Salt Lake City trail meets a milestone, but an even brighter future awaits
Authored by Alixel Cabrera
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Freshly paved Folsom Trail is a nice start, but the city aims to resurface City Creek, create gathering spaces and connect it to the Jordan River Parkway.
The pavement over the tracks of the old Folsom Rail line may be fresh, but there’s still a lot to get done to fulfill Salt Lake City’s decadeslong vision for the west-side area.
For one, the City Creek portion that’s under Folsom may see the light of day as the city explores how to incorporate water and more gathering spaces along the North Temple-Poplar Grove route.
The project that the Redevelopment Agency and the Seven Canyons Trust have in mind is meant not only to resurface the stream but also to provide community attractions, a request that ranks high on west-sider wish lists.
“We imagine the channel will be approximately 8 feet wide surrounded by public amenities that are prioritized by the community,” said Lauren Parisi, project manager for the city’s RDA. “However, we are still in the process of completing an environmental analysis and collecting public feedback that will influence the final design.”
The city hopes to have the design plan wrapped up by next summer. Funding sources remain undetermined, but the project is included in the proposed general obligation bond that’s on this fall’s ballot. If approved, the money would help landscape and expand the trail.
For the Poplar Grove neighborhood, the trail is a new paved amenity, where bikers can ride and pedestrians can stroll — away from cars — on their way from the North Temple FrontRunner station to 1000 West.
For the city and the Seven Canyons Trust, this is just the beginning of a long-term vision. One of the big aims is that the trail extends to the Jordan River Parkway, broadening alternatives for east-west ties.
“This corridor is a really, really critical east-west connection between west-side neighborhoods and the Jordan River Trail,” said Brian Tonetti, executive director of the Seven Canyons Trust, emphasizing that Folsom would give access — by foot and by transit — to a 45-mile system stretching from Ogden to Provo. “In addition to that, I think the City Creek channel brings an amenity, unlike really anything that we have in Salt Lake City, in that neighborhood.”
This project, Tonetti said, is also a critical component of the Seven Greenways [Vision] Plan, which intends to uncover and restore the seven major tributaries to the Jordan River. It was under this regional plan that Three Creeks Confluence Park opened last year in the Glendale neighborhood.
