Woodside Homes begins work at new No. Salt Lake community

Woodside Homes has begun development on its latest community of homes in the Foxboro North master-planned community in North Salt Lake. The single-family home project will be called Stonehaven.

Stonehaven will offer eight floor plans, all two-story designs. Woodside will offer buyers the opportunity to create a home that best reflects their personal style, as they can choose from a range of options carefully selected by professional interior designers to match individual tastes.

Stonehaven’s residences will boast green features that save energy and reduce utility bills, and will come equipped with high-efficiency water heaters, water-saving plumbing fixtures and 90 percent efficient natural gas furnaces, according to the developers. Stonehaven is Woodside’s third community to open recently in the Foxboro North neighborhood, one of the largest master-planned developments in the state. The Enterprise

Halting urban sprawl may improve social interaction

Wasatch Front leaders who seek to halt urban sprawl and instead develop new town centers around transit hubs might do more than just reduce traffic congestion and pollution — they may also make social interaction much easier, fueling more innovation and creativity locally.

That’s according to a Steven Farber, a University of Utah geography professor who just published, along with Xiao Li, research in the Journal of Transport Geography about how social interaction is affected by sprawl or centralization.

The consortium envisions that many people would live in buildings that have businesses on the first floor, offices on the second and residences above that. Town centers would be designed to allow people to live, work and play in the same area so they would commute less. Salt Lake Tribune

Volunteers working to count Utah’s homeless

Volunteers across the state are hitting the streets, looking to count the number of homeless in Utah.

In 2012, the Department of Workforce Services estimated 16,522 people experienced homelessness in Utah. Dozens of volunteers throughout the state will try and see if those numbers have decreased.

Weber Housing Authority Director Andi Watkins coordinates the Point-In-Time Count in Weber County. The survey is conducted on the same day, January 30, every year. Watkins says the date is significant because it’s marked as the coldest day of the year.

The majority of homeless individuals are in shelters, but volunteers go anywhere they think homeless individuals may stay. The numbers they collect go to the state and help determine how much state and federal funds communities get for housing programs.

Watkins says most of the homeless individuals are glad to participate, knowing that the agencies are looking for ways to help them get a roof over their heads. Fox13 News

New Owners’ Updates to Keep Powder Mountain the Same

Powder Mountain’s new owners are young, hip, idealistic, accomplished and confident they have a business model that can preserve the throwback character of the upper Ogden Valley ski resort.

Summit, a company that has brought together young entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers at motivational conferences for several years, announced Monday it was buying the resort from the current ownership group for an undisclosed price.

In a two-phase transition, Summit assumes resort management immediately. The actual sale of Powder Mountain’s property is expected to occur early next year.

"We think we can do something great here," said Summit’s 27-year-old founder and CEO, Elliott Bisnow, noting the new owners have jettisoned previous plans to transform Powder Mountain with close to 4,000 dwelling units.

"Our footprint will be more modest," he added — 500 homes in a horseshoe around a village on the resort’s east side, not visible from Powder Mountain’s main facilities.

"I fell in love with every single thing you heard about the character of Powder Mountain and what it stood for. It was the last undeveloped resort," Bisnow said of his first trip to the upper Ogden Valley ski area in July 2011. "I thought, ‘What if we could take this resort and preserve what it is?’" Salt Lake Tribune

Building Starts at Development in North Salt Lake

Ground has been broken on the first phase of Eaglewood Village, a new mixed-use community in North Salt Lake City.

Eaglewood Village is located at the corner of Eagle Ridge Drive and Highway 89.

Centerville-based Strategic Capital Partners (SCP) and Compass Development Group of Salt Lake City are developing the 96-acre property.

Eaglewood Lofts, a 214 unit apartment project, is the first phase of Eaglewood Village, which ultimately will include office, retail, apartments and homes.

The SCP land includes 17 acres of commercial land and entitlements for 300 residential units.

"We see a tremendous demand for this area and the unique features related to this site," said Colin Wright, an SCP partner. "The appeal of the Davis County School District, affordable pricing, proximity to downtown Salt Lake and the mixed use feel of the project will lead to its quick success."

The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2013. Salt Lake Tribune

Stewart Wasatch Hall Opens at Wildcat Village

Wildcat Village, a 172,150-square-foot student-housing project at Weber State University, opened Stewart Wasatch Hall, the second of three buildings, Tuesday afternoon.

Replacing Promontory Tower, LaSal, Wasatch and Stansbury halls in Wildcat Village will house more than 500 students. The replacement housing halls will each be three stories. Hall 1 is 48,400 square feet, Stewart Wasatch Hall is 88,480 square feet and Hall 3 will be 25,270 square feet.

WSU is building all three halls in the village to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification candidates. The sustainable effort includes installing solar panels. Utah Business