The Snyderville Basin Cemetery District has announced a new location for the Basin’s first public cemetery.
The initially proposed site across Olympic Parkway from the Run-a-Muk dog park sparked pushback from the public and Utah Olympic Park. So the district is now eyeing land closer to state Route 224.
“We're looking for plus-or-minus 10 acres in size; easy access, both vehicular and pedestrian; adjacency to a trail system; close to public transit,” cemetery board member Pete Gillwald said at a meeting Dec. 8. “We want to consider off-site views and also whether or not utilities are in close proximity.”
They prefer publicly owned land too. That whittled all possible locations down to four that the board compared based on their soil conditions, natural landscape and neighboring properties.
The cemetery planners say the next-best site according to the criteria is on the Run-a-Muk side of Olympic Parkway at the corner of state Route 224 and Bear Cub Drive.
“We have met with Basin Rec to discuss the opportunities on this site, and we were met with a favorable response,” Gillwald said. “As the only real impact to any Basin Rec facilities in this corner is the one singletrack trail that comes off of the [Millenium] Trail and connects into the Run-a-Muk trail network to the west.”
The cemetery district needs the recreation district’s buy-in because Basin Rec co-owns the land with Summit County.
Deed restrictions on that open space allow cemeteries and ban subdivision. But cemetery planners say the state wants cemeteries to exist on separate, subdivided lots.
So the cemetery team needs signatures from 13 parties with a legal interest in the parcel to subdivide it, including Basin Rec.
Basin Rec previously pumped the brakes after the public pushed back. Residents were concerned about realigning trails north of Olympic Parkway and the visual impact of a graveyard at the entrance to the UOP.
The cemetery district has to start over and get all the signatures anew.
After subdivision, the Summit County Council would need to vote to give the cemetery district the land.
The tentative site plan includes traditional burial plots, a cremation garden, memorial garden, community building and parking. Gillwald estimates they could eventually have 4,000 burial sites lasting 160 years.
County Lands and Natural Resources Director Jess Kirby was the only member of the public attending the Dec. 8 meeting. She asked for more information on the community building.
“The drawing is about a 3000-square-foot footprint,” Gillwald said. “It could contain office space for whenever we ever hire a cemetery manager, it could be also used as a gathering space, if somebody wants to have an internment and we have bad weather.”
Soil tests at the new location came back positive, with neither too much rock nor too much water.
The cemetery district’s new proposal also envisions a new road connecting Bear Cub and Olympic. The road is already proposed deep within the county’s 2022 long-range transportation master plan, along with another traffic signal at Bear Cub and state Route 224.
Also Dec. 8, the cemetery board passed its 2026 budget. There isn’t a property tax increase, so the board will raise $495,000 which it will add to $125,000 it didn’t spend in 2025. It brings the total budget up to about $620,000.
Cemetery board member Pete Gillwald calls Park City High School football games on KPCW.
