Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall is standing in the middle of 500 West in the Granary District on a warm October morning, explaining why the wide, dilapidated street should be transformed into a combination of park, pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle lanes, as part of the first segment of a proposed Green Loop around downtown.
Mendenhall has to raise her voice to be heard above some nearby construction while dodging a few passing cars and trucks, but otherwise the section of street between 700 and 800 South that has a concert venue but little else is empty except for some apparently unhoused individuals walking by with their belongings.
Under what she calls her "big idea" to help make the core of Utah's capital city more livable, especially for families, as much as $350 million would be spent overhauling more than five miles of city-owned right of way along 500 West, 900 South, North Temple and South Temple, and 200 East to create a connected greenway.
"Thanks Brigham Young, honestly, for giving us 132-foot wide right of ways," Mendenhall said on 500 West, referring to the early leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who'd ordered that the streets in downtown Salt Lake City be wide enough for a wagon team to turn around.
Now, with the city's downtown population about to double and the recently awarded 2034 Winter Games offering a deadline, the mayor said the city has "a tremendous opportunity in reimagining the wealth of space that, as you can see, sits mostly vacant and is overprescribed on many of our roadways for cars today."
Green Loop plans show only two lanes for vehicle traffic, leaving the remaining right of way for pedestrians and bike riders along with an urban forest of some 50 large canopy trees per block and other greenery. The added green space shifts the focus from cars to people, something Mendenhall sees as critical to taking care of downtown residents.
"This is not just landscaping because it creates a third space for the public that doesn't exist," she said. Plans presented to the Salt Lake City Council over the summer say it will create "a robust downtown urban forest," as well as "front yards," gardens and social spaces for residents.
Other benefits cited include a dedicated corridor for bikers and pedestrians and some, like stormwater management and utility improvements, that are less noticeable. The project's potential has been showcased by the city in "pop-up" events held on 200 East near the Salt Lake City-County Building last year and on 500 West in September.
The Green Loop is a top priority for Mendenhall, who won a second term last year.
"The future livability of this city would hinge upon the Green Loop more than any other public investment we may make," she said, describing the project as part of the reason she ran for mayor in 2019 as the chair of the city council. "We have so much potential here."
But not everyone is as committed to the massive project.
An administration request for $10 million to start with the 500 West section recently was scaled back to $3.1 million after several city council members said that while they like the concept of the Green Loop, they had concerns about its impact on projects already underway, including the new Glendale Regional Park now set to open next year on the city's west side.
"My greatest fear is that we start a lot of beautiful things over the next decade because of the Olympics and all of the professional sports that are coming," Salt Lake City Council Chairwoman Victoria Petro said, but end up "with a bunch of half-completed projects and Salt Lakers have the promise of beauty and wonderful things and not the reality of them because we have not been strategic."
Being strategic, the council chair said, means "pacing projects, being realistic about timelines, identifying revenue streams that don't force projects to compete with each other -- all of those things." The Green Loop, she said, is "a bit of a genie in a bottle. Once we do part, it will be harder to stop."
Petro said the council has earmarked the money requested for 500 West, but wants to hear more about the entire Green Loop project before releasing the funds. "Before we do anything, we want a comprehensive understanding of what's going to be required," she said, adding, "this is our job, to be a check and a balance and to not be seduced by the next good idea."
Safety in the proposed new green space is also an issue for some council members, Petro said.
"Green spaces right now are difficult to manage because the homelessness crisis is generally unchecked. And until we have something that accounts for people to have a place to go, our green spaces are becoming the default place for them to be," she said, calling for a viable homelessness management plan to be put in place before more green space is added.
Both the framework for the Green Loop and the safety issue are expected to be addressed at a November council meeting.
The mayor acknowledges there's work to do.
"We have not done a good enough job yet of talking about the Green Loop as more than an investment that creates park space, public utility improvements, stormwater management potential and beautification with transportation and walkability connection," Mendenhall said.
"It is all of those things but most of all it is space that ensures Salt Lake City has a highly livable, thriving downtown core in the face of urban decline across other cities in the country (and) the volatility of our climate experience," she said. "And most of all, a residential population that wants to connect and have a space to share together with their dogs and their kids."
The funding request was scaled back, Mendenhall said, in recognition that $3.1 million would be enough to design three blocks of 500 West "and that we feel good about the private sector participation commitment. We need the concept of the Green Loop to be a little further expanded."
That includes detailing how the more than 50 acres of new green space would be managed.
"Salt Lake City is exploring public-private management models that other cities, like Chicago, San Diego, Kansas City, Cincinnati and many others, have implemented in key downtown public spaces," the mayor said. "In addition to homelessness and camping issues, the city will consider operations, maintenance, programming, safety and security as part of this comprehensive strategy."
Kristian Peterson, a managing partner of Catalyst Opportunity Funds, which owns about 30 acres in the Granary District, said its contribution to the Green Loop is still being discussed.
"I think that's an active dialogue that the city's having, as to what portion the owners (of adjacent properties) would be paying for and what portion the city would be paying for. We have not had a formal ask by the city just yet," Peterson said, noting developers are already collaborating on some utility infrastructure as they turn aging structures into new residential, office and retail space.
Other contributions could be utilizing ground-floor space in apartment buildings for retail outlets that serve the Green Loop, or even a 0.04 acre "pocket park" planned between some of the new apartment buildings. The park would be privately funded and owned, but accessible to the public and tie into the Green Loop, he said.
"For us, what makes good real estate is having good placemaking elements and good access to public parks and good access to transportation networks," Peterson said. "So when the city first started discussing the Green Loop for us, we were very supportive of it, because we see that that's just another layer to this fabric of what makes a good community."
What the Green Loop adds to the bottom line of the funds' Granary District investment is harder to express.
"It's hard to quantify that value. I think it does create a more desirable place to live and certainly, there's an aspect that would have a financial implication associated with that. But from just a human element, we like having access to parks because we think there's a value to people being close to nature, whether that's a city park or otherwise," Peterson said.
Still, he said, "it does have to make sense financially."
Mendenhall said it's too soon to say whether a tax increase or bonding would be needed to pay for the Green Loop. The project wouldn't share in the revenues from the 0.05% sales tax increase approved in October for downtown's new sports, entertainment, culture and convention district that includes renovating the Delta Center for Utah's new National Hockey League team.
"We have not determined the financial path yet," she said, stressing her goal is to limit the city's contribution to the Green Loop by pitching the project to outside funding sources. "A city could design this and do what cities traditionally do. But my vision for this is that we leave no rock unturned about the higher potential of what could happen."
Besides private-public partnerships with developers along the Green Loop, the mayor is hoping to secure federal funding still available through Biden administration initiatives, including the president's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill approved by Congress in 2021.
There are also "global institutions that are looking at investment opportunities in growing urban centers, climate resilience and livability projects," Mendenhall said. "We're talking about philanthropy, even the potential of this bringing pilot project potential from an infrastructure perspective, around water conservation, retention and stormwater management."
That could "feed the trees" planted along the loop and even the Great Salt Lake, she said.
The overall value of the Green Loop also needs to be considered, the mayor said.
"The public deserves to know what the benefits are beyond the obvious infrastructure. How does it change the property value that results in tax revenue that results in us maintaining other city assets? What does it do for the health of our residents and the affordability of living downtown?" she asked. "What does it do to our economic attractiveness?"
Making way for more green space on Salt Lake City streets has been talked about since the business community unveiled a "Downtown Rising" plan in 2007. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, in office from 2008 to 2016, said he did add some mid-street improvements, but focused on projects like getting a new, $125 million public safety building built during a recession.
"I don't think I ever thought about a specific loop," Becker said, calling Mendenhall's Green Loop "a nice concept."
An attorney and planner who now lives in the city's Gateway neighborhood, Becker said while he's not sure exactly what's being proposed, he sees the Green Loop as an ambitious attempt to add much-needed green space to downtown that shouldn't be limited by questions about funding.
"We can do stuff, even when times are tough and when you don't know necessarily where the money is going to come from," he said. "That's something you've got to always figure out. I had to do it at a time when we were reducing budgets and not raising taxes."
Becker said if Mendenhall really wants to pursue the Green Loop, he has no doubt it can get done.
Matthew Burbank, a University of Utah political science professor, isn't so sure the Green Loop won't stall.
"I think there's a serious danger of that," Burbank said, given that only a single segment of the decade-long project is on the table. "That kind of piecemeal approach is the only realistic way of approaching this. But on the other hand, I think, what that may well leave you with is a little here and a little bit there. None of it's really tied together in any coherent way."
Over time, the city may "no longer have the resources or anyone who wants to spend the time and effort to do that," the professor said, adding that then "going to the taxpayers and saying, 'Gee, we've got this little piece done and this little piece done but we need a bunch of money to make it all fit in',' you could do that. It's not likely that's going to be successful."
Mendenhall, though, insists the Green Loop as the answer to getting more families to call downtown home.
On 200 East, the mayor points out a sickly looking tree surrounded by weeds growing out of a small square of dirt on the sidewalk, shaking her head. "Look at this poor thing," she said. She also stops in front of a newer apartment building landscaped largely with rocks.
"Families are living here now. But they're not coming out to play," the mayor said, adding, "I am a mom with three kids. I know very well how important it is to have space for your kids to burn off some energy after dinner and before bed. We need more of that in our downtown core."
It's families that make downtown a community, Mendenhall said.
"Downtown is little more than an economic center if families aren't living in it. The Green Loop is about the future identity of Salt Lake City. Who do we want to be?" she asked, calling the Green Loop "a big idea" whose time has come.
"I don't want the Olympics or the sports, entertainment, convention, culture district to be the defining factor of our future," the mayor said. "It should be a city that prioritizes its people and is as human-centered as possible, where families not only can thrive but want to, want to be here."