditions,” Miller said. “Obviously, while additional traffic won’t help the matter, they’re conditions that we’re dealing with already at that location.”
Miller said the reduction in commercial space on the property, combined with the addition of residential housing, would help spread trips throughout the day so the amount of traffic is less noticeable. He also said the study indicated the road wouldn’t “fail” as long as the county implements a few mitigating factors, including a right turn only lane near Walmart and an expanded roundabout near Whole Foods.
The Summit County government declared Landmark Drive a problematic area when it developed its long-range transportation plan in 2022. But Miller said the previously identified solution may no longer fix the issue, considering the major projects proposed in Kimball Junction, which is why he recommended the specific mitigating measures instead.
“When we developed the long-range plan in 2022, we identified that (solution) as a widening from three lanes to four lanes,” Miller said. “I think with all the other dynamic pieces that are going on, we should look at this, but I’m not totally sure that solution of four lanes is the right answer. I think it needs additional analysis.”
Miller said the traffic study showed the area around Junction Commons receives 87 trips each morning and 402 trips each afternoon on average. With the redevelopment project, those numbers are expected to increase to 242 morning trips and 578 afternoon trips.
However, County Councilor Roger Armstrong said he wasn’t convinced the redevelopment would only generate 30% to 40% more traffic, especially when including the Utah Olympic Park’s future hotel and housing units in Kimball Junction in addition to the development previously known as the Dakota Pacific project, now called Altus Park City.
Miller said the Junction Commons redevelopment would change the amount of traffic on the road, but he said it wouldn’t necessarily make the road more congested or difficult to use. The developers echoed Miller’s statements, saying their goal was to make Junction Commons a destination for locals, not shoppers traveling on Interstate 80.
The traffic study additionally indicated that most of the increased traffic would be outbound cars from Junction Commons in the morning, as the commuters who live in the residential units would likely be leaving the complex for work.
The study touched on parking at Junction Commons, too. The current iteration of Junction Commons has 1,274 parking spaces, but Miller said the developers are proposing a total of 1,504 parking stalls as part of the redevelopment.
The parking stalls would largely be split in half, with 720 spaces included in a surface parking lot and another 700 available in a parking garage. Townhomes that are proposed as part of the project in the northwest corner would have an additional 84 spots via attached garages.
“I think they’ve threaded the needle as far as getting the amount slightly more than the demand calls for, but not so much that it pulls away from other objectives in that community,” Miller said.
Miller also said the parking lots would not be how they are today — a sea of concrete in the midst of commercial buildings. Instead, the center of the development would have buildings and green space, which would be encircled by parking spaces.
The developers plan to install at least nine electric vehicle charging stations throughout the property, as well as create two transit hubs on the north and south sides of the development to encourage residents and visitors to use public transportation.
The County Council did not take any action on the Junction Commons proposal this week, but the development team is expected to return in the next few weeks with an additional presentation on how the redevelopment will tackle affordable housing.
Singerman Real Estate purchased Junction Commons in 2018 and has invested more than $20 million into the property so far, with an end goal of converting the shopping outlet into a neighborhood and community center. Specifically, the developers have proposed 433 residential units, with 228 to be sold or rented at a market rate while the other 205 will be earmarked for affordable housing.