It is also the location of the soccer-specific America First Field (formerly known as Rio Tinto Stadium), which hosts Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC home games, and opened on October 8, 2008.

A formal master plan was adopted in January 2017 to accommodate regional growth and outlines developments and related guidelines through the next 25 years, while dividing the city center into distinct villages.

[5] Located at the base of the Wasatch Mountains thirteen miles (21 km) south of Salt Lake City, Sandy was a likely area for early settlement.

Permanent settlers first moved into Sandy during the 1860s and 1870s because of the availability of land in the less crowded southern end of the Salt Lake Valley.

The original plat was essentially one square mile, situated on an alluvial terrace running north and south along the eastern edge of the Jordan River drainage system and paralleling the mountain range.

[6] Another theory is that the name came from a legendary and colorful Scotsman, Alexander "Sandy" Kinghorn, the engineer who ran the first train line to this end of the Salt Lake Valley.

Farmers willing to try their hand at the thirsty soil that inspired Sandy's name took up land along State Street, which stretched from downtown Salt Lake City to Point of the Mountain.

When silver mining began in Little Cottonwood Canyon, entrepreneurs recognized Sandy's value as a supply station; soon its main street was lined with hotels, saloons, and brothels serving miners ready to spend their newly earned wages.

Built in 1873, the railroad connected Sandy to Salt Lake City and facilitated the transportation of ore and other products both in and out of the area.

A streetcar line in 1907 facilitated the transportation of locals to jobs in Salt Lake City; and the automobile later continued to serve that function.

Sandy was incorporated in 1893, largely as part of an effort to combat what Mormon inhabitants considered "unsavory" elements in the town.

By 1900, there was only a handful of saloons and hotels, and Sandy began to more closely resemble other rural Utah towns — a place where everyone knew everyone else.

It had always been assumed by local leaders and citizens that Sandy would grow outward from its logical and historic center—the nexus of Main and Center streets.

Although it was initially perceived as a bedroom community, and often still is, it has since developed a thriving commercial center along State Street and other various arterial roads.

In 2014, the Sandy City government revealed blueprints to redevelop 1,100 acres of Sandy's downtown area into a new resort-style city center over the next 25 years, adding high-rise multi-family residential buildings and office towers, while also renovating the Shops at South Town shopping mall.

The major residential region of eastern Sandy sits on the slopes of the Wasatch Range while the western section lies at the bottom of the valley.

The racial makeup of the county was 84.6% non-Hispanic White, 0.7% Black, 0.4% Native American, 3.0% Asian, 0.7 Pacific Islander, and 2.1% from two or more races.

[23] Sandy is home to Real Salt Lake, a Major League Soccer team established in 2004 that plays at the America First Field on the city's west side and the Utah Royals, a National Women's Soccer League team that also shares America First Field.

A feasibility study was conducted by UTA in 2015, outlining the need for a circulator route, which was established into Sandy's long-term city center plan in January 2017.