The Snyderville Basin Cemetery District announced in June 2024 its preferred site is across from the Run-a-Muk Dog Park.
Now that’s receiving public pushback, including from the Utah Olympic Park. It would be on the right side of Olympic Parkway about a third of the way up the road from the roundabout, below the RTS trailhead.
Cemetery board members have been finetuning the location with Basin Recreation, because it may require shifting summer and winter trails. Nordic combined Olympian Billy Demong said the bigger issue is that the Olympics are returning in 2034.
“With that top of mind, I think that this location doesn't send the message that I would like to, and I think a lot of our Olympic community would like to send, in welcoming the world back to Park City, Utah, and Summit County and the Basin, and specifically the Utah Olympic Park,” he said at the May 9 Basin Rec board meeting.
Cemeteries are already allowed on the land the cemetery district hopes to use, but state lawmakers want cemeteries to be separate parcels of land.
So, it has to be subdivided. The problem is the land’s deed bans subdivision. Undoing that requires signatures from 13 individuals or organizations with a legal, vested interest in the overall property.
Chair Max Greenhaulgh said the cemetery board has 11 of the 13. The last two are High Valley Transit and Basin Recreation. Basin Rec’s board decided to take public input May 9 and will determine whether to sign at its next meeting.
Legally speaking, the UOP doesn’t have a say in the subdivision. But it wants the recreation district to think twice. Employees, Olympians and other athletes spoke out against the cemetery at the board meeting.
UOP President and CEO Colin Hilton said he’s heard from athletes, especially in luge, who say they don’t want to be reminded of a potentially fatal outcome when they go to train.
“They're like, the last thing athletes want is a daily reminder as they drive to the Olympic Park that — you know, seeing a cemetery,” he told KPCW. “I'm just pointing out that we've worked very hard for many years to create a vibrant, exciting development facility, especially for youth, and this seems incongruous to you know what was envisioned when open space went in there.”
Greenhaulgh indicated that the area’s natural beauty is one reason it’s a good spot for a final resting place. He compares it to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which he said harmoniously fits in with surrounding trails.
“It's that wonderful building surrounded by recreation that gives a community and visitors notice that we're more than just recreation, that we have a spiritual component to our community,” Greenhaulgh said.
Hilton said he was unaware of the preferred site until November 2024. He said the first time the cemetery district emailed him was January 2025, inviting him to be on its advisory board. Talks between the two broke down in a matter of weeks.
Cemetery officials say the UOP has been intransigent and does not want them to use Olympic Parkway as an access point. Hilton has suggested other locations on the same parcel by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints camp or off Tech Center Drive.
Basin Rec has suggested the cemetery move closer to the roundabout, which cemetery board member Pete Gillwald said could work. They’ve already moved it down the road because the recreation district was worried about a natural spring.
Gillwald said Hilton’s suggestions also come with potential issues. The area near the church camp requires negotiating with the church and is in close proximity to a well. The spot off Tech Center Drive requires negotiating access across Dakota Pacific Real Estate’s development, which is in limbo, and across Basin Rec’s paved trail.
Hilton said he sent a final email to the cemetery board Feb. 13 and never received a response.
“Given that it appears you are truly just focused on one location, I fail to see why you are engaging us in this process,” Hilton wrote. “I fear you are only wanting to say you are working with the local nearby landowners/stakeholders to show our involvement in this process. It also appears that this sole location has been sold to several county councilmembers prior to really engaging in any stakeholder or public process.”
Along the same lines, Lora Anthony with the Mountain Trails Foundation said her nonprofit won’t support the cemetery board until it meets their view of transparency.
She said that means “written, publicly shared and approved plans, including plans to pay for and replace disrupted trails, install a cemetery-specific parking lot and ensure the natural character of this open space shall remain.”
Another resident, Charles Butler, echoed that it’s tough to imagine what the cemetery would actually look like.
Here’s what cemetery board members have described so far: a park-like, unpaved space, without any buildings, mausoleums, chapels or tall structures. Headstones would be low to the ground or embedded in the ground and if there’s fencing, it will mimic the fences Basin Rec has at its trailheads.
Gillwald said it’s tough to draw specific plans until the board knows where the cemetery will go.
The board also takes issue with the suggestion it’s not been transparent.
The Summit County Council formed it two years ago, and the board has been meeting in public ever since.
It surveyed residents more than one year ago about what they want a cemetery to look like. Gillwald said between 80 and 90 people responded.
He said they looked at more than 20 locations. It’s been a volunteer process involving pro-bono work. Reasons other locations were scrapped ranged from concerns over soil quality to water quality to physical access. The cemetery district says it is prioritizing county-owned land to make the process cheaper for taxpayers.
“If push comes to shove,” Gillwald said, they could move closer to the Olympic roundabout, for instance. He said another meeting is scheduled with Basin Rec soon.
If the district agrees to subdivide the land, it’s not an approval of the specific cemetery location. County attorney Dave Thomas says the actual site would need to go before the recreation district and the county council for approval in public meetings because the two entities still jointly own the property.
The Snyderville Basin doesn't have a public cemetery, and Park City’s is near capacity. That means residents can’t be buried near their homes, often choosing a final resting place in the Salt Lake Valley.
Basin Recreation, Mountain Trails Foundation and the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation are financial supporters of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
