Hi Everyone,
Our community meeting was great last week. We had a good discussion and decided it was best if the city did another community survey. Based on the evidence, the city had been working on this trail project for years, but didn't do a formal community survey until months before the announcement. And, as we reviewed the data, the city included 200 nonresidents into that survey skewing the results.
Citizens have reached out to the Mayor and City Council Members on this issue, and have received responses from Kate Bradshaw, the city council member over the Park Committee, stating the community survey was merely one data point. The city manager, who attended our Hiker Community of Bountiful event, told us that bikers are the ones who helped develop the trail plan years leading up to the survey. And Matt Murri, a city council member who attended our community meeting, stated he personally worked on the trail plan years ago and the hiker needs were discussed. However, somewhere between those initial discussions and the finalization of today’s Master Trail Plan, the biking community's influence grew, resulting in a plan that overwhelmingly caters to their interests rather than taking a balanced approach that considers all trail users.
Our Win: The city announced a few days ago that they are working on developing ONE TRAIL WITHOUT BIKERS, in Mueller Canyon. They have also agreed not to build a bike trail through Kenny Trail, as previously was planned, and give us both Kenny Trail and Holbrook Trail as "hoof and boot" only trails. Fantastic!!
Our FINAL Ask: If the city is not willing to do another community survey, we ask for 3 adjustments to be made to the current master plan. If these 3 requests are accommodated, we will support the trail project moving forward.
- Protect and Preserve the Hiking Trail in Ward Canyon
- Reduce the Number of Bike Trails in Holbrook Mountains, so it doesn't turn into a RaceTrack.
- Make the 50 miles of "multi-use" trails more accessible for hikers.