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Lehi • Brainstorming began in earnest Monday on how best to develop Point of the Mountain once the Utah State Prison moves to Salt Lake City.
Nearly 150 stakeholders gathered at Adobe's Lehi campus to map a list of priorities, challenges and best ideas for turning the roughly 20,000 acres stretching from southern Salt Lake County to northern Utah County into an economic engine for generations to come.
"Rarely does a region get an opportunity like this," said Robert Grow, president and CEO of Envision Utah, the planning agency hired by the state to lead the process.
The wide-ranging discussion brought out elected leaders, planners, transportation experts, academics, real estate brokers, investors and a host of consultants. It also launched what will be a quick-fire series of meetings in coming months, aimed at yielding a conceptual plan for the area by next spring.
Initial surveys of the group proved revealing. Many touted improving transportation, preserving green space and ensuring a supply of affordable housing as top challenges for the suburban setting, considered a potential catalyst for the expanding cluster of tech-related companies along Utah's so-called Silicon Slopes.
And, by way of big ideas, participants suggested the site could become Utah's second major city behind Salt Lake City, a place where residents could work, live and play without leaving.
The area could host a Stanford University-scale educational campus, some said, or a sizable kayaking park along the Jordan River or a world-marketed paragliding destination. One commenter even suggested Utah recruit an NFL team and build its stadium at the Point of the Mountain.
"At least people are thinking big picture about the future," Grow said.
Many participants said the site seems ripe for large-scale development that departs from past norms, with increased building density and a mix of commercial and residential land uses offering a range of housing types.
Wise zoning will be essential, many participants said, if the state wants to alleviate an existing transportation bottleneck and ease future problems with air pollution.
That, in turn, highlighted a need to get a host of nearby cities to cooperate to make that happen. Some even entertained notions of incorporating the Point of the Mountain as its own hybrid municipality to minimize conflicts with city governance and future funding.
Others, including Riverton Mayor Bill Applegarth, urged caution and preservation as key themes in any emerging plan.
"We hope that you look at what we have here and don't destroy it," he told the audience. "We don't want another big city here."
Already, land adjoining the 700-acre prison site is the focus of dramatic commercial and housing growth at a pace that has exceeded previous planning visions.
Nearly 2 of every 5 new Utah jobs in recent years have sprouted between Midvale and Pleasant Grove, according to Envision Utah, while 1 in every 6 new residential units in the state of late has been built in either Herriman, South Jordan or Lehi.
"It's just extraordinary what's happening here already," Grow said. "This planning effort is really needed."
Utah lawmakers hope to have a final blueprint — and ideas on how to pay for it — in place by 2018.
State officials spent $12.4 million in November to buy 323 acres for a new prison, just west of the Salt Lake City International Airport, and expect the current lockup next to Interstate 15 in Draper to be vacated no later than 2020.
Salt Lake City officials launched an aggressive plan two weeks ago to maximize the benefits of state-funded roads and water and sewer lines being built for the new prison to help develop the city's Northwest Quadrant.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski hopes to have plans for zoning, utilities and a basic economic plan for that area within two years.
Twitter: @TonySemerad