The West Valley City Council took a lot of heat as it prepared to vote on a rezone of the Redwood Drive-In and Swap Meet property. That vote finally took place last week, clearing the way for a planned development of nearly 300 homes.

Change is never easy, and this particular issue has plucked the nostalgic heartstrings of longtime residents while imposing a legitimate challenge on swap meet vendors. But nostalgia is a poor strategy for city planning and in this case, the City Council absolutely made the right call.

First, the drive-in business model is dead. In the same vein as Blockbuster and Media Play, the way Americans consume media has shifted and the old ways are no longer viable. There are a lot of factors behind this (I could spend an entire column on how Daylight Saving Time drew first blood) but one need only look around at the dwindling number of outdoor movie screens to see the writing on the wall.

Second, this is private property. The owner has been upfront about wanting to sell and even if the Council had rejected the rezone, there's no mechanism to stop the owner from shutting down the swap meet. A buyer was most interested in converting the space into a residential neighborhood, which is just good business sense in a state struggling with a housing shortage.

Third, the property is enormous, roughly equal to one of Salt Lake City's notoriously huge downtown blocks. If you picture the Gallivan and everything around it—the One Utah Center, the Wells Fargo building, a Marriott hotel, a parking garage, several food and beverage businesses—you could fit all of that in the Redwood Drive-In and still have room to spare.

Fourth, the worst way to build new housing is by sprawling out in the middle of nowhere where residents are forced to drive. The best way to build new housing is by clustering in the center of everything and adjacent to transit. Many of the people angry with West Valley have never ridden the 217 bus, but it just so happens to be one of the most important transit corridors on the Wasatch Front. One day, we may very well see a Trax line running up and down Redwood, and the success of transit demands as much housing—whether "affordable" or not—and commercial density as possible.

In urbanist terms, the Redwood Drive-In is a "missing tooth"—a gap in the city fabric that undermines economic performance and walkability. It sits empty most of the time, offering little support to adjacent businesses while its acres of bare asphalt bake in the hot sun.

I share the hope that swap meet vendors find a new location (perhaps SLCC, just two miles up the road, which has a lot of empty parking on weekends) and I look forward to seeing the overall vibrancy of West Valley improve as more people find the housing they need on Redwood Road.