North Salt Lake: Recreation Meeting

Last night, I attended the Focus Group held by the Planning Commission to discuss the building and preservation of Parks, Trails, and Open Spaces for the City. As is often the case in these meetings, some of those that attended had the most unrealistic of desires for the city. I was impressed, however, with how responsible the Planning Commission, and the Mayor, themselves were. They seemed to understand that, to be fiscally sound, the City should not get into greater debt. Below, I summarize, what seemed to be the frightening consensus of those in the Focus Group.

• North Salt Lake should contribute to the building of the Multi-million dollar Soccer Facility proposed by Salt Lake City (SLC is asking for seven million dollars from NSL).
  
• The hundred acres, eighty of which rests in Salt Lake County boundaries, should be left as open space, and not developed(although, developing this land could provide ample revenue to provide for some parks and trails).
  
• A park, the same scale of the North Canyon Park, should be built down the street from the former park.
  
• The Focus Group would like a pool, and basketball courts within city limits (despite the fact that NSL voted against the 23 million dollar Recreation Center that is to be built anyway in 2006).
• In addition to the above, the Focus group would like all 25 miles of proposed trail to be built, with ample parking at the head of the major trails.

I think a common misconception about communities that build their own large facilities is that they will earn a profit and pay for themselves. If that were the case, then private industry would lead in building the Mega-facilities, and Government would stay out of the business of recreation. I hope North Salt Lake will act moderately, in providing the community with their Parks and Trails.