Flying Ace,

You are correct. The apartments "Daybreak Place" are located across Daybreak Parkway which acts somewhat as a density barrier of sorts. I agree that you also need to voice your opinion via the City of South Jordan. However, I would urge you to attempt to gain a consensus from your neighbors. Personally, if I were you, I would get signatures from every home owner on Top Crest voicing their opinion for or against the proposed development. That will carry weight at any future meeting. You need to get a hold of a copy of the proposed plans so that you can show people exactly what KL wants to build. And I do know that some people at SJC have reservations to such a project. The meeting with Kennecott was really a courtesy on their part. They really do not have to do such things. Considering how they treated you, I think that I would have preferred them not to have the meeting at all as it seems that they did not even want to gain the perspective of residents. This "stakeholder" meeting seems to be more of a "well we have to meet with them so lets say that we did and get it over with" engagement. Another question that I would like to know is this: how many residents were at the meeting? I know people have busy lives, but this sort of thing needs to be a priority if Kennecott Land is to take resident's opinions seriously. Kudos to you for being involved. I just fear that this whole issue has been brought up too late. The plans and everything have already been drawn up, money invested, etc. Looking at it from a planning perspective Topcrest itself seems to be the transition (transect planning) between the lower density and higher density housing. Not the best of transitions. In looking at the site though, I'm not sure what else could be constructed there. Certainly not a 4 story building, but placing any type of single family residence (row homes, townhomes, etc.) does not seem feasible as the parkway is a main artery through Daybreak. It has to be a multifamily residence, but it is all in the design. Keep me updated. If you want to e-mail off-line just ask scoop for my e-mail address.

There weren't a whole lot of people there that night. There were a couple of other homeowners, and at least one person from the townhomes at the northeastern end of Topcrest. The letter they sent out to give notice of the meeting was dated March 1, but it was actually sent about two weeks later, just a couple of days before the meeting itself. Unfortunately, of the houses that are being directly affected along the alley, especially by the first phase, one guy is desperately selling and is hardly around anymore, so I don't even think he knew about the meeting, and there are at least two or three out of the six houses along the first two phases of construction that are occupied by renters.

Yeah, we got the same impression about this meeting being barely a courtesy on the part of KL. Although, at the city planning commission meeting last year, the city did ask them to set up a meeting with the residence, and though they were asked to do so within a couple of weeks and were therefore about 50 weeks late, at least they did it. As Flying Ace said, the city planning guy he met with, Greg, was especially disturbed by this development, expressing concern especially for the safety issues that the alley poses.

Flying Ace,

Do you recommend talking to Greg from the City of South Jordan about this issue? Is he the city planner?

I'd very much like to see the plans and definitely make my opinion count with the city.

What do you recommend is the best route to talk to the City?

Thanks,

Yes, I think the city is the most logical place to take any concerns at this point. Greg is the city planner that works on all of the Daybreak projects. I would call the planning department and set up an appointment with him. A few residents are also starting to obtain signatures from the residents along Topcrest that will be impacted by the proposed development.

I've called the city and left a message for Greg to talk more about this issue. I recommend getting signatures from almost all of Topcrest. Although my house does not have an alley and won't be adjacent to the project, I'll definitely be seeing it everyday and will also be impacted by the extra traffic, etc.

I just cannot understand how it can be legal to build four story buildings next to single family homes. Does not make any sense whatsoever.

A four story building would be as high and the Rio Tinto building.

QUOTE:
A four story building would be as high and the Rio Tinto building.

Actually, I have found a couple of articles describing the new Rio Tinto building as 40 feet tall. The condos proposed here would actually be 5 feet taller than that! I'm hoping that either the articles are wrong or that the Rio Tinto building just looks really tall.