Dismay in Farmington
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Thursday, June 28, 2007
Farmington officials haven't used the term "bait and switch" -- at least not in public -- but they're inching up to it regarding the much-anticipated Station Park development.
Plans for what once was imagined to be Utah's most unique retail/residential/transit-oriented development are looking more, well, run-of-the-mill. Mayor Scott Harbertson described it as morphing into "a glorified strip mall rather than the lifestyle living center that we were promised."
The municipal leader's consternation -- and he's not alone; we'll get to that later -- was prompted by Station Park's developer, CenterCal, placing a revised plan for the development on its Web site recently without giving a heads-up to Farmington officials. Harbertson said he doesn't like "the direction it's taking."
The formerly upscale development, located alongside the FrontRunner commuter rail station in Farmington, appears to be trending more toward proletariat tastes, the mayor said: "We were talking about Dillards, now we're talking about Target."
For the record, we don't see anything wrong with Target stores. But Harbertson makes a good point -- Station Park was being pitched as more like the trendy, upscale Gateway development in Salt Lake City, only better. Now, as Harbertson observes, the courtyard and ice rink are gone, and even the movie theaters appear to have been downsized.
CenterCal disputes Harbertson's and other city leaders' position on the changes to the plan. Its president, Fred Bruning, told our correspondent both the "scope" and "quality" of the project will remain the same. There will, he said, be larger stores as anchor tenants, but the actual tenant mix has not been finalized. "When we are finished," Bruning maintained, "this will be one of the most exciting shopping centers in the state."
Perhaps, but he has some convincing to do. Farmington Planning Commission Chairman Jim Talbot said, "We're becoming just another shopping center." City Manager Max Forbush pointed to the $18.5 million the city has committed toward capital facilities and infrastructure at Station Park on the belief that it would be something more than its current incarnation.
We sympathize with Farmington's leaders. The anticipation across the Top of Utah was that the city would lead the way in creation of a singular, trend-setting transit-oriented development along the commuter rail line -- a model for other cities to emulate. Perhaps it will yet come to be. But given the difference between the artist's rendering and current site plan on CenterCal's own Web Site (www.centeroak.com/stationpark.html), it looks to us like Farmington officials have reason to be concerned.
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