Independence in Bluffdale, and the big build across the line

A planned community in the northeast corner of Bluffdale, off the 14600 South exit of I-15. It was drawn as one plan across about 296 acres rather than added street by street, and it mixes single-family homes, townhomes and apartments with parks, a walkway and trail network, and some commercial ground. The published plan is for roughly 1,900 homes phased in over years, and the streets, parks and monuments are named for American ideals.

At 15245 South Noell Nelson Drive. It is landscaped with pavilions and several separate play areas, including a splash pad with colored spouts and sprayers and a playground built around a large climbing rope structure with a two-story slide. The splash pad runs on the city season, Memorial Day to Labor Day, from 10am to 8pm. Bookings and questions go through Bluffdale City Hall at 801-254-2200.

Draper. The 600-acre redevelopment of the former state prison ground sits across the city line in Draper, northeast of Bluffdale, so Bluffdale gets the construction traffic and the pressure on the same I-15 interchanges without any say over the plan or any of it on its tax roll. Draper's own page covers the project itself in detail.

As of 2026, the former prison has been relocated, the site is cleared, and roads and utilities for the first phase are under way. Developers broke ground on the first phase, a 104-acre downtown district, on 29 June 2026, and that phase includes a 5,000-seat arena carrying the Mountain America Event Center name and Chroma, a mix of apartments over ground-floor shops. The wider 600-acre plan is announced rather than under way. Those are three different things and worth keeping separate.

There are two in Draper and they share only a naming rights sponsor. One is the event hall at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, which opened in February 2026. The other is the 5,000-seat arena in the first phase at The Point, a separate site with a separate address. A listing that names only the sponsor does not tell you which building you are going to, so check the street address on the ticket.

That depends on separating what is on the ground today from what is only announced, and on driving the I-15 interchange at the hour you would actually use it rather than on a quiet Saturday. The Point sits where the valley narrows at the Point of the Mountain, and a build this size does not make that stretch easier while it is under construction. A projected job count for a phase that has just broken ground is a plan, not a payroll.

Ground laid out as a single planned community carries recorded documents that an older large-lot street in the same city does not, and they run with the land rather than with the seller. They are public records and you can get them in advance. Ask for the complete recorded set at the start of the due diligence period rather than a summary, read them yourself, and get anything you cannot answer from the documents answered in writing before the period closes.

Off the 14600 South exit of I-15, the exit the community is named from. Note that 14600 South has been closed between Spring View Parkway and 1010 West since November 2025 while a rail underpass is rebuilt, so the east-to-west crossing of the city is not available at that street for now. Check the posted detours before you set a route, because the closure changes the approach from the western half of the city.

Park at Independence Park and walk the paved path along the northern and western edges of the community out to wherever it puts you, then walk back through the middle. That hour shows you how far the shops, schools and main roads really are on foot, where the path network connects and where it stops, how much of the landscape is maintained, and what the freeway noise is like at the eastern edge on an ordinary weekday. None of that shows up on a plan drawing or in a listing.