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Snaking a streetcar along 500 West instead of 400 West could activate the area behind The Gateway, still connect to a future Davis County streetcar line, and perhaps, better cross the busy freeway ramps at 500 South and 600 South.
Toward that end, the Salt Lake City Council, acting Tuesday as the Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved nearly $60,000 to study the potential route. If funded one day, it could run from the new viaduct at North Temple to 900 South through the so-called "Granary District."
Mayor Ralph Becker favors the concept since it could energize a moribund stretch of western downtown, Community and Economic Development Director Frank Gray told the RDA Board.
"It becomes a very strong spine," he said. "And it provides a great deal of development potential."
The idea is far from final and still must be negotiated with the Utah Department of Transportation. Crossing the busy east-west lanes just east of Interstate 15 is the challenge. That could happen at 400 West, which has existing traffic lights. A second option is 500 West with the help of a streetcar light that Gray said would only change every 15 minutes to maintain traffic flow. Or, it could swing west to 600 West and skirt underneath the freeway viaducts.
Studying those routes was recommended by HDR Engineering and Fehr & Peers, consultants hired in September for a downtown streetcar study.
"It's pretty hard to find a street, especially in Salt Lake, that can't accommodate a streetcar," Charlie Hales of HDR Engineering told the RDA.
The streetcar scheme assumes TRAX will be "built out" consistent with the Downtown in Motion plan. That vision calls for the Utah Transit Authority to lay new track along 700 South, 400 West and 400 South -- completing a downtown light-rail loop, still several years out.
The streetcar route would then complement the planned TRAX circulator. A second streetcar segment would jog east from the transit hub at 600 West up 200 South to at least 500 East. RDA Chairman Luke Garrott said the ultimate goal should be a connection to the University of Utah. If that happens, Hales said the steepness at the top of 200 South would force the streetcar one block north to 100 South.
Overall, a downtown streetcar is expected to "catalyze" development, which officials would leverage to pay for the transportation project.
The capital might need to simplify its downtown zoning, Hales said, and should eliminate
its downtown surface parking lots in favor of a mix of housing and shops. After all, once one streetcar line is established, Hales noted, an entire network often follows, as does a vibrant, walkable urban core.
"You're preaching to the choir," Councilman Van Turner said. "We want that."
RDA members also pledged later this year to plant shade trees along the 500 West park strips behind The Gateway and Rio Grande to entice more activity on the mostly dead public space. Current sculptures and oddly placed benches, the board acknowledged, should probably be moved.