Leaders tout new project as most sustainable, walkable community in Utah

Gov. Spencer Cox was one of many elected leaders to attend the ribbon-cutting for Vineyard Station. He praised the project as being part of the solution to the housing problem in the state.

“Density done the right way and with infrastructure — and that’s key — it’s healthy. It’s good. It’s positive,” Cox said.

He also said the project was an important piece of cleaning up Utah’s air, noting that half of the state’s bad air comes from vehicles.

“We cannot keep adding lanes to I-15. We can’t do that. It’s impossible. We have to think bigger and bolder.”

Vineyard City and developers worked with world-renowned city planner Jeff Speck to design the project. Speck also attended Friday’s event, calling for more mixed-use, walkable communities near public transit stations. He said the new Vineyard Station was “probably the whole package.”

The area is accessible from three different exits along Interstate 15 and the new FrontRunner station that opened. The community is 800 acres on the east side of Utah Lake. It will include green space, places to live, work, shop, eat and worship.

State and local officials said there is nothing else like it being developed in Utah right now.

“What this is is a regional development,” said Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer, who was praised by many for helping to bring this project to the city.

Fullmer called it one of the greatest developments in Utah history.

“It’s going to be able to bring people from the west side of the lake into this transportation area. People from Heber will come and use this site as their intermodal hub for getting around the valley and for shooting up to Salt Lake City.”

The Utah Legislature approved $5.6 million for the new station. The Utah Transit Authority is contributing nearly $17 million. The FrontRunner station is the first new one built in a decade and brings the total number of stations to 15 along the 83-mile stretch of tracks between Ogden and Provo.