The goal is to breathe new life - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - into urban areas on the decline.

South Salt Lake is one of those cities seeking to reinvent itself.

The Residences at Central Pointe, a 76-unit condominium project launched by San Francisco- and Park City-based Cascade Development Partners, was completed this summer. To date, 61 of the upscale Main Street units have sold.

The condos, while convenient to transit, do not have much retail nearby - yet. That could change if Cascade Development builds a mixed-use development, combining retail with commercial and residential spaces.

South Salt Lake officials are studying whether to help that project, known as Market Station, with infrastructure, such as curbs, sidewalks and utility lines.

So whom do these so-called urban spaces attract?

For one, a 63-year-old grandmother. Gayle Morton views her new city digs as part of an exhilarating, unfettered lifestyle.

"I feel like it's a little piece of heaven," Morton says of her 920-square foot, maintenance-free condo - just two blocks from her job and about three blocks from a light-rail station.

Morton works full time for Salt Lake County in contracts and procurement. She also manages the county's surplus warehouse - tracking everything from pencils to garbage trucks, she says.

This past summer, she says, she relished starting each day from her fourth-floor patio.

"The sunrises, with a cup of coffee, were the most beautiful thing," she says. More recently she savored her panoramic view of the valley's fall colors - without having to rake any leaves.

It hasn't always been this way. Morton is no stranger to yard work. For several years, she shared a Riverton home on 1.5 acres with her first husband and eight children.

"I've had huge yards with horses and nanny goats," Morton says, acknowledging that downsizing takes some adjustment. "I'm really simplifying."

Morton, who owns a car but says she uses it on a limited bases, takes light-rail to visit her elderly mother in an assisted-living facility, or to head to downtown Salt Lake City's Gallivan Center to meet up with her children.

And she hops a bus to Sugar House for groceries, clothing and other amenities.

"I close my eyes or read a book - and let them do the driving," she says.

Erin Anders, 37, lives one floor above Morton with his girlfriend Jenny Jones. A musician who plays competitive tennis and ice hockey, Anders is vice president of sales and marketing for Agency Works. Jones works with autistic children and coaches competitive swimming.

Both moved from Kansas City, Mo., eight months ago.

"I was looking forward to the urban loft-style of living and wanted to live close to downtown," Anders says.

As an out-of-stater, he admits to having some preconceived ideas about life in the Salt Lake area.

"I've been pleasantly surprised," he says, noting the live jazz music he enjoys at a downtown club, and the quaint diner in Sugar House that serves a great breakfast.

It appears that the face of South Salt Lake will continue to change.

Private investors hope to launch a trolley or streetcar system to link South Salt Lake to Sugar House.

"What we have in this valley - and it's a problem in a lot of valleys - the city's moving laterally and it makes for congestion on the freeways," says Mel Heath, a principal with Cascade Development Partners. "We'd like to create communities where it's a different way of living - more convenient and closer to where people work.

"When you live in a big house in the 'burbs, you've got more property and you collect junk. A condo makes you evaluate what you're keeping and you trim the excess," Heath says. "So what you own doesn't own you anymore."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com