If Salt Lake City’s latest designs are anything to go by, residents of the growing Granary District will soon get a cool, shady and tree-filled open space where there is now a bunch of hot concrete.

The city’s Public Lands Department has unveiled its final vision for redoing a sizable portion of the Fleet Block, culminating two rounds of public input and design work by Boston-based landscape architect Sasaki for the former city utility site.

The elaborate plans call for transforming the 2.4-acre southeast corner of the block at 900 South and 300 West into what amounts to a thoughtfully planned natural area with many amenities, meant to lure and welcome neighbors like a verdant oasis — while also remembering social justice themes linked with the location.

What’s a flat expanse of open and cracked concrete now is to have nearly 150 new trees, insulating the space with leafy and sheltered groves filled in with native plants.

Along with lots of green, the designs center on a plaza and an amphitheater with a lawn and meadow. Community tables and gardens are intended to draw visitors and families to gather in what are promised to be safer and more appealing spaces, with seating, flexible play furniture and shade pavilions.

Work could start as early as next year.

Officials in Utah’s capital have previously announced the city will partner with two well-known affordable housing developers to build homes on adjacent areas on that same disused block.

‘More than a traditional park’

In a statement coupled with this week’s release of the final designs, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said residents yearned for “more than a traditional park,” based on extensive community input.

“They wanted a space with shade and nature, room for joy and gathering, and an identity that reflects the history and voices of its neighbors,” Mendenhall said.

The final vision, she added, “brings those hopes together in a place that will be welcoming, green, and shaped by the community that will use it for generations.”

City officials have talked about redeveloping all but a few privately owned parcels on that block at least since 2015, as population numbers in surrounding neighborhoods have grown.

The latest design documents refer to the future park as “a resilient, welcoming civic heart: a place where every neighbor feels seen, and where the community grows more connected, and more just, together.”

The designs also call for “significant” public art to honor themes evoked by a dramatic series of two-toned murals that were painted on the block’s outer walls, starting in May 2020 with a portrait of George Floyd.

Many only know that decayed block and former city fleet-management facility for the large street murals depicting those killed by police.

After extensive talks with community members on how best to honor those depicted in the murals, city crews demolished those outer walls in March 2025 to make way for development. The vacated buildings, officials said, also posed an environmental hazard.

That legacy has helped to infuse the new park plans with a distinctly community-oriented feel.

The Salt Lake Arts Council has received 175 applications in its competitive search for an artist to commission for social justice-themed public art in the new park, which city officials said would “inspire future generations to call for change.”

Housing, community amenities

Kim Shelley, director of the Department of Public Lands, said in a statement that every feature of the new open space had been designed “to create a welcoming place where neighbors can gather, share stories and build meaningful connections.”

A property tax bond passed in 2022 to boost park spending and make improvements the city allocated $6 million toward creating the Fleet Block open space for the wider Granary, where upward of 3,200 residents live within a 10-minute walk of the block.

The city has also received a $2 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund’s Greening America’s Cities program, essentially to make it greener, shadier and more of a natural space.

About a year ago, Salt Lake City announced partnerships with Mercy Housing, a national nonprofit based in Colorado, and an Illinois company called Brinshore Development, to build two affordable housing projects on the same block, with elements of social services.

Under the city’s first formal agreement on community benefits required to flow from the project, officials have said the housing will be accessible to families with a range of incomes.

The city has also raised the possibility of setting aside commercial spaces for locally owned businesses or other community amenities.