What is Independence at The Point in Bluffdale like?

Independence at The Point is the development that changed what Bluffdale is.

For most of its history Bluffdale was low-density and concentrated east of Redwood Road — large lots, few apartments, the kind of place where the horse property was not a novelty. A decade ago roughly three quarters of the city’s population lived east of Redwood Road under that low-density zoning.

Independence is a 294-acre master-planned community that deliberately broke that pattern, putting apartments, townhomes and single-family homes on the same side of the road. It began in 2012, and by 2023 Bluffdale’s planning commission was describing it as nearly complete, with a final apartment project the last item on its docket.

What “mixed density” means for you as a buyer

This is the thing to understand, and it cuts both ways honestly.

You will have neighbors in buildings unlike yours. A detached home here may sit within sight of a five-story apartment midrise. If your mental picture of Bluffdale is pasture and large lots, this is not that, and it was never meant to be.

The amenity base is better than a detached-only subdivision supports. Apartment projects here have been approved with pools, clubhouses, fitness rooms, coworking lounges and rooftop decks. Some of that is resident-only to those buildings, so do not assume you get access to something you saw in a brochure for a different building. Ask specifically what your address includes.

Walkability is better than Bluffdale’s norm. Density supports things that large lots do not. That is the trade in plain terms: you give up space and you get proximity.

Resale pool is wider. A neighborhood with multiple housing types draws multiple kinds of buyer. That is generally a strength.

Whether Bluffdale is a good place to live covers the city as a whole, and Bluffdale against Riverton is the comparison most buyers in this price range are actually running.

Whether Bluffdale is a good place to raise a family covers the schools question, and the other two comparisons worth running are Draper against Bluffdale and Herriman against Bluffdale. The best neighborhoods in Bluffdale sets this one against the rest of the city.

Buying into a nearly-finished master plan

A development that started in 2012 and finished around the middle of this decade puts you in a specific position, and it is mostly a good one.

The build-out risk is behind you. You can see what it became. Buyers who bought here in 2014 were buying a rendering; you are buying a finished street. That is worth a great deal and people undervalue it.

Construction noise is largely done, though confirm that for your specific street rather than the neighborhood.

The homes are no longer new. The earliest phases are now more than a decade old. That means real inspections rather than builder walkthroughs — roofs, water heaters, HVAC and original appliances are all at or approaching the age where they need attention.

The association is mature. This is the upside nobody mentions. A twelve-year-old association has a track record: real budgets, real reserve history, real minutes. You can see whether it has been run well. Ask for the past year of minutes and the reserve study, and you will learn more than any new-construction buyer can possibly know about theirs.

What Utah’s HOA laws say is the statutory floor underneath that.

The Point of the Mountain question

The name is not incidental. This sits near the Point of the Mountain, which is the single most consequential piece of undeveloped land in the state right now — the former prison site and the planning around it.

I am not going to predict what that does to values here. Nobody honestly can, and anyone selling you a number is guessing. What I will say is that this is one of the few places in the valley where a buyer should read the area planning documents before they offer, because the scale of what is proposed nearby is unusual.

What is reasonably safe to say: the area is a long-term growth corridor, it has state attention, and the transport and employment plans around it are serious rather than speculative. What is not safe to say is anything about timing, prices or what gets built.

The commute

This is the south end of the valley at the pinch point, and the pinch point is the whole story.

I-15 at the Point of the Mountain is one of the most reliably congested stretches in Utah, and it is the stretch between here and both downtown Salt Lake and Utah County. That is the trade for the position.

The commute from Bluffdale to downtown Salt Lake City goes through it properly. The useful summary is that it is manageable off-peak and genuinely bad at peak, and that FrontRunner is a real option from this part of the valley in a way it is not from the west side.

As always, drive it at your actual hour before you commit. Twice.

Who it suits

Buyers who want newer housing in south Salt Lake County and want a finished neighborhood rather than a construction site.

People who value walkability and amenities over lot size, and who are clear-eyed that this is the dense part of a formerly rural city.

Commuters who can use FrontRunner, or whose work is in Utah County rather than north.

Anyone who would rather buy into a mature association with a visible track record than gamble on a new one.

Who it does not

Anyone who wants the Bluffdale of the brochures — large lots, horse property, open space. That Bluffdale exists, mostly west of Redwood Road, and this is explicitly the opposite of it.

Anyone who needs a dependable peak-hour drive north. The Point is the Point.

Anyone buying a decade-old home on new-construction assumptions. Get the inspection.

What I actually see

Buyers who are surprised by the density, because they researched Bluffdale and not this neighborhood.

Bluffdale’s reputation is still the rural version, and the city’s own population distribution has shifted underneath that reputation. If you tour here expecting pasture you will be disoriented. If you tour here expecting a walkable mixed-density community near the Point, you will find exactly that.

The second pattern is buyers who skip the reserve study because the association is established and therefore feels safe. Established is not the same as well-funded. A twelve-year-old community has twelve-year-old assets, and the first big replacement cycle is the one that reveals whether the dues were ever set high enough.

What to do next

Ask what your specific address includes in terms of amenities, because that varies by building here more than in most places. Get the association’s reserve study and the past year of minutes. And drive the Point of the Mountain at your commute hour.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and south valley is the market I work. Send me an address in Independence and we will start with what the association actually owns.

Nearby neighborhoods

If the density here is more than you want, SunCrest and Corner Canyon in Draper are the nearest alternatives with more space, and Western Springs in Riverton is the comparable newer option further west.

If the density is the appeal, Daybreak’s villages in South Jordan are the valley’s larger experiment in the same idea and worth touring for comparison. Rosecrest in Herriman is the other master-planned community buyers weigh against this one.

Every neighborhood I have written up is on the neighborhoods page.

Note: Acreage, timeline and build-out status above come from Bluffdale City planning commission records and local reporting from 2016 to 2023. Amenity descriptions come from development filings for specific buildings and may not apply to your address. Confirm current details with the city and the association.