Listen Like a Local Park City & Heber City Summit & Wasatch counties, Utah

Open House is set for Monday evening to discuss the future of the Rail Trail

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Summit County

A second open house regarding the future of the Rail Trail is set for Monday evening.

The open house runs from 6 to 8 pm. It’s in the Trailside Conference Room of the Basin Recreation offices across from Trailside Elementary school.

Summit County Planner Madlyn McDonough says participants can review results of the community survey conducted last year that drew nearly 500 responses. There will also be community feedback from the first open house.

McDonough says the staff has reviewed the input and drafted a vision, objectives, and goals for a future plan.

“And we're really hoping to be able to get more specific details about how we should reach these goals that the community has said that they are interested in reaching,” McDonough said. “ So, we'll have all of that on display. And we're going to have a some really interactive ways of participating this time, including attaching images to words so we can really start understanding what people are picturing when they say certain words. So, I think it'll help us a lot in our planning process.”

This is the first planning effort for the 30-mile Rail Trail between Park City and Echo Reservoir since the community acquired the community asset in 1992.

“What we're looking at currently is how we can utilize this existing trail as an as a connection between and across Summit County,” McDonough said. So, we're thinking of this not only as a trail itself, as a recreational use, but also the land surrounding it. How can this whole corridor, this rail trail corridor, be utilized as a way that would bring communities together, bring people together and really highlight some of the best features of Summit County?”

The draft vision statement reads: “embrace the rail trail corridor as a meaningful connection through Summit County, to enhance user experience, safeguard the natural environment, promote economic vitality, and enrich community character.” From that, she says they have identified three goals and hope the community will weigh in at Monday’s open house.

The county hopes to have a draft plan done by mid-May. For more information, https://railtrailsummit.weebly.com/

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