Frequently Asked Questions

In healthy communities and safe neighborhoods, 95% of problems aren’t handled by the police, they’re handled by the community. The Other Side Village will work the same way. In six years of operation, The Other Side Academy has had no dirty drug tests, no acts of violence, and has maintained great relationships with its neighbors because the students of the Academy are the first line of responsibility for keeping things peaceful, safe, and clean. Here’s how it will work at the Village:

1. Peers are the first line of defense. Different from most neighborhoods, ours will be a Village where everyone is in everyone else’s business. People will speak up when they see problems. We will offer reminders and corrections to each other when someone is getting off track. The Village is organized into neighborhoods of 25-30 homes. All these homes form a ring around a central gathering place. This structure encourages interaction and increases awareness of the needs and challenges of neighbors. In addition, new neighbors will be trained to speak up and maintain strong community norms.
2. Village leaders get involved next. For problems that can’t be solved between neighbors, there will be Neighbor Councils. Each neighborhood has a Tribe Leader and Tribe Aid. These are peers who agree to take leadership responsibility within their neighborhood. These leaders are trained in “Restorative Justice” – a problem-solving process through which those who are wronged can be heard, and amends can be made. If someone behaves in ways that offend or hurt a neighbor, they will be required to participate in a Neighbor Council to address it.
3. Civil authorities are called whenever needed. If the offense is of a criminal nature, the police will be called first. If someone breaks a law, we will immediately report it to the police.

When people live in a community with strong and obvious norms, they behave much better than when we don’t. We will have problems. But we will have ways of solving them that are far faster and more effective than most neighborhoods because of our Village culture.

We are committed to ensuring that the site is safe for residential living and as a workplace. We have already done a number of environmental tests on the site and we continue to do additional testing until we are satisfied that this is a safe and healthy place.

In looking at the site, there is the historic landfill that was used from 1920 to 1962. This western portion of the site is the elevated portion on the parcel along the west side, adjacent to I-215. The landfill has been dormant for the last 60 years and has 5 feet of fill over the top of the landfill. We do not plan to build any housing or offices on the westside landfill portion of the parcel.

The east side of the parcel is largely native soil with some green waste at the southern and northern ends of the parcel. We plan to build the housing on the east side of the parcel and avoid building on the western landfill portion.

To date, none of the test results has disqualified the eastern portion of the site from being considered as a viable site. 

We have hired Terracon to do our Environmental Testing. In a recent report, Terracon stated: 

The results show the native materials on the east side of the site have not been impacted above residential screening levels. Although we did pick up arsenic in every sample, these are actually pretty typical levels for Salt Lake valley and are generally considered by the regulatory community to be naturally occurring and therefore, not subject to corrective action. 

Terracon did identify a location that had some localized contamination and they are putting together a remediation plan to remove the soil from this small area but found no widespread contamination across the eastern portion.

We continue to do further testing as well as work closely with local and state regulatory agencies, including the Salt Lake City Office of Sustainability and the Utah State Department of Environmental Quality. As we do continued testing, if we find anything that makes the site not viable for humans that cannot be safely remediated, we will abandon this site and pursue other locations.

Our testing and remediation will be supervised by the Utah State Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) under their Voluntary Cleanup Program. If we complete all their requirements for remediation, we will receive a Certificate of Compliance from DEQ. Based on the testing we have completed to date, we believe there are only a few localized areas of contamination that we need to address, but we will do much more extensive testing under the supervision of DEQ to confirm the areas that will require remediation. We will abandon the property if it can not be made safe for residential use.

No. Neighbors should expect that their neighborhood will be safer, cleaner, and more beautiful because of our presence. This is exactly what has happened since The Other Side Academy moved into downtown Salt Lake City with similar values and a similar culture to what will exist in the Village. It is also what has happened since Community First! Began building a village for formerly homeless individuals that will ultimately have over 1,500 tiny homes in it. The crime rate has dropped, neighbors are regular visitors to these campuses, and property values have been enhanced.