Garden Park at Daybreak: More Details Released

Kennecott Land and Ivory Homes finally sent out a press release about the new Garden Park village that is to be built for "empty nesters." The release gave some interesting details. Here is a summary:

• Garden Park will be over 100 acres
• Ivory Homes will build all 500 units
• The community is age qualified, "where households typically must include at least
  one person that is age 55 years or better."
• The community will have its own clubhouse and fitness facility
• Grand opening should be in June

The location of this large addition to our existing Daybreak community is illustrated on the map. As with any plans that Kennecott Land may have, you can be assured that this map will change. However, from this map you can see the convenience of this location as it is literally in the middle of everything.

At first I found it odd that Kennecott Land would select Ivory homes as the exclusive builder for this community, but it seems to make sense when you consider the goals of each organization. Ivory Homes has been and constantly strives to be the "#1 homebuilder in Utah." This rank is associated with the actual number of units built. While building more (500 in all) will boost their numbers, I see this as more of a long-term relationship. Ivory Homes did not jump in at the beginning of Daybreak, but they understand that the whole of the West Bench will be developed by Kennecott Land. If Ivory Homes wants to keep their rank, especially in the Salt Lake Valley, they will need to form a long-term relationship with Kennecott Land. This Garden Park agreement seems to be the beginning of this long-term relationship.

As for Kennecott Land, I can only guess at their reasons. It does look like it would be much easier to deal with only one builder in a project that demands quality and needs to be designed as such. As one of the most experienced homebuilders in the region, Ivory Homes seems to be a logical selection to carry out this plan. Comments would be welcome here. Let me know what you think....

New $15,000 Tax Credit?

Recently the news has been inundated with stories featuring the new stimulus package currently being considered by the U.S. Senate. While partisan politics has definitely played its role in the different amendments to the bill, one measure submitted that was unanimously passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This provision would provide a tax credit of as much as $15,000 or 10 percent of the purchase price of the home whichever is less to anyone buying a primary residence during a one-year period beginning on the date of enactment.

This supersedes the $7500 tax credit that has been in effect since June of last year. However, the difference is more than just the amount of the tax credit. The $7500 tax credit is essentially an interest-free loan which must be paid back over the course of 17 years. According to U.S. News and World Report this new tax credit does not have to be paid back. It is yours as long as you occupy the new property as your primary residence for at least 2 years.

This measure also stipulates that you can claim this credit on your 2008 taxes even if you buy your home in 2009. So the $15,000 could be an immediate boost for those in position to buy a new home. Many may argue that this measure will probably just be cut from the legislation before it is passed, but as I write this the news is that the Senate has already agreed to the stimulus and will be passing it on to the President soon. The date on which the President signs this bill will be the first date that you will be able to qualify so if you are about to close a deal, you might want to hold off for just a little longer.

Mullins, L.. (2009, Feb. 6). The $15,000 Home Buying Tax Credit: 6 Things to Know. U.S. News and World Report Retrieved Feb. 6, 2009, from http://www.usnews.com/blogs/the-home-front/2009/02/06/the-15000-home-buying-tax-credit-6-things-to-know.html.

Future Performing Arts in Daybreak

My first experience in the arts was the annual kindergarten Christmas play. I was fairly clumsy and uncomfortable in my little Christmas outfit, but my parents were ecstatic over my performance. This enthusiasm gave me pride in my performance, even though I only had one line to contribute to the script.

While theatre was not a staple in my family I did enjoy going to numerous live performances over the years including All My Sons, Annie Get your Gun, Les Miserables, and others. The importance of theater in our community is the opportunity it provides to experience the immediacy and power of live performances. The stage is a place where ideas are expressed and examined carrying our imagination to a new world.

Locally, we have seen interest in theatre realized in the Daybreak Community Theatre. This group, whose website you can visit here, has so far produced The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan.
Aristocats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and High School Musical are all slated for this season. As with any organization devoted to the arts, sponsorship and means to produce are always needed. One of the major issues with this group is a place to perform. South Jordan has been using the senior citizens center for many of the arts and desperately needs a venue for the performing arts. The need for such a facility exists, but how would we fund such a facility and where would it be located?

Salt Lake County recently released their Cultural Facilities Master Plan. This plan is based upon substantial research of demographics and market data. Does this plan have something in mind for Daybreak? Yes, The plan proposes the Daybreak Amphitheatre in Sunrise Mountain Park to be upgraded with a stage house and other improvements. This facility would accommodate outdoor performances during the warm months of the year and possibly provide limited space indoors for rehearsals and other performances. South Jordan City should be taking possession of this park sometime this year.

The Daybreak Amphitheatre will be a welcome upgrade to our community, but it does not satisfy the long-term need for a performing arts center. However, the county also announced plans to build three regional performing arts centers in the Salt Lake Valley. Apparently, the county will be able to free up some "play money" because they are finally paying off the Salt Palace expansion and will have decreasing payments for the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium. So now the question is where will they locate these performing arts centers. Of course, everyone would like a performing arts center nearby. Their obvious cultural benefits to the community are tremendous, but they also have substantial economic benefits to the community around them. One of these centers is planned to be located in the southwest corner of the salt lake valley. In my opinion I think that South Jordan should step up and vie for this amenity to be in our community.

The marketing data collected for the county indicates that South Jordan would be a decent place to site this center, but identifies other locations that are considered better markets. Herriman is listed in the report as a better prospect than South Jordan. However, when looking at the whole I think the center will ultimately be located near the town center of Daybreak.

While there are definitely other possible locations in the Southwest portion of Salt Lake County for this center, Daybreak would be a suitable location for a number of reasons. One of the best reasons is that the West Bench master plan indicates that Daybreak will be the hub for transit and major facilities in the southwest corner of the valley. With TRAX and the Mountain View corridor being built, residents from numerous communities could access the center quickly. Another plus would be the land deal that the county would likely get. While I am not too sure of the relationship of the Salt Lake County government and Kennecott Land, I know that the center would be an extremely attractive amenity in Daybreak and would be a selling point for Kennecott Land. This would also have a multiplier effect for their commercial properties as well. As for the county, you might recall the fallout between the county and Kennecott Land early last year over the West Bench plan. Now the director (who was hired mainly to deal with Kennecott Land and plan the West Bench) and a few planning managers in the county government have been put on paid administrative leave for mismanagement of the Planning Department. Hopefully that does not affect the placement of this center.

As for funds, the City of South Jordan has been fiscally responsible and is in a better position than most to vie for this center. With a good land deal from Kennecott, we might be seeing this $30 million to $35 million dollar arts center, which could include a 500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat black-box theater, rehearsal rooms, gallery space and classrooms in our Daybreak community in the future.
The question is when. While the two other centers are likely to be built in the near future, the Southwest center will not likely be built for years to come. This makes sense as the growth of the community supports such a facility, but waiting until there is more population and complimenting infrastructure will ensure the success of this new center.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House Scheduled

The dates for an open house and the dedication of the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple in Daybreak, South Jordan were announced Saturday by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The open house will take place weekdays from June 1 through Aug. 1, except for the July 4 and July 24 holidays. The temple will be dedicated Aug. 14-16, with 12 dedicatory sessions scheduled. The 130th operating temple for the church — the 13th in Utah — was announced at the October 2005 general conference. Groundbreaking ceremonies occurred Dec. 16, 2006.

The temple will serve roughly 83,000 residents in the western Salt Lake Valley. It is the fourth temple in the valley. South Jordan will be the first city in the world with two LDS temples.

The Best Home Builder in Daybreak

Who is the best home builder in Daybreak? If you pose this question to a representative of Kennecott Land or possibly the HOA you will probably get an answer similar to, "Well, they are all really great." They might subsequently ask you about your price range. Of course you are going to get what you pay for, but comparing a builder that constructs luxury $500,000 homes with a town home builder fits the oft used phrase of comparing oranges and apples.

However, with Rainey Homes building homes that range from 199k to over 500k and Holmes Homes building homes that range from 129k to over 300k, things have become more comparable. Other builders have started to expand the price range of their offerings as the market for more luxury homes has softened in the last two years. The Daybreak Daily forums have also produced many opinions and have listed numerous complaints about various builders. However, most people tend to only post the bad things they have experienced and not all of the good things. You will find many more complaints than compliments on any forum.

Given this information I think that the most telling measure has been the polls located on this site and on the Daybreak Daily. They asked the same simple question: Who is the best builder in Daybreak? Interestingly, Rainey Homes looks to be the clear leader in both polls. The poll on this blog is actually fairly difficult to manipulate as the IP address is recorded when one votes so that they cannot vote twice. Second in line is Destination Homes which is agreed on by both polls as well. After that it is really a toss up.

In the end I do believe that all of the home builders are decent, but consumers are biased toward quality which is a more common feature with the more expensive homes built by Destination and Rainey. Other builders such as Ivory and Garbett homes have not been around in Daybreak long enough to make a fair comparison assessment. Especially when the product in Daybreak is not what many of these builders are used to providing. In the future, I have heard rumor that when the market for more expensive homes becomes more viable, other builders will build in Daybreak. Especially on the custom home lots.

If you have information that you would like to share about your builder, then please comment on this blog. I post everything as long as it is not spam or offensive. What do you think of the builders in Daybreak? Who is the Best? The worst?

A Look Behind at South Jordan, Utah

For the greater part of last century South Jordan, Utah was a rural community on the fringe of Salt Lake County. While this town is still suburban, the growth of South Jordan in the last two decades has been phenomenal. You can look at the numbers from census data, but that does not quite capture the growth in a manner that shows the sweeping nature of the population wave that has swept over Salt Lake County. Today I found a website that shows this growth visually. Trulia Hindsight's map uses the year the properties were built to show the growth of streets, neighborhoods and cities over time. Click here to see South Jordan's growth over time.

Ivory Homes to Build Garden Park

Ivory Homes has recently announced that they will be the exclusive builder of the new Garden Park village in Daybreak. This village was recently approved by the South Jordan City Council as part of Daybreak's master plan. The general location of this community will be just West of Oquirrh Lake and North of Daybreak View Parkway.

Ivory homes will apparently build single-family ramblers that will feature main-floor master bedrooms. These homes are expected to range from the high $100s to $400s. They also announced that a specific clubhouse will be built for this community that will be specifically designed to accommodate active adults along with a large park convenient to the location.

Daybreak Architecture – Row Homes

Some of the more distinctive homes in Daybreak can be found on the West side of Founders Village . These homes feature tall, narrow façades that seem to represent the entire spectrum of colors often found in a box of crayola crayons. These façades, like many other homes in Daybreak, feature fiber-cement siding relying on color and trim to differentiate an otherwise homogeneous row of dwellings. I toured some of the model homes when Golden Medallion Homes first opened them to the public. Inside you can still find a surprisingly open floor plan that features a kitchen and living room on the main floor. This feature more than any other differentiates these row homes with the historic row houses of the past.

Row houses were built by even the earliest European colonies. As early as 1630 European settlers in Virginia were building small groups of attached houses that closely replicated designs used since medieval times. Later, during the eighteenth century, towns along the eastern seaboard prospered and land value increased steadily.

Out of necessity, many builders made the most of land purchased by building row houses that could be accommodated easily by a small narrow lot. At this time row houses became a standard home for many families living within an urban setting. During this time, most of these homes were designed in a Federal style with architectural details being borrowed from Greek architecture. During this time many row houses were built using wood as the sole construction material. This was later corrected as many fires devastated whole streets of homes because of the material and proximity.

Commonly referred to in the Western United States as town homes, both attached and detached versions exist. Famous examples of row homes are in most major cities, but a few stand out particularly in the public eye. The “painted ladies” of San Francisco are a perfect example. In historic Philadelphia , almost the entire city is populated with various types of row houses that were built as early as colonial times. Most of these row homes are primarily red brick in construction, with stone and marble accent. There are even a few examples that are built of solid granite, such as Mayfair in Northeast Philadelphia . The Daybreak row home models are colorful, modern examples of a style that reaches back to medieval Europe . In my opinion they are an aesthetically pleasing way to successfully integrate density into our community and are a welcome addition into Founders Village and Eastlake.

Daybreak's New Community

The South Jordan City Council has just approved an addition to a plan submitted by Kennecott Land to build an “Active Adult Community” here in Daybreak. The Daybreak Active Adult Community will have marketing that will target the 50 years and older demographic group, but will not be totally exclusive to that age group. I expect we will start to see the “Daybreakish” advertising for this community sometime this year. An advertisement featuring a husband and wife with gray hair riding bikes around the lake possibly with an “empty nester” caption displayed somewhere prominently.

In my opinion this part of the development will fuel growth and compliment the existing Daybreak community. The plan is for the Daybreak Active Adult Community to be located West of Oquirrh Lake and North of the new Rio Tinto Corporate Center. It will be nice to see some houses on that side of the lake as for years it has just been mounds of earth and construction equipment. The homes seem to be of the parkside variety that Holmes Homes and Richmond American Homes are building in Eastlake. This is logical considering that the targeted group will probably like not having to take care of a yard.

Considering the principles of New Urbanism this new development will bring further age diversity to a community that some consider to be "plagued with children." The current real estate market has been hindered by the tightening of credit standards and lack of affordability in the Salt Lake Valley. However, this particular demographic is most likely not constrained by these factors. This demographic has probably been living in a McMansion in which they have a considerable amount of equity if they do not own it completely. They are tired of having a 4500 sq ft house to take care of along with the burden of high utility costs. They want a simpler life in a community that has plenty of amenities. This trend has been proven and documented in numerous publications both journalistic and academic.

The size of this group is also astonishing. Developing this part of Daybreak now will probably keep Daybreak sales up and will increase their market share in a time when many developers are struggling to stay solvent. I think one of the best benefits of this move will be the generational diversity mix here in Daybreak. Many neighborhoods are built and then populated by people of the same age, socioeconomic status, and stage in life. These neighborhoods are stable for awhile until this demographic experiences a change. Maybe all of the kids have grown and moved on to college or other pursuits. All of a sudden the neighborhood that was once full of kids seems empty. Maybe all of the residents get to the point where they can buy a better house and the permanent nature of a residential neighborhood all of a sudden turns into one in which half of the homes are now rentals. Within a couple of years you see the landscaping and general upkeep of the neighborhood deteriorate.

This type of thing can be prevented if the neighborhood contains a good mix of residents. Many might say that designating a specific area of Daybreak just for the "old fogies" is actually segregating them. I would have to agree with this point of view to a certain extent. However, unlike many active adult communities, this new development looks like it will be integrated with everything else in Daybreak. It will be without walls and fences to keep the young "whipper snappers" out. Overall, mixing generations in a neighborhood is a good thing. This Active Adult Community is a big step in that direction.

Mid Jordan TRAX Now Funded

The Federal Transit Administration has announced that it will spend $428.3 million to build the Mid-Jordan TRAX extension that leads to Daybreak. This promise represents 80% of the funding needed to pay for the TRAX extension and will allow it to open by December 2011. UTA has already completed 25% of this line with much of the construction in Daybreak already being finished.

The remaining 20% of the line's cost is provided by a Salt Lake County referendum in 2006 that increased the sales tax a quarter of a cent per dollar. According to UTA, twenty-eight light-rail cars will travel along the 10.6-mile track between 6 a.m. and midnight when the Mid-Jordan line is complete. Trains will arrive at stations every 12 minutes during rush hours and every 15 minutes at remaining times. According to a UTA study the 10.6-mile line is expected to carry 9,500 passengers a day and reduce the number of miles traveled by car by 65,000 daily by the year 2030.

While nothing is actually guaranteed until it is built, this move essentially closes the funding gap that existed earlier and ensures funding for a massive project during a time when government budgets are deep in the red. Daybreak residents will benefit tremendously from this project as will Kennecott Land.