County Planner Madlyn McDonough and University of Utah graduate student Jennifer Leslie presented the Rail Trail corridor plan to the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission.
The report polled 741 Summit County residents and incorporated feedback from open houses and focus groups. County officials want the document to guide future county decisions regarding the rail trail.
The public’s biggest concern about the trail is maintenance, the poll showed.
“The trail is in pretty poor quality in some areas along this 24-mile journey,” Leslie said.
Another concern planners raised about the corridor were two dangerous road crossings at Promontory Ranch Road and State Route 248.
McDonough said the SR 248 concerns are already being addressed by Park City, which has selected a consultant to design an overpass.
“There is a section of this plan that talks about safer road crossings and asks for an overpass on 248. And then, lo and behold, there's going to be, so that's exciting," she said.
The rail trail plan presents options for future ownership. Currently, Utah State Parks manages and maintains the trail, though the plan says the state seems to prefer to give those responsibilities to Summit County.
Even though the plan calls Utah State Parks the owner, it’s actually the Union Pacific Railroad. Technically, the company could put a train back on the corridor if it wanted.
That’s because of “railbanking,” which allows railroad companies to preserve their right-of-way in an unused train corridor for the future.
Resident Bill Coleman commented on that possibility.
“That sounds pretty silly,” Coleman said. “But on the other hand, it sounds kind of intriguing, because there could be a trolley. There could be some kind of very simple commuter system that brings residents and workers from Colleville, Wanship and everything, that whole area, into town.”
He said a simple trolley need not obstruct bike and pedestrian traffic. It would be a way for people going downhill to get back uphill too.
However, resident Suzanne Rosenberg didn’t seem too keen on Coleman’s idea.
“Transportation along [the trail] would be very disruptive to residential neighborhoods where people constantly go across the rail trail to interact with each other. Kids play along it; dogs run along it,” she said. “And having a motorized vehicle that's going back and forth—I think it'd be a real safety issue.”
She also spoke about maintenance—or lack thereof, she said—from the state. Rozenberg thought if the county had the funds to take over maintenance it could probably do a better job.
Dana Jones, Basin Recreation’s district director, agreed on the maintenance point.
“Any trail that runs through our county, we should be proud of,” Jones said. “And we should be providing the maintenance that people would like and a place where people can go and feel connected to the community.”
Coleman also asked the county to consider the other railroads branching off the Union Pacific corridor.
“I want to make sure that what we do in this corridor could be expanded easily,” he said.
Leslie said the idea aligned with the Utah government’s goals for a statewide trail system.
After the public weighed in, planning commissioners gave their thoughts. Commissioner Tyann Mooney said she liked the idea of adding more historical markers along the trail.
“Like with the Natchez Trace: people go that trail just to be able to read the historical markers,” Mooney said. “And I think that that's really critical to make [the rail trail] seem special.”
Commissioners’ feedback was positive across the board. Staff hopes to present the document to the Summit County Council in May.
