Housing construction a safety concern, expected to continue
In the past three years, several student housing facilities have opened around campus, which students say has caused safety issues. Logan city officials said they expect this pattern of near-constant construction around the Utah State University campus to continue.
Logan city senior planner Russ Holley said the concentration of apartment complexes near the university is a deliberate zoning effort.
“We look at where are people going to live, how will they get to work, how are they going to get to the store — planning is really to manage growth,” Holley said.
According to the city’s website, Logan’s population is expected to double every 33 years. Holley said that city zoning is fluid and changes according to elected officials and citizens’ needs.
With USU’s enrollment at all-time high, Holley said housing complexes are a good investment. In January, The Factory — the long-awaited luxury apartments on the corner of 600 East and 900 North — are expected to partially open. Its neighbors at Bridgerland Apartments are looking forward to construction concluding, although it won’t be completely finished until the end of spring semester.
“It sucks,” said resident Jake Bellucci, who has lived at Bridgerland since May. He is frustrated with the loud construction equipment. “Every morning you wake up to this noise. This is a quiet day.”
Mareille Jewett also lives at Bridgerland, and — like Bellucci — she is a junior at USU. Driving on 900 East, the street between The Factory and Bridgerland Apartments, has been “the worst,” she said.
“It’s really annoying… Not a lot of it’s in their control,” Jewett said. “It’s kind of just little annoyances like it being loud. Blocking off the road wasn’t very fun for us.”
The four-way stop turning off 900 E and onto 600 N has been a cause for serious concern because of the construction, Bellucci said.
“I think it’s wasn’t done in a timely way. That should’ve been something done over the summer. If they had to block off the road, that shouldn’t be done when there are 16,000 undergraduate students trying to get up to campus,” Bellucci said. “I’ve almost gotten in so many accidents.”
Holley said that — while an inconvenience — construction around the university will not stop because of its growth.
“My impression is that it will continue, but it will ebb and flow a little bit. Some years you may not see as much as others,” Holley said. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that construction will continue to grow in that area.”
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