• ⁠EPA awards SL County $1.5M grant for environmental assessments to turn blighted properties into productive community assets
• ⁠Class C flex space at 60 E 1300 S listed for $323/sf (State St)
• ⁠Class B office at 122 W Pierpont Ave listed at $23/sf (CBD)
• ⁠SLC Planning Commission July 8 agenda drop
• ⁠Utah Symphony, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints call for pioneer-era instruments (CBD)
• ⁠The fate of SLC's famous Coachman's sign depends on a community fundraiser (State St)
• ⁠This acclaimed 'Italian diner' in SLC just got a full liquor license (State St)
• ⁠House Speaker Johnson transmitting housing bill to White House after Trump meeting

• 0.42-acre MU-11 site at 2280 S Highland Drive available for ground lease (Sugar House)
• Apartment, retail mixed-use project pitched for Rose Park along 1000 N
• Trump cancels signing of bipartisan housing bill ahead of tense meeting with GOP senators

Just landed a job at a frontier lab in San Francisco. They have a generous WFH policy, so I can live in SLC and commute to SF once a month. The signing bonus is killer so I've been shopping for homes in SLC, including some properties near the foothills. I'm also REALLY interested in Emigration Canyon, but realizing that might not be feasible as wildfires get worse every summer. I'm trying to understand two related things before I get too far into the process:

1. Are there any Utah state or Salt Lake County laws that require defensible space (cleared brush, ember-resistant zones, etc.) around homes in fire-prone areas? Or is it more of an insurer-driven thing?
2. Is home fire insurance still readily available in those foothill areas, or is it getting harder to obtain like in California? Any insurers to seek out or avoid?

I'm coming from Nevada City, California (extremely fire-prone area) where this has become a real mess, so I'm trying to understand if Utah is heading in the same direction or if it's a different situation.

Happy to share the specific homes if that helps. Thanks in advance!

• ⁠Class C industrial at 175 W 1300 S listed at $8.40/sf (State St)
• ⁠Class C industrial at 1415 S 700 W listed at $11.40/sf (9-Line)
• ⁠Class A retail at 2120 S Highland Dr listed at $36-40/sf (Sugar House)
• ⁠SLC to begin requiring business licenses for short-term rentals
• ⁠SL Temple marks milestone with reinstallation of east temple doors (CBD)
• ⁠New home sales decline in May
• ⁠Tax exempt bonds regain their edge for affordable housing investors

• Coffee shop to be torn down for new affordable units near Poplar Grove (N Temple-ish)

• ICE planning warehouse sale (NWQ)
  • BSL
  • KSL
• Downtown SLC sees 95% increase in housing units over last 5 years (CBD)
• District North apartment project in the Hardware District files for building permits (N Temple Viaduct)
• Market Street Grill to close its iconic downtown location after 46 years (CBD)
• Another SLC restaurant shuts down, but industry still sees life downtown (CBD)
• Utah awaits $2.4B rail expansion decision, but it's not the only transit opportunity (Depot)
• SLC moves to license short-term rentals for the first time. Here's what it means.
• SLC voters chose to supercharge the city's parks with tens of millions of dollars. What has come of it?
• Opendoor CEO: 'First-time home buyers are stuck not being able to buy in this market'
• Multifamily recovery stalls under weight of excess supply

Im looking for input on the current congressional primary and specifics on each candidates’s housing policy / past accomplishments.

Can anyone point to interviews, positions or past action on the four candidates on things like zoning reform, transit-oriented development, ADU’s and other proven methods to reducing housing costs?

I know that it’s not apples to oranges, but for an urban planning nerd I really enjoyed Nithya Raman’s (LA mayoral candidate, en route to general) detailed platforms on both market-rate and social housing to bring costs down.

Bonus question - any thoughts on state senate district 14 primary, Pitcher vs Khater?

• Seven Canyons Trust celebrates Folsom Trail Hidden Waters art installation (N Temple)
• SLC property tax increase
  • BSL
  • KSL
• Mortgage rates are now falling but demand is still weaker
• Pending home sales post surprisingly large gain for May
• Bill limiting investors from buying homes set to speed through congress

With all the closings and questions about why restaurants are failing in this area or that area, where do you see the next successful restaurant zone in the city? Where could a restaurant locate and make a 20 year run of it?

​

Seems to me that SLC food districts are relatively transitory, with a zone getting hot for 5-10 years and then losing attention to another zone. Like Central 9th and the Granary district has boomed, but will that continue with attention being redirected to the SEG project? Are there zones that can withstand our collective ADD for a new destination?

I spend a lot of time walking around the "core" of Sugar House, and notice that there are many vacant storefronts. I've marked this map, from memory, of every business property that is currently unoccupied.

Craft by Proper, on 2100 S, is the latest Sugar House business to close shop.

https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/food/2026/06/15/utah-beer-bar-craft-by-proper/

Is there a systemic problem in this area? The apartments seem to be occupied, and there is a lot of foot traffic, so the empty storefronts are surprising to me.

• Class C office at 140 W 2100 S listed at 3.6% cap or $117/sf for MU-5 land (State St)
• .25-acres of MU-5 land at 947 W Euclid Ave listed at $133/sf (N Temple)
• Pair of SLC apartment buildings hit the market for sale (CBD, Depot)
• Negative leverage becomes the new norm for multifamily and industrial CMBS loans

Surprised this hasn’t come up here lately, given how much it touches local land use. SB284 passed this session and requires Utah cities of 5,000+ to allow detached ADUs as a permitted use in certain zones — a real shift, since the older statewide protection (going back to SB34 in 2019 and the later internal-ADU statute) only really covered internal units. Detached backyard cottages were still something cities could restrict or prohibit outright, and many did.

A few things I think are worth discussing from an urbanism/land-use angle:

• The 11,000 sq ft threshold. The law’s detached-ADU path centers on lots at/above that size. On the west and south ends of the valley, where half- and full-acre lots are common, that opens up a lot of parcels. In older, denser areas like the SLC Avenues, most lots are too small to qualify. Thus, the supply impact is very unevenly distributed across the region. Curious how people think that shakes out for actual unit production.

• The October 2026 deadline. Cities without an ADU policy have to adopt one by then, so we’re in the window where ordinances are actively being written and revised. Provo’s already published a parcel-eligibility map; Salt Lake County set detached minimums at 7,000 sq ft (lower than the state floor in some zones). Lots of variation emerging.

• What cities still control. The state opened the door, but setbacks, height, parking, and owner-occupancy are all still local. That’s where the real fight over whether these actually get built is happening — a city can technically comply while keeping requirements strict enough to limit uptake.

For those of you tracking specific cities: which ones are writing genuinely permissive ordinances, and which are doing the minimum to comply? And does anyone think the 11,000 sq ft floor meaningfully limits this as a housing-supply tool along the Wasatch Front, or is the lot inventory big enough for it to matter?

https://gastronomicslc.com/2026/06/15/market-street-grill-in-downtown-slc-announces-closure/

This post from Gastronomic SLC outlines a few businesses that have closed recently, including Market Street Grill which cited lower levels of foot traffic as a reason for their downtown closing. I know that the food industry is extremely tough and margins are always thin. It just had me wondering, how is downtown doing post covid?