MURRAY, Utah — The transformation of downtown Murray has been a city goal for a while now.
Thousands of Utahns drive down State Street every day, but the city wants its downtown stretch to be a destination, not just somewhere people pass by.
"It's a bit chaotic, congested, especially in peak time," described Zhou Yu, who has lived in the area for 18 years.
For years, the battle over the area's "look" has been between preserving the old and bringing in the new.
"I'm very happy to be part of Murray. At the same time, there's some uncertainty so we want to see Murray heading to a brighter future," said Yu.
On Monday night, the city hosted an open house to develop a form-based code to help with future designs.
"Form-based code is a little different than your traditional zoning where we're being a little less prescriptive and a little more open to differences in styles," said Ben Levenger, president of downtown redevelopment services.
The community used stickers to take a stance on building heights and shared comments on the five character districts. Someone wrote, "Murray has too many apartments already."
"How do we as an organization ensure we keep the character, retain the character elements, and build something that matches what the community wants to see?" said Levenger.
The city is working with the same developers who transformed Holladay's downtown over ten years ago.
"The demographics here are amazing. The traffic that goes by here is really off the charts. People are passing through here every day," said Amy Bennett.
Bennett is the owner of Amy Boutique, the first store open in the redeveloped Holladay Village. She's watched the location thrive.
As a Murray resident herself, she hopes to see a similar change.
"It would be great to have Murray be a copy of this. I've absolutely loved being here in Holladay," she said.
Once the form-based code is determined, it has to be submitted through a formal project application, then approved by the architectural committee and planning commission. Redevelopment leaders said they hope to have that done by the end of the year or mid-January.
