FARMINGTON—The west side of Farmington has seen substantial growth with Station Park and the housing surrounding it. A plan to develop the area north of that into a business park has been in the works for about two years. Plans for the new Farmington Station are currently under review by the planning commission and city council.

“The city commissioned an updated market condition for the area,” said Farmington City Community and Economic Development Direct Brigham Mellor. “The developers might tell us to build it here but the study might show that it should be done there. It helps to have a more unbiased direction in the process.”

GSBS Architects is doing a financial plan and analysis, he said. “We hired them through the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC). We have a grant from them. They put in 25 percent and the city does 75 percent.”

The design implements transportation and highway changes coming in around the train station and multifamily housing, said Mellor. “There’s federal government money and they dole that out and regional planning and the federal government helps with that planning effort.”

As part of the plan documents is criteria information for their design to follow, he said. “If they can follow the spirit of it they try to do that but if it doesn’t meet realities they do a plan that takes into account the market conditions of near and long term population growth.”

Mellor said they’re looking into a robotic parking solution. “There are some already in Salt Lake and Lehi. It costs less in the short term and it’s a good possibility.”

They don’t even have regular parking stalls, he said. “You pull up and it parks your car for you. It sounds like pie in the sky but it’s not far off. GSBS International doesn’t do structure parking, it uses robotics. It’s how they design it so it’s not wasting space. It addresses the market demand and maximizes space now and into the future.”

How it works is a metal pallet runs through a series of conveyor belts that parks the car in a stall that is really tight, said Mellor. “It’s like in a warehouse where they pull an item and bring it down then wrap plastic around it. With robotic parking they’ve taken a page from mechanical distribution.”

The legislature passed HB462 that requires development around a UTA hub, he said. “It makes a case for UTA partnering with us on mass transit options like shuttles running up and down the roads. If they put a bus out there, there are going to be riders. If they allocate resources it could be deployed to meet the criteria of HB462.”

There’s not going to be a lot of retail in the business park but people who work there could get on the shuttle that takes them to Station Park, said Mellor. 

A shuttle to the Legacy Events Center was not included in the analysis, he said. “But if it makes sense to go around the corner (with the Station Park shuttle) we’d absolutely do that. We want to make sure that Clark Lane to the fairgrounds is safe for pedestrians. The shuttles could swing around and drop people off.”

 The county offices have moved downtown so the shuttle would come out directly dropping employees off at the county building so that they don’t have to walk from the Lagoon stop, said Mellor.

The city council is excited, he said. “This was former Mayor Talbot’s vision. The past and present council sowed the field so it can grow and become all that it’s meant to be.” λ