LAYTON — Bringing more people to the city was not the main purpose of the new Layton Parkway. In fact, the goal for the road is to help residents leave the city.
However, thanks to a recent, 1-mile addition to the parkway, new subdivisions will soon start popping up on both sides of the street. Those subdivisions are part of the inevitable growth the city will see in the near future.
“It wasn’t so much, if you build it they will come,” Mayor Steve Curtis said of the new road. “It was more like, if we build it, we’re not going to get caught with our pants down.”
Elk Valley Construction has already begun building its new subdivision, north of Layton Parkway between Flint and Angel streets.
Henry Walker Homes will soon begin its subdivision, which will, for the most part, be south of the parkway, with a few homes on the north side.
Similar subdivisions are inevitable, Curtis said, as the city continues to extend Layton Parkway east to where it is planned to meet the proposed west Davis corridor.
“People are going to sell their land, and growth is going to happen,” Curtis said. “So what needs to happen is good planning by the city council and planning commission. It needs to be a good and proper plan that won’t cause problems.”
Ben Hart, Layton’s economic development specialist, said the first priority for the parkway was to move people effectively from west Layton to Interstate 15.
“But it’s a very nice feature to build a road and see people who want to develop around it instead of vice versa,” Hart said. “Other cities see when people build subdivisions first, and then they have to build roads to it.”
The 1-mile road that goes east and west from Flint Street to Angel Street cost $4.1 million, said Terry Coburn, public works director.
While city officials expect the new residents will have a positive effect on the local economy, bringing more business to area stores and restaurants, the city did not build the road to receive additional sales tax. Hart said:
“I don’t know that we look for an investment for a return, but we like to see good economic development and good growth happen after what was a substantial investment by Layton city.”
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