SOUTH SALT LAKE — City officials in South Salt Lake are working to solidify a vision for parks, recreation and open space areas within its downtown corridor and they’d like the feedback of residents to help map out the future plan.
Through its “Downtown Parks Master Plan” survey, the city says it’s looking for public input to examine the current open spaces in South Salt Lake as well as where new parks, amenities and programming may be needed.
Earlier this year, South Salt Lake updated its city parks plan in efforts to establish a “comprehensive, long-range vision for the city’s park system, aligning it with evolving community needs and aspirations,” leaders wrote in an executive summary for the plan.
Anthony Biamont, city parks project manager, said the current survey presented to residents builds on the groundwork laid by the South Salt Lake Parks Plan and the city’s downtown connect plan to provide better-defined guidelines for developers.
“We looked at (an) analysis of where we had some service gaps in access to park space and our downtown area is definitely the area in the city that’s seeing the most amount of development pressures and growth and kind of change over and transformation. And so as kind of a supplement to the overarching citywide plan we have decided to start this downtown park planning kind of project,” he said.
The city is partnering with Blū Line Designs, a Sandy-based planning, landscape architecture and urban design firm, to create conceptual blueprints and components for desired and recommended amenities.
The section of South Salt Lake designated as its downtown neighborhood spans west to east from I-15 to State Street, between 2100 South and I-80. The area includes several residential and commercial developments, as well as access to public transit such as the Central Pointe Trax station.
While the city plans to boost parks and open spaces in the downtown neighborhood, Biamont said the survey aims to gather information on the preferred types of open spaces, such as playgrounds, passive parks, gardens, plazas, and urban trails that community members would like to see in the future
“Really just kind of trying to get a read on the pulse of how our residents and businesses would like to be included in those open spaces and how they kind of picture themselves being able to use it,” he told KSL.
Some of the preliminary results of the survey, which went out in May, are already being analyzed, according to Biamont. However, he said those wanting to participate in it can do so up until July 3, when it closes.
The city encourages residents and business owners to engage with the survey, as they’d like to hear from as many people as possible to help shape the overall future of parks and open spaces, particularly in the downtown pocket of South Salt Lake.
“That particular neighborhood is getting so much attention between development pressures and also just interest in development — and there’s a lot of transformation happening right now,” Biamont said. “And so really advocating through the survey for the type of spaces you want to see included, helps us then be able to kind of carry that out. It kind of gives the work that we do as we plan out parks and work with developers, a little bit more weight to kind of what we’re advocating for.”
South Salt Lake Downtown Parks Master Plan survey and ways to follow along its progress can be found here.
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