South Jordan

SOUTH JORDAN, UTAH great place for recreation and proximity to major amenities,” says CityManager, GaryWhatcott.“You can be living in South Jordan in a metro city area with all the amenities it provides, and yet can be recreating in less than 30 minutes, to any outdoor location.” Another reason for South Jordan’s explosive growth is because the state’s robust economy is stimulating development in the area.“We have a lot of green- fields here,” says Whatcott.“We’re one of the few places in the county with open land for building. There’s been a high focus in the Southwest part of the county, because that is where there is large open space left to develop.We’re seeing a boom in tech companies along our I-15 corridor.These companies are finding their millennial employees are looking for a lot of recreation opportunities and the state offers things like hiking, skiing, national parks, rock climbing- that’s appealing for companies.” A third reason why South Jordan’s population is burgeoning is the affordability of housing due to Utah’s ongoing construction boomwhich began in 2004 with the creation of the master-planned Day- break Community.The Daybreak Communitymakes up one third of thewestern half of the City.Daybreak is the conception of the Kennecott Utah Copper Corpo- ration,a division of the London-based RioTinto Group, nowVärde Partners.Kennecott’s BinghamCanyonmine, southwest of Salt Lake City,has been in production since 1906.It is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in theworld,and is considered to have producedmore copper than anyother mine in history. “Rio Tinto and Kennecott Corporation’s reason for this development was to reclaim areas that were contaminated by old mining tailings and to show that sustainable land use was possible over time.They went to work in the late ‘90s and early 2000s and started to reclaim all the ground out there. It took years to get it all done,” saidWhatcott. As of today, there are approximately 6,000 homes in Daybreak, all designed using a traditional neighborhood development mod- el (TND),which means that all homes are within a five-minute walk or bike ride of a major amenity such as a park, the commu- nity’s 85-acre,Oquirrh Lake,which was developed for non-motor- ized boating, fishing, and other recreational activities, or a shop- ping area, reducing dependence on automobile travel.The home designs were inspired by Salt Lake City’s historical neighborhoods and include large front porches and alley-loaded garages. All homes in the community are Energy Star certified. Daybreak was the first community of its size in the region to adhere to Ener- AT A GLANCE SOUTH JORDAN, UTAH WHAT: A city of 71,000 WHERE: About 18 miles south of Salt Lake City WEBSITE: www.sjc.utah.gov