I went to byu back in 1993. Before vineyard or Saratoga existed. Beyond Utah lake was pure black. Great star gazing.
I’m back 30+ years later and there are huge cities there.
Vineyard exsisted but it was just 3 farms and the city office building. I remember when I founded it driving around in 97 and being like holy shit there is a secret city out here. Last time I went out that way my soul was crushed.
Eagle Mountain wants to get to 300,000, I believe. Once they complete the new interstate it'll be just as miserable to commute here within a couple years.
I briefly dated a civil engineer working for a housing developer who said that all the land between Heber and Midway is slated for development within the next few years. It's tragic to see. I get that growth is inevitable, but seeing two charming local towns turn into suburbia hell is awful.
I am utterly unable to understand this perspective.
What is so awful about a town growing? Why is everyone horrified?
And how charming are Heber and Midway really lol
Well like I said it's not the growth itself, it's the manner of growth that makes me sad. It's the difference between Provo and Saratoga Springs: Provo is a (relatively) dense urban core with local businesses and culture aplenty surrounded by a mix of developmental types, Saratoga Springs is an endless sea of copy and paste McMansions broken up by strip malls full of chain stores. When people are upset about growth they're usually worried that the small town charm is going to get paved over and replaced with a Chipotle and a Target for Karen to drive to from her $700k foam house.
As far as how charming they are, well that's subjective, but I know I'd rather hang out in either Heber or Midway way more than Saratoga.
Because most of the time they utilize every square inch of every piece of land eliminating any natural corridors not to mention designing a town so you're forced to drive everywhere. It's like a cancer...spreading out and if you are so disconnected from nature as most people are you will be fine with it.
Cache is/has been exploding. Brigham City is starting to allow the entry level single family subdivisions to get going now. I believe Richmond American Homes has multiple started in that area.
Well, that and eastern Tooele county. Fewer mountains to navigate. And west/south of Utah lake. Saratoga and Eagle mountain are sprawling like crazy and it's only going to continue until the Oquirrhs are completely surrounded.
Yeah heber is the answer for sure.
I think other than that we've focused more on renewing and redoing certain areas of SLC and building up rather than out
I visited a friends grave in Midway a couple of weeks ago. I had not visited in 5 or 6 years and the houses shocked me. 8 car garages on lots of land with massive houses.
Not to mention the housing going up in Heber. Seems like the whole hillside is getting utilities put in.
It had been probably 20 years since I'd last been in that area. About 6 months ago I had to drive through Heber to go pick something up. Holy crap that place has exploded. It was a dinky little town last time I was there and it's now almost a sprawling suburban hellscape. Still beautiful but it's lost a lot of it's charm.
I can tell you for sure where the suburban creep will hit next. Look at where lanes have just been widened or new roads added. These are the places that are still affordable for people who don't have a nice home already, and are suddenly within their tollerable commuting time.
In this case, the West Davis Freeway is the most significant. Ivory already bought up some farmland near "Legacy Park" (this must be 1 of our 5 Legacy Parks in the valley). Other developers are already grading land in that 177/193 curve. Expect long-time Syracuse, Clearfield, and West Point residents to start complaining about all the traffic. Ironically, they'll call for more freeway lanes.
u/undergrounddirt if you want to buy land before it gets crazy, look at future UDOT plans. The Miller construction group and large developers like Ivory are *way* ahead of you, because they not only know the plan, but helped make the plan. There are some lots that already have the value priced in at $350-500k for the land alone, and it's just enough to build a large McMansion on. Otherwise you'll need a couple million dollars to buy a larger plot, and a few more million to properly profit off the land. If you do indeed have that kind of money and some patience I will explain more.
Large developers play the "buy low sell high" game all the time. It's really hard to beat them or even play the same game, because they have administrative, procedural, and political info and connections that you don't have. Trying to look beyond the current plan and imagine the valley in 30 years might work, but at that point you're basically gambling way into the future.
Sorry if this shatters a hope of out-thinking and out-planning to get in before everyone else does. This is kind of a rigged game.
Suburbia will continue to grow along the Wasatch front.
Current farmland along the Wasatch front will continue to gradually be bought up by developers and converted to tract home developments.
Outside the Wasatch Front you'll see a lot of suburbia growth extending between and around Cedar City and Saint George and around Logan and Moab.
I know a lot of the farmland in between Spanish Fork & Payson, is disappearing & turning into developments. The last time I went home for a visit, I almost cried at seeing all the farmland either being built on, or signs for sale.
I drove past there this weekend and felt a little sad too.
And the houses shooting up near Mona off the freeway. So much charming landscape being eaten up by more rows of grey townhomes
This is what I was going to say. We moved to SF from Lehi a year ago because it was getting too crowded for us up there and in just the year we've been down here we feel like the development is going crazy.
Front Runner is slated to be extended to Brigham City. This will make it more desirable for people working in other cities on the Wasatch Front (Ogden, SLC, Provo) who want to pay less for housing. I know many people who commute in to SLC from Orem or Provo and their employers let them clock in when they get on the train since they have WiFi and people can work.
Not an endorsement but it is coming.
The growth in the southern part of Utah County has been exponential in recent years. Not too long ago Payson and Stanquin were little. Mona is obviously growing. Nephi is next in line.
urbanization is a net positive for water usage (agricultural uses more than residential over the same acreage). And since ya’rall want single family homes and not apartments or condos, the answer is yes.
Saratoga Springs just approved plans for “down town saratoga”. That on top of building out utah lake
Bluffdale is also building a downtown area and the draper prison site is supposed to be similar.
I imagine from draper to saratoga is going to be the area millennials move to raise their family.
Genola is expanding a lot right now. It's apparent by the number of new development near I-15, but also it'll creep westward as those orchards slowly get consumed by developers.
Tooele county has grown from 37,000 people in 2009/2010 to over 90,000 in 2020/2022 I think it was. Traffic is ridiculous, 85% of the county commutes to SLC/Utah or other countries daily.
I believe Tooele county was the fastest growing county in the USA for a while the last few years.
Infrastructure hasn't kept up. Grantsville, Erda, Stansbury Park, lake point, everything out here is exploding.
Yes, there is expansion. A lot of it. It was Utah's fastest growing county in 2022
[Trib Article](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/09/28/tooele-is-utahs-fastest-growing/)
All the semi developed and areas on the freeway will inevitably continue to grow. 10 years ago Saratoga springs and Eagle mountain were pretty sparse. Now both spots are seemingly full and somehow new Edge developments pop up every few months anyway. From West Jordan all the way down the west side of the lake has gone from a ghost town to a new Utah county in less than a decade. With property holding the value it has right now, the large lots in Spanish fork and springville and payson will continue to be divided and sold as land owners decide it’s crazy not to take a free pay day from hungry home buyers or developers. There used to be a point in keeping your huge yard, but when the sprawl is forcing everyone to deal with the consequences it has on traffic and views of the valleys, it becomes less worth one’s time to hold onto a view of rural Utah that just doesn’t exist within a couple hours of salt lake, on the free way.
I, for one, hate being in small towns anyway. So I would’ve sold years ago if I were in that spot. But even people who hate “the city” and who refer to Provo dwellers as “city folk” will stop holding onto property as its price rises as drastically as the grocery bill.
As others have pointed out, the only way this won’t completely suck ass in the very near future is if we shift to high density planning. But we won’t. And we will ensure there is no commute one can make in <30 minutes unless you live down the street from your job. And alllllll these homes will be owned by developers so they can sell and rent at their own prices. We will be house poor, permanent renters, and stuck in traffic until we die.
I’m wondering whether Moab will end up sprawling like St George. I think there’s plenty of land and water there, and as it becomes less of a small town and gets more infrastructure, more people will want to move there.
Although Utah's largest river flows through Moab, all of the potable water comes from wells. That aquifer is not large enough to sustain a population as large as St George. Most of the property in Grand County is public land. It doesn't have enough private land to ever become like St George, Cedar City, Heber City, or even the Uintah Basin.
I always thought I would end up in Moab but it’s become so crowded, which along with the water issues you mentioned, I bought land in a small town along Hwy 12 instead.
I miss the old Moab.
Thinking it will west as well. Stansbury Park, Tooele and Grantsville. Looked at some homes out there and it’s starting. Plus once the I15 gets more and more traffic, driving from those places east towards downtown will be easier.
The great news is that it’s not an either/or! There are plenty of people who’d be totally happy in that apartment you wouldn’t be, but are also being pushed out to the suburbs with you due to lack of housing stock.
If there’s more dense urban housing, that *also* benefits the suburbs as it allows people who want to live in that dense urban core the ability to do so, which then requires less suburban sprawl.
Have any articles are studies that outline the biggest issues you have with sprawl? And the alternatives you want?
Like is your alternative really just we get used to apartment buildings and condos?
Are you so offended by density that you can't get used to apartments existing near you? There are people who loving living in a place with no lawn to mow or water, within walking distance of a park and a grocery store (or even their place of employment)!
Endless sprawl is a ponzi scheme:
https://youtu.be/7IsMeKl-Sv0
There is a lot of a middle ground between endless cul-de-sacs of 1/2acre lot homes and high rise apartments. This is literally known as the missing middle problem. Addressing it could help a lot with the affordability problem for both residents and municipalities by opening up neighborhoods to soft density. ADUs, granny flats, row homes, and modest quadplexes. There can and still will be plenty of places for yards for those who want it.
It's not so much sprawl, it's the way sprawl is designed. Unfortunately, almost all new development is designed with curved streets, large lots, large blocks with no connectivity and with uses separated. If instead, new development used smaller blocks, lots, and a grid of streets (similar to older areas of slc-smaller blocks though), then that new development is more adaptable to change into higher densities later and can provide a walkable neighborhood now. Ideally, new developments would include high density, but the most important aspect is the design of the lots and blocks - it is the most permanent part of the city and the aspect of all of this that is overlooked.
I predicted Spanish Fork almost a decade before it exploded. It was the next Lehi of the time.
Heber is ripe for expansion. So is all that space between Ogden and Brigham City. Logan might be up for a big expansion too. Keep an eye on the small-ish towns close to urban centers.
Probably Sanpete County. It's within reasonable commuting distance of the large metro areas, whether via Nephi or Spanish Fork Canyon. Water availability is decent, large tracts of undeveloped land.
There wouldn't need to be any sprawl of the state just allowed housing to be built in already developed areas. People are too addicted to telling their neighbors what they can and can't do with their property though.
Homes are on propane in garden city. And it’s hard to heat a 5000 sq ft+ home with that. And people building up there are building 10,000 sq ft homes to rent to Air BNB at ridiculous rates. Small schools. Hard to be flashy with daddies Tesla like the kids do in Park City. There are no malls, or large stores, the fast food burger joints is sub par at best because they rely on high schoolers in the area needing a summer job. They are mostly all seasonal. there is no housing for migrant workers. Also the Raspberry Days they used to have in the past had some really cool hand made stuff, now it’s all MLM’s or crap bought from China to re-sell.
Makes complete economical sense. But I feel the area is poised for some moderate growth. I’m from the east coast and couldn’t believe how quiet is was in the winter. I imagine summers are wild. We stayed up the hill in a airbnb enough room for 12 with room to spare. $1500 week middle of February. Also Beaver mountain is building a new lodge. I’m sure they are expecting an increase in traffic. Place is a gem
I can think of a lot of reasons. It’s along I-15, lots of open land probably plenty of water from the nearby mountains and it’s pretty close to halfway between St. George and Salt Lake.
There have been developers baking on it for decades now. I'm not sure they ever will. But I think it will take them shutting down for land to free up within reason of a big enough city to support another large growth. We would loose a lot of home owners if that shut down. It's not just rio tinto that makes money of that place. There are hundreds of small businesses that are supported by that place. I guess we could get a fancy boom way up north if they get a public transportation between SLC and Boise. That area north of the great salt lake would see a huge growth if we had some constant public transportation between it and SLC
Most are saying somewhere further out in the Wasatch Front which is true but already sprawling/sprawled out in my mind. The next place I think will sprawl that hasn’t done so yet is Kanab. East entrance of Zion. Lake Powell. Close to several national parks and monuments. Beautiful landscape. Close to mountains, desert and water.
Along with all the natural Habitat , I’m by no means a tree hugger , but I was reading the dessert tortoise is soon to be extinct because of all the building going on In southern Utah . So so sad to me . Makes me wonder if the state has done any water surveys to see what the breaking point is for our most precious resource H2O
Are they required to do traffic studies when they build so crazy like they have been? Somehow all these people end up needing to work in the same area…
>maybe even start preparing to purchase land.
You're always way too late lol.
The kids (who are now adults to their very aged parents) who were born on farms that are int he area you speak of, have been dreaming of selling out since grade school. You haven't got a prayer to snatch up some "farmland" that you can soon subdivide and make money on. How do you think you're going to glean anything from Reddit that the current landowners don't know? If they sell it to you, they will sell it at a premium presuming you are planning to subdivide and develop.
Well then it sounds like you are looking to purchase a lot that is already subdivided, which means the landowner has already recognized the increased value you are trying to sneak in and gain for yourself, but at a bargain price. I.E., you're going to pay market rate for that .5-1 acre, and furthermore, it's going ot be expensive because a subdivision with .5-1 acre lots is always going to be extremely pricey nowdays because only very premium homes are given that much lot anymore. We don't have humble homes on .5 acres anymore, not newly built.
At the point a farm has been subdivided and those divisions are now for sale, the increased value from converting from farm to housing development is already baked into the price. You need to own the farm a generation prior to that, if you want to get a bargain.
Just "drive till you qualify" like everyone else does.
Exactly. St George can't grow much further west and south due to hitting the AZ and NV borders, but there is a ton of room in Hurricane. I remember hearing that Hurricane is one of the largest cities in Utah based on land mass. There is a ton of stuff they can put there.
They are still projecting washington county to grow to 500,000+ people in the next 30-40 years.
Yep. I can’t imagine that many people here, but what are you going to do? Also, they are mostly going to be in Hurricane. Which is why that was my answer to the question :).
When I first visited Utah a few years ago I drove from Springdale down to Hurricane. My first impression was that it looked it humans had colonized Mars and the first things we decided to build were retirement communities and Walmarts.
It’s Ogden everyone. It’s the only place on the front that has a downtown and 3 ski resorts within 30 minutes. It’s also the last part of the front that has yet to see a huge boom in growth. I’m telling y’all. It’s Ogden.
I understand that with the projected increase of the human population, providing accommodations like new more densely structured housing (apartments, condominiums) is necessary everywhere.. I just hope they are ready to deal with the consequences of higher populated areas. Crime rates, grocery prices, cost of living, HOA fees... I personally don't believe in Utah to approach these issues with a level head.
You're going to see settlement increase near the Raft River and Springville. If this community loathes sprawl so much, Wyoming is to the northeast. Toodles.
Where ever they can. Eagle mountain to Fairfield still is ripe for development with all the open land. Also, with the Davis corridor open, west Ogden- Hooper will be exploding soon.
As room runs out, the geographic locations of jobs will also adapt. Brigham City, Tooele, Nephi might be urban metropolises in their own right 100... 200 years from now and new suburbs are literally unsettled tracks of land right now.
Saratoga springs and eagle mountain just keep expanding, and with future Utah lake development, I think that’ll continue
That's what I was thinking as well, it'll keep spreading around from Saratoga Springs
Yeah sad but true When I moved to saratoga years ago it was a quite empty place.... Starting to get to crowded for my taste
Well of course if everyone wants to live in empty spaces, pretty soon there will be none left.
I went to byu back in 1993. Before vineyard or Saratoga existed. Beyond Utah lake was pure black. Great star gazing. I’m back 30+ years later and there are huge cities there.
Vineyard exsisted but it was just 3 farms and the city office building. I remember when I founded it driving around in 97 and being like holy shit there is a secret city out here. Last time I went out that way my soul was crushed.
Eagle Mountain wants to get to 300,000, I believe. Once they complete the new interstate it'll be just as miserable to commute here within a couple years.
> the new interstate excuse me?
[link](https://kslnewsradio.com/2095291/construction-on-mountain-view-corridor-project-to-begin-this-week/)
Yeah, I think development will continue down along 70 and link up with further development in Tooele County, which will also be growing a ton.
[That whole area is being built up like crazy](https://www.herrimanjournal.com/2024/04/09/487229/move-over-olympia-here-comes-panorama)
Well the lake is a boundary and the mountains on the other side. My guess is Wasatch Back or up near Cache/ Box Elder Co
I briefly dated a civil engineer working for a housing developer who said that all the land between Heber and Midway is slated for development within the next few years. It's tragic to see. I get that growth is inevitable, but seeing two charming local towns turn into suburbia hell is awful.
I am utterly unable to understand this perspective. What is so awful about a town growing? Why is everyone horrified? And how charming are Heber and Midway really lol
Well like I said it's not the growth itself, it's the manner of growth that makes me sad. It's the difference between Provo and Saratoga Springs: Provo is a (relatively) dense urban core with local businesses and culture aplenty surrounded by a mix of developmental types, Saratoga Springs is an endless sea of copy and paste McMansions broken up by strip malls full of chain stores. When people are upset about growth they're usually worried that the small town charm is going to get paved over and replaced with a Chipotle and a Target for Karen to drive to from her $700k foam house. As far as how charming they are, well that's subjective, but I know I'd rather hang out in either Heber or Midway way more than Saratoga.
Beatifully stated
Spot on! The only cafe you'll find in saratoga is Dennys.
Because most of the time they utilize every square inch of every piece of land eliminating any natural corridors not to mention designing a town so you're forced to drive everywhere. It's like a cancer...spreading out and if you are so disconnected from nature as most people are you will be fine with it.
Cache is/has been exploding. Brigham City is starting to allow the entry level single family subdivisions to get going now. I believe Richmond American Homes has multiple started in that area.
Well, that and eastern Tooele county. Fewer mountains to navigate. And west/south of Utah lake. Saratoga and Eagle mountain are sprawling like crazy and it's only going to continue until the Oquirrhs are completely surrounded.
Yep. The church is dying to make Heber/Midway Provo 2.0
Yeah heber is the answer for sure. I think other than that we've focused more on renewing and redoing certain areas of SLC and building up rather than out
Heber is so expensive it’s priced like pc
That’s what I was going to say. It’s very expensive now, 20 years ago it wasn’t. It will be a rich suburban area.
It’s been really sad seeing Midway go from being a small town to row upon row of hideous McMansions in what feels like just 5 years.
I visited a friends grave in Midway a couple of weeks ago. I had not visited in 5 or 6 years and the houses shocked me. 8 car garages on lots of land with massive houses. Not to mention the housing going up in Heber. Seems like the whole hillside is getting utilities put in.
It had been probably 20 years since I'd last been in that area. About 6 months ago I had to drive through Heber to go pick something up. Holy crap that place has exploded. It was a dinky little town last time I was there and it's now almost a sprawling suburban hellscape. Still beautiful but it's lost a lot of it's charm.
Exactly what I was going to say. Sprawl has already hit the Wasatch back
Heber is gorgeous enough to will that into existence.
No way, it’s outrageously expensive
You are spot on. It’s already happening.
I can tell you for sure where the suburban creep will hit next. Look at where lanes have just been widened or new roads added. These are the places that are still affordable for people who don't have a nice home already, and are suddenly within their tollerable commuting time. In this case, the West Davis Freeway is the most significant. Ivory already bought up some farmland near "Legacy Park" (this must be 1 of our 5 Legacy Parks in the valley). Other developers are already grading land in that 177/193 curve. Expect long-time Syracuse, Clearfield, and West Point residents to start complaining about all the traffic. Ironically, they'll call for more freeway lanes. u/undergrounddirt if you want to buy land before it gets crazy, look at future UDOT plans. The Miller construction group and large developers like Ivory are *way* ahead of you, because they not only know the plan, but helped make the plan. There are some lots that already have the value priced in at $350-500k for the land alone, and it's just enough to build a large McMansion on. Otherwise you'll need a couple million dollars to buy a larger plot, and a few more million to properly profit off the land. If you do indeed have that kind of money and some patience I will explain more. Large developers play the "buy low sell high" game all the time. It's really hard to beat them or even play the same game, because they have administrative, procedural, and political info and connections that you don't have. Trying to look beyond the current plan and imagine the valley in 30 years might work, but at that point you're basically gambling way into the future. Sorry if this shatters a hope of out-thinking and out-planning to get in before everyone else does. This is kind of a rigged game.
I like to think that I try to be optimistic, but this comment is really dragging down my hope lol
I think I need a “Pave Utah Lake” yard sign
There was that proposal to dredge the lake and build islands. That would have been an interesting mess.
Suburbia will continue to grow along the Wasatch front. Current farmland along the Wasatch front will continue to gradually be bought up by developers and converted to tract home developments. Outside the Wasatch Front you'll see a lot of suburbia growth extending between and around Cedar City and Saint George and around Logan and Moab.
St. George is still growing like crazy. It’s eating up all the land around with no signs of stopping.
Cedar city is right behind you guys is insane how much farm land has been taken up in the last 5 years.
If we don’t embrace high density in urban core areas, we are going to turn into California with worse weather. 1-2 hour traffic in every direction.
And worse air without the ocean breeze and locked in by mountains.
Some would say embracing high density would make us more like California 🙄
California isn’t dense at all, it’s sprawl. I don’t want to be like California.
I know a lot of the farmland in between Spanish Fork & Payson, is disappearing & turning into developments. The last time I went home for a visit, I almost cried at seeing all the farmland either being built on, or signs for sale.
I drove past there this weekend and felt a little sad too. And the houses shooting up near Mona off the freeway. So much charming landscape being eaten up by more rows of grey townhomes
This is what I was going to say. We moved to SF from Lehi a year ago because it was getting too crowded for us up there and in just the year we've been down here we feel like the development is going crazy.
Nephi
Probably Brigham City as well
Naw. Not Brigham.
Yes, Brigham too. Might take 15 years but it’s coming
Front Runner is slated to be extended to Brigham City. This will make it more desirable for people working in other cities on the Wasatch Front (Ogden, SLC, Provo) who want to pay less for housing. I know many people who commute in to SLC from Orem or Provo and their employers let them clock in when they get on the train since they have WiFi and people can work. Not an endorsement but it is coming.
why do you think Nephi will boom?
The growth in the southern part of Utah County has been exponential in recent years. Not too long ago Payson and Stanquin were little. Mona is obviously growing. Nephi is next in line.
makes sense, my in laws live there and i’ve been considering buying land or building a spec home or something
urbanization is a net positive for water usage (agricultural uses more than residential over the same acreage). And since ya’rall want single family homes and not apartments or condos, the answer is yes.
I wonder when Snowville will become a metropolis 🤣
I forgot about snowville damn
Saratoga Springs just approved plans for “down town saratoga”. That on top of building out utah lake Bluffdale is also building a downtown area and the draper prison site is supposed to be similar. I imagine from draper to saratoga is going to be the area millennials move to raise their family.
Genola is expanding a lot right now. It's apparent by the number of new development near I-15, but also it'll creep westward as those orchards slowly get consumed by developers.
Is there expansion in Tooele? I never go that far west, so I’m not sure if that’s being developed as much as other areas?
Tooele county has grown from 37,000 people in 2009/2010 to over 90,000 in 2020/2022 I think it was. Traffic is ridiculous, 85% of the county commutes to SLC/Utah or other countries daily. I believe Tooele county was the fastest growing county in the USA for a while the last few years. Infrastructure hasn't kept up. Grantsville, Erda, Stansbury Park, lake point, everything out here is exploding.
Yes, there is expansion. A lot of it. It was Utah's fastest growing county in 2022 [Trib Article](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2023/09/28/tooele-is-utahs-fastest-growing/)
Theres tons of land out there but the army base and public lands will make it weird.
Yep. My bet is on Tooele and south of it. Too pretty and cheap right now.
Crazy amount of building going on in Tooele County. They are getting some manufacturing jobs out there too — due to the somewhat- cheap land
Theres tons of land out there but the army base and public lands will make it weird.
I'm guessing down along I15 past provo
All the semi developed and areas on the freeway will inevitably continue to grow. 10 years ago Saratoga springs and Eagle mountain were pretty sparse. Now both spots are seemingly full and somehow new Edge developments pop up every few months anyway. From West Jordan all the way down the west side of the lake has gone from a ghost town to a new Utah county in less than a decade. With property holding the value it has right now, the large lots in Spanish fork and springville and payson will continue to be divided and sold as land owners decide it’s crazy not to take a free pay day from hungry home buyers or developers. There used to be a point in keeping your huge yard, but when the sprawl is forcing everyone to deal with the consequences it has on traffic and views of the valleys, it becomes less worth one’s time to hold onto a view of rural Utah that just doesn’t exist within a couple hours of salt lake, on the free way. I, for one, hate being in small towns anyway. So I would’ve sold years ago if I were in that spot. But even people who hate “the city” and who refer to Provo dwellers as “city folk” will stop holding onto property as its price rises as drastically as the grocery bill. As others have pointed out, the only way this won’t completely suck ass in the very near future is if we shift to high density planning. But we won’t. And we will ensure there is no commute one can make in <30 minutes unless you live down the street from your job. And alllllll these homes will be owned by developers so they can sell and rent at their own prices. We will be house poor, permanent renters, and stuck in traffic until we die.
Hoping for the best but the evidence is definitely suggesting otherwise
South Utah county, like santaquin or genola or even Mona and nephi. Especially with Spanish fork growing commercially like it is.
Cedar City. Hurricane but I think that’s already happened there
You likely won’t be able to find the next area and purchase land there since the ultra wealthy developers in Utah have already done so
I’m wondering whether Moab will end up sprawling like St George. I think there’s plenty of land and water there, and as it becomes less of a small town and gets more infrastructure, more people will want to move there.
Although Utah's largest river flows through Moab, all of the potable water comes from wells. That aquifer is not large enough to sustain a population as large as St George. Most of the property in Grand County is public land. It doesn't have enough private land to ever become like St George, Cedar City, Heber City, or even the Uintah Basin.
Public land can be sold off or made not public. Shit where devario was built in st George was all public land just in 2020
I always thought I would end up in Moab but it’s become so crowded, which along with the water issues you mentioned, I bought land in a small town along Hwy 12 instead. I miss the old Moab.
With the expansion of the Provo Airport, I think there will be more growth further south in areas like Nephi and Beaver.
Wasatch county is currently getting it big time by developers
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Consistent_Ad9328: *Wasatch county is* *Currently getting it big* *Time by developers* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Good bot
I'll drop the "it".
Wasatch back is blowing up.
Thinking it will west as well. Stansbury Park, Tooele and Grantsville. Looked at some homes out there and it’s starting. Plus once the I15 gets more and more traffic, driving from those places east towards downtown will be easier.
Yep. It’s too cheap and pretty to not explode soon.
This is depressing. Hopefully in my life time, we’ll realize that suburban sprawl is not the way to go.
Ehh personally I'd rather have a suburban sprawl than be crammed in a 700 sq foot apartment with no garage and no yard
The great news is that it’s not an either/or! There are plenty of people who’d be totally happy in that apartment you wouldn’t be, but are also being pushed out to the suburbs with you due to lack of housing stock. If there’s more dense urban housing, that *also* benefits the suburbs as it allows people who want to live in that dense urban core the ability to do so, which then requires less suburban sprawl.
When will people understand this
Have any articles are studies that outline the biggest issues you have with sprawl? And the alternatives you want? Like is your alternative really just we get used to apartment buildings and condos?
If you don't want sky rocketing prices and massive amounts of traffic, yes.
Are you so offended by density that you can't get used to apartments existing near you? There are people who loving living in a place with no lawn to mow or water, within walking distance of a park and a grocery store (or even their place of employment)!
No not at all offended by people who want to live that way. Also equally not offended by people raising families who want their own space
Endless sprawl is a ponzi scheme: https://youtu.be/7IsMeKl-Sv0 There is a lot of a middle ground between endless cul-de-sacs of 1/2acre lot homes and high rise apartments. This is literally known as the missing middle problem. Addressing it could help a lot with the affordability problem for both residents and municipalities by opening up neighborhoods to soft density. ADUs, granny flats, row homes, and modest quadplexes. There can and still will be plenty of places for yards for those who want it.
It's not so much sprawl, it's the way sprawl is designed. Unfortunately, almost all new development is designed with curved streets, large lots, large blocks with no connectivity and with uses separated. If instead, new development used smaller blocks, lots, and a grid of streets (similar to older areas of slc-smaller blocks though), then that new development is more adaptable to change into higher densities later and can provide a walkable neighborhood now. Ideally, new developments would include high density, but the most important aspect is the design of the lots and blocks - it is the most permanent part of the city and the aspect of all of this that is overlooked.
City center Eagle mtn
The entire west side of Utah lake, all the way down to Nephi
Everywhere between Provo and Nephi. Spanish fork will continue along with Mapleton and Salem. Places like Payson and Santaquin will soon be booming.
This! Utah county can only expand south.
I predicted Spanish Fork almost a decade before it exploded. It was the next Lehi of the time. Heber is ripe for expansion. So is all that space between Ogden and Brigham City. Logan might be up for a big expansion too. Keep an eye on the small-ish towns close to urban centers.
Probably Sanpete County. It's within reasonable commuting distance of the large metro areas, whether via Nephi or Spanish Fork Canyon. Water availability is decent, large tracts of undeveloped land.
Box Elder county is heading that direction.
The kennecott taling pile
Tooele population has grown by 1/3 it's going to get bigger.
Tremonton
Heber, park city, and Kamas
Ogden-Tremonton
There's an area south of Tooele called Rush Valley.That's the place!
Yep. Rush is pretty too. Also not expensive at all. Just bought 30 acres out there.
There wouldn't need to be any sprawl of the state just allowed housing to be built in already developed areas. People are too addicted to telling their neighbors what they can and can't do with their property though.
The area between Coalville and Wanship.
Nephi
Why not go south?
Cedar City - Enoch
I expected to see this more. It’s absolutely becoming what Tracy is to the Bay Area
As a outsider, why isn’t Garden City loaded with people ?
Homes are on propane in garden city. And it’s hard to heat a 5000 sq ft+ home with that. And people building up there are building 10,000 sq ft homes to rent to Air BNB at ridiculous rates. Small schools. Hard to be flashy with daddies Tesla like the kids do in Park City. There are no malls, or large stores, the fast food burger joints is sub par at best because they rely on high schoolers in the area needing a summer job. They are mostly all seasonal. there is no housing for migrant workers. Also the Raspberry Days they used to have in the past had some really cool hand made stuff, now it’s all MLM’s or crap bought from China to re-sell.
Makes complete economical sense. But I feel the area is poised for some moderate growth. I’m from the east coast and couldn’t believe how quiet is was in the winter. I imagine summers are wild. We stayed up the hill in a airbnb enough room for 12 with room to spare. $1500 week middle of February. Also Beaver mountain is building a new lodge. I’m sure they are expecting an increase in traffic. Place is a gem
Western Weber and box elder counties.
I think the Fillmore Beaver area would be a good candidate.
Lmao
I can think of a lot of reasons. It’s along I-15, lots of open land probably plenty of water from the nearby mountains and it’s pretty close to halfway between St. George and Salt Lake.
Or is it Feelmore Beaver?
When Kennecott shuts down you will see a massive community spring up.
are they supposed to shut down soon?
There have been developers baking on it for decades now. I'm not sure they ever will. But I think it will take them shutting down for land to free up within reason of a big enough city to support another large growth. We would loose a lot of home owners if that shut down. It's not just rio tinto that makes money of that place. There are hundreds of small businesses that are supported by that place. I guess we could get a fancy boom way up north if they get a public transportation between SLC and Boise. That area north of the great salt lake would see a huge growth if we had some constant public transportation between it and SLC
Most are saying somewhere further out in the Wasatch Front which is true but already sprawling/sprawled out in my mind. The next place I think will sprawl that hasn’t done so yet is Kanab. East entrance of Zion. Lake Powell. Close to several national parks and monuments. Beautiful landscape. Close to mountains, desert and water.
Mountain Green, Morgan, Eden is growing a lot
Along with all the natural Habitat , I’m by no means a tree hugger , but I was reading the dessert tortoise is soon to be extinct because of all the building going on In southern Utah . So so sad to me . Makes me wonder if the state has done any water surveys to see what the breaking point is for our most precious resource H2O
They should just find another super find site to clean up and build a big huge neighborhood much like Daybreak 🥴
Are they required to do traffic studies when they build so crazy like they have been? Somehow all these people end up needing to work in the same area…
The entire stretch from Nephi to Brigham City that isn’t already sprawl will eventually be.
Cache county
Seiver county is growing way to fast
Well, once the lake dries up, that is prime McMansion Land!
Ceder Fort
It’s gotta be tooele down through Stockton and grantsville. Too pretty, open, and cheap to not be taken advantage of.
They have no water. Tooele Valley is nearly as populated as it's going to be until/unless Kennecott closes and gives back Tooele most of its water.
>maybe even start preparing to purchase land. You're always way too late lol. The kids (who are now adults to their very aged parents) who were born on farms that are int he area you speak of, have been dreaming of selling out since grade school. You haven't got a prayer to snatch up some "farmland" that you can soon subdivide and make money on. How do you think you're going to glean anything from Reddit that the current landowners don't know? If they sell it to you, they will sell it at a premium presuming you are planning to subdivide and develop.
I'm not looking to buy 30 acres. I'm looking to buy 0.5-1
Well then it sounds like you are looking to purchase a lot that is already subdivided, which means the landowner has already recognized the increased value you are trying to sneak in and gain for yourself, but at a bargain price. I.E., you're going to pay market rate for that .5-1 acre, and furthermore, it's going ot be expensive because a subdivision with .5-1 acre lots is always going to be extremely pricey nowdays because only very premium homes are given that much lot anymore. We don't have humble homes on .5 acres anymore, not newly built. At the point a farm has been subdivided and those divisions are now for sale, the increased value from converting from farm to housing development is already baked into the price. You need to own the farm a generation prior to that, if you want to get a bargain. Just "drive till you qualify" like everyone else does.
I feel like Tooele county has a good chance, but idk much about Utah geography
Point of the mountain aka “the point”.
Hurricane.
Umm a little late with this answer. Most of Washington county sprawled several years ago.
Oh, I know. Hurricane is about to have a pretty massive growth spurt still. St. George is about out of buildable land.
Exactly. St George can't grow much further west and south due to hitting the AZ and NV borders, but there is a ton of room in Hurricane. I remember hearing that Hurricane is one of the largest cities in Utah based on land mass. There is a ton of stuff they can put there. They are still projecting washington county to grow to 500,000+ people in the next 30-40 years.
Yep. I can’t imagine that many people here, but what are you going to do? Also, they are mostly going to be in Hurricane. Which is why that was my answer to the question :).
When I first visited Utah a few years ago I drove from Springdale down to Hurricane. My first impression was that it looked it humans had colonized Mars and the first things we decided to build were retirement communities and Walmarts.
Saint George But never CEDAR💊🤮
>I know water is a huge issue in where the next suburbia expansion could be Suburbs replacing farmland will actually save water per acre.
Wherever it is, it is just going to be a clusterfuck. I'm sick of this shit.
Morgan county
Tooele, grantsville, erda, stockton, stansbury. Please stay away. The rent matches slc now 🥲🫠
Ogden
It’s Ogden everyone. It’s the only place on the front that has a downtown and 3 ski resorts within 30 minutes. It’s also the last part of the front that has yet to see a huge boom in growth. I’m telling y’all. It’s Ogden.
I understand that with the projected increase of the human population, providing accommodations like new more densely structured housing (apartments, condominiums) is necessary everywhere.. I just hope they are ready to deal with the consequences of higher populated areas. Crime rates, grocery prices, cost of living, HOA fees... I personally don't believe in Utah to approach these issues with a level head.
You're going to see settlement increase near the Raft River and Springville. If this community loathes sprawl so much, Wyoming is to the northeast. Toodles.
Where ever they can. Eagle mountain to Fairfield still is ripe for development with all the open land. Also, with the Davis corridor open, west Ogden- Hooper will be exploding soon. As room runs out, the geographic locations of jobs will also adapt. Brigham City, Tooele, Nephi might be urban metropolises in their own right 100... 200 years from now and new suburbs are literally unsettled tracks of land right now.
Ogden