Moving here West Jordan
Thirty two square miles, and three different decades in them
A west side address, and what it actually asks of you
West Jordan begins on the west bank of the Jordan River and ends in the foothills of the Oquirrhs, which makes it less a place on the west side than most of the width of it. What that produces is a city you read by how far west a street sits: a pioneer mill at one end, Jordan Landing and the civic core through the middle, subdivisions from the last twenty years out under the mountains, and six rail platforms strung between them on an 1872 railway alignment.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
A West Jordan address is decided by one thing above all: how far west it sits. The city runs about 32 square miles from the west bank of the Jordan River to the foot of the Oquirrh Mountains, so driving the width takes you through the building eras in order, from an 1850s mill site at the river, through postwar and late-century streets in the middle, to subdivisions from the last twenty years out under the mountains. Jordan Landing, the valley's big open-air retail center, sits in that middle band, and six Red Line rail platforms are strung across the city on an 1872 railway alignment. Newer houses and bigger skies tend to be west; finished streets, mature trees and the walkable civic core sit east at the river. Decide which of those two you want more of and most of the map falls into place.
The thing that decides everything else
Read a street by how far west it sits
The most useful sentence anyone can give you about a West Jordan address is a geographic one: the city limits begin on the west bank of the Jordan River and end in the eastern foothills of the Oquirrhs. That is not a city drawn around a center. It is a band laid across the western half of the valley floor, about 32 square miles of it, with water at one end and rising ground at the other.
So the question that decides what living here is like is not which neighborhood, it is how far west. Drive the width in one go and the answer is visible from the car: a pioneer settlement at the river with a mill site worked since the 1850s, then postwar streets, then long late-century subdivisions, then ground that was farmland within living memory and now holds the newest housing in the city, and finally the foothills where the building stops. Each band carries its own lot sizes, its own tree cover, its own street pattern and its own distance to everything.
The city incorporated on January 10, 1941, which is late for a settlement founded around 1850. For roughly ninety years this was farm ground with a mill on it, so almost everything you can see was built after the second world war and much of it after 1980. That is why a place with a National Register building at one end feels newer almost everywhere else.
| The river end | The middle | The mountain end | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roughly where | East of about 2700 West, along the 7800 South corridor | Between about 2700 West and 4800 West | West of about 4800 West, out to the foothills |
| What is on the ground | The 1877 mill and its village, Veterans Memorial Park, the city hall, the library, the museum, the river trail | Jordan Landing, the demonstration garden, the golf course, the arts center, the county library headquarters | Ron Wood Park, South Valley Regional Airport, the newest subdivisions |
| Rail | Two platforms, at 7800 South and on Redwood Road | Two platforms, near 2700 West and by the hospital | Two platforms, on Old Bingham Highway |
| The building era | Settled since the 1800s, finished and mature | Postwar through late century, built out | Mostly the last twenty years, still filling in |
| What the year asks | The July rodeo weekend and six weeks of autumn at the mill | Errands and appointments | Exposure, with little mature shade at the mountain foot |
Cross streets here are approximate, a way to read the city rather than a survey line.
The rail line runs west, but the walkable ground does not follow it. Three of the city's six platforms sit out along Old Bingham Highway and 2700 West, which sounds as though the western half is the transit connected half. In practice the two platforms nearest the river are the ones within a walk of anything: the mill village and the trail at one, the city hall, the library and Veterans Memorial Park at the other. Out west the platforms are park and ride facilities serving a commute rather than a walkable destination, which is a very different thing to have at the end of your street.
Why the trains and the streets line up
The Red Line follows a railway surveyed in 1872
The Mid Jordan leg of the Red Line runs 10.6 miles, and every mile of it sits on the corridor of an older railway. A narrow gauge line was built in 1872 between Sandy and a canyon in the Oquirrhs, became the Denver and Rio Grande Western's Bingham Branch in 1881, and ended its working life as a Union Pacific industrial lead. The Utah Transit Authority rebuilt that corridor for light rail and opened all six of this city's platforms in August 2011.
That history explains the shape of the western half of the city better than any map. A line laid to serve a canyon set the alignment, the highways out west carry the same names, and the subdivisions filled in around both. So the newest housing in West Jordan, the ground west of roughly 4800 West that went up in the last twenty years, sits on a street grid that a freight railroad drew first. If you are looking at a street out there and wondering why the grid does what it does, that is the answer.
It also sets a limit on what the rail is for. A platform on a former freight alignment is good at getting you across the valley and poor at putting a shop, a school or a park within a walk of your door, because it was never routed with those in mind. Read the western platforms as commuter infrastructure and they do their job well. Read them as walkable centers and they will disappoint you. The river page covers the one platform where the walkable version is genuinely true.
The trains are fifteen years old and the route they run on is a hundred and fifty. Everything about the western half of this city sits on that line.
The places that anchor the middle and the west
Jordan Landing, Gardner Village, and the overlook up the hill
Jordan Landing is the retail center most of the city drives to. It is a large open-air center off Bangerter Highway near 7800 South, more than 100 shops, restaurants and services, by the center's own count across one large block off the highway, anchored by a Walmart Supercenter, a Sam's Club, a Target and a Lowe's, with a 24-screen Cinemark theater on it. If a listing says it is a few minutes from everything, this is usually the everything it means. Directions
Gardner Village is the other end of the same city and a different century. A flour mill built in 1877 stands at 1100 West 7800 South near the river, and a village of shops and restaurants has grown up around it since 1980. Its six-week autumn season is the busiest thing that happens at that end of town all year. The fuller story is on the Gardner Village page. Directions
The Bingham Canyon Mine overlook is the one that surprises people, and it is worth being precise about it. The Rio Tinto Kennecott visitor experience runs a shuttle up to an overlook of the open-pit copper mine in the Oquirrhs, west of the city rather than inside it, with self-guided exhibits on how the mine works. It opens and closes with the season and asks for tickets bought ahead, so check that it is running before you make the drive. Directions
The middle
Jordan Landing, off Bangerter near 7800 South, is the retail and cinema anchor for the whole southwest valley.
The river end
Gardner Village keeps an 1877 mill in use, with shops around it and a long autumn season.
Up the hill
The Kennecott overlook is a seasonal drive into the Oquirrhs, not a stop inside the city.
The year, in practice
Two fixed weeks, and an airfield in the middle
Most Utah addresses have a season that changes what the place is. This one has two fixed dates instead, both at the river end. Early July, usually July 2 to 4, is the Western Stampede, a rodeo and carnival that takes over Veterans Memorial Park for several days and closes Redwood Road for the parade on the morning of July 4. From mid September through October, Gardner Village runs its autumn season, six weeks of extended evening hours that bring traffic to 7800 South and 1100 West. Outside those two, spring brings high water on the river trail, and summer brings real heat and little shade on the western half where the trees are young.
The two fixed weeks
There is a working airfield inside this boundary, and it is not a small one. South Valley Regional Airport, near 4450 West and 7365 South, is the valley's main general aviation field, run by the Salt Lake City Department of Airports, with a 5,862 foot runway and a Utah National Guard aviation support facility sharing it. Rotary wing training is part of what happens there. If you are looking at streets in the middle of the city, stand on them and listen before you decide anything. Directions
Schools, and what other pages carry
Confirm the district for a street, then read the rest elsewhere
West Jordan is served by the Jordan School District, which covers the southwest side of the valley. School assignment here runs by address, and the district has redrawn boundaries before as it balances buildings, so a home on a boundary may not feed what you assume. Before a school talks you into an address, drop that exact address into the Jordan School District boundary map and read the assignment from the source. For whether a given school suits your kids, use the independent profiles at GreatSchools and Niche rather than anyone's sales pitch, mine included.
Everything with a number attached to it, prices, taxes, the market, new construction, the employers, the hospital, utilities and drive times, lives on the West Jordan city guide, which was written for that job and runs several times the length of this page. If you are weighing this city against a neighbor, the compare pages already exist, from South Jordan and West Valley City to Sandy, Taylorsville and Herriman, so this page links them rather than re-arguing them. The cold season on this valley floor, the range on the western skyline and the river as a full corridor are county subjects with pages of their own, and being able to see something from a window does not make it the city's.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
West Jordan, answered
It is decided by how far west it sits. The city limits begin on the west bank of the Jordan River and end in the eastern foothills of the Oquirrhs, so the boundary crosses three building eras: a pioneer river end with a mill site worked since the 1850s, a long postwar and late-century middle, and the newest ground out under the mountains. Lot sizes, tree cover, street pattern and distance to everything all change as you move along that width.
About 116,961 people at the 2020 census, Utah's third largest on that count, spread over 32.33 square miles. The number that tells you more is the gap between two dates: settlement around 1850, incorporation on January 10, 1941. For roughly ninety years this was farm ground with a mill on it, so almost every building you can see went up after the second world war and much of it after 1980, which is why the place feels newer than its founding date suggests.
Jordan Landing is a large open-air retail center off Bangerter Highway near 7800 South, on the middle band of the city. It runs more than 100 shops, restaurants and services, by the center's own count, anchored by a Walmart Supercenter, a Sam's Club, a Target and a Lowe's, with a 24-screen Cinemark theater on it. It is the retail hub most of the southwest valley drives into.
Six, which is more than most people expect. Two of them are useful on foot, at the mill on 7800 South and on Redwood Road beside the civic buildings. Jordan Valley sits by the hospital on Haun Drive. The other three are commuter facilities out along 2700 West and Old Bingham Highway, where the parking lots are large. Every one of the six came into service together when the Mid Jordan leg opened in August 2011.
At the river end, genuinely yes. Historic Gardner station puts the mill village and the Jordan River trail within a short walk, and West Jordan City Center station on Redwood Road is close to the city hall, a library and Veterans Memorial Park. Out west it is a different answer: those three platforms sit on a former freight alignment and work as park and ride facilities serving a commute rather than as walkable centers, because the route was laid to serve a canyon rather than a neighborhood.
You can, seasonally, and it is up the hill rather than in the city. The Rio Tinto Kennecott visitor experience runs a shuttle to an overlook of the open-pit copper mine in the Oquirrhs, west of West Jordan, with self-guided exhibits on how the mine works. It opens and closes with the season and asks for tickets bought ahead, so check that it is running before you make the drive.
West Jordan is served by the Jordan School District, which covers the southwest side of the valley. Assignment runs by address and the district has redrawn boundaries before, so confirm a specific address on the Jordan School District boundary map rather than assuming. For how a given school performs, read the independent profiles at GreatSchools and Niche.
Two fixed weeks anchor the calendar, both at the river end. Early July, usually July 2 to 4, is the Western Stampede, a rodeo and carnival at Veterans Memorial Park that closes Redwood Road for the parade on the morning of July 4. From mid September through October, Gardner Village runs its autumn season with extended evening hours. The rest of the year runs on the parks, the river trail and the retail at Jordan Landing.
It depends on which of two things you want more of. If walkable civic ground matters, the streets near 7800 South at the river end put a mill village, a river trail, a rail platform, a library, a museum and Veterans Memorial Park inside a small radius, and everything there is finished and mature. If newer building stock and a bigger sky matter, the ground west of about 4800 West is where the last two decades of the city went, with the trade being exposure and distance from the older core.
A boundary with a river at one end and a mountain range at the other
Ask a west versus east question rather than a neighborhood one and this city answers plainly. How far west a street sits tells you what decade it was built in, how mature the trees are, how far the nearest finished park is, and whether the rail platform down the road is somewhere to walk to or somewhere to leave a car. Three miles of the same city can swing all four. Send me the streets you are weighing and a Salt Lake County partner agent walks them at the hours that matter, while I keep the research and the financing side straight.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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