By Erin Dixon | [email protected]

The Shops at Fort Union are owned by an out-of-state development company CCA Acquisitions. CCA hired engineering firm Anderson Whahlen and Associates (AWA) to resurvey the area. 

In a city council meeting early August, the details of the resurvey were discussed. Midvale City planner Jason Binks said, “They are more accurately surveying the 22 lots in this approximately 56-acre commercial subdivision. Resurveying commercial subdivisions is often performed to offer individual lots for sale.”

Jake Tate, project manager for AWA outlined some of the changes that are coming to the area. 

“We’re constructing a Cubby’s, next to Chili’s. Some...lots will be sold off, some of them to the tenants that are currently holding the leases on the properties or to investors which will allow us to reinvest some of that money into the property and do something to the property in the future,” Tate said. 

Property owners such as CCA are not obligated to make changes to land they have already built on, even if there is a significant code change. 

“The floodplain ordinance is not new, but the shopping center was built before the floodplain was mapped and ordinance adopted. FEMA frequently updates flood zone boundaries based on better field surveying, more accurate geospatial measurements, and flooding experience at the site. The Shops was built in the 1990s before the floodplain on the eastern portion of the subdivision was assigned. Our ordinance requires that the floodplain be marked on the plat,” Tate said. 

There will most likely be no changes to access, easements, or parking. There will however, be a few new trees in the green area around the Shops. 

“Landscaping is required in Title 16. This was at one point landscaped a little bit more. I think some trees have died and they just haven’t been replaced for the last 20 years. This is a condition we’re going to add to the final plat,” Binks said. 

During the public hearing during the meeting, resident Lorene Butler asked, “Could a spot be built up in the middle of the property to provide an historical site?”

Years ago, honorary mayor Marion Cox campaigned to save his great-grandparent’s home that once stood where the Shops now stand. The Cox family, some of the first to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, donated 10 acres to build a fort to protect their neighbors. The request was nearly honored at the time of construction. Instead of preserving the original house, a replica was built nearby. After the home was destroyed, Cox continued to find the money and place for a larger memorial. Butler was referring to this cause, since Cox was unsuccessful in raising the funds before his death in 2017.