Building Central 9th 

• Taylor AndersonBuilding Salt Lake
• Central 9th is experiencing a building boom, bringing new retail, office space and homes to the Downtown-adjacent neighborhood.

This story was originally published on buildingsaltlake.com

Salt Lake City's Central 9th neighborhood started as a carve-out of a much larger district, a hamlet whose urban zoning and transit access gave it a distinct feel. The neighborhood's center has long since found the attention of developers, who began—or are in the process of filling out—the area's "main street" on 900 South, with a wide mix of planned uses like a youth digital media arts center, architecture firms, restaurants, bars and a new cidery, as well as a slate of proposed housing projects in the area.

With so much change occuring in the built environment of Central 9th—including major transportation projects, rezone requests, real estate listings hyping the proximity to the area and a construction boom—Building Salt Lake thought it was a good time to spotlight what could change the neighborhood in the coming years.

What, Where, Why?
Central 9th is a carve-out of Ballpark with an epicenter at 200 West 900 South and boundaries that span from 600 South to roughly 1000 South, and Main Street to 300 West.

The neighborhood is distinct in part due to zoning that allows for walkable density. Washington and Jefferson Streets are residential and zoned Form-Based Urban Neighborhood 1 (FBUN1) with older—often Victorian—single-family residences or duplexes. Developers and homeowners have already begun adding fourplexes and other housing on these streets.

The streets lining the core of the neighborhood are zoned FBUN2, which allows a mix of uses in buildings that are four or five stories tall, and that require no minimum front setback from the sidewalk.

Central 9th benefits from UTA's 9 bus line, which runs east-west on 900 South every 15 minutes, as well as TRAX light rail offering similar 15-minute headways from multiple lines. The city is also constructing a multi-use path along 900 South—The 9-Line—that will connect Central 9th and nearby 9th and 9th with the west side's Poplar Grove neighborhood.

But Central 9th is bound by an oversized interstate off-ramp that ensures acres of valuable land remain undeveloped and creates an undeniable, and imposing, physical barrier separating the neighborhood's core from its southernmost boundary.

Coming Soon
For years, an abandoned natural gas filling station sat at the east end of Central 9th's main street. We now have insight into what might bookend the village center in 2022.

The filling station property is being acquired by CW Urban. The group—a Building Salt Lake sponsor—specializes in quick-build townhome developments, but recently ventured into urban design with projects Downtown and elsewhere in Central 9th.

CW also closed on the former Henrie's Cleaners at 906 S. 200 W., the site of one of two projects that will fill out the middle of the neighborhood with mixed-use buildings—known as Sydney and Slate—that will have the largest footprint in the neighborhood after completion and will flank and activate an alleyway between 200 West and Washington Street.

The women-led Maven District also expanded its portfolio at 945 S. 300 W., framing the western boundary of Central 9th. It brings space for new residents plus office and restaurant space.

Builders are working on a 9-unit apartment building at 120 W. 900 S., and construction continues on multiple new-builds on Washington south of 900 South.

That gush of construction is arriving in tandem with a major street reconstruction project by the city that will bury utility lines and better connect the capital city's east and west sides via a pedestrian-friendly transportation corridor.

Eyes On Crime
Before the close of the year, TAG SLC (another Building Salt Lake sponsor) applied for a rezone of four properties near Jefferson Park—just south of Central 9th—asking that FBUN2 zoning be extended.

The developer hasn't submitted specific plans for the duplex and single-family homes that would likely be demolished and replaced with any number of developments allowed under FBUN2 zoning (likely townhomes or apartments). But its application highlighted the area's proximity between TRAX stations at both 1300 South and 900 South, as well as the 900 South bus line and growing walkability of the area.

"The proposed rezones will allow the creation of a significant number of units without impacting the neighborhood more than these already existing projects," TAG SLC wrote, pointing to the adjacent six-story C9 Lofts that were built in recent years.

Much of the neighborhood south of the I-15 off-ramp is zoned RMF-35, which allows developers who hold enough property to demolish existing homes and build multi-family apartments.

But the area struggles with perceived problems with crime, and developers tout the increased eyes and feet on the street as potential benefits to root out criminal activity.

"The additional surveillance offered by the projects possible under the rezones will impact the neighborhood positively by improving the nearby park and creating the density necessary to more adequately support the mass transit and commercial amenities in the area," TAG SLC wrote.

A Tower?
A one-acre property on the neighborhood's east end is being marketed to developers. Located at 46 W. Fayette Ave, the parcel is subject to D-2 zoning, allowing a potential building to have no setbacks and to stretch in height.

"Desirable D-2 Zoning allows for a building height of 65 [feet] as a right and up to 120 [feet] with design review—a rarity in Granary," the listing notes, referring to the nearby Granary District.

Much of Granary remains subject to auto-oriented General Commercial (CG) zoning and are capped at no more than 90 feet tall. Central 9th, on the other hand, is a mix of urban zoning with minimal setbacks and lower parking requirements.

A one-acre property changing from an industrial warehouse with a front yard of surface parking into a tall, mixed-use development would begin to expand the neighborhood east. The property could also be simply adapted into a new use or stay the same.