January 28, 2025 | Brooks Patrick | Infrastructure
March 4, 2025
A Utah copper boomtown—now used as a classic Americana setting for film and television—is getting a tech-driven makeover to preserve and revitalize its historic center.
Between 1904 and 1929, copper mining transformed the town of Magna from a farming outpost into an industrial hub, with Victorian homes and a compact downtown made up of redbrick buildings. The rise of cars in the 1960s pulled people away from the city’s downtown area in favor of retail centers near the highway. Eventually, many of Magna’s historic commercial buildings sat vacant.
Location scouts from the Walt Disney Company locked onto the town’s quaint feel and have featured Magna’s Old Main Street in many productions. Crews for television shows and movies have spruced things up, shot outdoor scenes, and then moved on.
An earthquake in 2020 damaged many of the structures and spurred local preservation efforts. The challenge lay in restoring the buildings while creating a vibrant district that meets residents’ contemporary needs and desires.
Planners set about this delicate balance of architectural and civic renewal using a digital twin. They used a drone to collect imagery, and geographic information system (GIS) technology to inventory data and create rich visualizations of the historic downtown. They made realistic 3D models to show how the area could be changed to welcome more residents and foster community.
“Some of the updates that Disney did are some of the things that we need to be proactive in preserving,” said Matt Starley, long-range planner with the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD), which serves Magna and six other member communities. “We can take that structure—the bones of those historic buildings that attracted filmmakers—and add housing and amenities that give it the look and feel of a bustling historic center.”
Magna’s planners took a new approach—creating a digital twin that displayed the existing town and visualized how proposed development would integrate with it.
“We’ve been working on a historic district plan for quite some time,” Starley said. “It started as a traditional 2D plan document; then, to be more communicative and visual, we decided to put all these 3D components on the website.”
When MSD’s drone program was in its infancy, drone pilots captured images of the historic district and downtown areas, including Copper Park and the library. Adding those images to GIS, MSD staff created the initial model.
James Burton, senior GIS analyst and drone pilot at MSD, related how they’ve improved their modeling skills since then, but called this combination of technology “the best example of what you can do with 3D modeling.” He noted how the effort “snowballed into this great initiative.”
They integrated the 3D with other critical details into a website that highlights Magna’s Historic District Revival Plan. MSD used Site Scan for ArcGIS for drone imagery capture and processing and ArcGIS Experience Builder to guide visitors through the 3D scene.
Marie Schleicher, GIS analyst at MSD and creator of the web experience, said the goal of these 3D scenes was to start conversations around zoning issues. “Rather than speaking indirectly about concepts, such as maximum building heights, we could show them,” she said. “It was great to have the hyperrealistic environment where we could place 3D buildings and objects and show options.”
Planners worked with GIS tools to model options for their downtown, gather ideas from residents, and sidestep any misunderstandings about what changes might be made.
“People have strong opinions about the historic district because their roots are there and they remember how it used to be,” Schleicher said. “This project provided a communication tool to show what it could be in the future.”
Planners successfully added Magna’s historic downtown to the National Register of Historic Places in January 2021. With downtown’s National Historic District designation, property owners have access to tax savings and rehabilitation funds to fuel the area’s renewal.
“Some of our larger metropolises in Utah are well on their journey to historic Main Street revitalization, such as Park City, Ogden, and Provo,” Starley said. “But here in Magna, we’re just getting started.”
The stringent process to achieve historic status served as an opportunity for planners to inventory valuable details. With the digital twin, they could review each building to develop a code landowners would need to follow for new structures.
The details were then presented to city council to enact a zoning code change that could accommodate mixed-use development. Retail at the ground floor and apartments above would fit in well with the existing feel of the area. At this step, the digital twin helped every stakeholder understand what would change and how it would look.
The mixed-use space fills a housing gap in Utah. While the 2020 Census listed Utah as the fastest-growing state, much of the development to fit new residents has been for bigger and more expensive single-family homes.
“Having studio and one-bedroom apartments appeals to the younger population of our area and our aging population,” Starley said.
Incoming retired people already have access to a senior center and several assisted-living facilities in the historic downtown. Many younger people have less interest in maintaining a home and a yard, and a compact downtown appeals to them.
“The historic district is a great environment because it’s walkable, allowing opportunities to get out and visit things on your feet without having to drive,” Starley said.
Interest in the historic downtown has grown since Magna became a city in May 2024. This new status means Magna has more freedom to determine its fate and incentivize public/private development in its historic core.
In the past, the location of Magna’s downtown on the western edge of the city had hampered the prospects of attracting retail businesses.
The planners took an analytical approach, using ArcGIS Urban to measure existing retail space in the historic building stock and assess the number of people needed to keep the area active and vital. This analysis helped build the case for the scale, type, and density of development that Magna needed.
“Some of the buildings we’re proposing on undeveloped areas aim to bring in as much housing as possible to bolster the population to support local businesses,” Starley said.
Planners have received the most positive feedback for proposed updates to Copper Park, with the addition of a skate park and pickleball courts—amenities the city has been missing.
“Nobody’s going to accidentally run through our downtown on their way to someplace else,” Starley said. “We have to become a destination that attracts people.”
Learn more about how GIS and digital twins support smart community planning.
