Why is Slate Canyon Drive unique in Provo?

When the Slate Canyon Drive subdivision was first approved it was given an R2-PD zone designation.

The original plan was to build nothing but twin-homes.

The developer, Steve Stewart, soon found that they were not selling, so he asked the city if he could keep the density the same while separating the twin homes.

Since the twin-homes were on 8,000 sq. ft. lots, that meant each single family home would have only a 4,000 sq. ft. lot.

A standard subdivision required at least 6,000 sq. ft. lots, but since this was an R2-PD subdivision, it was allowed.

A PD designation means that the density has been maxed out up front, and because of that fact, no Accessory Apartments were allowed. Also the small lots meant that Slate Canyon Drive had a lot more individual driveways along it than a standard subdivision and less on street parking per house.

Another key difference is that Slate Canyon Drive was approved as a "Collector" street instead of a "Local" street.

This wasn't a problem at first, since it was a dead-end street.

However that soon changed with the road being connected to 300 South and hundreds of condos and townhomes being built on the hillside. Traffic and speeds on the "Collector" increased dramatically.

Since approving Slate Canyon Drive as a Collector Street some 30 years ago, safety concerns mean that new Collector Streets do NOT have individual driveways along them.

1320 South is also a Collector, but designed differently so that individual homes are accessed by turning onto a local road or into a common parking area. This means that individual homes don't have to back out into traffic on a busy Collector Street, often having their vision blocked by all the parked cars.

So it turns out that Slate Canyon Drive is an inherently unsafe road because of how it was originally designed and approved, at least by today's standards. This means that Provo City can either ignore the safety concerns or do something to reduce the number of cars blocking the vision of drivers. If the city does nothing, then when someone is T-boned and injured or killed, everyone will be pointing fingers at the city for having done nothing to address the problem.

I experienced this personally just two weeks ago driving along Slate Canyon Drive on a Saturday afternoon. I could see a car backing out, but either they couldn't see me or expected me to slam on my brakes for them. They kept coming and forced me to swerve into the other lane to avoid a collision.

— Dave Knecht, former Neighborhood Chair for 13 years and former City Council member.