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030 of 2022 - SLC Public Lands 20-Year Master Plan1 SALT LAKE CITY ORDINANCE No. _____ of 2022 (Adopting the Salt Lake City Reimagine Nature Master Plan) An ordinance adopting the Salt Lake City Reimagine Nature Master Plan. WHEREAS, the Reimagine Nature Master Plan establishes a framework to guide how Public Lands will care for, grow, and, prioritize investments for the next 10 to 20 years; and WHEREAS, after a hearing before the city council, the City Council has determined that adopting this ordinance is in the best interest of the City. NOW, THEREFORE, be it ordained by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah: SECTION 1. Adopting the Salt Lake City Reimagine Nature Master Plan. That the “Salt Lake City Reimagine Nature Master Plan” is hereby adopted to read and appear as provided in Exhibit “A” attached hereto. SECTION 2. Effective Date. This ordinance shall become effective on the date of its first publication. Passed by the City Council of Salt Lake City, Utah, this ______ day of ______________, 2022. ______________________________ CHAIRPERSON ATTEST AND COUNTERSIGN: ______________________________ CITY RECORDER Transmitted to Mayor on _______________________. Mayor's Action: _______Approved. _______Vetoed. 7th June 30 Dan Dugan (Jun 29, 2022 10:40 MDT) Dan Dugan Jun 29, 2022 4 Cindy Trishman (Jul 5, 2022 23:50 MDT) 2 ______________________________ MAYOR ______________________________ CITY RECORDER (SEAL) Bill No. ________ of 2022. Published: ______________. APPROVED AS TO FORM Salt Lake City Attorney’s Office Date:__________________________________ By: ___________________________________ Boyd Ferguson, Senior City Attorney Ir 1 1 ~ I. _ 71 I 30 Jun 29, 2022 Lisa Shaffer (Jun 29, 2022 18:20 MDT) Cindy Trishman (Jul 5, 2022 23:50 MDT) July 6, 2022 Ordinance 30 of 2022 Public Lands 20-Year Master Plan, Reimagine Nature Final Audit Report 2022-07-06 Created:2022-06-29 By:Thais Stewart (thais.stewart@slcgov.com) Status:Signed Transaction ID:CBJCHBCAABAAN3YfIKXSEHz_WBX3jEawNI2ViLtS-g4Q "Ordinance 30 of 2022 Public Lands 20-Year Master Plan, Reim agine Nature" History Document created by Thais Stewart (thais.stewart@slcgov.com) 2022-06-29 - 4:55:18 AM GMT Document emailed to Boyd Ferguson (boyd.ferguson@slcgov.com) for signature 2022-06-29 - 4:58:28 AM GMT Email viewed by Boyd Ferguson (boyd.ferguson@slcgov.com) 2022-06-29 - 2:27:15 PM GMT Document e-signed by Boyd Ferguson (boyd.ferguson@slcgov.com) Signature Date: 2022-06-29 - 2:27:23 PM GMT - Time Source: server Document emailed to daniel.dugan@slcgov.com for signature 2022-06-29 - 2:27:25 PM GMT Email viewed by daniel.dugan@slcgov.com 2022-06-29 - 4:40:32 PM GMT Document e-signed by Dan Dugan (daniel.dugan@slcgov.com) Signature Date: 2022-06-29 - 4:40:47 PM GMT - Time Source: server Document emailed to Erin Mendenhall (erin.mendenhall@slcgov.com) for signature 2022-06-29 - 4:40:49 PM GMT Email viewed by Erin Mendenhall (erin.mendenhall@slcgov.com) 2022-06-29 - 8:57:37 PM GMT Thais Stewart (thais.stewart@slcgov.com) replaced signer Erin Mendenhall (erin.mendenhall@slcgov.com) with Lisa Shaffer (Lisa.Shaffer@slcgov.com) 2022-06-29 - 8:59:50 PM GMT Document emailed to Lisa Shaffer (Lisa.Shaffer@slcgov.com) for signature 2022-06-29 - 8:59:51 PM GMT Email viewed by Lisa Shaffer (Lisa.Shaffer@slcgov.com) 2022-06-30 - 0:20:18 AM GMT Document e-signed by Lisa Shaffer (Lisa.Shaffer@slcgov.com) Signature Date: 2022-06-30 - 0:20:38 AM GMT - Time Source: server Document emailed to Cindy Trishman (cindy.trishman@slcgov.com) for signature 2022-06-30 - 0:20:39 AM GMT Document e-signed by Cindy Trishman (cindy.trishman@slcgov.com) Signature Date: 2022-07-06 - 5:50:39 AM GMT - Time Source: server Agreement completed. 2022-07-06 - 5:50:39 AM GMT Prepared by ADOPTED ON JUNE 7, 2022 III SLC PUBLIC LANDS PROJECT TEAM Kristin Riker, Director of Public Lands Nancy Monteith, Senior Landscape Architect, Project Manager Lewis Kogan, Public Lands Deputy Director Lee Bollwinkel, Parks Division Director Tony Gliot, Urban Forestry Division Director Matt Kammeyer, Golf Division Director Luke Allen, Community Outreach, Events, and Marketing Manager Amy Nielson, Community Events Manager Katie Riser, Volunteer, Outreach & Education Coordinator Valerie Huitzil, Graphic Design Technician Leah Smith, Special Events Permit Coordinator Suzy Lee, Parks Usage Coordinator Kezia Lopez, Oce Facilitator SALT LAKE CITY STAFF Nick Norris, Planning Director Allison Rowland, Public Policy Analyst II, City Council Sarah Benj, Salt Lake City American Disability Act (ADA) Coordinator Michael Guymon, Engineer, Public Utilities Celina Milner, Policy Advisor for Diversity and Human Rights Kyle Strayer, Civic Engagement Team PARKS, NATURAL LANDS, URBAN FORESTRY AND TRAILS ADVISORY BOARD Ginger Cannon, At-large Polly Hart, At-large Jenny Hewson, At-large Elliot Mott, At-large former Fred Fife, District 2 former Melanie Pehrson, District 2 Phil Carrol, District 3 Gwen Springmeyer, District 3 former Brianna Binnebose, District 5 Katie Davis, District 6 former CJ Whittaker, District 6 Samantha Finch, District 7 UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF CITY AND METROPOLITAN PLANNING Dr. Ivis García, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Arnold, Westside Studio Teaching Assistant Students of Community Engagement in Planning Students of West Side Studio ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DESIGN WORKSHOP Anna Laybourn Amanda Jeter Mary Oliver Michael Stout Ashton Breeding Nino Pero Renee Ludlam ETM ASSOCIATES Tim Marshall Desiree Liu V PREFACE .....................................................I Executive Letter ..................................................vii Plan on a Page ..................................................viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................1 Background ......................................................3 Plan Horizon ................................................3 Planning Process ............................................4 How To Use This Plan .............................................5 Plan Framework Diagram .....................................6 Past and Present .................................................7 System Facts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Challenges ......................................................11 Plan Components & Relevant Plans .................................15 Needs Assessment Snapshot ......................................17 Community Engagement Summary .................................19 CHAPTER 2: FRAMEWORK ....................................31 Master Plan Vision Statement ................................33 Plan Values ................................................33 Plan Goals .................................................35 Transformative Projects Overview .............................41 CHAPTER 3: SUSTAIN ........................................43 Sustain: Environmental Health & Sustainability ......................45 Sustain: Strategies & Policies Overview .......................49 Transformative Project 1 - Put Environment First .................51 Transformative Project 2 - Grow Our Urban Forest ..............57 CHAPTER 4: CONNECT .......................................63 Connect: Accessible & Connected Green Spaces ..................65 Connect: Strategies & Policies Overview .......................71 Transformative Project 3 - Connect Mountains To The Lake .....77 Transformative Project 4 - Just Five Minutes From Here .........83 CHAPTER 5: WELCOME ......................................89 Welcome: Active & Inclusive Places ...............................91 Welcome: Strategies & Policies Overview .....................95 Transformative Project 5 - Reimagine Neighborhood Parks ......97 Transformative Project 6 - Coming Soon To A Park Near You ...107 CHAPTER 6: PROTECT .......................................113 Protect: A Commitment To Stewardship .................................115 Protect: Strategies & Policies Overview .......................121 Transformative Project 7 - Revive Our River ...................123 Transformative Project 8 - Sustaining Our Stories ..............131 CHAPTER 7: GROW .........................................139 Grow: Expand Our Park System ...................................141 Parks Classiﬁcation Tables .................................145 Future Investments and Recommendations by Planning Area ...149 Grow: Strategies & Policies Overview ........................157 Transformative Project 9 – Downtown Comes Alive Outside ....160 Transformative Project 10 - Welcome To The Green ............165 CHAPTER 8: ACTION STRATEGIES ...........................175 Next Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177 Approaches For Action ......................................181 APPENDIX DOCUMENTS: A. Public Engagement Reports B. 2019 Needs Assessment CONTENTS VII REIMAGINE NATURE Letter from Mayor Erin Mendenhall Salt Lake City’s natural realm is a shared sanctuary for people, ecologies and wildlife - a legacy landscape shaped by Native Americans, pioneers, ﬂora and fauna including 72 mammal species of the Wasatch Front, and nearly 200,000 city residents represented by 120 diverse spoken languages. While the mountains, plains, wetlands and Great Salt Lake of the valley inspire humankind and provide wildlife habitat, impacts from climate change, poor air quality, increasing population, historic drought and aging infrastructure threaten the city’s ability to protect nature. Throughout the city there are disparate levels of engagement in the outdoors, requiring attention to diering interests, needs, access, and investments. We must intentionally correct for historic racism and classism and providing people access to opportunities across the city so as not to inherently perpetuate disparities. The state of the city’s extraordinary public lands is at a crossroads and all these factors create a need for a bold and transformational plan to guide us. The ﬁrst citywide public lands master plan in 29 years, Reimagine Nature delivers a vision for the next 20 years and is informed by over 12,000 community members who shared hopes and dreams for play, civic pride, nature, outdoor ﬁtness, greening, and more in the city. The public process elevated conversations of transitioning Public Lands from a Division to a City Department that would allow for a more robust planning arm focused on projects and ecological services. Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department will now include two collaborative groups to support the planning and operations of the four divisions of parks, trails and natural lands, golf and urban forestry. This move also supports the four objectives of my 2021 Plan: Recharge, Reset, Rebound in keeping pace with the city’s growth, leading environmental stewardship, listening equitably to our communities and supporting employee well-being. Coinciding with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, public engagement required adaptation, creativity, and support from the many community partners and advocates that we thank for their immeasurable contributions as ambassadors. Through this health crisis we witnessed increased visitation to public lands, learning that parks were a refuge to many – a community asset for resilience and essential service. Reimagine Nature reﬂects core community values for public lands: equity, stewardship and livability. Conversations around equity in public lands reﬂect nationwide and neighborhood trends to provide additional resources to public spaces and programs serving low and middle-income households who often struggle to access quality natural experiences as part of their daily lives. Calls for stewardship of public lands came across emphatically with desires to take care of what we have and protect invaluable pieces of our natural community. Concerns for the livability of Salt Lake City are also top of mind in the midst of many environmental and climate challenges, rising cost of living, urgent social issues of homelessness and keeping up with population growth. With dedication, passion, and foresight to conserve Salt Lake City’s greatest natural asset, it is our hope that this document directs us in responsibly managing the public’s lands and waters in ways that honor community aspirations and support thriving plants and wildlife. The next page provides a summary snapshot of the plan’s key elements. Sincerely, Mayor Erin Mendenhall Natural lands along the Jordan River provide essential riparian habitat. SLC Public Lands Master Plan vision proposes big ideas to transform and sustain quality outdoor spaces that are welcoming, safe and walkable; ensuring people, wildlife and ecosystems benefit from fair investment of Salt Lake City resources over the next 20 years. 1) Put Environment First 2) Grow Our Urban Forest 3) Connect Mountains to the Lake 4) Just 5 Minutes From Here 5) Reimagine Neighborhood Parks 6) Coming Soon to a Park Near You 7) Revive Our River 8) Sustaining Our Stories 9) Downtown Comes Alive Outside 10) Welcome to the Green VALUES:VISION: Chapter One: Introduction IX SUSTAIN STEWARDSHIP SUSTAIN CONNECT WELCOME PROTECT EQUITY GROW GOALS & 10 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS: LIVABILITY environmental health & sustainability accessible & connected green spaces active, authentic & inclusive places a commitment to stewardship expand our Public Lands system 2 1CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Reimagined nature in an urban setting is evident when taking in the treetop views of SLC and the surrounding mountains. LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREENER HORIZON We have a heightened awareness that complex factors such as ecological systems, historical influence, and social equity impact planning for Salt Lake City’s Public Lands. Reimagine Nature is an opportunity to redefine approaches for the City’s parks, trails, golf courses and natural lands as environmental and social assets. It sets forth a vision for Public Lands to champion initiatives that improve air quality, address public health disparities, make a more resilient future in the face of climate change and provide green space to balance rapid urban development. Chapter One: Introduction 4 Figure 1: Planning Process Timeline PLAN HORIZON 20202040 Salt Lake City’s 88 parks, 86,500 urban forest trees, six golf courses and thousands of acres of natural landscapes are the culmination of more than a century of committed care and preservation. As Salt Lake City welcomes another 30,000 residents over the next 20 years (by 2040) and as the diversity and health of our city’s nature is threatened by the impacts of climate change, a plan to grow and protect public lands and the quality of life those natural landscapes aord to all living things is needed. This plan provides a vision to aspire to for the next two decades and outlines speciﬁc direction for near-term actions. PLANNING PROCESS Reimagine Nature is one component of a larger planning eort to direct the future of SLC Public Lands. The planning process includes the 2019 Needs Assessment,1 an inventory of the Public Lands system; Reimagine Nature, which outlines goals and strategies; and will be completed with detailed Public Lands 5-Year Strategic Plans, a series of 5-year 1 https://www.slcdocs.com/parks/ SLCPLNeedsAssessment.pdf IT’S IN OUR NATURE working plans updated annually by Public Lands Sta. A comprehensive community engagement process informed every step of the plan development, including a statistically valid resident survey and other outreach to inform the 2019 Needs Assessment.2 Community member, technical expert, partner sta and stakeholder input guided the Reimagine Nature plan content through the course of the planning process. The timeline to the right highlights the phases and engagement activities. 2 Ibid Public engagement atAllen Park. REIMAGINE NATURE PLANNING PROCESS TIMELINE REI MAG INE NATURE ENGAGEMENT NUMBERS: 12,159 PEOPLE PROVIDED I NPUT 20182019 SLC PARK AND PUBLIC LANDS NEEDS ASSESSMENT Community Survey #1 Public Lands Sta Interviews 20222040 REIMAGINE NATURE: SLC PUBLIC LANDS IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS Master plan goals and projects annual assessment Salt Lake City annual budgeting process Public Lands 5-Year Strategic Plan 2030 and 2040 master plan updates 20202021 REIMAGINE NATURE: SLC PUBLIC LANDS MASTER PLAN Phase 1: Foundation of Understanding Community Survey #2 University of Utah College of City and Metropolitan Planning Intercept Interviews and Outreach Public Lands Pop-Up Events Community Council Presentations Phase 2: Draft Vision, Goals and Transformational Projects Community Survey #3 University of Utah College of City and Metropolitan Planning Westside Studio Neighborhood Park Outreach Community Council Presentations Public Lands Meet-and-Greets City Departments Collaborative Workshop Online Town Halls & Facebook Live Open House Phase 3: Draft & Final Master Plan City Leadership Groups Review Online Draft Plan for Public Comment City Council Adoption Chapter One: Introduction 6 Evening walk at Monument Plaza. Figure 2: Master Plan framework and deﬁnitions Speciﬁc policies and actions to realize the transformative projects, plan goals, and direct operations and maintenance strategies. 10 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l Pr o j e c t s Elements of the master plan have been reﬁned by the public to ensure the language reﬂects the community’s hopes, concerns and desires for the future of public lands. Over the past year, more than 12,000 community members have helped direct a vision and identify what needs to be improved for our natural lands, urban forests, city parks and city golf courses. The intention is to establish collective aspirations for the future that create strategic planning and alignment. This is meant to be ﬂexible to adapt to changing HOW TO USE THIS PLAN circumstances and will require signiﬁcant additional eort, resources, and funding to achieve over a ten-year period or more, with some of the actions already underway. The master plan is a compilation of visions, values, goals, projects, strategies and actions. These elements are organized in a hierarchy ranging from broad ideals to detailed policies and are highlighted in Figure 2 to the right. Monument Plaza in Sugar House. Salt Lake City Public Lands Department Vision & Mission Statements that guide Public Lands in their role and what the department aspires to achieve. Guides the master plan and all other aspects of the department’s operations and planning eorts . City-wide, long-range vision for the next 20 years of Public Lands’ work. Guiding principles that align with other city plans and policies and focus the master plan goals. What the master plan aims to achieve, supports values and is supported by high-level strategies and policy actions. Speciﬁc, inspirational projects identiﬁed by the community to realize over the next 20 years. List of 146 near-term possible action items to support this plan- updated annually. Master Plan Vision Stewardship Livability Equity Welcome Connect Protect Grow Sustain 1) Put Environment First 2) Grow Our Urban Forest 3 ) C o n n e c t M o u n t a i n s to Lake 4) Just 5 Minutes From Here 5) Reimagine Neighborhoods Parks 6) Coming Soon to a Park Near You 7) Revive Our River 8) Sustinaing Our Stories 9) Downtown Comes Alive 10) Welcome to the Green Sa l t L a k e C i t y P u b l i c La n d s D e p a r t m e n t Vi s i o n & M i s s i o n 3 V a l u e Le n s e s 5 B i g Go a l s 10 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l Pr o j e c t s St r a t e g i e s a n d A c t i o n s Chapter One: Introduction 8 THE NATURE OF SALT LAKE CITY Ancient Lake Bonneville once covered the present-day mountain valley of Salt Lake City and beyond into Utah, Nevada and Idaho. The Great Salt Lake remains the last remnant of Lake Bonneville in the Intermountain West and frames the northwest part of the city. The Wasatch Mountains stand sentinel to the east and north and the Oquirrh Mountains (pronounced “oaker”) to the west. This geologic history gives shape and form to the present-day landscapes of the city’s Great Basin, marshlands, mudﬂats, ancient lakebed benches, drainages and cottonwood galleries, foothills, narrow canyons and mountain peaks, some of which rise 6,000 feet from the basin ﬂoor. THE HI STORY OF PEOPLE AND PLACE Five tribes including the Shoshone, Piute, Ute, Goshute and Navajo inhabited the territory that later became Utah. The lands where desert meets lake and surrounding wetlands adjacent to Salt Lake City hosted American Indian habitation beginning 10,000 years ago through European settlement. Explorers, Mormon settlers, farmers and miners heading to the California gold rush traveled to present day Salt Lake City in the Salt Lake City’s natural lands, urban forest, city parks and golf landscapes reflect the scenic beauty of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem and are the culmination of more than a century of preservation and cultivation since the city’s founding in 1847. PAST & PRESENT SLC PUBLI C LANDS DEPARTMENT MI SSION & VISI ON MISSION: What We Do We enhance the livability of the urban environment through a diverse network of natural open spaces, recreational opportunities, park facilities, city golf landscapes, the city cemetery and the urban forest to ensure that the resources under our management are carefully stewarded for future generations. VISION: What We Aspire to Achieve A vibrant system of connected public landscapes and living infrastructure that enhances the community’s identity, sense of place and quality of life. mid-1800s. Settlers laid out tree- lined city streets in a Jeersonian- grid originating on the southeast corner of Temple Square and the city’s earliest parks, including the 10-acre, square-shaped Pioneer Park, follow this form. The city acquired additional parks and natural areas in the surrounding foothills and along creeks and rivers - within neighborhoods and as larger regional and community destination parks. The natural and cultural histories of this place are embedded in the parks, trails, urban forest, natural areas and bucolic golf landscapes which remain today and enhance the quality of life for current-day residents. Public Lands are integral and essential to life in Salt Lake City. Fishing at Fairmont Pond. Walking, jogging and hiking are top activities in areas managed by the Trails and Natural Lands Division such as the Fife Wetland Preserve and the 6,423-acres of Foothills Natural Area, canyons and foothills bordering the northern and eastern limits of SLC. More than 70 miles of o-street trails connect residents to parks and natural lands. The urban forest’s street trees are one of the most accessible forms of nature, extending into every neighborhood and business district in the city, resulting in a literal canopy of shade, beauty, socioeconomic, environment and health beneﬁts. Most residents live within a half mile or 10-minute walk to a local park, and that’s important to 97% of people polled. 75% of residents who live on the east side visit parks at least once a month, while 60% of west-siders visit parks once a month. Established in 1881 to be SLC’s “Central Park,” historic Liberty Park is the most visited park in the system. SLC Public Lands six municipal golf courses are the newest addition to the public lands management. These spaces create opportunities for the community to exercise in nature, while also providing critical open space within the City that helps clean the air and reduce urban temperatures and provides shelter for urban wildlife. Chapter One: Introduction 10 70.7 Miles of Existing Trails 129.4 Miles of Proposed Trails 6,423 Acres Foothills Natural Area Collaborative Management Zone 1,694 Acres Natural Lands 86,500 Urban Forest Trees 3 Special Event 15 Community and2 Regional Parks 42 Mini Parks19 Neighborhood Parks 108 Holes of City Public Golf 121 Acre City Cemetery 1 Regional Athletic Complex (16 OutdoorSports Fields) sys tem fac ts o l fg PRESENT SYSTEM Figure 3: Public Lands System Map. System facts are current as of 2020. Chapter One: Introduction 12 CHALLENGES COMPLE X ISSUES Today Salt Lake City’s urban nature faces many challenges: rapid degradation to ecological systems exacerbated by climate change, lingering social inequities from historic zoning and planning decisions, unhealthy environmental factors like poor air quality fueled by expanding population, competing priorities for limited city funding, rapid development downtown and the urgent need to redeﬁne green space. The Reimagine Nature master plan vision is shaped by an understanding of the environmental and social challenges facing public lands. Salt Lake City’s Public Lands are increasingly under pressure from the impacts of climate change including record heat, volatile weather, drought and some of the worst air quality in the nation. The environmental pressures impact nature today and in the future. A 2019 climate study predicts Salt Lake City’s summers could feel more like Las Vegas by 2050, a change that would drastically impact the city’s plants and wildlife.3 The city has been experiencing an extreme drought of historic proportion, prompting a state of emergency called in 2020 by Utah’s governor and creating 3 Crowther Lab, https://journals.plos.org/ plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal. pone.0217592 Air pollution inversion over the Salt Lake Valley. a need for solutions that support nature in the absence of water resources. The September 2020 wind storm (derecho) blew down 1,300 trees in the city and over a dozen parks shut down temporarily for clean-up activities. Many of these mature trees reﬂect decades of care and provided valued shade. Since their earliest establishment more than a century ago, the City’s parks, trails, and public green space have been promoted as places of refuge from the nuisances of city life with goals of addressing a host of social woes. However, encampments of unhoused people within public properties and their removal have often brought in to question this premise. Throughout this process the most common topic raised was concern and a spectrum of approaches suggested for public lands and people experiencing homelessness. It is clear that housing dispersal of unhoused individuals throughout the city has caused more people to feel discomfort, witness challenges with social interactions and/or environmental degradation of spaces people are occupying for their survival. The graphic below is a past public relations informational campaign that was used to help build comfort with interactions and expresses that parks cannot solve for homelessness alone, but must take a compassionate approach for collective response. SALT LAKE CITY GROWTH SLC is home to over 196,000 people representing a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural heritages that include over 80 spoken languages. The 2019 Needs Assessment estimates that this “population Many of the city’s mature shade trees were lost in the 2020 wind storm.Figure 4: 2018 SLC Parks and Homelessness Public Relations Campaign. Chapter One: Introduction 14 light-yellow areas in Figure 5 below) or areas where residents are not within a half-mile walk of a park or green space particularly in the Central Community, Sugar House and East Bench planning communities. The questions of who can walk to public lands, who can aord to travel to public lands, who has the leisure time to enjoy public lands and what languages and social cues welcome dierent groups to public lands have also been asked during the 2019 Needs Assessment and the Reimagine Nature community process. Nationally, best practices encourage reﬂecting on these be required to meet future park needs at the same level of service as today. However, Utah is growing faster than projections made during the Needs Assessment and it is likely that the city will need to be innovative and do even more than previously reported to meet increasing demand. PUBLI C LANDS SERVICE GAPS The 2019 Needs Assessment analyzed the public’s needs and desires for public lands and performed dierent types of analysis mappings to understand where gaps may exist. The assessment found gaps (visible doubles during the daytime, due to individuals coming into the city to work.”4 The City’s parks and surrounding natural areas create a desirable quality of life drawing a projected future population growth of an additional 30,000 people moving to Salt Lake City by 2040. Additionally, Salt Lake City’s population is aging and becoming more diverse. The 2019 Needs Assessment found that the majority of city residents live within a half mile of a park, natural land or trail and parks are well distributed. The study also noted that 94 acres of new park land will 4 2019 SLC Public Lands Needs Assessment !A !A !A !A!A !T !T !T !A !A !A!A !A !A!A !A!T !A !A !A !A !T !A !A !T !A!A!A !T!T !T!A !T !T!A !A!A !A !T !A !A !A !A !A !A !A !A !A !T HogleZoo TempleSquare UniversityofUtah International Center Salt LakeInternationalAirport City C r e e k Canyon Red B u t t e Cany o n South Temple St 1700 S 70 0 E 17 0 0 E F o o t h i l l D r Par l e y ' s W a y 2100 S Ba n g e r t e r H w y 1700 S1700 S 56 0 0 W 72 0 0 W North Temple St 12 0 0 W Be c k S t 600 N 500 S California Ave 2100 S Re d w o o d R d 70 0 W We s t T e m p l e S t 13 0 0 E 11th Ave 500 S Sunnyside Dr 1300 S St a t e S t H i g h l a n d D r 21 0 0 E §¨¦80 §¨¦15 §¨¦15 §¨¦80 §¨¦80 §¨¦215 Salt LakeRegionalAthleticComplex LibrarySquare LibertyPark Sugar HousePark Jordan Park/Peace Gardens RiversidePark RosewoodPark ConstitutionPark SunnysidePark MemoryGrove Park CityCemetery Glendale Park PioneerPark 11th AvenuePark Donner TrailPark Ensign PeakOpen Space H Rock Parley's HistoricNature Park WestpointePark Modelport SherwoodPark ´0 21Miles Parleys Canyon/Mountain DellGolf Course Area Map !T Trailhead !A TrailAccess Existing Multipurpose Trail Proposed Multipurpose Trail Existing Hiking/Mountain Biking Trail Proposed Hiking/Mountain Biking Trail 1/2 Mile Walk DistanceAlong Existing Trails & Streets Zoning: Residential UsesAllowedExisting Hiking Only Trail Developed Parks Special Use Parks Natural Lands Cemetery Public Golf Courses County Parks City Sta caring for gardens along the S-Line. types of questions to assess the equitable access of urban nature to dierent communities. And if there are gaps, to oer master plan strategies that can help those areas of the city that need additional resources most. OPERAT I ONS & MAI NTENANCE Concurrently during the Reimagine Nature community outreach, a national consultant team, ETM and Associates, analyzed Public Lands level of stang, resources and responsibilities. As Public Lands’ responsibilities have expanded over time, a youthful, diverse and energetic sta has tackled increased responsibilities. Compared to other North American benchmark cities, Public Lands is relatively understaed, particularly in the area of long-term management of environmental assets. For example, Urban Forestry sta is stretched at one sta member protecting an average of 10,000 trees. The public may not be highly aware of this shortfall as a 2021 citizen survey shows “parks” was one of the highest rated city services, after ﬁre/paramedics, library, garbage pickup, and airport. However, 63% of Public Lands assets have been evaluated to be in poor or fair condition. Throughout the master plan development, it became clear that elevating Public Lands from a division to a City department would allow for growth in capacity to take better care of the city’s urban nature while also tackling vital adaptations needed to address the impacts of climate change and social issues. Additional evidence for supporting investment in current parks, trails and open spaces can be seen in the high rankings in the recent 2021 Salt Lake City Resident Survey where participants ranked investment in Public Lands as the number four priority for the city, just under investment in aordable housing, supporting local businesses and expanding sustainability. Figure 5: Needs Assessment Parks Gaps Map. Source: 2019 Needs Assessment. Chapter One: Introduction 16 RELEVANT PLANSPLAN COMPONENTS »1992 Open Space Plan »2010 Salt Lake City Open Space Acquisition Strategy »2012-2017 Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment Survey »2015 Salt Lake County East West Recreation Trails Master Plan Review »2016 The Downtown Plan »2015 Salt Lake City Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan »2015 Plan Salt Lake »2017 Salt Lake City Public Lands Strategic Plan »2019 Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Needs Assessment »2020 Geographic Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee Recommendations »Smaller subarea plans, speciﬁc property plans, and topical studies also exist to provide targeted direct, such as the Integrated Pest Management Plan and Cemetery Master Plan. SLC PARK AND PUBLIC LANDS NEEDS ASSESSMENT 2019 The SLC Park and Public Lands Needs Assessment provides a measurement of the quantity and quality of existing parks and natural lands. REI MAG I NE NATURE: SLC PUBLIC LANDS MASTER PLAN TH IS DOCUMENT2021 This ambitious, community-driven master plan is composed of a plan vision, values, goals and transformative projects that prepare us for the enhancement and protection of our public lands over the next 20 years. PUBLI C LANDS 5YEAR STRATEG IC PLANS UPDATED ANNUALLY 20222040 5-year Strategic Plans will outline and prioritize speciﬁc strategies and actions to implement Reimagine Nature. These will be working plans which are updated annually by Public Lands sta.9 Line Bike Park. The National Parks and Recreation Association (NRPA) deﬁnes a master plan as “a system-wide…comprehensive document and process that include an internal assessment, community engagement, resources and data collection, and development of an implementation plan.”5 In 2019, Public Lands commenced data collection and analysis, research on international best practices and consultation with the public, sta, partners, stakeholders and experts. The result of this work is presented in three parts listed below. 5 https://www.nrpa.org/publications-research/best-practice-resources/creating-equity-based-system-master-plans/ “IT IS THE SET OF THE SAILS, NOT THE DIRECTION OF THE WIND THAT DETERMINES WHICH WAY WE WILL GO”. - jim rohn Reimagine Nature: Public Lands Master Plan sits within a larger planning context of policies and city initiatives. The following list indicates the purpose of these previous plans and their inﬂuence on the Public Lands Master Plan and value alignment. Chapter One: Introduction 18 Snapshot SALT LAKE CITY PUBLIC LANDS SNAPSHOT The following snapshot captures factors that currently inﬂuence the equity, livability and sustainability of Salt Lake City and its Public Lands. It also takes stock of the current Public Lands system including an inventory of urban forest trees, natural areas, trails, parks and city golf courses. By 2050 our temps could rise10° leading to poorer air quality. EQUITY livability STEWARDSHIP $85,000 per year to clean up nuisance grati . are anticipated to move to SLC by 2040 which will require an additional park space roughly equivalent to Liberty Park. SLC IS HOME TO OVER 199,723 people who speak 80 languages and represent a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural heritages. 45% of metro area renters are cost burdened. The master plan includes community engagement windows. The 2019 Needs Assessment will help identify priority areas. Accessibility gaps and trail gaps still exist in all SLC planning areas, and east-west connections across the city are limited. Salt Lake City’s proposed trails, including expansion of the 9-line Trail, will add another 129.4 miles to the system, the equivalent of adding another Jordan River Parkway (the longest paved urban trail in the US). SLC public lands have opportunity to increase biodiversity by adding more natural habitat like recent eorts at Fairmont Park Pond and the Fife Wetland Preserve. 86% Income barriers can limit the amount of leisure time and transportation options people have to enjoy public lands. of SLC population is made up of people who identify themselves as Native American, African American, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian or Paciﬁc Islander. 3 200 community groups have been invited to participate in this process. 30,000+ of public lands assets are in fair to poor condition. of SLC residents who responded to the 2019 Needs Assessment prioritize investments to improve existing parks, trails and natural areas. 35% Nearly 17% of the population is projected to be 65 or older by 2045. City Golf courses maintain over 1,000 acres of open space. As the city grows, how can golf grow as a community partner, serving more of the city population? Over the last 20 years SLC’s urban forests have been in decline. 63% Our 86,500 trees, including 7,000 trees in city golf courses, provide a cooling of summer temps by 6° SLC urban forest hosts 260species of trees that support biodiversity and improve air quality. 94 ACRES >50% of all global species are at risk of extinction leading to rapid biodiversity loss. Activating underutilized spaces with activities such as outdoor education, guided nature walks, wildﬂowers and birding would increase park service as the city grows. EW Sources: Salt Lake City Public Lands Division, 2019 Salt Lake City Parks & Public Lands Needs Assessment, American Community Survey 2014-2018, Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, "Understanding Climate Change from a Global Analysis of City Analogues" by Thomas Crowther et. al., "Promoting and Preserving Biodiversity in the Urban Forest" by Alexis A. Alvey, "Utah Forest Facts: Trees and Climate Change" by Megan Dettenmaier et. al., "Salt Lake City Confronts Its Growing Pains" by Trevor Bach, U.S. Census, 2020. Chapter One: Introduction 20 Chapter Two: Introduction COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY The Reimagine Nature master plan process reached over 12,000 members of the community through digital and socially distanced tactics (see ﬁgure 6 below). Engagement was conducted in two periods: Window #1, (2020) and Window #2 (2021). Now more than ever, public lands contribute to the community’s personal health, identity and civic ideals. The plan is a reﬂection of the community’s vision for a bright future of public lands. HOW WE LISTENED The ﬁgure below shows one metric of how engagement was evaluated for how it was inclusive of representative demographic populations that reﬂect the city’s current diversity. More information about the participation demographics and engagement methods can be found in the document appendix. Partnerships with the University of Utah College of City and Metropolitan Planning and on-the-ground, “intercept survey” eorts of Salt Lake City sta members and volunteers supplemented digital tactics to target engagement of typically underrepresented areas or populations of the city. Community Member participating in a Paint the Pavement engagement event at Poplar Grove Park. Planning students from the University of Utah provided support to make targeted community engagement possible. Ice cream social distancing interviews. Community feedback at an engagement event in Liberty Park. FI NDI NGS Targeted engagement improved the diversity of survey respondents, with multi-cultural participation in survey two increasing an average of 232% from that of survey one. SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS ASIAN AMERICAN INDIAN BLACK / AFRICAN AMERICAN HISPANIC / LATINO NATIVE HAWAIIAN / PACIFIC ISLANDER WHITE OTHER PREFER NOT TO SAY 5.4% 1.4% 2.3% 21.6% 1.5% 73.1% 3.4% 1 .5 % 0.3 % 0.5 % 4 .0 % 0.3 % 8 0.0 % 1 .2 % 4 .0 % COMMUNITY SURVEY 1 SALT LAKE CITY DEMOGRAPHICS 2.2% 1.3% 1.4% 8.2% 0.5% 76.3% 2.4% 7.7% COMMUNITY SURVEY 2 ENGAGEMENT BY THE NUMBERS ENGAGEMENT WINDOW #1 SURVEYS 4,455 Public Survey 3,735 City Staff Survey 85 Intercept Surveys 635 POPUP EVENTS 2,320 Ice Cream Social Distancing Trailside Snacks Trail Intercepts MICROENGAGEMENT EVENTS 47 Focus Groups 17 COMMUNITY PRESENTATIONS 260 Community Councils Boards And Committees ADDITIONAL ENGAGEMENT WITH OVER 200+ COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT WINDOW #2 ONLINE PUBLIC SURVEY #2 3,318 4 STUDENTLED PLACEMAKING EVENTS 69 16 INTERCEPT EVENTS 5 8 2 COMM. COUNCIL PRESENTATIONS 260 FACEBOOK OPEN HOUSE EVENTS 848 Spanish Views 1 9 5 English Views 653 SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS 43 Facebook + 39 Twitter + 29 Instagram + 4 Next Door = 115 Posts 3 EMAIL NEWSLETTERS To 7,907 People Total E n g a g e m e n t W i n d o w 2 5 , 0 7 7 Total Engagement Window 1 7,082 Total Directly Reached Reimagine Nature Engagement 12,159 Figure 7: Summar y of engagement ac tivities and communit y reached. Figure 6: Reimagine Nature survey demographics. Chapter One: Introduction 22 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY TARGETED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT In-person surveying occurred in 80 locations but was focused in Westside and Northwest neighborhoods. These communities are the most ethnically diverse areas of the city and are cut o from downtown by railroads and highways. Compared to their neighbors to the east, residents in these neighborhoods are in “higher need” according to the 2019 SLC Public Lands Needs Assessment. Parks in westside communities also have lower rates of visitation compared to parks in Salt Lake City’s east side, signaling a need to hear community-led solutions from westside neighborhoods. The multi-level approach captured a more diverse sample of the community. Initial survey results led to preliminary plan ideas that were shared in a series of focus groups with representative community stakeholders to reﬁne master plan direction. The focus groups cultivated stronger relationships resulting in new collaborations and solutions. ENGAGEMENT WINDOW #1 STUDENT & STAFF OUTREACH LOCATIONS ENGAGEMENT WINDOW #2 STUDENT OUTREACH LOCATIONS ENGAGEMENT WINDOW #2 STAFF OUTREACH LOCATIONS –P u b l i c L a n d s M a s t e r P l a n P a g e 5 Students engaged the community at 38 different public space locations.This outreach involved parks, libraries, open spaces, trails, and other areas. Students and staff distributed a total of 467 flyers and 593 postcards. Fi g u r e 2 is a map of the locations that were visited by students and staff. Figure 2: Staff & Paired Outreach Locations to Parks and Other Areas Figure 8: Engagmenet locations throughout SLC. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY Chapter One: Introduction 24 WHAT WE HEARD The focus of engagement was to gather community feedback and input on the Master Plan framework, including reﬁned goals and transformative projects ideas. It also served as a check point with the community and stakeholders to verify that the Master Plan was developing in the right direction, had community support, and provided an opportunity to contribute any important ideas that may be missing from the Master Plan. The following pages show a selection of some of the responses received from the community through the online survey, focus groups and micro-engagement events. The document appendix includes detailed reports on the public engagement windows and their ﬁndings for more information. Community members of all ages provide their thoughts during a student intercept survey event. Reach out and listen. Speciﬁc place-based responses for acts of restoration, maintenance, and development. Recruit stewards, rangers/ambassadors, and volunteers from minority communities near the public lands. STEWARDSHI P I DEAS I would volunteer to clean up parks, paint bathrooms, help with trash and waste disposal I would also donate money to groups that contribute to stewardship of the parks. Work with school districts on biodiversity education and curriculum including hands on projects to give our youngest citizenry a sense of ownership. Encourage non-motorized visitation. Supply and timely service waste receptacles. Landscape with broad ecological goals, e.g. not just trees but ﬂower and open areas that support birds and bees. More trails closer to home so I and my neighbors don’t have to drive to other places (Millcreek, Draper, Herriman, etc.) for trail running and riding opportunities. LIVABILITY I DEAS Source: 2020 Community Survey 1 Substantially improve tree cover in neighborhoods, parks and natural areas by 50% to compensate for human impacts.” Add neighborhood opportunities to spend time in water. Salt Lake City is getting hotter summers and one of the key missing public land opportunities for residents is access to water for recreational opportunities. Expand community gardens. EQUITY I DEAS Source: 2020 Community Survey 1 Have signs displayed in 2-3 languages. Increased accessibility for all members of society, along with native fauna that calls the space home. So more bike paths, ramps for wheelchairs, inclusive non-gendered bathrooms. For the wild life, creating more pockets of space not meant for human trac or usage, and planting more native plants essential to their natural habitats. A fully integrated trail system through the city so that folks can access trails regardless of where they are Source: 2020 Community Survey 1 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY Chapter One: Introduction 26 COMMUNITY I NPUT IN THE PLAN In addition to asking for ideas around the values, respondents from Community Survey 1 were asked to choose their preferred actions to increase livabiltiy and sustainability in SLC. These actions were integrated into goals and helped to craft the transformative projects found in the Reimagine Nature Plan. Sidewalk art survey advertisement. Survey advertisement posted at a local laundromat. Community member providing feedback during a student intercept survey. With more than 4,455 surveys completed and roughly 1,000 individual conversations, there was abundant ideas and variety of perspectives provided by the community to reﬂect in crafting this plan. Q - What do you think would most benefit the livability of Salt Lake City and encourage you to get outside more often? (Pick your top 2) LIVABILITY TOP PRI ORITI ES A thriving urban forest, improving networks for active transportation and investing in neighborhood public lands were seen as the top actions that would improve livability in SLC. •Grow our urban forests •Improve the sidewalk and trail network in order to travel by bike and foot to public lands and everyday destinations like work and school •Invest in neighborhood public lands and amenities that encourage everyday use DIRECT ACTIONS •Create wildflower meadows •Incorporate more native, waterwise plants in landscaping •Plant more trees •Expand public access points to trails •Add or renovate aged restrooms, playgrounds and other amenities $FUNDING •Acquire additional natural areas •Acquire lands adjacent to water •Invest in increased maintenance •Improve the City’s donation process •Develop adoption programs, i.e., adopt-a-tree, adopt-a park, etc. DAILY PRACTICES •Support active modes of transportation •Expand collaboration with non-profit organizations •Host education events •Improve capacity to respond to environmental emergencies •Create a Biodiversity Advisory Committee Q - What stewardship actions would be most impactful to public lands over the next 10- 20 years? (Select all that apply) SUSTAI NABILITY TOP PRIORITI ES Biodiversity, the environment, trails & maintaining existing amenities were themes that emerged among survey respondents. The most chosen actions are highlighted below. Source: 2020 Community Survey 1 46% 44% 42% Figure 10: Sustainability top priorities, 2020 Community Survey 1. Figure 9: Livability top priorities, 2020 Community Survey 1. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY Chapter One: Introduction 28 Engagement event at 1700 South Park. Trailside snack bike trailer advertisement. “I think the vision statement should include explicit language on climate change.” “Since more people are using the outdoors, education on how to treat and take care of it is essential.” “safety for marginalized and over policed communities. for black and brown people public spaces are not always safe (RIP Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Darren Hunt and many more). part of access for these communities is assurance that they wont get shot or arrested just for existing in public spaces while being a person of color. some sort of police and emergency service outreach to ensure this message is heard would be appropriate.” “More emphasis on making areas bike and bus friendly and reducing the need to drive to parks.” JUST 5 MINUTES FROM HERE 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% SOMEWHAT SATISFIED EXTREMELY SATISFIED CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE SATISFACTION RATES FOR THE 10 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU MEET ME AT THE RIVER 37% 38% 26% 65%33% 54%31% 52% 27% 62% 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% TELL OUR STORIES DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE GROW OUR URBAN FOREST WELCOME TO THE GREEN PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST 30% 47% 26% 61% 21% 71%24% 57% 20% 70% JUST 5 MINUTES FROM HERE 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% SOMEWHAT SATISFIED EXTREMELY SATISFIED CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE SATISFACTION RATES FOR THE 10 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU MEET ME AT THE RIVER 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% TELL OUR STORIES DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE GROW OUR URBAN FOREST WELCOME TO THE GREEN PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST JUST 5 MINUTES FROM HERE 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% SOMEWHAT SATISFIED EXTREMELY SATISFIED CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE SATISFACTION RATES FOR THE 10 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU MEET ME AT THE RIVER 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% TELL OUR STORIES DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE GROW OUR URBAN FOREST WELCOME TO THE GREEN PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECT SUPPORTNEW I DEAS AND FEEDBACK Survey #2 yeilded responses from 3,318 community members rating their satisfaction with the plan vision statement, plan goals, and transformative projects. All aspects of the plan had community support with 82% of survey respondents saying they thought the vision plan was on the right track, and 87% agreeing with the plan goals. Overall, all transformative projects had a combined satisfaction rate of between 75%-92% among survey respondents. The community indicated they were most satisﬁed with projects centered on sustainability, with the projects “Grow Our Urban Forest” and “Put Environment First” receiving the most selections for extremely and somewhat satisﬁed. Note, some of the goals and projects have been revised in response to this input. Source: 2020 Community Survey 1 Source: 2021 Community Survey 2 Figure 11: Graph of transformative project satisfaction ratings, Source: 2021 Community Survey 2. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY Chapter One: Introduction 30 TOP CHOICES FOR OVERALL IMPORTANCE: 1 . GROW OUR URBAN FOREST - 97% 2 . PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST - 95% 3 . REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS - 89% TOP CHOICES FOR OVERALL URGENCY: 1 . GROW OUR URBAN FOREST - 95% 2 . PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST - 94% 3 . REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS - 87% 4 . MEET ME AT THE RIVER - 83% JUST 5 MINUTES FROM HERE 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE URGENCY AND IMPORTANCE OF THE 10 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU MEET ME AT THE RIVER 42% 41%48% 39% 49% 23% 44% 40% 10% 30% 50% 70% 90% TELL OUR STORIES DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE GROW OUR URBAN FOREST WELCOME TO THE GREEN PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST 40% 19% 42% 39% 27% 68% 41% 35% 22% 72% VERY URGENT VERY IMPORTANT MEDIUM URGENCY MEDIUM IMPORTANCE 41% 15% 51% 19% 39% 49%46% 43%54% 25% 41% 45% 22% 73% 40% 40% 26% 71% 42% 44% 45% 25% COMMUN ITY PRIORITIZING TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS Survey respondents were asked to rate both the urgency and importance of the ten transformative projects. These questions were designed to gain insight into community priorities for each project, highlighting which projects should happen right away and which projects should be prioritized because they are the most impactful and provide value. When comparing urgency versus importance, two projects stood out signiﬁcantly. Put environment ﬁrst was ranked the highest by survey respondents in both categories, with 73% ranking it as very important 72% ranking it as very urgent. The next highest-ranking project was grow our urban forest, with 71% ranking it as very important and 68% ranking it as very urgent. This again reinforces the community’s desire for using sustainable principles in managing TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECT URGENCY AND I MPORTANCE Source: 2021 Community Survey 2 Public Lands and improving the local environment with natural amenities. These projects also were viewed as signiﬁcant and held high support with focus group participants. Overall, the question responses show that all projects are valued by the community. When combining the selections for medium urgency and very urgent, the 10 transformative projects were selected by between 56% and 94% of respondents as being urgent. The combined selections for project importance show that the 10 transformative projects were selected by between 70% and 95% of respondents as important. Figure 12: Graph of transformative project urgency and importance, Source: 2021 Community Survey 2. CHAPTER Public Lands maintains some green spaces within public roadways and transit stops. 32 2 VISION FRAMEWORK FOR NATURE REIMAGINE NATURE MASTER PLAN VISION SLC Public Lands Master Plan vision proposes big ideas to transform and sustain quality outdoor spaces that are welcoming, safe, and walkable; ensuring people, wildlife and ecosystems beneﬁt from fair investment of Salt Lake City resources over the next 20 years. LIVABILITY EQUITYSTEWARDSHIP Chapter Two: Framework 34 WHAT VALUES GUIDE THE PLAN? The VALUES that drive the way the Public Lands Department achieves plan goals is through a work ethic: »that grows a culture of STEWARDSHIP to protect wildlife, trees, mountains, lakes, rivers and scenic views; »that improves LIVABILITY in SLC in the face of impacts of climate change and population growth; and »that provides greater EQUITY in the way the community has access to close-to-home, high- quality green spaces. The plan values are integrated into each goal and transformative project. STEWARDSHIP, or taking care of what we have, is investing in the renewal of our existing city parks, urban forest, natural areas and trails. Stewardship inspires us to preserve habitat so plants and wildlife can thrive and be resilient to impacts of climate change like rising temperatures. Potential actions could be planting tree groves in city golf courses or adding butterﬂy gardens to city parks. Figure 13: Value Lenses Relationship to Goals Diagram. LIVABILITY, or maintaining SLC’s quality of outdoor life, inspires us to provide more services to residents as the city grows. We can collectively identify opportunities to use our city’s parks, golf courses, school yards, natural areas and streetscapes to increase public access to nature, trails, sports ﬁelds, and public gathering places. EQUITY, or including diverse voices in the master plan process and priorities, aligns as a citywide value emerging from the roundtable discussion on “Geographic Equity, Inclusion, PLANVALUES: & Belonging.” We are committed to listening to the realities and perceptions of access to public lands from all sides of Salt Lake City to help guide next steps for a more equitable future. Skating at Jordan Park. Mountain biking on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. VISION STATEMENT: Reimagine Nature SLC Public Lands Master Plan vision proposes big ideas to transform and sustain quality outdoor spaces that are welcoming, safe, and walkable; ensuring people, wildlife and ecosystems beneﬁt from fair investment of Salt Lake City resources over the next 20 years. 36 GOALS GOAL STATEMENT: Public Lands will continue to be on the forefront of environmentalism, employing sustainable operations practices such as conserving water resources for greater resilience to climate change and making signiﬁcant contributions to an equitable and healthier natural environment such as increasing tree cover that improves regional air quality and provides bird habitat. SUSTAIN: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY TOP STRATEGIES: S1 - Position Public Lands to increase the ambition of Salt Lake City’s climate resiliency goals. S2 - Position Public Lands as the City leader for driving improvements in human and ecosystem health. PROGRESS METRICS: S1 - Metric: Percent of occupied tree planting sites. Goal: 90% occupied by 2030. S1 - Metric: Percent of urban forest trees pruned annually. Goal: 10% of trees pruned annually by 2030. S2 - Metric: Species biodiversity by site. Goal: Demonstrate a statistically- signiﬁcant increase (>0) in species biodiversity on all Public Lands (except mini parks and special use parks) by 2030. Reimagine Nature Master Plan has ﬁve main GOALS of what the Public Lands Department is aiming to achieve over the next 10-20 years: 1.Sustain: Environmental Health and Sustainability 2.Connect: Accessible and Connected Green Spaces 3.Welcome: Active, Authentic and Inclusive Places 4.Protect: A Commitment to Stewardship 5.Grow: Expand our Public Lands System Mural in the Granary District. People enjoying the spring water pond at Liberty Park. Chapter Two: Framework 38 GOAL STATEMENT: Well-maintained, welcoming trails, streets, public transportation, and sidewalks are interconnected as the city’s circulatory system. This system connects pedestrians, cyclists, and riders to the city’s green spaces and outstanding natural landscapes of Salt Lake City’s Public Lands: mountains, foothills, valley, wetlands, and lakes. The City will continue to enhance these systems and increase connectors to include everyday destinations ranging from the daycare, library, grocery store, pharmacy and museum. This adds convenient connections to walk or ride along a greenway, adding steps to pedometers and enriching health and wellbeing. GOAL STATEMENT: Ideal parks are actively used by the community, inclusive for all ages, abilities and cultures and strive to be authentic, or reﬂective of the neighborhood and community’s culture. Parks departments across the country struggle with balancing limited resources and many priorities with achieving these ideals. For cities, there is also a growing awareness of how green space has historically been provided and maintained for dierent neighborhoods. Cities are collecting data and stories to document the historic inequities in the quantity and quality of green space (e.g., nationwide studies have found that lower income urban areas typically correlate with less tree canopy, less accessible green spaces and lower quality amenities). The Public Lands Department, in alignment with the mayor’s 2021 citywide vision, is committed to looking at top- down and bottom-up community- driven solutions to welcoming more people. The department will strive to reﬂect the diverse culture and history of Salt Lake City neighborhoods in the tapestry of parks and open spaces. WELCOME: ACTIVE, AUTHENTIC AND INCLUSIVE PLACES CONNECT: ACCESSIBLE AND CONNECTED GREEN SPACES TOP STRATEGIES: C1 - Connect people to information about their park system. C2 - Increase the ease of access to public lands, making it easier to travel to, between and within them. TOP STRATEGIES: W1 - Design and program Neighborhood Parks to highlight the unique natural, historical, cultural and economic identify of the surrounding area and community in which they are located. W2 - Support active programming that brings people out to their parks for art, events, programs, recreation and community. This programming should be diverse and adapted to represent the community culture and encourage creation of social connections. PROGRESS METRICS: C1 - Metric: Percent increase in social media followers across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Goal: 500% increase from 2021 baseline by 2030. C1 - Metric: Percent increase in total email addresses in Constant Contact (or equivalent) platform. Goal: 500% increase from 2021 baseline by 2030. C1 - Metric: Percent increase in average monthly website visitors per year. Goal: 500% increase from 2021 baseline by 2030. C1 - Metric: Percent increase in average monthly attendance to community events by PL administrative team Goal: 500% Increase in community event attendance by PL administrative team, for all Planning Areas, from 2021 baseline by 2030. C1 - Metric: Percent of properties with multi-lingual signage Goal: Signage includes Spanish language information at 90% PROGRESS METRIC: W1 - Metric: Annual total number of community-led programs in Neighborhood Parks, by planning area. Goal: At least 300 community- led programs in Neighborhood Parks in EACH SLC planning area, annually, by 2030. W2 - Metric: Percent of respondents to annual SLC Resident Survey who report visiting a city park or natural land at least weekly. Goal: Increase percent of residents who visit parks or natural lands at least weekly by 2% per year, with at least 60% of residents visiting a park or natural land at least weekly by 2030. of parks, natural areas and golf courses by 2030. C2 - Metric: Percent of parks that have received an accessibility audit*. *identiﬁes accessibility barriers, a means to remove the barrier, and a transition plan for budgeting, planning and implementing the barrier removal. Goal: 90% of SLC parks have received an accessibility audit by 2030. C2 - Metric: Percent of parks that have fully implemented the removal of accessibility barriers identiﬁed in an accessibility audit. Goal: 50% of SLC Regional, Community, Neighborhood, Special Event and Mini Parks have fully implemented the removal of identiﬁed accessibility barriers by 2040. C2 Metric: Percent of residents within ¼ mile of a park, multi-use trail or natural land. Goal: 95% of SLC Residents live within ¼ mile of a park, multi-use trail or natural land by 2040. Chapter Two: Framework 40 GOAL STATEMENT: Salt Lake City’s urban population is growing. The Public Lands Department will balance providing safe green spaces for the public while also protecting iconic, irreplaceable natural resources that keep the city wild. Stewardship demands are profound: diminishing environmental health, increasing need for visitor management, increasing maintenance demands, increasing numbers of unhoused using open space as refuge, and increasing costs to provide infrastructure and services to a growing city. In the Public Lands’ domain, the Department will lead the stewardship and care of urban green spaces. The Department will seek out opportunities to partner with advocacy groups and schools to educate on how the public can be stewards of the land and learn its history. GOAL STATEMENT: As the Salt Lake City population increases, our public lands receive more visitation and work harder to reduce negative impacts of more “footprints” on our landscapes and public amenities with increased maintenance and renewal. Providing the amount of public properties in relation to population growth needs is increasingly challenging in a city reaching maximum expansion build-out with limited opportunities to aquire large natural areas or small parks in areas of dense development with high land prices. City departments and partners work together to provide green space and recreation opportunities in our rapidly re-developing downtown. We innovate and make smart use of the public properties we have, being strategic with our resources and creating funding sources to expand our urban forest, trails, park system, and natural areas. GROW: EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM PROTECT: A COMMITMENT TO STEWARDSHIP TOP STRATEGIES: P1 - Ensure iconic, irreplicable assets are not lost or rendered less valuable due to neglect, destruction or development. P2 - Leverage the power of the community to help steward SLC’s Public Lands. TOP STRATEGIES: G1 - Be proactive and strategic about growth of the Public Lands System. G2 - Overcome dicult obstacles to growth needs through creativity and through leveraging external assets and resources. PROGRESS METRIC: P1 - Metric: Acres per funded grounds maintenance employee full time equival (FTE) for parks by park type. Goal: No more than 15 acres per funded grounds maintenance FTE for Regional Parks, Special Event Parks, and Urban Natural Areas, and no more than 5 acres per funded grounds maintenance FTE for Neighborhood Parks and Mini Parks, by 2030. P1 - Metric: Park and natural land acres acquired. Goal: Acquire at least 94 acres of parkland, 60 acres of urban natural lands, and 150 acres of non-urban natural lands, by 2040, to maintain 2017 level of service. P2 - Metric: Number of volunteers engaged & total number of volunteer person-hours annually Goal: Increase number of volunteers engaged & total number of volunteer person hours by 10% annually, and by 250% by 2030. PROGRESS METRIC: G1 - Metric: Number of parks with annual visitation estimates based on data from automated visitation counters and/or point-in-time counts. Goal: Annual visitation estimates for 75 parks by 2030. G1 - Metric: Number of respondents to annual public opinion survey for Public Lands. Goal: Three-year running average is equal to or greater than 2,000 respondents by 2030. G2 - Metric: Number of active, formal partner organizations* *Organizations with active partnerships agreements (approved by attorneys oce & fully executed). Goal: Thirty formal partnership agreements are active by 2030. Chapter Two: Framework 42 TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS Ten Transformative Projects were identiﬁed through the engagement process to achieve plan goals and heighten Public Lands’ impact on the city’s livability, equity, and stewardship. The projects are transformative as they will require great eort and/or and shift in Public Lands operations to achieve. The Transformative Projects are organized by the goals and chapters they are most emblematic of, however each project supports multiple plan goals. Figure 14: Ten transformative projects for Reimagine Nature. PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST Cultivate more biological diversity and conservation in city parks, urban forests, city golf lands and natural areas. GROW OUR URBAN FOREST Expand awareness of how to be a steward of our urban forest in all publicly-owned landscapes including city parks, street medians, city golf courses, riparian areas and natural areas. RE G I O N A L LO C A L CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU JUST FIVE MINUTES FROM HERE GROW OUR URBAN FOREST PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST SUSTAINING OUR STORIES REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE REVIVE OUR RIVER WELCOME TO THE GREEN 1 2 SU S T A I N CO N N E C T WE L C O M E REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS Transform parks into vibrant community spaces that empower residents to contribute to their neighborhood identity. COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU Help our parks, large and small, come alive with activities and events throughout the year. CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE Complete missing links in regional trails and invest in greenways to enhance nature and creeks within the city. JUST FIVE MINUTES FROM HERE Make it easier to ﬁnd and explore nearby parks, trails and public spaces to expand the public’s experiences in nature and build stewardship principles and practices. 4 3 PR O T E C T GR O W 6 5 8 7 10 9 REVIVE OUR RIVER Invest in projects and maintenance along the Jordan River Parkway that will promote equity, access, scenic beauty, diverse recreation, and healthy ecology along the parkway. SUSTAINING OUR STORIES Reveal past and present stories from our diversity of experiences that have shaped this valley, giving focus to underrepresented and indigenous people. Express these stories through landscapes, structure, placemaking and art. DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE Increase the provision of green and active spaces downtown that will contribute to livability, inclusiveness, and economic vitality. WELCOME TO THE GREEN Invite appropriate alternative use of our public golf courses for greater beneﬁt. 3 GOAL STATEMENT Public Lands will continue to be on the forefront of environmentalism, employing sustainable operations practices such as conserving water resources for greater resilience to climate change and making significant contributions to an equitable and healthier natural environment such as increasing tree cover that improves regional air quality and provides bird habitat. The urban forest is aging, requiring regeneration to keep SLC shaded and cool while providing critical habitat. CHAPTER 44 SUSTAIN: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SUSTAINABILITY “ENCOURAGE NON-MOTORIZED VISITATION TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS.” Beautiful parks don’t have to be the color green. The future will be less water. Xeriscape can be beautiful and ecologically sound.” “LANDSCAPE WITH ECOLOGICAL GOALS THAT SUPPORT BIRDS AND BEES.” -comments from the 2021 public survey Chapter Three: Sustain 46 SUSTAIN:ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SUSTAINABILITY “In nature nothing exists alone.”- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES FACING SLC’S PUBLIC LANDS The idea of sustainability as we know it today evolved out of the environmental movement in the mid-1900s. Implicitly, our ability to sustain environmental health relies on our understanding of landscape ecology: relationships between all life, great and small, on our planet and the cultivation of natural cycles that bind these relationships. For Salt Lake City’s Public Lands, the cycles that bind us to the environment (landscape) include our recreation activities that provide physical and mental wellness to our community: hiking in the Foothills Natural Area, enjoying the scenic views of our city golf courses and natural lands, or commuting to work under the shade of the urban tree canopy. The environmental health and scenic qualities of these landscapes are threatened with global and local stressors. The rapid loss of biodiversity (or richness of dierent types of plants and animals) is a global phenomenon. It is estimated that possibly half or more of all current species could be at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future worldwide.1 Locally, Water Strategies for the Great Salt Lake2, reported a historical decline in lake water levels due to human development, water use and sustained drought. Maintaining water in our creeks, the Jordan River and the Great Salt Lake is essential to protecting riparian habitat critical to local wildlife and migratory birds along the Central Flyway. At a citywide scale, recent studies aiming to project the impact of climate change found that by 2050 Salt Lake City’s temperatures could rise ten degrees and feel more like Las Vegas today.3 Within Public Land’s territories, Salt Lake City’s urban forest has been in decline over the last 20 years.4 With recent studies citing our evolution into an “indoor species,” spending only minutes a day outside, the physical and plant-based infrastructure that welcomes us outdoors so that we can connect with nature 1 Alvey, A.A. (2006). Promoting and preserving biodiversity in the urban forest. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 5 195-201. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2006.09.003. 2 Clyde, S; DenBleyker, J; Harding, B; & Clyde, S; (2020). Water Strategies for Great Salt Lake. 3 Bastin JF, Clark E, Elliott T, Hart S, van den Hoogen J, et al. (2019). Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues. PLOS ONE 14(10): e0224120. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224120. 4 Dettenmaier,M; Kuhns, M; McAvoy, D; & Unger, B. https://forestry.usu.edu/ﬁles/utah-forest- facts/trees-and-climate-change.pdf is essential (e.g., accessible trails, community vegetable gardens, playgrounds, urban forests, water- ecient irrigation systems, etc.). For the SLC Public Lands system, the 2019 Needs Assessment5 found that 63% of those types of assets are in fair to poor condition. DESIRES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUSTAIN The opportunities to think globally about climate change and act locally at the scale of SLC’s Public Lands is critically important to the community. With over 12,000 participants in this master plan eort, many provided suggestions on how to sustain and enhance Public Lands’ environmental health. The project survey saw 90% of respondents ranking two transformational projects that are emblematic of the Sustain goal, “Put Environment First” and “Grow Our Urban Forest,” as their top priorities in terms of urgency and importance. Supporting ideas that resonated with many in the community are displayed in the quotes on the following page. 5 https://www.slcdocs.com/parks/ SLCPLNeedsAssessment.pdf Chapter Three: Sustain 48 EQUITY & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NRPA’s Story Map “Equity in Parks and Recreation” highlights how government policies “increased local park access for some, while signiﬁcantly limiting it for others, especially by income, education, race and ethnicity.”6 Policies such as segregation, racial covenants and redlining have formed marginalized and historically underserved neighborhoods which suer greater environmental inequities from industrial pollution and lack of investment. Today these communities continue to experience inequities formed by policies of the past. Research demonstrates that such neighborhoods have less tree canopy, higher urban temperatures, less permeable ground to absorb stormwater, and greater levels of air and noise pollution. In Salt Lake City, park and trail use during the pandemic increased by most demographic groups but decreased among older adults, females, homeowners, and low-income households 6 https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5727e400 84614c559bf0440dc5a21f7f according to research conducted by University of Utah.7 Parks and open space create an opportunity to address these inequities through environmental improvements that create more equitable access to nature and provide beneﬁts which lead to greater health outcomes. The 2019 Public Lands Needs Assessment8 took the ﬁrst steps toward understanding equity in access to nature by identifying high needs areas which mapped factors such as gaps in park access, age, and income. This assessment can be expanded upon to highlight communities that continue to experience environmental inequity. Figure 15 Equity Map was created combining environmental and demographic maps of equity disparity indicators to identify priority areas for provision and improvement of parks, natural areas, and trails. The indicators can be weighted by importance to prioritize investment in locations that advance equity goals. 7 JAPA 2021 “Who visited parks and trails more or less during COVID-19 pandemic, and why? Garcia, Ivis; Park, Keunhyun; Keuntae, Kim. 8 https://www.slcdocs.com/parks/ SLCPLNeedsAssessment.pdf SUSTAIN:ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SUSTAINABILITY Figure 15: Equity Analysis Map. AVENUES EAST BENCH SUGAR HOUSE NORTHWEST CENTRAL COMMUNITY DOWNTOWN WEST SALT LAKE CAPITOL HILL The Highest Equity Priority Areas (darkest green shade) depict the greatest number of these indicators are concentrated in this location. EQUITY ANALYSIS POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LEGEND GOLF COURSES EXISTING TRAILS PARKS AND NATURAL LANDS HIGHEST EQUITY PRIORITY HIGH EQUITY PRIORITY LOWEQUITY PRIORITY VERY HIGH EQUITY PRIORITY MEDIUM EQUITY PRIORITY VERY LOW EQUITY PRIORITY UTA TRAX STATIONS (COLOR SHADE INDICATES EQUITY PRIORITY) CEMETERY Socio-Economic EQ U I T Y M A P I N D I C A T O R S CDC Social Vulnerability Index•Below Poverty•Unemployed •Household Income•No High School Diploma•Aged 65 or Older•Aged 17 or Younger•Civilian with a Disability•Single-Parent Households•Minority EnvironmentPopulation EPA Environmental Justice Index •Air Toxins Respiratory Health Index CDC Places Health Data •Poor Mental Health •Lack of Physical Activity NLCD Tree Canopy Cover •Low Percent Tree Canopy US Census Bureau (2020 Census Redistricting Data)•Population Density TAZ Population Projections for 2050 (WFRC)•Areas of Population Growth Projection •Aged 5 or Older who Speaks English “Less than Well”•Multi-Unit Structures•Mobile Homes •Crowding•No Vehicle•Group Quarters Chapter Three: Sustain 50 CASE STUDIES SUPPORTIVE RESEARCH FINDINGS Parks and public lands throughout the country are increasingly focused on “green/sustainable” initiatives and practices and are expanding their roles in addressing ways to mitigate climate change. The following are some study ﬁndings and examples for SLC to consider. • The City of Reno, Nevada has formed a pesticide-free parks program, implementing best practices in maintenance and design to reduce the use of pesticides. It has successfully created ten pesticide free neighborhood parks and two pesticide free downtown parks. City of Reno pesticide-free parks program. Photo: http://www.ourtownreno.com/keeping-reno-rad/2020/4/16/robb- dunmore-renewing-a-charge-to-get-reno- truly-pesticide-free Xerces Society low-water pollinator gardens on golf courses. Photo: https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/ article/habitat-for-humanity/ Pima County native plant program and nursery. https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?pageId=220052 The following recommended strategies and policies are high- level guidance for Public Lands operations and maintenance that direct how Public Lands will achieve the plan goal of sustain over the next decade. The community identiﬁed two SUSTAIN:STRATEGIES &POLICIES OVERVIEW keystone, transformational projects to support the overall goal of sustain. Working in tandem with the overall strategies and policies in this table, these projects root the 20-year vision with on-the- ground improvements that will contribute to the sustainability • The Xerces Society published design guidelines in their report Making Room for Native Pollinators on Golf Courses.9 Once established, xeric pollinator plantings require less water than turf or traditional horticultural plantings. • As part of an overarching Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, Pima County, Arizona created a native plant program to preserve biological heritage and mitigate damage to the local ecosystem caused by urban development. 9 Shepard, M. (2002). https://xerces.org/sites/ default/ﬁles/2018-05/06-001_02_XercesSoc_ Making-Room-for-Native-Pollinators.pdf of Salt Lake City’s quality of life for humans, plants and animals. Additional detail for implementation is provided in “Chapter 8 Action Strategies” of this document. The program’s nursery propagates plant material for public projects, serving multiple County departments, while providing volunteer and educational opportunities for residents. • The Gund Institute for Ecological Economies at the University of Vermont calculated that $1 of investment in public lands returns 100-fold in natural beneﬁts. SUSTAIN: HIGHLEVEL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES St rat eg y S- 1 Wosition Wublic >ands to improve Salt >ake ity͛s climate resiliency goals. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϭ reate a limateͲZesilience Wlan which establishes environmental metrics combined with robust data collection and monitoring to guide adaptive management that beneĮts climate resiliency. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.Ϯ mphasiǌe water conservation and stormwater management in Wublic >ands capital proũects and infrastructure upgrades. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϯ evelop an Kperations Danagement ^tandards Wlan which continues to reduce the climate impact of Wublic >ands operations through eĸcient practices, eƋuipment upgrades, and staff training. St rat eg y S- 2 Wosition Wublic >ands as a ity leader for driving improvements in environmental health and environmental ũustice. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϭ evelop an hrban &orestry Daster Wlan that will increase tree canopy across the city, with a focus on eƋuitable distribution of tree cover. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.Ϯ /ncrease the scope and capacity of the Eative Wlants Θ iodiversity Wrogram and incorporate biodiversity and native plants into every compatible city proũect. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϯ ollaborate across ũurisdictional boundaries to restore the Ƌuality of ^>͛s land, water and air. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϰ Wrioritiǌe investments to address eƋuity and environmental ũustice as guided by eƋuity mapping, such as &igure ϭϱ Ƌuity Dap. Chapter Three: Sustain 52 Creating Parks & Natural Lands forNATIVE PLANTPOLLINATORS &programming to cultivatecommunitySTEWARDSHIP Projects Include: •Increase landscape resiliency to climate change by reclaiming degraded landscapes with beneﬁcial plants, adopting healthy soil-building practices, practicing water conservation best management, increasing habitat for birds and wildlife and 1. PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST CULTIVATE MORE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN CITY PARKS, URBAN FORESTS, CITY GOLF LANDS AND NATURAL AREAS hosting education and engagement on environmental practices. •Create a Public Lands native plant farm for plant propagation. •Foster a robust native ecosystem program that improves habitat through planting native and pollinator friendly plants and includes volunteer and educational opportunities operated out of Public Lands’ greenhouses and plant farms. Transformative Project Creating wetland habitat with native plants at Farimont Pond. Chapter Three: Sustain 54 INCREASING RESILIENCY AND ECOSYSTEM HEALTH Public Lands sta, the Parks, Natural Lands, Urban Forestry and Trails Advisory Board (PNUT), and the Salt Lake City community clearly called out for this master plan to underline the importance of protecting the environment. Putting the environment ﬁrst is about assessing Public Lands natural resources of water, air, soil, plants and wildlife and understanding the pressures climate change and increasing urbanization have on those elements. This project is about understanding the ecosystem health of the thousands of acres of natural lands, city parks, city golf and over 86,500 urban forest trees the City stewards. SUSTAIN:PUT ENVIRONMENT FIRST This project is at once grand, looking at the city’s green space as a regional ecosystem tied to interdepartmental climate measures laid out in the City’s Climate Positive 2040 plan, and precise, understanding the perennial ﬂower species that will thrive in the arid environment while supporting bird and bee populations. It will increase resiliency in the face of a changing climate by conserving limited water resources through Drought Management, Water Budget and Climate Resiliency Plans. The transformative project “Put Environment First” will need support from sta, volunteers and the community to leverage existing partnerships, learn new ways to partner together to steward lands, and make prioritized decisions on where to invest limited resources that have the greatest environmental return on investment. Red Butte Creek in Miller Park. Chapter Three: Sustain 56 M u l t i -u s e J o r d a n R i v e r P a r k w a y River access and visibilty improvements Canopy provides shade for native understory plantings Understory plants Multi-use path Jordan River Parkway Cared for space Water table enhances irrigation and establishment of native plantings Lack of native understory of invasives such as Goat Heads, Phragmities, and Russian Olives No river access and no visibilty Easy River Access Goatheads create conﬂicts with recreation Phragmites blocks views and access to river Russian Olive outcompetes native plants Migratory birds in the Central ﬂyway depend on Utah riparian habitat Narrowleaf Cottonwoods thrive along riverbanks, increasing the urban forest New tree canopy provides understory shade to establish plants such as Golden Currant EXISTING CONDITIONS Invasives overtaking local riparian habitat REIMAGINED A cared for riparian habitat is rehabilitated Jordan River Native trees create a canopy of shade, providing cover for understory plants and people alike A cleaner river creates a more welcoming experience Wildlife viewing opportunities Colonies of invasive plants block physical and visual access to the river Overgrown vegetation is unwelcoming Non-native plants are a lower-quality food for insects and animals Figure 16: Reimagined Put Environment First Exhibit. REHABILITATING WITH NATURAL ASSETS Public Lands’ Natural Areas are ideal locations to put the environment ﬁrst by restoring native plants that beneﬁt the local ecosystem. Establishing native plants along the river helps to combat invasive species, such as Phragmites, which overtake local ecosystems. Invasives accelerate the disappearance of riparian habitat, reducing food sources for species, such as migrating neo-tropical birds, that depend on the Jordan River. Hi gh w a t e r t able helps n ew t r ee r o ots Jordan R i v er P a r k way Create a balance between manicured spaces for community activity and improved habitat and natural areas for our non-human friends, plants and people alike Interpretive signage enhances visitor experience Riparian corridors, such as the Jordan River, are ideal locations for planting new tree additions to the urban forest. The surrounding high water table helps supplement irrigation needed to establish tree root systems in the dry western climate. Shade from increased tree canopy assists in restoring other native riparian species such as Wood’s Rose and Golden Currant, providing cooler temperatures that help plants absorb water eciently. Invasives often form crowded colonies, blocking physical and visual access to enjoyment of our local rivers and creeks. A well-cared for and established natural environment provides opportunities for more recreational and visual access to the water’s edge while also creating essential habitat for birds and pollinators. Chapter Three: Sustain 58 Projects Include: •Launch a public awareness campaign to support new trees that are adapted to Salt Lake City’s arid climate and educate on waterwise and tree care best practices. •As part of an Urban Forest Master Plan, implement projects that increase urban forest canopy and identify strategies to overcome equity barriers. Acknowledging the limited time and water resources on the westside, consolidate tree planting projects with supporting low-water irrigation improvements EXPAND AWARENESS OF HOW TO BE A STEWARD OF OUR URBAN FOREST IN ALL PUBLICLYOWNED LANDSCAPES INCLUDING CITY PARKS, STREET MEDIANS, CITY GOLF COURSES, RIPARIAN AREAS & NATURAL AREAS FOLLOW STEWARDSHIP OF THE URBAN FOREST TO PROMOTE TREE HEALTH AND CARE Tree-shaded neighborhoods and the nearly 7,000 trees in public golf courses that make up 11% of SLC’s urban forest can cool temperatures up to6°during the summer while helping to improve air quality. By 2050 our temps could rise10° leading to poorer air quality. 1 Bastin JF, Clark E, Elliott T, Hart S, van den Hoogen J, et al. (2019). Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues. PLOS ONE 14(10): e0224120. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0224120. 2 Dettenmaier,M; Kuhns, M; McAvoy, D; & Unger, B. https://forestry.usu.edu/ﬁles/utah-forest-facts/ trees-and-climate-change.pdf 1 2 2. GROW OUR URBAN FOREST and regionally appropriate tree selection. This provides extra support to ensure both the trees and the neighborhood beneﬁts from a large-scale, collective eort as well as supporting other goals within the Reimagine Nature master plan. •Maximize planting of appropriate trees on all publicly owned landscapes such as golf courses, parks and street medians and leverage investment in tree planting with Salt Lake transportation projects. •Invest in the equipment and resources to responsibly reuse wood from trees removed from our urban forest to create usable wood products such as mulch for our park’s playgrounds and gardens. •Identify successful specimen trees and explore cultivating new cultivars that are climate adaptive. Transformative Project Chapter Three: Sustain 60 Figure 17: Tree Canopy and Historic Homeowner’s Loan Corporation Redlining Grades. *Map adapted from upcoming SLC Urban Forest Action Plan research. INCREASING NEIGHBORHOOD AND CITYWIDE RESILIENCE Areas with little to no tree canopy are more common throughout the City’s westside, downtown and central neighborhoods, contributing to hotter temperatures and lower air quality. Some reduced canopy is an eect of historic inequities such as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation 1930’s redlining practices, overlaid on the map in Figure 17. The westside also has a smaller residential area and larger industrial area, both of which contributes to overall lower tree canopy on the westside of the city. The westside industrial area will see more housing development in the future. There is an opportunity to increase tree canopy in areas of the city that don’t currently have trees to make these places more livable but there are challenges to achieving that. Lower income residents are more reluctant to request a city tree over concerns of the long-term water and tree care costs. Developing an approach to overcome these real cost barriers in lower income neighborhoods is an important factor in increasing and sustaining healthy tree canopy. Property owners and landlords may not be focused on the long-term beneﬁts that trees provide to their properties. In the downtown area, many uses compete for the limited public right-of-way allocated for trees and pedestrians. Identifying ways to prioritize trees in the downtown will increase the comfort of the public realm. This can include focus on the role park strips play as important spaces for trees, in addition to providing city resiliency by reducing heat and absorbing storm water. While the traditional focus of forming tree-lined streets is important, planting trees in Public Land’ parks, golf courses and natural areas creates signiﬁcant impacts to enhanced neighborhood resiliency. In these cared-for, often irrigated spaces, trees can have higher survival rates and mature, providing increased environmental beneﬁts. These spaces also allow for trees to be planted in dense groupings, making them stronger and more resilient to damaging wind storms such as 2020’s derecho. Critical to success is allocating dedicated resources to the long- term care of the urban forest infrastructure that is installed. This will rely on both public employees and private property owners who are committed to and educated regarding the stewardship of these trees. SUSTAIN:GROW THE URBAN FOREST REDLINING AND THE URBAN FOREST LEGEND 2014 PERCENT TREE COVER 6% 41% 1930’s HOMEOWNERS LOAN CORPORATION “REDLINING” GRADES A - BEST B - STILL DESIREABLE C - DECLINING D - HAZARDOUS A B C D A A B B C C C C C C C BB B A C D DD D D D D D B I - 1 5 ST A T E S T . I-80 SLC INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT UNIVERSITY OF UTAH DOWNTOWN data unavailable data unavailable CITY CREEK CANYON I - 2 1 5 BA N G E R T E R F O O T H I L L D R . I-80 data unavailable data unavailable Chapter Three: Sustain 62 CASE STUDIESSUPPORTIVE RESEARCH FINDINGS The city of Denver works with the Downtown Denver Partnership to collaborate on supporting urban tree health and new planting. Like Salt Lake City, Denver residents and business owners are responsible for the maintenance of trees near the sidewalks and streets. While many programs provided free or low-cost trees to residents and businesses, the average life of new tree plants was only seven to twelve years due to the dry and hot conditions created by sun-warmed concrete and asphalt and worn-down irrigation infrastructure. In order to promote tree longevity and the beneﬁts of a mature, shady tree canopy, the city and partners embraced multi- pronged eorts from awareness campaigns to maintenance support through the Urban Forest Initiative. As part of this initiative, city leaders formed a Downtown Denver Business Improvement District that funds the Tree Health Program to support commercial property owners in tree care (fertilization, pest management, watering) of over 1,800 downtown trees. Low-water trees: Common Hackberry adds to the tree canopy while conserving water in SLC’s dry climate. Tree Recycling: Wood from downed trees can be reused as mulch or urban artwork. Tree Protection: Policy changes could better protect valuable mature trees during construction. CASE STUDIESSUPPORTIVE RESEARCH FINDINGS According to the Baltimore Wood Reuse Project, “wood is an abundant, renewable resource— we should use it more.”1 The project has created a successful model for recycling wood waste from Urban Forest operations, keeping it out of limited landﬁlls and creating sustainable, locally sourced products such as bark mulch that can be reused in City parks and open spaces. Program partners re- purpose the wood as materials for sustainable building, mulch, and artisan furniture and art. Other successful outcomes have included creating jobs for those with barriers to employment and reducing operations and maintenance costs. Applying the model in Salt Lake City would provide opportunities for Urban Forestry to increase sustainable operations practices and reduce carbon footprints while creating green, equitable job opportunities. 1 Baltimore Wood Project — Rethinking Wood in the City Wood waste from the Urban Forest can be reused for other purposes. Photo Source: (Above) http://baltimorewoodproject.org/ Photo Credits: (Top)https://inmenlo.com, (Middle) https://www.honey-plants.com, (Bottom) https://www.neighbourstree.ca/treeservices Chapter Four: Connect 64 4CONNECT: ACCESSIBLE & CONNECTED GREEN SPACES GOAL STATEMENT Well-maintained, welcoming trails, streets, public transportation, and sidewalks are interconnected as the city’s circulatory system. This system connects pedestrians, cyclists, and riders to the city’s green spaces and outstanding natural landscapes of Salt Lake City’s Public Lands: mountains, foothills, valley, wetlands, and lakes. The City will continue to enhance these systems and increase connectors to include everyday destinations ranging from the daycare, library, grocery store, pharmacy and museum. This adds convenient access to walk or ride along a greenway, adding steps to pedometers and enriching health and wellbeing. CHAPTER The goal of Connect seeks to link SLC’s natural assets: the greenway corridors, natural areas, mountains and the Great Salt Lake. Chapter Four: Connect 66 CHALLENGES TO ACCESSINGGREEN SPACE Salt Lake City’s Great Basin Valley, Wasatch foothills and Great Salt Lake shore uplands inspired the 1992 SALT LAKE CITY OPEN SPACE PLAN that recognized how disconnected these spaces were to the urban park systems at the time. Since 1992, progress has been made to connect parks and stormwater properties to natural open spaces through a network of green corridors. The Reimagine Nature Master Plan goal of “Connect” ties back to this earlier planning eort and positions Public Lands to continue to be the city’s “back yard” of conserved mountains, foothills, creeks and wetlands. Work-in-progress that supports this goal includes strategic open space preservation, stream restoration, park acquisition and partnerships to maintain and connect wildlife habitat corridors. An overall sense of environmental unease and costly recovery eorts confronts Salt Lake City with record hot weather, longer droughts, increased wildﬁre frequency, damaging storms, more poor CONNECT:ACCESSIBLE &CONNECTED GREEN SPACES air quality days and loss of the diversity of plants and wildlife in our landscapes. Counter these depressing stressors with ﬁndings on the beneﬁts of spending time outside: blood pressure drops within minutes of just seeing a tree. So why aren’t more people spending time outdoors? Over the last decade of parks and open space surveys, North American city dwellers identiﬁed frequently recurring barriers to accessing green space: lack of leisure time, lack of aordable transportation (e.g., complete sidewalks, bus, etc.) or inability to travel to a space, and lack of knowledge about where to go to enjoy the outdoors. 10MINUTE WALK Our time is precious; the modern world’s busy demands of work, learning and commuting consume most of our waking hours and impact our available time for recreation outdoors. Children in the U.S. spend only four to seven minutes a day outside and obesity levels in Salt Lake City have risen since 2013. For cities across North America, urban dwellers, health care providers and environmentalists consistently advocate for visions of an equitable network of city trails, sidewalks, bike lanes and green streets, providing all residents access to parks, work, shopping, and culture within a 5-to-10-minute safe walk of their households. City Parks Alliance and Trust for Public Land, leaders in urban green space research, endorse the 10-minute walk distance as a baseline standard for the United States because studies have shown the tremendous beneﬁt of close-to- home green space to counter threats to our physical wellness and mental well-being. For the SLC Public Lands system, the 2019 NEEDS ASSESSMENT found that most residents are within a 10-minute walk of green spaces, with some areas (markedly on the westside) that need more parks and/or more investment in park renewal. AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION The daytime population of downtown Salt Lake City nearly doubles during the week with the average commute time of 20-25 minutes. Imagine if that commute “[THE LAND] HOLDS SO MUCH OF OUR CULTURE, OUR HISTORY AND OUR KNOWLEDGE…IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND EVERYTHING THAT’S COMING, THESE LESSONS AND ANSWERS ON HOW TO LIVE WITH THE LANDSCAPES THAT ALL OF OUR TRIBES HAVE EVOLVED WITH, THOSE ANSWERS ARE ALL EMBEDDED IN THIS LAND.” Ahjani Yepa, Utah Dine Bikeyah, Inside Climate News, April 21, 2021 “IT IS ONE GREAT PURPOSE OF [CENTRAL] PARK TO SUPPLY TO THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TIRED WORKERS, WHO HAVE NO OPPORTUNITY TO SPEND THEIR SUMMERS IN THE COUNTRY, A SPECIMEN OF GOD’S HANDIWORK THAT SHALL BE TO THEM, INEXPENSIVELY, WHAT A MONTH OF TWO IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS OR THE ADIRONDACKS IS, AT GREAT COST, TO THOSE IN EASIER CIRCUMSTANCES.” Frederick Law Olmstead, Letter to New York City Board of Commissioners, 1858.- Frederick Law Olmsted, letter to New York City Board of Commissioners, 1858 Chapter Four: Connect 68 changed from auto-driven to more active ways to reach work and school that also connect residents to parks and green spaces. People would add beneﬁcial time outside in nature to their daily lives. Utah’s Uniﬁed Transportation Plan calls for a third of the state’s future transportation investments to be invested in transit (deﬁned as mobility transportation including bicycles, walking, vanpool, buses, light rail, commuter rail, street cars, etc.). Leveraging these investments with the city’s growing green network and ensuring that people of all abilities (people with cognitive disabilities, elders with declining mobility, to parents schlepping a 36”-wide stroller) can access routes is critical for equity. Beyond providing access, many forms of active transportation are free to low-cost-an important factor as 45% of Salt Lake City metro renters are cost burdened. Low-income and subsequent burdens of housing and transportation costs can limit the amount of leisure time and transportation options people have to enjoy public lands. The challenge is thus twofold: one of connecting more ways of walking and cycling for everyone in Salt Lake City while prioritizing those routes that provide access to urban parks, natural areas, and trees within the city that also connect to the larger landscapes of mountains, foothills, basins, wetlands and lakes. AWARENESS The third most common barrier to getting outside is lack of knowledge: where are places to recreate, how to get there, what to expect when they get there, and who to recreate with. This awareness also has implications for long-term stewardship. The writer Vladimir Nabokov muses, “Reality is a very subjective aair. I can only deﬁne it as a kind of gradual accumulation of information; and as specialization. If we take a lily, for instance, or any other kind of natural object, a lily is more real to a naturalist than it is to an ordinary person. But it is still more real to a botanist.” Magical landscapes of trees, rock, creeks, marsh and salty lake where plants and wildlife abound in the Salt Lake City region. But if the public doesn’t understand what is there and how to leave no trace, they will be unlikely to understand how to be stewards of the land (how to enhance the health of the urban greenspaces and surrounding wilderness through political advocacy, ﬁnancial support, stewardship, land conservation and reducing individual environmental footprint). Or to put it simply, we don’t know what we don’t know. Public education strategies and wayﬁnding can help cities connect people to experiences in nature, improving public health while growing caring stewards of plants, animals, and landscapes. DESIRES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONNECT Creating opportunities to connect people to public lands resonated strongly with participants in the master plan process. During the most recent community survey, 90% of respondents said they are satisﬁed with the transformative project “Connect Mountains to Lakes” and 75% supported “Just 5 Minutes from Here,” a campaign to share information on how people can access and learn about public lands. Enriching the discussion about connecting people to place are quotes from participants, listed to the right. CONNECT:ACCESSIBLE &CONNECTED GREEN SPACES “MORE EMPHASIS ON MAKING AREAS BIKE AND BUS FRIENDLY TO REDUCE THE NEED TO DRIVE TO PARKS.” -comments from the 2021 public survey “ACCESS IS AWESOME, AND WE WANT PEOPLE TO GET OUT INTO THESE SPACES BUT HAVING HUMANS IN THESE AREAS CAN IMPACT WHAT THE HABITAT LOOKS LIKE, SO JUST BALANCING THOSE NEEDS AND BEING ABLE TO PROTECT LAND IN CERTAIN WAYS FOR WILDLIFE IS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.” “UNCOVER AND RESTORE THE BURIED AND IMPAIRED CREEKS IN THE SALT LAKE VALLEY.” Chapter Four: Connect 70 Figure 18: Transit and Park Access Analysis Map. ”FOCUS ON ACCESSIBLE BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT OR BIKE INSTEAD OF MORE PARKING FOR CARS.” “CAR FREE SUNDAYS IN LIBERTY PARK, INCORPORATE PARKS AND TRAILS INTO PUBLIC TRANSIT INITIATIVES MAYBE A SPECIAL RECREATION LOOP.” “NONE OF THIS WORKS WITHOUT A PLAN FOR EQUITABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AND A BROADER CITY/COUNTY/STATE FOCUS ON AIR QUALITY AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY CONCERNS.” -comments from the 2021 public survey TRANSIT ACCESS TO PARKS IN SALT LAKE CITY TRANSIT CONNECTING PARKS Respondents to the Reimagine Nature survey continually cited the need for increased access by public transit for equity of access, low-carbon solutions, and to resolve the issue of lack of parking. According to the 2019 Needs Assessment, The Central Community has the lowest park LOS and is expected to experience the most future growth in the city. The addition of Fleet Block as a public green space could ﬁll this gap and increase options to access parks by rail with proximity to the nearby TRAX station. As the City develops, consideration should be given to the relationship of parks and transit and aordable, environmentally friendly options for park accessibility. Figure 18 Access Analysis Map highlights existing parks within walking distance to rail station locations. Dark red areas are within a ﬁve minute walk of TRAX stations and dark green shows areas within a ﬁve minute walk of a bus stop. Adding or enhancing parks and trails within these areas should be prioritized for more equitable access. Imagine being able to visit a dierent park every week just by stepping o a dierent bus or rail stop. LEGEND GOLF COURSES EXISTING TRAILS TRAX/ FRONTRUNNER TRAX/ FRONTRUNNERSTATIONS UTA BUS ROUTES UTA BUS STOPS PARKS AND NATURAL LANDS5 MINUTE WALK FROM TRAX STATIONS 5 MINUTE WALK FROM BUS STOPS PARKS WITHIN A 10 MINUTE WALK FROM TRAX STATIONS MINI/NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS WITHIN A 10 MINUTE WALK FROM TRAX STATIONS 10 MINUTE WALK FROM TRAX STATIONS 10 MINUTE WALK FROM BUS STOPS CEMETERY UT A T R A X UT A F R O N T R U N N E R WASHINGTON SQUARE HERMAN FRANKS PARK SUGARHOUSE PARK FAIRMONT PARK LIBERTY PARK PIONEER PARK COTTONWOOD PARK FOREST DALE GOLF COURSE Chapter Four: Connect 72 CASE STUDY: TUJUNGA WASH GREENWAY AND STREAM RESTORATION PROJECT Completed in 2007, the 1.2-mile Tujunga Wash Greenway and Stream Restoration Project in Los Angeles, California annually inﬁltrates up to 118 million gallons of stormwater, increases park space per person by 21% and used all native plants during restoration (saving 70-80% potential water use using conventional methods). The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority partnered with the region’s ﬂood control district and public works to complete the 50 to 60-foot wide greenway that includes 15 acres of riparian habitat, 10-foot wide recreation trails on both sides of the channel and 8 ecological areas with over 1,000 trees. The Landscape Architecture Foundations’ Landscape Performance Series case study on this project underlined the following lessons learned from the Tujunga Wash Greenway to keep in mind for this transformational project: •Ongoing public education on the seasonal changes of the stream and landscape is essential to build environmental awareness; •In man-made streambeds, ecient sediment removal maintenance is key for ﬂow; •Leverage smaller phases as a prototype for establishing baseline measurement and data collection regimes; and •Establish real-time environmental monitoring for habitat management and hydrological performance. The following recommended strategies and policies are high- level guidance for Public Lands operations and maintenance that direct how Public Lands will achieve the plan goal of “connect” over the next decade. The community identiﬁed two Plantings of native species improve biodiversity along the greenway. The new greenway trail parallels a section of the Tsunga Wash. Photo credits: https://rposd.lacounty.gov/portfolio/tujunga-wash-greenway/ A naturalized section of the Tsunga Wash increases riparian habitat while providing stormwater infrastructure. CONNECT:STRATEGIES ANDPOLICIES OVERVIEW transformational projects to support the overall goal of connect. Working in tandem with the strategies and policies in this table, these projects root the 20- year vision with on-the-ground improvements. Additional detail for implementation is provided in Chapter 8 Action Strategies. CONNECT: HIGHLEVEL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES St rat eg y C- 1 onnect people to information about their park system to increase visitation. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϭ ,elp the public navigate to and around their public lands system with intuitive physical wayĮnding and digital information. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.Ϯ Wrovide information that helps the public interpret and appreciate their parks and natural lands, with the use of diverse, interesting programming and activities, education and messaging, physical and digital interpretive content, and park ambassadors. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϯ &acilitate access to information about use of ^>͛s public lands by people experiencing homelessness, including available services and resources, hotlines, community partners, and opportunities to engage in crossͲcommunity dialogue to help make ^> parks welcoming and safe for sheltered and unsheltered alike. St rat eg y C- 2 /ncrease the ease of access to public lands, making it easier to travel to, betǁeen and ǁithin them. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϭ Wromote walking and active transportation by connecting our parks Θ natural spaces to the ity͛s alternative transportation network, including bus, dZy, ^> Green ike, and onͲstreet ͬ offͲstreet trails. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.Ϯ /nvest in greening the urban trail network through tree plantings, stream daylighting, and other methods to interconnect parks with parkͲlike trails. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϯ /ncorporate careful consideration of physical limitations, language barriers, and other accessibility accommodations into all Wublic >ands proũects. Chapter Four: Connect 74 access to both experiences. An enclosed walkway bridges the creek between the two library sections and connects to 8.8 miles of trails to other key destinations. Creekside Playground was added adjacent to the library. These places are made more accessible with support from Child-Friendly City Maps produced by youth and activities databases on growingupboulder.org. Case Studies - Portland, Oregon Golf Courses with Public Trails Three publicly owned golf courses in Portland, Oregon oer miles of walking trails to the public. The trails range from neighborhood- serving jogging trails to regional, paved shared-use paths. At Glendoveer Golf Course, 50,000 Case Studies - Salt Lake City Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights Public Lands worked with diverse youth service providers in SLC to create a CHILDREN’S OUTDOOR BILL OF RIGHTS (#slcoutdoorchildren) and list of outdoor that every child growing up in Salt Lake City should have access to during their childhood for the sake of their physical, mental, social, and ecological health. The Children & Nature Network provides more resources. Activities include: - Seeing the Great Salt Lake - Catching a bug - Splash in a stream - Identify a wild plant - Reward stickers and journals for documenting experiences. rounds of golf are played annually, and more than 100,000 walkers concurrently use a 2-mile ﬁtness trail, in part due to the park deﬁcient adjacent neighborhood. The American Trails organization reports in their case study of this course that no trail users have been hit by errant golf balls. Lessons learned include expanding the 40-parking spot trailhead used by hikers and pedestrians to access the course and education around golf-trail etiquette and un-leashed dogs. Another good example in Portland is Heron Lakes Golf Course where a 200-yard stretch of the course is used to help ﬁll a trail gap for a larger 40- mile loop. The “Just 5 Minutes from Here” wayﬁnding and informational campaign could leverage these activities and identify destinations to complete the outdoor activities and learn more about stewardship and ecologies of public lands. Case Studies - Boulder Public Library and Boulder Creek Path As the main branch of Boulder Public Library became slated for renewal, the City found that building a new location adjacent to the Boulder Creek Path and greenway would be a more cost-eective option. This also co-located a cultural destination (library) to the city’s downtown greenway and provided the public SALT LAKE CITY AND BOULDER, COLORADO OFFER TWO WAYS “JUST 5 MINUTES FROM HERE” COULD TAKE INSPIRATION. IMPROVE POLLINATOR HABITAT ADDED STORMWATER RETENTION BENEFITS NATIVE TREE CANOPY PROVIDES HABITAT FOR WILDLIFE CREATE A CONNECTION TO JORDAN RIVER JOINTUSE SIGNAGE STORMWATER PLANT TREE ROWS TO VISUALLY SEPARATE ACTIVITIES NATURE PLAY AREA PROTECTIVE FENCING FOR TRAIL WHERE NEEDED MULTIUSE TRAILS ON EDGE OF GOLF COURSE Figure 19: Reimagined Golf Courses Exhibit. Design strategies can enhance compatibility between activities, allowing single-use spaces, such as golf courses, to host additional trail and recreation opportunities and provide comprehensive access for all. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Q R S T U Q R S T U THANK YOU! ¡GRACIAS!Map sponsors/ Patrocinadores del mapa Map partners / Socios del mapa Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, Boulder County Head Start, Boulder Housing Partners, Boulder Jewish Community Center Preschool, Boulder Journey School, Boulder Public Library, Boulder Valley School District, City of Boulder, Dairy Arts Center, El Centro Amistad, I Have a Dream Foundation, Imagine Colorado, Moxie Moms, Museum of Boulder, Museum of Natural History CU Boulder and Walk2Connect Cooperative GUB funders / Donantes de GUB City of Boulder and University of Colorado Offi ce of Outreach and Engagement and Program in Environmental Design Growing Up Boulder is a program of the CEDaR (Community Engagement, Design, and Research) Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. / Growing Up Boulder es un programa del centro CEDaR (Ofi cina de participación comunitaria, diseño, e investigación) de la Universidad de Colorado Boulder. Greetings! Saludos! Growing Up Boulder (GUB) is Boulder’s child and youth-friendly city initiative. Since 2009, we’ve partnered with CU, City of Boulder, BVSD, and local organizations to include 4,000 children and youth in 84 city projects. Our mission? To make Boulder a welcoming and engaging child-friendly city for all. / Growing Up Boulder (GUB) es la iniciativa de la ciudad de Boulder de crear una ciudad amigable para niños y jóvenes. Desde 2009, hemos colaborado con CU, la ciudad de Boulder, BVSD, y organizaciones locales para incluir 4,000 niños y jóvenes en 84 proyectos de la ciudad. ¿Nuestra misión? Hacer de Boulder una ciudad acogedora y comprometida con los niños y con todos. This 10 year anniversary map project celebrates children’s’ favorite locations in our great city. It’s a map made by and for children. Discover fun places to play and learn new things! Look for an expanded digital version of this map in September 2019. / Este mapa creado por nuestro décimo aniversario celebra los sitios favoritos de los niños en nuestra gran ciudad. Es un mapa hecho por niños y para niños. ¡Descubre lugares divertidos para jugar y aprender cosas nuevas! Busca por una versión extendida de este mapa en Septiembre 2019. growingupboulder.org/gubmap Happy exploring! Mara, Cathy, & the GUB Team INTERACT AND LEARN / INTERACTUA Y APRENDE Can You Find? / ¿Puedes Encontrar? Little Lending Libraries? /¿Una pequeña biblioteca de préstamo? Art on utility boxes by “Smile?” / ¿Arte en cajas de servicios públicos por “Smile?”Pearl Street sculptures? / ¿Esculturas de Pearl Street?Boulder Creek Path murals? / ¿Murales en el sendero de Boulder Creek? SHARE your photos at #gubmap / Comparte tus fotos en #gubmap growing_up_boulder @GrowingUpBoulder RESOURCES / RECURSOS GUB’s digital map (available after 9/1/19) / Mapa digital de GUB (disponible después de 9/1/19) Open space and mountain parks facilities / Instalaciones de espacios abiertos y parques de montaña Bus and biking options / Opciones de movilidad en buses y bicicleta Parks and recreation facilities / parques e instalaciones recreativas Calendar of area events / Calendario de eventos en el área Lactation rooms / Cuartos de lactancia Please Recycle! SCAN HERE! am e n i t i e s c h a r t / t a b l a d e s e r v i c i o s ke y / l e y e n d a shade over play areasáreas de juegosombradas map reference referencia del mapa cost /costo handicap accessibleaccesible para discapacitados indoor spacesespacios interiores transit* (bus, bike, or parking) transito*(autobús, bicicleta o estacionamiento) play structure zona de juegos drinking wateragua potable changing table cambiador hiking or multiuse pathsendero de uso múltiple snacks nearbycomida cercana grill /parrilla restrooms /baños lawn /césped A1K7L8T4I4T6J9U3N5L7D3 T6B8K1L3 I5M8 J2F4T6K4E2G3 I8T1G3 I2K3N3H2G3Q5 G1 0 J5 J1 0O6 I4H7E2 Ar a p a h o e R i d g e " R o c k " P a r k Bo u l d e r C o n v e n t i o n a n d V i s i t o r s B u r e a u Bo b o l i n k T r a i l Bo u l d e r C r e e k & B o u l d e r C r e e k P a t h Bo u l d e r J C C : T u m b l e R o o m & M i l k a n d H o n e y F a r m Bo u l d e r P u b l i c L i b r a r y , M a i n L i b r a r y , C r e e k s i d e Pl a y g r o u n d , & C a n y o n T h e a t e r a n d G a l l e r y Bo u l d e r P u b l i c L i b r a r y , G e o r g e R e y n o l d s B r a n c h Bo u l d e r P u b l i c L i b r a r y , M e a d o w s B r a n c h Bo u l d e r P u b l i c L i b r a r y , N o B o C o r n e r L i b r a r y Bo u l d e r R e s e r v o i r Fl a g s t a f f : S u m m i t N a t u r e C e n t e r & B o y s c o u t T r a i l Ch a u t a u q u a : P l a y g r o u n d , R a n g e r C o t t a g e , & En c h a n t e d M e s a / M c C l i n t o c k T r a i l Ea s t B o u l d e r R e c r e a t i o n C e n t e r & P a r k Eb e n G . F i n e P a r k El k s P a r k & E l k s P o o l Fa r m e r s M a r k e t / B a n d s h e l l / C e n t r a l P a r k Fi s k e P l a n e t a r i u m Fo o t h i l l s C o m m u n i t y P a r k Gr o w i n g G a r d e n s : C h i l d r e n ' s P e a c e G a r d e n Hu m a n e S o c i e t y Ki d s ' F i s h i n g P o n d Mu s e u m o f B o u l d e r Na t i o n a l C e n t e r f o r A t m o s p h e r i c R e s e a r c h (N C A R ) V i s i t o r C e n t e r & T r a i l h e a d No r t h B o u l d e r P a r k No r t h B o u l d e r R e c r e a t i o n C e n t e r Pe a r l S t r e e t M a l l Sa w h i l l P o n d s Sc o t t C a r p e n t e r " R o c k e t s h i p " P a r k , P o o l , & S k a t e p a r k So m b r e r o M a r s h E n v i r o n m e n t a l E d C e n t e r b y T h o r n e So u t h B o u l d e r R e c r e a t i o n C e n t e r , H a r l o w P l a t t s C o m m u n i t y P a r k & V i e l e L a k e Sp r u c e P o o l Mu s e u m o f N a t u r a l H i s t o r y , C U B o u l d e r Va l m o n t C i t y P a r k & V a l m o n t B i k e P a r k Mo u n t a i n F l o w e r G o a t D a i r y Da i r y A r t s C e n t e r Wo n d e r l a n d L a k e & P a r k Bo u l d e r M u s e u m o f C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t ( B M o C A ) Bo u l d e r D u s h a n b e T e a H o u s e Scan here for a complete list of parks & trails, bike & bus routes, & cold weather restroom & drinking fountain closures. Escanee aquí para una lista completa de parques y senderos, bicicletas y buses, cierres de baños publicos y bebederos de agua debido a climas fríos. * “Bus” means bus route nearby; ”Bike” means accessible via protected bike paths; “parking” means parking lot available. *“Bus” significa a ruta de buses cerca; “Bicicleta” significa acceso a una ciclovía protegida. “Parqueo” significa parqueadero disponible. CIVIC AREA PEARL STREET MALL A city that is friendly to children is a city friendly to all! Una ciudad amigable para los niños es una ciudad amigable para todos! BOULDER MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Arts/ Culture Water Play Education Nature/ Trails Parks N Play KEY/LEYENDA (10 minutes)1/4 Mile (5 minutes)1/8 Mile Walking Times /Tiempo Caminando *Approx. 7 year old pace**al paso de un niño de 7 años* Artes y Cultura Naturaleza y senderos Educación Juegos en el agua Parques y Juegos infantiles Growing Up Bo u l d e r ’s a kid’s guide to exploring our gr ea t c i t y Boulder’s C h i l d -FriendlyCityMa p 10th Annivers a r y gran c i udad una guia para que los niños exploren n u e s t r a 9t h S t r e e t Br o a d w a y A v e n u e Canyon Boulevard Walnut Street Pearl Street 11 t h S t r e e t 13 t h S t r e e t 14 t h S t r e e t 15 t h S t r e e t Kids’F i s hingPo n d s T ubing Boulde r P u blicLib r a r y B a n dshell Far m e r s Mark e t B o u l derD u s h anbe T e a House B M oCA Clim b i n g Rock s Visit o r Center W a t e r Jets Sc u l p tureP a r k Creek s i d e Playgr o u n d C a n yonT h e a terand G a llery Wa t e r FallR o c k S p l i t Rock S p i t t ingM a n B o u l d er Cree k B o u lder Li b r a ryFou n d a tion Boulder’s Child-Friendly City Map Park-like features surround the City of Boulder, Colorado Main Library. Photo credits: https://atlaslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/4_AtlasLab_BoulderCivicArea.01.01.jpg Chapter Four: Connect 76 CONNECTION TO JORDAN RIVER PARKWAY TRAIL INCLUDE SAFE RAILROAD CROSSINGS INCREASE TREE CANOPY IN GOLF COURSES TO CLEAN AIR AND COMBAT URBAN HEAT ISLAND TEMPERATURES IMPROVE WATER QUALITYMULTIUSE TRAIL ALONG THE SURPLUS CANAL PATHWAYS AND CROSSWALKS CONNECTING CITY PARKS GLENDALE REGIONAL PARK GLENDALE GOLF COURSE SURPLUS CANAL 1700 S PARK IMPROVE CONNECTIONS TO ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION Utilize all of public lands parks, golf courses and natural spaces to connect the city’s human powered transportation network. ENHANCE THE ENVIRONMENT Utilize spaces such as golf courses to increase the urban forest and restore native habitat. UTILIZE SPACE Find environmental and recreational uses for underutilized public spaces including wide medians, public utility lands and where appropriate, spaces on golf courses. Figure 20: Connecting Green Spaces Concept Illustration INCREASE NATIVE REVEGETATION TO ENHANCE WILDLIFE HABITAT BEFORE IMPROVEMENTS AFTER IMPROVEMENTS NEED FOR INVASIVE WEED MANAGEMENT SERVICE ROAD, NO ESTABLISHED TRAIL UNSAFE CROSSING AT RAILRAILNO PEDESTRIAN CROSSING BIG MOVES & STRATEGIES Chapter Four: Connect 78 Projects Include: •Connect trails from the Eastern side of the Wasatch Mountains to the Foothills Natural Area, The 9 Line Trail to the Jordan River Parkway trail and West to the Salt Lake Marina and mountains. CONNECT OUR PARKS AND NATURAL SPACES TO THE CITY’S HUMAN POWEREDTRANSPORTATION NETWORK The Jordan River Water Trail.... QU I C K FA C T COMPLETE MISSING LINKS IN REGIONAL TRAILS AND INVEST IN GREENWAYS TO ENHANCE NATURE AND CREEKS WITHIN THE CITY. 3. CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE •Begin to implement the Seven Greenways Vision, creating a regional system of high-quality greenways along Red Butte, Parleys, Emigration and City Creeks, including locations to uncover creeks, add trails, improve natural habitat, and provide for recreation. •Implement all remaining proposed trails including the McClelland Trail, Folsom Trail, Surplus Canal Trails, and Foothills Trail. Transformative Project CONNECT SLC’S TRAILS & PARKS TO THE CITY’S BACKYARDNATURAL ASSETS Chapter Four: Connect 80 Salt Lake City became a city in large part due to the scenic beauty of the mountains and lake embracing the valley. The 70.7 miles of existing Public Lands trails and 129 miles of planned trails enable many to enjoy walking and cycling access to shady natural areas and parks. But for many areas of the city, access to waterways, the lake and mountains is limited. To address this, “Connect Mountains to the Lake” envisions a vast network of running and walking paths, cycling routes and green corridors. Imagine being able to connect from the downtown core to the Great Salt Lake or Wasatch Mountain trails. Or, for daily commutes, imagine having safe and welcoming trails that provide opportunities to integrate exercise into the daily commute, making pulses race and ﬁlling senses with scenic beauty. “Connect Mountains to the Lake” would promote enhanced connections between neighborhoods and natural lands, particularly to the Foothills Natural Area. This project also supports protection and greater access of the Foothills Natural Area, a recent plan calls for 65 miles of new trails to help connect this natural treasure to more pedestrians, hikers and cyclists. Protecting the foothills with sustainable, well-connected trails that direct visitation to concentrated areas has an added beneﬁt of protecting undisturbed wildlife habitat. Beyond the beneﬁt to health and wellness, these connected corridors provide pathways for the movement of birds, mammals and ﬁsh and create opportunity for rainwater management that supports ecosystem health. Building and expanding greenways helps increase pervious surfaces that can help clean and manage storm water runo all the while supporting mature tree canopy that provides shade and habitat. CONNECT:CONNECT MOUNTAINS TO THE LAKE Views out to the Great Salt Lake from the Foothills. Chapter Four: Connect 82 NOTES: Show connections to Jordan RT and Bonneville Shoreline Trail Existing and Proposed show graphically? Call out proposed trails Potentially have icons describing foothills rec and wetlands Do we mention the 7 greenways? Show greenway corridors Foothills Trails (Proposed Improvements) McClelland Trail (Portions Completed) 9-Line Trail (In Progress) Folsom Trail (In Progress) Surplus Canal Trail (Proposed) IMPLEMENT & COMPLETE PROPOSED TRAILS Figure 21: Reimagine Mountains to Lake Connectivity Exhibit. Bonneville Shoreline (Existing Regional Trail) 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 3 4 5 6 EXISTING AND PROPOSED TRAIL CONNECTIONS IN SALT LAKE CITY A NATURAL CITY: VISION OF THE 1992 OPEN SPACE PLAN The Salt Lake City 1992 Open Space Plan paints a picture of the City through its natural assets. The plan seeks to better connect the City’s park system to the natural environment, overcoming manmade barriers and unifying the City by connecting the Wastach foothills, benches, valley ﬂoor, creeks, Jordan River and Great Salt Lake wetlands. SLC Public Lands has come a long way to achieving the 1992 goals, with many trails underway or completed, enhancing access to nature and joining natural features. The goal “connect” seeks to further these objectives, completing proposed trails throughout the City while emphasizing opportunities for enhanced natural areas, greenways and connections to the Jordan River. J ORDAN RIVE R PAR K WAY Futu re Connec tiontoGreatSaltLake Future Connec tiontoGreatSaltLakeWetlands Futu re Connec tiontoOquirrhMtns. PROPOSE D FO L SO MTRAIL PROPOSE D SUR PLU SCANALTRAIL PRO POSED 9 LIN ETRAIL M CC LE LL A ND TR A I L BON NE VI LLESHORELINETR A IL F O OTHILL S TR ALSYSTEM PA RLE YS TR A I L 7 LEGEND EXISTING TRAILS PROPOSED TRAILS DESIRED CONNECTION POINTS Chapter Four: Connect 84 Projects Include: •Initiate an information campaign and tools for learning about parks, tree-care, public activities in green spaces and city golf courses, environmental education, and recreation opportunities. UTILIZING ALL COMMUNITY OUTDOOR PUBLIC SPACES MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND AND EXPLORE NEARBY PARKS, TRAILS AND PUBLIC SPACES TO EXPAND THE PUBLIC’S EXPERIENCES IN NATURE AND BUILD STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES. •Promote other public green space use like libraries, school grounds and the City cemetery as part of a connected system. •Establish a multi-lingual signage and wayﬁnding program that reﬂects Salt Lake City’s diversity. 4. JUST FIVE MINUTES FROM HERE Transformative Project Photo credits: (above) https://www.aspentimes.com/news/basalt-completes-the-other-riverside-park/, (below) https://landezine-award.com/grand-park/, Photo credits: https://segd.org/brisbane-multilingual-pedestrian-signage Chapter Four: Connect 86 Navigating Salt Lake City’s roads is fairly straightforward using the north, south, east and west grid system and 660’ x 660’ blocks. The 70.7-miles of Public Lands trails interface with these roads at trailheads and within green destinations of parks and natural areas. Within this network, hundreds of cultural destinations and stories await hikers, cyclists and pedestrians. Lessons of natural history, environmental stewardship and origin stories of parks are waiting to be told in the 120 languages currently spoken in Utah (Source: U.S. Census). National best practices also point to the advantage of linking cultural destinations of libraries, safe routes to schools and active recreational destinations to a city’s trail network. In Salt Lake City, many of these connections exist, just ﬁve minutes from people’s day to day lives and can be highlighted through signage, outreach education and digital campaigns. Co-locating cultural, natural and recreational destinations makes it easier for us to combine the trip to the library with a healthy family walk, enriching our day-to-day lives. Conversations with Salt Lake City residents who speak English as a second language reveal that including multi-lingual communications in signage and digitally helps make public lands feel more welcoming and inclusive. An added beneﬁt to increased awareness of what is in public lands, is the opportunity to share how to take care of public lands and support tree canopy health, clean water and fresh air. CONNECT:JUST FIVE MINUTES FROM HERE Signage along the Jordan River Trail points toward city nodes. Chapter Four: Connect Regional Athletic Complex Foothills Natural Area & Trail System Warm Springs Park City Creek Park I - 1 5 I - 2 1 5 SLC Cemetery Regional Athletic Complex Public Lands Nursery (Proposed)Guadalupe School Warm Springs Park Foothills Natural Area Rose Park Golf Course Day-Riverside Library Jordan Valley Parkway CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE USING ALL PUBLIC SPACES: 2 POSSIBLE ADVENTURES FROM THE REGIONAL ATHLETIC COMPLEX START AT THE RAC PLAY 9 HOLES OR SIT BY THE RIVER WATCH A SOCCER GAME ENJOY A BIKE RIDE ALONG THE RIVER ADVENTURE A ADVENTURE B UNWIND READING A BOOK OUTSIDE IN THE LIBRARY GARDENS DECIDE YOU WANT TO GO ON A HIKE STAY ALONG THE RIVER OR ON YOUR WAY, STOP BY TO VOLUNTEER AT THE NATIVE PLANTS NURSERY VISIT A FRIEND AT THE SCHOOL PLAYGROUND LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORIC WARM SPRINGS ENJOY THE SUNSET AND VIEWS OF THE CITY ON YOUR HIKE START AT THE RAC Figure 22: Reimagine System Connectivity Exhibit. 3A 4A 3B 3C 3D 3E 2 1 1 2 3A 4A 3B 3C 3D 3E Adven t u r e A Adventur e B Jord a n R i v e r P arkway “Just 5 Minues from Here” seeks to connect and utilize all publicly-accessible lands including those managed by others such as Public Utilities’ City Creek Canyon and the Foothills Natural Area, a jointly-managed space. City Creek Canyon 4A Rose ParkGolf Course Public Lands Nursery SPLIT HERE Educational Sewer Treatment Plan Guadalupe School Day-River Side Library Guadalupe Chapter Five: Welcome 90 5 GOAL STATEMENT Ideal parks are actively used by the community, inclusive for all ages, abilities and cultures and strive to be authentic, or reflective of the neighborhood and community’s culture. Parks departments across the country struggle with balancing limited resources and many priorities with achieving these ideals. For cities, there is also a growing awareness of how green space has historically been provided and maintained for different neighborhoods. Cities are collecting data and stories to document the historic inequities in the quantity and quality of green space (e.g., nationwide studies have found that lower income urban areas typically correlate with less tree canopy, less accessible green spaces and lower quality amenities). The Public Lands Department, in alignment with the mayor’s 2021 citywide vision, is committed to looking at top-down and bottom-up community-driven solutions to welcoming more people. The department will strive to reflect the diverse culture and history of Salt Lake City neighborhoods in the tapestry of parks and open spaces. WELCOME: ACTIVE, AUTHENTIC, AND INCLUSIVE SPACES CHAPTER Cultures of SLC are brought to life at park events like the Living Traditions Festival. Photo Source: Salt Lake City Arts Council Chapter Five: Welcome 92 CHALLENGES TO CREATING WELCOMING SPACES An increased awareness of the health and social beneﬁts of living near park spaces has prompted cities across the country to close gaps in park access and attempt to provide all residents a park within walking distance of their home. Another traditional metric used to deﬁne Level of Service (LOS) for parks is to calculate the park acreage per population and try to maintain or improve on that baseline as the population grows. However, parks provide many dierent functions that do not always relate to their size, requiring more factors to be assessed to understand parks performance and establish targets. The 2019 Needs Assessment survey revealed that Westside parks receive signiﬁcantly less visitation than other parks throughout the city. (12-13% vs. 29-56%). One contributing factor could be the lack of city-wide festivals held on the Westside. Additionally, Westside residents are more likely to visit east-side parks than east-side residents are likely to visit Westside parks. Equal investment in parks throughout Salt Lake City’s neighborhoods does not always translate to parks that equally serve each community, nor does it make up for any historic inequities. It takes a combination of factors to succeed in the creation of thriving, active spaces, where all feel safe and welcome. Some factors of creating a welcoming park include providing park amenities that are appealing to all ages and inclusive playgrounds and spaces for all abilities that are ADA accessible. While park proximity and amenities are some ways to measure park quality, they are not a singular solution for ensuring parks are meeting the needs of the community. Salt Lake’s various neighborhoods, communities, and cultures each have their own unique recipes for park success that need to be shared and generated through robust community engagement. Ensuring that all local community members are involved in the park planning process, with extra eorts to reach underrepresented or underserved populations, is essential to gleaning local knowledge for the right park ingredients and understanding factors that contribute to parks’ use and enjoyment. The NRPA Community Engagement Resource Guide deﬁnes equitable engagement stating “An inclusive and meaningful engagement process ensures that our parks and public spaces are created by the people they are intended to serve.”1 NRPA has also published reports, such as “Design, Place and Indigenous Ways: Working with Local Communities”2 and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Parks and Recreation,”3 that serve as guides to learning from speciﬁc communities. 1 Community Engagement Resource Guide | Best Practice Resources | Publications and Research | NRPA 2 Design, Place and Indigenous Ways: Working with Local Communities | Social Equity | Parks and Recreation Magazine | NRPA 3 2021deireport.pdf (nrpa.org) WELCOME:ACTIVE, AUTHENTIC AND INCLUSIVE SPACES “PLEASE PRIORITIZE THE SAFETY OF OUTDOOR SPACES FOR ALL.” “CREATE BEER GARDENS SUPPORTING LOCAL BREWERIES, CONCESSIONS SUPPORTING LOCAL CAFES AND RESTAURANTS WITH HEALTHY AND DIVERSE FOOD.” “MAKE PARKS ACCESSIBLE: TO ALL CULTURES, ABILITIES, & AGES.” -comments from the 2021 public survey Chapter Five: Welcome 94 “I’d like to see the homeless needs be addressed as part of improving the public lands. Are there areas they could camp where they could have access to health care and bathrooms to make it safer for them and also keep the parks clean and safe?” “Make sure that community gardens are part of the re- imagined green public spaces.” WELCOME:ACTIVE, AUTHENTIC AND INCLUSIVE SPACES “I’D LIKE TO SEE THE HOMELESS NEEDS BE ADDRESSED AS PART OF IMPROVING THE PUBLIC LANDS.” “ADD PUBLIC ART FEATURES WHEN POSSIBLE.” -comments from the 2021 public survey “EQUITY: A COMMUNITY THAT PRIORITIZES EQUITY WORKS TO ENSURE THAT ALL COMMUNITY MEMBERS HAVE ACCESS TO WHAT THEY NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL.” -NRPA COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT RESOURCE GUIDE “CONSIDER HAVING LOCAL ACTS IN PARKS AS WELL AS MORE FREE MOVIES. ADD FOOD VENUES OR TRUCKS. PLAN EVENTS THAT ARE BOTH FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING DISABLED FOLKS IN CHAIRS AND USING WALKERS/CANES.” Partnering with local organizations provides opportunities for community-led art, education and recreation programs that integrate the character and cultures of the city’s neighborhoods into park spaces. Such programs, activities and events also contribute to active spaces that increase park use and enhance safety. Encouraging and providing support for youth grassroots movements is another way to let the community lead park advocacy and stewardship. Youth can become strong leaders who represent parks through youth city councils and youth parks boards. Creating city youth engagement plans to reach all ages can foster early appreciation for nature, civic involvement and lend a sense of belonging. Raising kids from a young age to be future stewards requires early exposure to positive experiences in nature that ﬁlls them with wonder, curiosity, and that feeling of being part of something larger than yourself. Youth engagement can include environmental education programming and ﬁnding locations for nature exploration and play instead of the typical playground. DESIRES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WELCOME Creating active, welcoming spaces was valued by the community. During the most recent survey, 86% of respondents were satisﬁed with the transformative project “Reimagine Neighborhood Parks” and 83% supported “Coming to a Park Near You.” Among survey participants in the west-side planning areas, which have the lowest park visitation in the city, Reimagine Neighborhood Parks was prioritized as a top urgent project that should happen right away. Enriching the discussion about creating welcoming spaces are select quotes from participants displayed to the right and on the previous page. Chapter Five: Welcome 96 CASE STUDIES New York City Parks formed the Community Parks Initiative (CPI) to advance equitable distribution in park investments. The program identiﬁes underinvested parks and incorporated community-led solutions for park redevelopment through local partnerships, park volunteer opportunities, and extended outreach eorts to engage diverse and vulnerable populations from high-needs neighborhoods. With support from the CPI, community partners are empowered to sustain ongoing park contributions, leading activities ranging from beautiﬁcation projects to basketball days. Philadelphia Parks has a concessions program providing amenities such as a pop-up beer garden and café, a permanent waterfront café on the Schuylkill River, and recreational bike rentals that rent tandem, deuce coup and surrey bikes at park locations throughout the city. The concessions program generates revenue while providing services that allow park visitors to stay and enjoy activities throughout the day. The City of San Jose formed a program to help address homelessness in parks. Non-proﬁts will send teams to pick up litter, maintain the park landscaping and trails, and provide outreach to unsheltered populations in the parks. The pilot program is considering other additions, such as constructing prefab modular housing nearby provided to unhoused people in exchange for park cleanup and maintenance services. NYC Community Parks Initiative Photo Source: https://www.thehighline.org Guadalupe Riverfront Park, San Jose CA Photo Source: https://www.sanjoseinside.com Philadelphia Parks Concessions Photo Source: https://wheelfunrentals.com/pa/philadelphia/boathouse-row/ The following recommended strategies and policies are high- level guidance for Public Lands operations and maintenance that direct how Public Lands will achieve the plan goal of sustain over the next decade. The community identiﬁed two keystone, transformational projects to support the overall goal of welcome. Working in tandem with the overall strategies and policies in this table, these projects root the 20-year vision with on-the-ground improvements that will contribute to the sustainability of Salt Lake City’s quality of life for humans, plants and animals. Additional detail for implementation is provided in Chapter 8 Action Strategies. WELCOME:STRATEGIES ANDPOLICIES OVERVIEW WELCOME: HIGHLEVEL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES St rat eg y W- 1 Des ig n and p ro g ram Neig h b o rh o o d Park s t o h ig h l ig h t t h e u niq u e nat u ral , historical, cultural and economic identity of the surrounding area and community in w h ich t h ey are l o cat ed. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϭ ^tudy and collect data on systemͲwide park use, answering Ƌuestions about who, where, when, what and how park users are engaging with the neighborhood parks. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.Ϯ ngage the community in the visioning of our public spaces and work especially to foster engagement with underͲrepresented groups. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϯ nhance sense of place and community pride within parks. St rat eg y W- 2 Support active programming that brings people out to their parks for art, events, programs, recreation and community. This programming should be diverse and adapted to represent the community culture and encourage creation of social connections. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϭ Zemove barriers to park activation, addressing aspects such as physical assets, public safety, and laws and ordinances. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.Ϯ reative and strategic installation of diverse park amenities supports active park use by many different user groups. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϯ Generate proactive, targeted activation of citywide parks to leverage staff resources and external partnerships and to make parks the community focal points for every neighborhood. Chapter Five: Welcome 98 TRANSFORM PARKS INTO VIBRANT COMMUNITY SPACES THAT EMPOWER RESIDENTS AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY Projects Include: •Identify priorities for equitable park redevelopment. •Promote volunteerism, donation, and adopt-a-park/ friends groups. •Engage neighbors in redesigning and adding activities to parks that reﬂect their interest, culture and the character and history of the area. •Formalize Neighborhood Park planning processes, design guidelines for standard features, and methods for developing tailored design. Transformative Project ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY THROUGH PLACEMAKING DEFINING FLEXIBLE OPEN SPACES FOR INCLUSIVE PARK DESIGN PROGRAMMING TO CULTIVATE COMMUNITYPRIDE CELEBRATENEIGHBORHOOD CHARACTER IN PARKS (Top) Artesian Well Park. (Bottom) 337 Garden. Photo Credit: Logan Sorenson 5. REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS Chapter Five: Welcome 100 WELCOME:REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS During the Reimagine Nature public process, the community provided ideas to make neighborhood parks more safe and also more fun, reﬂecting the diverse communities that use each park. To address the lower visitation in Westside parks documented by the 2019 Needs Assessment, this transformative project envisions a community-driven approach to park improvements. The community can help guide physical improvements that tell the story of an historic spring or celebrate a neighborhood’s artistic style in a decorative community garden gate. The construction of these physical improvements in neighborhood parks create spaces that feel authentic, genuinely representing the style, history and recreation desires of the neighborhood. In tandem with community input, Public Lands will carefully look at the way department resources are prioritized. Creating a framework for equitable investment will involve identifying the communities most in need of park improvements through tools such as the equity mapping on page 48. It will also entail targeted investments in historically underserved neighborhoods, such as the recently passed City capital improvement plans and bond initiatives that include: •Investing in the Jordan River Parkway to match dollar for dollar investments in east side parks such as Liberty Park. The parkway includes over 158.3 acres of managed natural lands and is directly connected to 11 parks totaling over 440 acres. •Improvements to three west side parks to improve the amenities and add placemaking features and community character. •Creating the Glendale Regional Park, a destination park with event area and other unique recreational opportunities. Community members reimagined their neighborhood park at a “Paint the Pavement” event in Poplar Grove Park. Chapter Five: Welcome 102 WHAT IS A NEIGHBORHOOD PARK? A neighborhood park’s primary function is to serve the surrounding community and respond to the need for basic recreational amenities close to peoples’ homes. Ideally, these parks are geographically centered within a half mile of homes and are connected by pathways and sidewalks that provide safe walking and bicycle access. Neighborhood parks are typically smaller in size, ranging from about two to 15-acres, and have fewer purposes than larger community parks. They are intended to provide both active and passive recreation for residents for short daily leisure periods, and should be accessible for intensive use by children, family groups, small neighborhood gatherings, and senior citizens. Neighborhood parks typically have a mix of large and small amenities, such as open lawns and grass play areas, pavilions, playgrounds, sports courts and/or ﬁelds. On-street parking is typically adequate. As there are not enough resources to encourage extended periods of use- neighborhood parks do not usually have facilities such as lighting and restrooms. WHAT MAKES A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD PARK? The answer to the question, “what makes a great neighborhood park” varies from one park to another. Local community values, in excellent physical condition well-maintained, amenities in good conditions accessible to all potential users all ages & abilities, people know about the facility and what they can do, free/aordable to use provide positive experiences diverse range of amenities and activities, all community members feel welcome and safe, comfortable place to spend time in are relevant to the communities they serve park design and programming reﬂects the culture and interest of the community members, surrounding community actively uses the park, user demographics reﬂect the community-based organizations are involved in park decisions and operations ﬂexible and adaptable to changing circumstances park accommodates a variety of uses, features adapt to evolving circumstances, park enhances environmental sustainability/ resilience WELCOME:REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS URBAN LAND INSTITUTE’S 5 CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGHQUALITY PARKS Integrating input from the youth of the community is one strategy to ensure neighborhood parks serve all ages. Youth engagement can include environmental education programming or ﬁnding locations for nature exploration and play instead of the typical playground. 1 2 3 4 5 park purpose and size, and environmental conditions can lead to dierent sets of criteria for evaluating park quality. The variety of park settings and community needs makes it dicult to establish baseline standards each park should achieve based on quantitative considerations such as number of amenities. Yet a successful neighborhood park is apparent. It is full of activity and diverse people, well-loved by the community and frequently visited. Through research and engagement with parks and communities across the country, the Urban Land Institute, (ULI) has identiﬁed qualities that contribute to great parks which can be broadly applied to dierent park settings.1 The graphic on the right outlines these qualities. 1 uli-ﬁvecharacteristics_high-qualityparks_ﬁn. pdf Nature Playground, Story Mill Community Park - Bozeman, MT Youth Engagement Bailey Drive Gateway - Raleigh, NC Youth Engagment, West Gunnison Park - Gunnison CO Chapter Five: Welcome 104 PARKS BY THE COMMUNITY High-quality neighborhood parks are reﬂective of neighborhood character by being culturally relevant to the communities they serve and providing a diversity of activities that represent the neighborhood. Parks can best achieve neighborhood character when they are planned and implemented with the imagination and eort of the local community. The Reimagine Nature engagement process successfully harnessed the power of neighborhood park investment. Public Lands Sta and students from the University of Utah’s Department of City and Metropolitan Planning invited neighbors of Poplar Grove Park to join Earth Day and Paint the Pavement events in which CASE STUDY: A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO IMPROVING PARKS Livable Memphis, in partnership with The City of Memphis, created a comprehensive guide to help citizens get involved with their neighborhood park. The guide “shares ideas and practical information for park improvement projects, provides tools and resources to be a park advocate and demystiﬁes the process of navigating government agencies.”1 It includes worksheets for conducting park assessments and neighborhood surveys, and provides how-to guidance on the logistics of leading park events, hosting volunteer cleanups and starting a “Friends of the Park” group to name just a few. 1 https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2075/ guidetoimprovingyourpark_2018. pdf?1537377320428 “75% OF SALT LAKE CITY’S PARKS & PUBLIC LANDS ARE NEIGHBORHOOD OR MINI PARKS AND PLAY A KEY ROLE IN ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY IDENTITY AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD LEVEL.”– 2019 public lands Needs Assessment STEPS TO MAKING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD PARK: A COMMUNITY TOOLKIT 1 . As s es s needs o Identify what services, activities or amenities may be missing from the community that the neighbor- hood park could provide. o Consult published research by organizations such as TPL, NRPA and ULI to understand successful elements of a great neighborhood park. Engage neighbors to understand which park criteria is most important and assess if your park is meeting needs or could use improvements. 2 . Creat e co m m u nit y - l ed p ark s t rat eg ies . o Create a process to enable ground-up, community park planning, advocacy and stewardship. ϯ. /dentify opportunities for communityͲled programming and park activation o Are there local businesses, non-proﬁts, cultural groups, religious organizations, clubs or community volunteer groups that could contribute to park educational programs, events, activities or classes? ϰ. reate passive and active recreation opportunities to activate the park and encourage com- m u nit y p res ence. o Do park amenities and recreation opportunities serve a wide variety people and cater to all ages and abilities? o Are there comfortable spaces where neighbors can linger to relax and enjoy nature? o Are there a variety of spaces that facilitate gathering and group activities? ϱ. reate culturally relevant amenities. o What amenities would best serve the culture and trends of the community? ϲ. /dentify elements to create placeͲbased park design. o Are there unique characteristics of the environment, neighborhood or community that should be reﬂected in the park design? o Do natural features create possibilities for unique programming or recreation such as environmental education, water recreation, hiking, or winter sports? 7 . F o s t er co m m u nit y s t ew ards h ip o Are there community partners with an interest in volunteerism and stewardship? o Is there neighborhood interest in forming Friends of the Park groups to steward and advocate for the park? o Are there elements of park maintenance or research that could support educational, vocational train- ing, or internship opportunities? ϴ. /dentify local environmental considerations. o Are there natural features that are important to maintain or restore? o Are there opportunities for the park design to improve local environmental conditions such as noise pollution, air quality, urban heat, etc.? STEPS TO MAKING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD PARK neighbors helped design spaces for park improvements, planted trees and painted a mural. These events resulted in a park reﬂective of community expression and generated input for Reimagine Nature plan eorts from a typically under-represented neighborhood. Formalizing a process for inviting the community to shape their own neighborhood parks has helped parks sta across the country make neighborhood investment a fundamental element of park planning. The toolkit example shown in Figure 23 provides a framework outlining steps both the Public Lands Department and community members can take to engage the community holistically as long-term partners for the planning and stewardship of neighborhood parks. WELCOME:REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS Figure 23: Community Park Planning Framework Toolkit. Chapter Five: Welcome 106 WELCOME:REIMAGINE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS HOW ARE PUBLIC LANDS’ RESOURCES PRIORITIZED? Long-term plans, like Reimagine Nature, and annual plans by City sta work in concert to determine how time and money is spent on Public Lands. Long-term plans inform annual work. Each ring of planning is informed by community and stakeholder input. City Council and Boards contribute to prioritization decisions. WHAT INPUTS INFORMED THE REIMAGINE NATURE PRIORITIZATION TOOLS? Figure 24 communicates how a combination of inputs such as feedback and ﬁndings from the 2019 Needs Assessment, community input from Reimagine Nature engagement focus groups and survey responses, and research on existing needs and desires are all inputs guiding the prioritization of master plan recommendations, such as the 10 transformative projects. CREATING EQUITABLE PRIORITIZATION AND INVESTMENT Providing equitable parks requires evaluating park quality not just at the site scale, but at the system scale as well. System-wide prioritization of park investment begins by establishing baseline criteria and taking stock of existing conditions. Inputs such as the 2019 Needs Assessment, equity and environmental mapping, community feedback, and park amenity and conditions assessments identify gaps in the system and can help establish standards for park quality and identify areas most in need of investment. An example of local equity mapping is found on page 48. In addition to understanding where resources are most needed, it is also important to consider how funding decisions aect equitable investment. Strategies that are beneficial to some communities, such as “Friend’s of the Parks” groups, can put communities who do not have the time or money to spend at a disadvantage. According to the Urban Institute’s report Investing in Equitable Urban Park Systems, “All funding models have equity implications: some are explicitly designed to address equity and meaningfully engage all residents, some risk deepening inequities and fueling displacement, and most depend on how they are used.” The report examines different funding models and their implications for equity. It provides strategies for equitable investment practices such as redistributing funds from “Friends of the Parks” groups into city-wide systems, engaging community advisory committees in funding processes, and coordinating park and City planning efforts to discover cross- departmental alignment in both goals and funding. Figure 24: Plan Inputs and Prioritization Tools Graphic. Existing Conditions & Future Trends Community Input Gap Analysis Needs Assessment - Equity Mapping- Community-Identiﬁed 10 Transformative Projects- Public Lands Master Plan - Strategies and Actions Chapter Five: Welcome 108 Projects Include: •Promote partnerships for arts, music, performance, ﬁtness, urban agriculture, and games in parks. HELP OUR PARKS, LARGE AND SMALL, COME ALIVE WITH ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR ACTIVATE PARKS BYINCREASINGTHE USE OFPARK SPACE USING ART, MUSIC, AND POPUP ACTIVITIES •Provide programming for nature-based education, volunteerism, outdoor recreation, and horticulture. •Reenergize city parks and neighborhoods by adding concession operations that will generate revenues to reinvest. Transformative Project Photo Source: Salt Lake City Arts Council PROMOTE PARTNERSHIPS FOR COMMUNITY PROGRAMS IN PARKS 6. COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU Chapter Five: Welcome 110 SUPPORT ACTIVITY To take advantage of the beautiful spaces and green destinations Salt Lake City already has, this transformative project aims to increase use of public lands through events, programs, recreation and concessions. National parks and recreation organizations call this type of improvement “activating” parks and green spaces or creating vitality in parks through providing programs or physical features that invite activity. SUPPORT EVENTS One of the unexpected outcomes of the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic safety protocols included a dramatic increase in the public visiting outdoor parks and green spaces. Events that typically happened indoors including concerts, conferences, classes and meetings transitioned to the outside. Building upon this rediscovery of outdoor venues, this transformative project welcomes partnerships with community arts, music and performance groups to look for ways to use Salt Lake City outdoor public spaces as places for events. Everyday activities like outdoor yoga, a quinceañera (celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday) or picnicking under the shade of a park tree are also important activities that can be supported through investment in infrastructure (e.g., shade, picnic tables), event policy and sta services and higher levels of maintenance in city parks. ENVIRONMENTAL ED Keeping environmental education in mind, this transformative project welcomes opportunities to expand nature-based and volunteer programs. With training in horticulture, cultivation and nature stewardship, more public participants could volunteer and support the great need to take care of what we have in Salt Lake City parks, urban tree canopy and greenspaces. YEARROUND PROGRAMMING Parks see the most visitation during the warmer months. Oering a diversity of activities as shown in Figure 25 can extend park-use to all four seasons, increasing opportunities for winter outdoor activity and the associated beneﬁts that come with adequate sunlight exposure during the dark winter months. Kids learn about relationships between soil and bugs at an environmental education event. WELCOME:COMING SOON TO A PARK NEAR YOU Chapter Five: Welcome 112 Culture & Entertainment Winter Events (Festival of Trees) Ice Sculptors Holiday Market Fall Harvest Festival Movie Nights Food Trucks Craft Market Yoga in the Park Music/Concerts Pop-up Events Public art shows, installations, competitions Art Walks Fire Pits/Warming Huts Sledding Skating Rink Cross Country Skiing Historic Signage Community & Recreation Biking/Walking Trails Outdoor Dining Paddling Farmer’s Market Outdoor Education Kid’s Play Fountain Community Gardens Climbing Wall Urban Farming Figure 25: Seasonal Activities GraphEXPAND PROGRAMMING TO PROVIDE SMALLSCALE SEASONAL PARK AMENITIES TO ACTIVATE PARKS, INCREASE RECREATION AND ART OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL AGES Examples of park activities. 114 6 GOAL STATEMENT Salt Lake City’s urban population is growing. The Public Lands Department will balance providing safe green spaces for the public while also protecting iconic, irreplaceable natural resources that keep the city wild. Stewardship demands are profound: diminishing environmental health, increasing need for visitor management, increasing maintenance demands, increasing numbers of unhoused using open space as refuge, and increasing costs to provide infrastructure and services to a growing city. In the Public Lands’ domain, the Department will lead the stewardship and care of urban green spaces. The Department will seek out opportunities to partner with advocacy groups and schools to educate on how the public can be stewards of the land and learn its history. PROTECT: A COMMITMENT TO STEWARDSHIPCHAPTER Public Lands Sta creating wetland habitat at Fairmont Pond. Chapter Six: Protect FACTORS IMPACTING STEWARDSHIP Stewardship can be deﬁned as taking care of public lands now and managing resources to protect public lands for future communities of people, plants and wildlife. Taking this a step further, a 2018 literature review of environmental stewardship concepts synthesized a more nuanced deﬁnition focused on local actions: “Local environmental stewardship is actions taken by individuals, groups or networks of actors, with various motivations and levels of capacity, to protect, care for or responsibly use the environment in pursuit of environmental and/or social outcomes in diverse social- ecological contexts.”1 From this research group’s extensive review of existing management and governance practices, they identiﬁed key factors to local environmental stewardship capacity that also 1 Bennett, N.J., Whitty, T.S., Finkbeiner, E. et al. Environmental Stewardship: A Conceptual Review and Analytical Framework. Environmental Management 61, 597–614 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-017- 0993-2 PROTECT:A COMMITMENT TO STEWARDSHIP resonated with ﬁndings from the Reimagine Nature community outreach. Firstly, local community assets including “social capital,” or trust in local government agencies and the ability to feel safe and welcome in public spaces is critical. Stakeholders and members of the Salt Lake City community cited “cultural capital” including a community’s understanding of place, history and practices as important to building motivation for stewardship. Additional factors supported by best practices and community feedback include “ﬁnancial capital” of both the government and individuals that aords stewardship actions plus “human capital” of stewardship actors (community, volunteers, sta, etc.) and their degree of training, skill level and available time. SOCIAL CAPITAL & HOMELESSNESS What social capital (e.g., cues to care, stewardship actions, etc.) make Salt Lake City residents feel safe and welcome in public lands? From engagement feedback, the public expressed a deep appreciation of nature and green space that is woven throughout the city. They expressed that well-maintained, well-lit and well-attended public space provides a sense of safety. There was divided response on the larger societal issue of people experiencing homelessness and those impacts on public spaces including parks, natural areas and trails that fall under the Public Lands Department’s operation and maintenance responsibilities. On one end of the spectrum, some members of the public demanded more enforcement stewardship actions from the department and city agencies at large that ranged from more eyes on the park to removing unhoused individuals altogether. On the other end of the spectrum, community members called for ways to coexist with people experiencing homelessness or support those individuals with more social services in public spaces like lockers to store personal property. No matter what end of the spectrum the public may be on, the impacts to Public Lands is profound with 345 sta hours and $23,084 of maintenance a year devoted to clean-up activities “RECRUIT STEWARDS, RANGERS/ AMBASSADORS, AND VOLUNTEERS FROM MINORITY COMMUNITIES NEAR THE PUBLIC LANDS.” -comments from the 2021 public survey “REACH OUT AND LISTEN. SPECIFIC PLACE-BASED RESPONSES FOR ACTS OF RESTORATION, MAINTENANCE, AND DEVELOPMENT.” “RETHINK AND RESTRUCTURE OUR NATURAL AREAS TO INCLUDE THE CONTRIBUTIONS, LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, AND BETTER SYSTEMS OF CARE OF THE LAND BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.” 118 Chapter Six: Protect related to the unhoused ﬁnding no other options than using parks, natural areas and trails as their homes. Nield and Rose,researchers from the University of Arizona and University of Utah, conducted a recent case study2 on the Jordan River Parkway and the impacts of people experiencing homelessness. Their community interviews found similar responses to those cited above for Reimagine Nature. Their report also analyzed the impact of nationwide short- term, symptomatic responses to homelessness in public lands and found that those measures may appease neighboring businesses and residents temporarily, they typically prolong the issue of the unhoused in public lands and keep management departments in a seemingly never-ending cycle of ultimately ineective solutions. Bottom line, social capital needs to be strengthened through collaborative solutions to stewardship and cues to care. Public Lands is seeking to create more of these collaborative opportunities by expanding the 2 https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation- magazine/2019/january/addressing- homelessness-in-public-parks/ successful Trail Ambassadors program into a system-wide Public Lands Ambassadors program. The “Revive Our River” transformative project highlighted in this chapter provides for targeted, local green space in which to implement collaborative stewardship solutions, building up social capital and improving the environmental health of a riparian habitat that beneﬁts both east and west sides of Salt Lake City while also improving conditions for birds, wildlife and aquatic creatures. CULTURAL CAPITAL As part of this master plan’s community engagement, Public Lands partnered with the University of Utah Planning Department Westside Studio. Students in the studio hosted a focus groups in early 2021 on the theme “Placemaking, Community Building and Equity.” Tying into the 2018 “Environmental Stewardship” research, understanding how a community’s culture and history is expressed in the landscape can help increase motivation for green space stewardship. Westside Studio students heard that the community desires to partner with Public Lands to “understand, honor and promote the knowledge and presence of rich traditions of diverse cultures” reﬂected in the city’s green places, parks, natural areas, trails and golf landscapes. In placemaking workshops, students found “over 80% of participants associated natural elements and family connections with their given memory.” These local ﬁndings support this chapters second emblematic transformative project, “Sustaining Our Stories,” which can help build cultural capital that in turn inspires motivation for local stewardship actions. “Sustaining Our Stories” also seeks to protect the cultural capital found in historic assets such as the buildings and landscapes that keep the stories and cultures of the city’s past alive. FINANCIAL AND HUMAN CAPITAL The old adage “time is money” also relates to organization and individual capacity to implement local environmental stewardship actions. Salt Lake City demographic trends point to more households falling below the aordability threshold for living and working in Salt Lake City. North American cities with similar demographic trends struggle with balancing delivery of equal quality of life amenities (e.g., well-maintained public lands) with a greater percentage of the population needing additional support to access those amenities equitably. Plus, any historic areas of inequity are magniﬁed and struggle even more to catch up with quality and community stewardship of public spaces in auent neighborhoods. From an individual perspective to an agency perspective, the Public Lands Department also faces steep challenges to balance resources and keep up with needs. NRPA’s 2021 Agency Performance Review ﬁnds that parks departments around the country typically provide 8.2 full time equivalent employees (FTEs) per 10,000 residents to maintain and protect resources. Public Lands would need a total of 160.7 FTEs to meet the current number of residents. Currently, Public Lands has approximately 100 FTEs, or 5.1 FTEs per 10,000 residents. As the City continues to grow, the Public Lands service gap could continue to widen. With over 30,000 new residents expected to move to Salt Lake City by 2040, an additional 15.3 sta will be needed to maintain current stang levels per capita. To match national averages, in year 2040, Public Lands will need 184.9 FTEs. PROTECT:A COMMITMENT TO STEWARDSHIP The Department’s current spending in 2020 was $15,670,096, or $79.95 per capita. US peer cities per capita annual operating budget spending averaged $88.30. To keep up with peer cities, SLC Public Lands would need an annual operating budget of $17,306,800, an increase of $2-million. By 2040, Public Lands would need to have a budget of $19,955,800. Additional data collection and research is needed to determine an appropriate method to address a backlog of deferred maintenance costs. An inventory of Public Lands’ investments and their conditions is underway which will inform future deferred maintenance planning efforts. “I WANT YOU TO ACT AS IF THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE, BECAUSE IT IS.” - Environmentalist Greta Thunberg, World Economic Forum, Davos, 24 January 2019 Chapter Six: Protect 120 “CONSIDER THE WATER NEEDS OF CURRENT AND FUTURE VEGETATION; MAKE PLANS THAT REDUCE WATER USE WITH NATIVE AND ADAPTIVE SPECIES WHILE ADDING TREES AND OTHER PLANTS.” “I WOULD HOPE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT COULD BE INCLUDED IN THE PLAN. THINGS LIKE HAVING LOCAL PERFORMERS PUT ON SHOWS AT NEARBY PARKS, OR HAVING VOLUNTEERING BE MORE ACCESSIBLE. PUTTING ON A CONCERT AT A PARK MAKES ME WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND VISIT A PARK MORE. SOMEWHERE LIKE THE PEACE GARDENS WOULD BE IDEAL FOR THAT.” “CREATE AN ACTIVE PROGRAM TO TRAIN, SUPERVISE, ORGANIZE, EQUIP AND DEPLOY VOLUNTEER “STEWARDS” TO HELP WITH CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF PROGRAMS.” -comments from the 2021 public survey “SINCE MORE PEOPLE ARE USING THE OUTDOORS, EDUCATION ON HOW TO TREAT AND TAKE CARE OF IT IS ESSENTIAL.” Local stewardship actions require human and ﬁnancial capital (time and money). Looking forward over the next 10 to 20 years, it is clear that investment in Public Lands and ensuring larger, citywide eorts to keep Salt Lake City aordable will have a profound eect on local stewardship capacity for individuals and institutions. DESIRES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROTECT In the 2020 community survey, the word “protect” most often resonated as a goal with the thousands of participants. In PROTECT:A COMMITMENT TO STEWARDSHIP reﬂecting on the concept and ideas from the 2021 survey, many citizens took the time to add write- in comments encouraging the planning team to prioritize ways to protect and restore nature and wildlife. Enriching the discussion about protecting nature are direct quotes from participants found below and to the right. Chapter Six: Protect 122 LOCAL STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION Youth volunteers are a big component of the Parley’s Rails, Trails and Tunnels Coalition. The organization collects donations to support the trail in addition to providing volunteer opportunities which include helping maintain the trail, planning and trail design, fundraising events. The International Peace Gardens Academy pairs stewardship alongside educational experiences. Volunteers can learn gardening skills, help maintain and cleanup natural areas near the Jordan River and lead educational garden tours. The group also provides opportunities for members of heritage groups to share their culture and traditions through storytelling activities in the garden. Salt Lake City Public Lands is an active steward of the city’s natural and wild spaces. The Natural Lands Division works to restore and create native landscapes, such as the newly created wetlands at Fairmont Park. Public Lands also provides stewardship opportunities such as Puncturevine Pulls, Canoe Cleanup Day on the Jordan River, and a 9-Line Dig Day at the 9-Line Bike Park. Youth help volunteer for the Parley’s Creek Coalition Photo: https://www.parleystrail.org/getinvolved An event at the International Peace Gardens near Jordan Park. Photo: http://www.utah17mai.com/index.html Salt Lake City Public Lands Sta planting native wetland vegetation at Fairmont Park. The following recommended strategies and policies are high- level guidance for Public Lands operations and maintenance that direct how Public Lands will achieve the plan goal of sustain over the next decade. The community identiﬁed two PROTECT:STRATEGIES AND POLICIES OVERVIEW transformational projects to support the overall goal of protect. Working in tandem with the strategies and policies in this table, these projects root the 20- year vision with on-the-ground improvements that will contribute to the protecting the region’s PROTECT: HIGHLEVEL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES St rat eg y P- 1 Ens u re ico nic, irrep l aceab l e as s et s are no t l o s t o r rendered l es s val u ab l e du e t o neglect, destruction or development. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϭ /dentify and direct capital funding for acƋuisitions and infrastructure investment that protects iconic assets. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.Ϯ /mprove eƋuitable distribution of maintenance resources, with a focus on improving the condition and usability of the :ordan Ziver Warkway and testside parks. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϯ stablish and expand a Wark Zanger program to enforce protective ordinances, educate park users, and safeguard public land assets from damage and abuse. St rat eg y P- 2 >everage the poǁer of the community to help steǁard S>͛s Wublic >ands. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϭ mpower friend͛s groupsΎ and community organiǌations to increase stewardship capacity, add value, and maximiǌe their contributions of expertise and resources. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.Ϯ Grow a robust volunteer management apparatus to empower individual residents to contribute their time, effort and knowledge to help support their public lands system. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϯ hse targeted education campaigns to create a culture of stewardship in ^>. landscapes, natural resources, plants and animals. Additional detail for implementation is provided in Chapter 8: Action Strategies. *Public Lands’ partnerships with “friends-of groups” or 501(c)(3) organizations to support or maintain the City’s parks and open space will require that these groups are separate from the City, not managed by City employees, and have a contractual, transparent relationship with the City to support and maintain the City’s parks/open space that includes City processes for any budgeting, receiving of funding and contracting for the management or maintenance of these City assets. Chapter Six: Protect 124 The Jordan River Water Trail.... QU I C K FA C T MILES PROMOTE THE JORDAN RIVER PARKWAY AS AN ALTERNATIVE AND ACTIVE FORM OF TRANSPORTATION The Jordan River Parkway is the longest paved urban trail in the U.S. with over 60MILES following the Jordan River from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake Projects Include: •Establish welcoming park spaces along the river, and further integrate Rose Park and Glendale Golf Courses into the Jordan River Parkway, to foster community gathering and bring the river into focus as one of SLC’s most desirable recreation destinations. INVEST IN PROJECTS AND MAINTENANCE ALONG THE JORDAN RIVER PARKWAY THAT WILL PROMOTE EQUITY, ACCESS, SCENIC BEAUTY, DIVERSE RECREATION, AND HEALTHY ECOLOGY ALONG THE PARKWAY INTERNATIONAL PEACE GARDENSGARDENS ROSE PARK GOLF COURSE GOLF COURSE GLENDALE GOLF COURSE & GLENDALE REGIONAL PARK GOLF COURSE & GLENDALE REGIONAL PARK Figure 26: Investing in the Jordan River Parkway. 7. REVIVE OUR RIVER •Establish a self-serve kayak rental program on the Jordan River, complete with multilingual signage and river- access improvements to make water recreation accessible to more people. •Restore and enhance natural areas along the river for improved biodiversity, habitat and a healthy environment. •Redevelop Glendale Regional Park and make improvements to Jordan Park and International Peace Gardens to create regional attractions and event space with characteristics that celebrate and preserve community culture and diversity. Transformative Project Chapter Six: Protect 126 PROTECT:REVIVE OUR RIVER Salt Lake City’s iconic Jordan River took its name from the historic river in the Middle East, a sacred landscape and threshold to the “Promised Land” in Judaism and Christian traditions. For other cultures, fertile river valleys have also played a critical role in civilization, agriculture and are also seen as sacred landscapes. Native American groups recognize the life- giving qualities of rivers: “If there’s water nearby, I’ll go there for solace…. Both the river and I have changed, but our course remains the same” (from “River Sonnet” poem by Tacey M. Atsitty, Diné). For many North American cities, the form of development and attitude towards city rivers range from embracing portions of the river for recreation and commerce, to using the river for stormwater and waste management and to “turning our backs” on city rivers as areas full of insects, pests and ﬂooding. In Salt Lake City, the community has voiced a strong desire to protect the Jordan River as a natural asset by expanding and improving ecosystem health and recreational experiences along the 60-mile Jordan River Parkway Trail. For improved recreation, the public shared that additional maintenance and safety amenities like trail lighting would make the Jordan River Parkway experience more welcoming. Additionally, the Jordan River lands are adjacent to many underserved communities and investment in high quality maintenance and recreation infrastructure can help bring more equitable service to Westside neighborhoods. A key opportunity for ecosystem health is that the scale of available land along the Jordan River Parkway provides an opportunity to greatly increase tree canopy in an environment that can support long-term growth of healthy, mature shade trees. These lands oer a consolidated opportunity to protect and enhance the tree canopy as the urban forest declines through impacts of climate change, insucient stewardship (e.g., irrigation of young trees) by adjacent landowners, and the illegal removal of trees during construction as the city population grows and redevelops. Urban infrastructure has shaped the Jordan River throughout SLC’s history. “Revive Our River” invites the community to reimagine the river as the ecological heart of the city. Chapter Six: Protect 128 TRAILHEAD LIGHTING & RANGER AMBASSADORS CONNECT TO TRANSIT, BICYCLE ROUTES & IMPROVE PARKING IMPROVE BIRD HABITAT PROVIDE ADA ACCESS ENHANCE TRAILS & ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION INCREASE TREE CANOPY IMPROVE WATER QUALITY CREATE A PADDLE TRAIL NATIVE REVEGETATION & INVASIVE PLANT REMOVALEXPAND PARKS & AMENITIES ACTIVATE SPACE Invest in tree canopy, grounds maintenance, a recreational paddle trail, and park development, renewal and expansion from Glendale Regional Park to the Regional Athletic Complex. IMPROVE THE ENVIRONMENT & WATER QUALITY Focus ﬁrst on reducing abundance and occurrences of high-priority invasive non-native species present, then reduce the frequency and cover of low-priority non-native species, whenever IMPROVE SAFETY & PERCEPTIONS Implement a robust, citywide Ranger-Ambassador program in the City’s parks, natural areas and open spaces that focuses equally on resource protection and enriching the experience for all Public Lands visitors. ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION & CONNECTION Connect our parks and natural spaces to the city’s human powered transportation network. Figure 27: Revive Our River Concept Illustration. possible. Focus restoration on riparian areas and creation of wetlands as they are one of the most degraded ecological systems.. BIG MOVES & STRATEGIES Chapter Six: Protect 130 CASE STUDY: The city of Seoul uncovered and restored a 3.6-mile portion of the Cheonggyecheon Stream in the center of the city, creating a connected green way for walkers, cyclists and wildlife. The Landscape Architecture Foundation features this project in their Landscape Performance Series1 and documented that the ﬁnal protects the city from the impacts of 200-year ﬂood events, increased overall biodiversity by 639%, reduced the urban heat island eect on stream temperatures by 2-degrees Celsius and reduced air pollution by 35%. Beyond these successes, the project team also had costly lessons learned by not fully including access considerations for those with visual and physical disabilities in the initial design. 1 https://www.landscapeperformance.org/case-study-briefs/ cheonggyecheon-stream-restoration •Consider using low-ﬂow retaining walls rather than stone or concrete; •Install spur dikes to increase water depth and slow ﬂow; •Utilize variation in river bottom proﬁle to support invertebrates; and •Create plant-based ﬁlter strips for cleaning the stream from hardscape and street pollutant runo. Those were added later after protests and were more costly. A technical follow-up study also cited the following suggestions to better support plants, ﬁsh and invertebrates: BEFORE & AFTER EXAMPLES: Photos credits 1) Cheonggyecheon Stream, https://www.landscapeperformance.org/case-study-briefs/cheonggyecheon-stream-restoration; 2) https://www. pressdigital; 3) https://www.itdp.org/2021/04/02/leapfrogging-past-the-urban-highway/ Chapter Six: Protect 132 REVEAL PAST AND PRESENT STORIES FROM OUR DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCES THAT HAVE SHAPED THIS VALLEY, GIVING FOCUS TO UNDERREPRESENTED AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE. EXPRESS THESE STORIES THROUGH LANDSCAPES, STRUCTURES, PLACEMAKING, AND ART ENGAGE PARTNERS IN SHARINGCOMMUNITY STORIES PROTECT ICONIC LANDSCAPES THAT SHARE OUR HISTORY AND CULTURE Transformative Project Projects Include: •Initiate a storytelling project with partners to collect, share, and display stories relevant to public lands. •Engage our communities in identifying more meaningful names for our local parks. •Invest in restoring and interpreting iconic structures and landscapes such as Allen Park, Fisher Mansion, and Warm Springs Park. 8. SUSTAINING OUR STORIES Photo Credits: Above) Listening Room, https://jp.ideo.com; Below) Allen Park, David Hampshire Chapter Six: Protect 134 PROTECT:SUSTAINING OUR STORIES Landscape architects Matthew Potteiger and Jamie Purinton write in “Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories” that storytelling is “fundamental to the way people shape and make sense of experience and landscapes.” The trees, material of paths, recognizable businesses around a park’s perimeter and other physical qualities of parks and natural areas are the setting where the city’s collective and individual stories “take place.” As Salt Lake City grows and welcomes more people, important historic stories and origin stories of parks and public lands are at risk of being lost in the passage of time and dynamic changing of place. As cities reconcile the recent history of colonization by Westerners, Native American stories and ways of creating shared places become important. For youth these stories can add an additional path to understand and appreciate green space and civic commons. The humanistic practices of art, literature, community advocacy, history, drama, music, street arts, architecture and landscape architecture all have methods and means to design and tell stories of the land and cultures both past and present. This transformative project aims to create landscape “canvasses,” both by preserving historic, cultural assets and their stories and by creating opportunities for storytelling with partner groups and the community. In documenting and “Sustaining Our Stories,” Public Lands preserves and protects the cultural threads that create a sense of place in Salt Lake City’s nature. Restoring and interpreting structures within Public Lands, such as Allen Park, Fisher Mansion, and Warm Springs Park are sizable investments of this Transformative Project. The many cultures and stories that shaped Salt Lake City are embedded in historic architecture and landscapes such as the springs and historic bathhouse at Warm Springs Park. “[AN IMPORTANT] ELEMENT OF GREAT PUBLIC SPACES IS THEIR ABILITY TO HIGHLIGHT AN AREA’S CULTURAL IDENTITY- WHETHER THROUGH LOCAL PRACTICES, LOCATION, HISTORY, DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE, OR ART. THIS IS A CRUCIAL FACTOR FOR CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE THAT CAN WITHSTAND THE TEST OF TIME.” -PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES, MARCH 2016 Chapter Six: Protect 136 CASE STUDY RENAMING ADVOCACY Over the last decade, the National Parks Conservation Association had advocated changing the names of several of landscape features in National Parks to reﬂect indigenous names (e.g., proposal to change Hayden Valley PLACE NAMES Places are shaped by the names they are given, stories that are told and histories that are taught. Over time, unshared stories become at risk of being lost, forgotten without a place in the historical narrative. The Native Lands Map to the right, highlights indigenous tribal landscapes around and in the Salt Lake Valley that were home to the Ute, Goshute and Shoshone for thousands of years. It demonstrates place before European settlers structured and claimed the land with borders, names and property. It strives “to map Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see the history of their countries and “IF HISTORY CAN BE READ IN THE NAMES ON THE LAND, THEN IT IS VERY PARTIAL AND VERY FRAGMENTED,” -Lauret Savoy, author of “Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape” Blackfeet leaders Bird Rattler (far left), Curly Bear (second from left) and Wolf Plume (third from left) meet with Stephen Mather, soon-to-be Park Service director (sitting) and other ocials to respectfully protest the use of English-language names in Glacier National Park in 1915.1 Photo Source: https://www.npca.org/articles/2189-naming-matters-photo credit copyright Marian Albright Schenck/The Collections of Horace Albright 1 https://www.npca.org/articles/2189-naming-matters Public Lands can help communities share their stories by serving as a venue, such as the Temporary Museum of Permanent Change, a collection of rotating artistic exhibits Downtown that highlight the stories of the people of SLC. peoples.”1 Similarly, Public Lands can provide an opportunity to keep indigenous histories alive by recognizing and sharing important place names and stories. 1 https://native-land.ca/ in Yellowstone to Bualo Nations Valley). Similar eorts are met with support and detractors. There are sentimental attachments to place names or others may not resonate with current trends towards what some people call a “cancel” culture. This case study reﬂects the potential opportunities and challenges Salt Lake City Public Lands could face in the process of “Sustaining Our Stories.” A good way to provide space for the community to brainstorm, respectfully disagree and come to consensus would be to leverage the Reimagine Nature engagement tactics and partnerships with community groups like the University of Utah sta and students. Figure 28: Native Lands Map. Source: https://native-land.ca/ Chapter Six: Protect 138 some such creeks never entirely disappear. A ghost, if you will, holds the creek’s place, moving slowly in darkness below the dry, sun-baked surface. In the mind of a local resident ﬁnely attuned to such things, you’ve come upon the invisible but real when you stand above a blind creek. Dig, and the water will come to light, like the blind ﬂoor revealed when the carpenter’s ﬂoor is taken up.” -Barry Lopez CASE STUDYTHE “ACTIVATION” AT BUCHANAN MALL CASE STUDYLANGUAGE OF LANDSCAPE Over the last decades, several writers have compiled compendiums of lost landscape words that help describe the ecological phenomena of nature. “Sustaining Our Stories” is also about getting out in nature and expanding our language of landscape. Three books speak eloquently on this topic. Features in parks, such as this chalk wall, can provide opportunities for people of all ages to tell their stories. Photo: Midtown Park, Design Workshop Community Storytelling at Buchanan Mall, San Francisco. Photo Source: https://www.exploratorium.edu/publicspaces/projects/buchanan-mall. In September 2018, the City of San Francisco began their partnership to re-envision and renovate Buchanan Mall. The City and other partnerships engaged in a intensive engagement with the community to develop and discuss the plan. Once the concept plan was complete, the City selected one block to fully design and build to show the community the possibilities of their shared spaces. One attraction in the developed block was the installation of the “Activation”. The Activation is a temporary installation of gardens, benches, archways, historical photos, lighting, and two “audio- As Robert McFarland writes in his 2015 book Landmarks, which collated thousands of words describing the landscapes of Britain and Ireland, “this is a book about the power of language— strong style, single words—to shape our sense of place.” In addition to the cultural histories of people who have lived in the Valley’s landscapes, there are words all of us are unfamiliar with or as McFarland writes, “we have forgotten 10,000 words for our landscapes.” The 2006 book Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape compiles over 800 fading landscape words from 45 poets and writers. In this book edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, words such as “blind creek” are deﬁned: “To most eyes a dry creek is a place where a creek once ﬂowed and after a rain will likely ﬂow again. Such a waterway is an ephemeral creek, technically. But by another way of seeing, domes” providing stories from the neighborhood. The community worked together to design prototypes of the Activation dome and were hired to help build the installment. This created a sense of ownership over their space and fostered conversations among community members. Chapter Seven: Grow 140 7 GOAL STATEMENT As the Salt Lake City population increases, our public lands receive more visitation and work harder to reduce negative impacts of more “footprints” on our landscapes and public amenities with increased maintenance and renewal. Providing the amount of public properties in relation to population growth needs is increasingly challenging in a city reaching maximum expansion build-out with limited opportunities to aquire large natural areas or small parks in areas of dense development with high land prices. City departments and partners work together to provide green space and recreation opportunities in our rapidly re-developing downtown. We innovate and make smart use of the public properties we have, being strategic with our resources and creating funding sources to expand our urban forest, trails, park system, and natural areas. GROW: EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM SLC golf courses provide an opportunity to greatly increase the urban forest and provide it with care. CHAPTER Chapter Seven: Grow 142 EXPANDING THE PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM 2020 Census data shows that Utah is the fastest-growing state in the nation.1 Over 30,000 people are expected to move to Salt Lake City by 2040. In order to maintain the current level of park space provided to the population, as of the 2019 Needs Assessment, the city would have to add 94 additional acres of park space to Public Lands. That’s roughly equivalent to adding another Liberty Park to the city. This acreage is a shifting metric as parks, such as the new Allen Park, have been added to the system yet the population of the city has grown faster than predicted in 2019. Like other North American cities with expanding population, challenges to growing or acquiring more green space include rising land prices, limited resources for taking care of current lands and competing land use needs. In terms of walking distance to green spaces, Plan Salt Lake sets a 2040 aspirational target of every 1 https://gardner.utah.edu/census-2020-utah- fastest-growing-state-in-u-s/ GROW:EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM resident living within a half-mile of public lands. While most residents meet this criteria, the denser urban communities of Downtown, Sugar House and the Central Planning Area still have gaps in walkable access to parks.2 In addition to public parks for recreation, expansion of Natural Lands and trail corridors for land and water conservation, wildlife habitat, and other ecological or scenic character purposes is also of high importance. The 2010 Salt Lake Open Space Acquisition Strategy identiﬁed many key opportunities and since then area plans have highlighted urban to wilderness opportunities for expanding Public Lands holdings. RISING LAND PRICES AND GROWING POPULATION The Deseret News3 recently reported that 2020 saw double- digit percentage home price increases and classiﬁes the 2 Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Needs Assessment, (2019) 3 https://www.deseret.com/2021/5/13/22412416/utahs-place-in-the-west-raging-housing- market-salt-lake-city-rising-housing-prices- record-breaking Salt Lake metro as one of the hottest housing markets in the West. Salt Lake City’s Downtown Alliance4 found that real estate and construction costs are at an all- time high and there are insucient green spaces downtown. Most cities oer three times more green space to downtown residents than Salt Lake City. The 2019 Needs Assessment5 also found that the downtown core is especially lacking in green space compared to the rest of the city and identiﬁed the Depot District, Central Business District, East Downtown and 400 South as population growth areas of the city that will require additional open space to meet the needs of future residents. RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND ACQUIRE Acquiring additional land for parks, natural lands, and trails is costly and maintaining new spaces will add resource burden to the existing deferred maintenance of existing public lands. 4 https://www.downtownslc.org/images/pdfs- doc/2020_State_of_Downtown_v10.pdf 5 Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Needs Assessment, (2019). - plan Salt lake, 2014 “OPEN SPACE AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ARE DEFINING FEATURES OF SALT LAKE CITY. OUR BEAUTIFUL CITY PARKS AND OPEN SPACES, PAIRED WITH THE DRAMATIC VIEWS OF AND PROXIMITY TO THE WASATCH AND OQUIRRH MOUNTAINS, MAKE SALT LAKE CITY A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO LIVE AND VISIT. THESE AESTHETIC AND RECREATIONAL QUALITIES ATTRACT NEW RESIDENTS, VISITORS, EMPLOYERS, AND INVESTMENTS TO OUR CITY.” Chapter Seven: Grow 144 Some municipalities utilize developer contributions as one mechanism, that when property tuned, contributes to parks provision for new residents. The 2010 Open Space Acquisition Strategy lists a number of conservation tools including: bargain sale of land, parkland/ trail dedications, zoning for conservation, trail easements, conservation easements, purchase of development rights, transfer of development rights, conservation subdivisions, deed restrictions, wildlife property tax valuation, partnerships for funding leverage and stewardship. Criteria for new open space includes evaluating beneﬁts of scenic assets, ecological health and the neighboring community, and connection to other public lands. Other mechanisms, such as Community Reinvestment Bonds for capital improvements, will act as another resource for improving public lands, with funding allotted to major projects which include: creating a regional park at Glendale, restoring historic buildings and landscapes in parks such as Allen Park and Warm Springs Park, continuing implementation of the Foothills Trails System Plan, creating a wood re-utilization plan for the Urban Forestry division and improving the Jordan River. COMPETING LAND USE GOALS Aordable housing and supporting commercial businesses and utilities are high needs for a growing city. Also important is public lands infrastructure. University of Chicago psychologist Marc Berman states, “natural spaces are not an amenity, they’re a necessity—we have to have it. Just like clean water or clean air, we have to have natural spaces in our environment for people to function well.” Given Downtown and the Central Planning Area’s lack of adequate greenspace, in addition to a growing population, protecting and enhancing SLC’s existing parks and open space and eorts to increase the provision of greenspace are of top importance. While other land uses such as aordable housing provide a worthy cause for urban 6 https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/ green-spaces-are-a-necessity-not-an- amenity-how-can-cities-make-them development and inﬁll, public greenspace is an irreplaceable asset within the city. Not only is it crucial to protect the few remaining slices of greenspace in the city for wildlife and ecosystem beneﬁt, it is economically a valuable asset for the City to retain. Based on the average land value of SLC planning areas that contain homes today, if the 3,699 acres of existing parks and golf courses were overcome by development, replacing those acres – and the essential associated environmental and health beneﬁts - would cost approximately 1.4 billion dollars.7 However, in some situations nonperforming lands could be swapped for those that better serve Public Lands mission. 7 Calculated with GIS data from the Salt Lake County Assessor’s Parcels and Salt Lake City planning areas. DESIRES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROW In reﬂecting on one word that sums up the public’s vision for the next 10 years of public lands, “grow” came in as the second most popular. Digging into the hundreds of comments made from the public, many people reﬂected on the need to invest in green spaces on the Westside of the city and from a citywide perspective to add spaces where plants and wildlife needs come ﬁrst. Ideas on how to grow public lands from the public include: “More natural wildlife areas without paved trails. A NY Central Park size park on the West side of the valley.” “Require that all new apartment building complexes have green spaces as part of their design.” “[Experiment with] a planting of some native species, you know, the little copses of oaks and maples and box elders that exist in that Golf Course are really needed and actually harbor quite a bit of wildlife.” “94 ACRES OF NEW PARK LAND WILL BE REQUIRED BY 2040 TO MEET FUTURE NEEDS AT THE SAME LEVELS OF SERVICE AS TODAY.” - 2019 SLC Public Lands Needs assessment “MOST CITIES OFFER THREE TIMES MORE GREEN SPACE TO DOWNTOWN RESIDENTS THAN SALT LAKE CITY.” Chapter Seven: Grow 146 General standards for dierent park types (classiﬁcations), shown in Figure 29, helps to provide parameters for creating equitable park investments and expectations. For example, Neighborhood Parks are unlikely to include restrooms as this expense is better reserved for Regional, Community, and Special Use Parks that may require greater PARK CLASSIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS travel and duration of visitation. However, these classiﬁcations do not dictate aesthetics and allow for selection of a variety of features- such as types of sports courts, community garden, or play features. Upgrading parks to include amenities listed for their categories, such as Glendale to be a regional park, is one way that park capacity to support a growing population can be met. As the city nears build- out and it becomes even more challenged to acquire additional park acreage it will be important grow within existing parks to do more to meet needs. PARKLAND CLASSIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS Size and Service Area Wurpose and &unction haracteristics and menities ǆpectations >ocation ǆamples Ύnot a complete list Zegional Wark 25+ Acres. 1.5 mile local service & city and regional service Provides facilities and recreational amenities intended to serve city residents as well as the surrounding region. These parks should provide a large variety of recreational opportunities to be both a regional destination and surrounding community attractor. These parks are likely to support a combination of passive and active interests such as water play, playgrounds, shelters, trails, and athletic facilities. Park amenities, events and landscape make them regional attractions. Special site features such as streams, lakes or historic sites may add to the park’s character. Amenity expectations may include restrooms, parking, lighting, concessions, facilities for rental/reservation, and expression of history, art and culture. Liberty Park Future Upgrade: Glendale Park, Jordan Park/ Peace Gardens, Riverside Park, Rosewood Park, Sunnyside Park. Special hse Wark Size Varies 1.5 mile local service & city and regional service Parks that mainly serve one speciﬁc purpose or community need. Examples include the three downtown special events parks that provide a plaza experience for passive recreation and host festivals and events. Examples include bike parks, horticultural centers/ working farms/community gardens, arboretum/botanical garden, sports complexes or parks dedicated to similar sports tournaments and groupings, environmental education centers, performance areas, urban plazas, festival walkways, civic parks, or other specialized activity or recreation interests. Characteristics and amenities vary based on special use purposes. For example, special events parks may include vendor space, venues for entertainment such as permanent or temporary stages and seating, and access to electrical hook-ups. Regional Athletic Complex, Library Square, Washington Square, 9-Line Bike Park, Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center, Artesian Well Park, Model Port, Allen Park. Size and Service Area Wurpose and &unction haracteristics and menities ǆpectations >ocation ǆamples Ύnot a complete list ommunity Wark 10-25 acres 1-mile service area to account for people walking, biking, or driving to parks Focused on meeting the major parks and recreation needs of the city. Serves as a focal point for community-wide activities and group gatherings. Provides facilities that serve a broad purpose, balancing active and passive recreation needs. Allow for group activities not feasible nor desirable at the neighborhood level due to noise, lights, trac, etc. Often adjoining other community-oriented facilities (libraries, community centers, schools, etc). Portions of the site should have gentle topography to accommodate active sports ﬁelds and open turf areas. Unique landscapes should be preserved, celebrating features such as streams, lakes or historic sites to express park character. Community Parks have facilities such as lighting and restrooms. May include special amenity or recreation facilities, such as athletic complexes or sports ﬁelds, large swimming pools, or play areas, although not the only purpose of the park. Likely to include playground equipment or large play structures, informal and formal play ﬁelds, paved areas for court games, pathways, picnic shelters, and community buildings. Portions of land may include areas of natural quality for outdoor recreation, such as walking, viewing, picnicking. May include natural features such as water bodies or features and gardens. 11th Ave. Park, 1700 South River Park, Cottonwood Park, Fairmont Park, Herman Franks Park, Memory Grove Park, Pioneer Park, Washington Park, Warm Springs Park. Eeighborhood Wark 2-15 acres Neighborhood, ½ mile walking distance. Generally serves neighborhood needs with fewer purposes and smaller size than Community Parks. Intended to provide both active and passive recreation for residents for short daily leisure periods. Should be accessible for intensive use by children, family groups, small neighborhood gatherings, and senior citizens. Accessible to neighborhood population and geographically centered with safe walking and bicycle access. May be developed as a park-school facility. Mix large and small amenities, such as open lawns and grass play areas, pavilions, playgrounds, sports courts and ﬁelds. On- street parking is typically adequate. Ideally, these parks are linked by pathways and sidewalks and respond to the need for basic recreational amenities close to peoples’ homes. Do not have facilities such as lighting and restrooms. Poplar Grove Park, Sherwood Park, Popperton Park, Ensign Downs Park, Jeerson Park, Meadows Park, Wasatch Hollow Park, 900 South River Park, and more*. Upgrade: Taufer Park Dini Wark 2 acres or less Neighborhood, 1/4 mile walking distance. Specialized facilities that serve a limited area, concentrated or limited population or speciﬁc group such as children or seniors. Could be provided by public or private sector. May have elements such as small playgrounds, seating or picnic areas and shade. Do not have facilities such as lighting and restrooms. In dense, urban areas, may be highly designed to serve more people in a small space. 600 East Park, Almond Park, Guadalupe Park, Victory Park, Silver Park, Ron Heaps Park, and more*. Figure 29: Public Lands Parkland Classiﬁcations and Standards. Chapter Seven: Grow 148 Neighborhood Park: Wasatch Hollow Mini Park: Imperial Park Trailhead: Ensign Peak Parkways: Jordan River Parkway Golf Course: Bonneville Special Event Park: Library Square Natural Lands: Fife Wetland Regional Park: Liberty Park Community Park: Fairmont Park EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF PUBLIC LANDS SPACES IN SLCPARKLAND CLASSIFICATIONS AND STANDARDS, CONTINUED Size and Service Area Wurpose and &unction haracteristics and menities ǆpectations >ocation ǆamples Ύnot a complete list Eatural >ands, EonͲhrban Varies City or broader region These areas are generally maintained in their natural state with ecological systems management and help preserve signiﬁcant views, provide wildlife sanctuaries, and conserve natural resources. These areas may also support scientiﬁc research and trail equestrian and bicycle use. Depending on site conditions, public access can be limited. Emphasis is on achieving a balance between re-source protection and public use. Natural land areas with environmentally sensitive habitat and features, and riverfront areas and ﬂoodplains and creek corridors. Often provide connections with other public lands. Site features such as streams, scenic views, rock outcrops, or historic sites may add to the natural area’s character. May include above or below grade utility infrastructure so long as land remains predominantly natural in character. Foothills Natural Area, Parleys Historic Nature Park, Lower Jordan River Wetlands, and more*. Eatural >ands, hrban Varies City or broader region Urban natural lands are natural spaces which are typically surrounded by urban development or adjacent to manicured parks and often serve a park-like function. Similar to Non-urban Natural Lands but require a higher level of maintenance, facilities and/or infrastructure to manage human activities and adjacency to the built environment. May support opportunities for passive recreation through recreational trails, interpretive facilities, historic and cultural exhibits, nature observation, photography, orienteering, kayaking, canoeing, ﬂoating, and ﬁshing. Miller Park, Wasatch Hollow, Hidden Hollow, Fife Wetland Preserve. 'reenǁays N/A Neighborhood, city or broader region Linear parks, greenways and paved and unpaved surface within a designated open space corridor allowing for pedestrian and bicycle commuting and recreation use. Trails are measured by linear distance, not land area. Linear green spaces, parkways, trail corridors, stormwater infrastructure, and green interventions along public thoroughfares which add aesthetic value and may encourage pedestrian and bicycle use. May include associated natural or manicured landscape with paved and unpaved trails. May include ornamental plazas, special features like gardens, bike parks and trailheads, stormwater infrastructure and urban forest enhancements. 9-Line, Folsom, Green Loop, Jordan River Parkway, planted medians. 'olf ourses 100 – 250 acres for 9 to 18-hole course. City or broader region Large expanses of turf grass, trees, and small water features that are maintained for the game of golf. May include trails or trail ac-cess within non-playable portions of the property so long as golf activity remains unencumbered by trail access. Rolling terrain without overly steep sections. Appropriate soils, drainage, and water availability to support turf grass. Small water features and other natural elements add to the complexity and diculty of the game while also providing habitat for urban wildlife and potential for stormwater retention. Nibley, Forest Dale, Bonneville, Rose Park, Glendale, Mountain Dell. Chapter Seven: Grow 150 Figure 30: Future Investments By Planning Area Map. INCREASING LEVEL OF SERVICEAND FUTURE INVESTMENTS The National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) ﬁnds that city parks departments on average oer one park for every 2,777 residents and 9.9 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. While this is a national benchmark average, NRPA acknowledges that park agencies are as diverse as the landscapes and people they serve. There is no one, standard way of measuring level of service that works for every city. The people, sta and stakeholders of a city must provide input on the values and needs of their own communities for access to the urban outdoors and environmental services provided by parks, urban forests and green spaces. Level of service is often measured by acres of parks and open space per person. Yet many measures such as park investment and availability of park amenities contribute to the level of park service each neighborhood receives. Due to limited available space, areas of the city with higher densities will need to ﬁnd creative solutions to increase park level of service to meet the demands of a growing population. At the same time other planning areas contain substantial acreage of parks and natural lands which are in need improved maintenance and the addition of amenities to equally serve the community. Figure 30, the map to the right shows near-term Public Lands’ investments that seek to improve the level of service of parks and amenities across the city. Signiﬁcant near-term investments are broken down by planning area on the following pages, highlighting major improvements and transformative projects that will serve each community. AVENUES EAST BENCH SUGAR HOUSE NORTHWEST CENTRAL COMMUNITY DOWNTOWN WEST SALT LAKE CAPITOL HILL GROW:EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM FUTURE PUBLIC LANDS INVESTMENTS GOLF COURSES EXISTING TRAILS PROPOSED TRAILS PARKS AND NATURAL LANDS CEMETERY HIGH EQUITY PRIORITY HIGH EQUITY PRIORITY MEDIUM EQUITY PRIORITY MEDIUM EQUITY PRIORITY LOW EQUITY PRIORITY LOW EQUITY PRIORITY NEAR-TERM CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS EXISTING ELEMENTS LEGEND Chapter Seven: Grow 152 NORTHWEST WEST SALT LAKE Near Term Investments: »Invest in the Jordan River and the Jordan River Parkway Trail »Identify opportunities for separated bike lane/ multiuse paths to close gaps »Add uses to Rose Park Golf Course to make it more accessible to the community. »Invest in 2200 West – Urban Farm »Create a future Public Lands Native Plant Nursery »Improve west side park amenities, placemaking and programming. NORTHWEST AND WEST SALT LAKE The westside has a higher level of service in terms of park and natural land acreage than the citywide average, and is connected by the Jordan River. Increasing park service in these communities will involve investing in existing public spaces to enhance environmental quality and increase park amenities. There is a very high need for investments in these two planning areas to achieve citywide equity goals. Population is growing in this area and residents are concerned about rising housing costs, gentriﬁcation and seeing their cultural identity disappearing from these places. NRPA and other GROW:EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM park researchers are working to expand a list of recommendations for parks-related anti-displacement strategies that should be employed for this area.1 Providing existing parks with amenities that serve the needs of the community will be important to incorporate into future investments. There is also a high percentage of children, youth and seniors compared to the rest of the city’s population and park investments should make extra consideration for these groups. 1 https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation- magazine/2019/december/greening-without- gentriﬁcation/ Near Term Investments: »Invest in the Jordan River and the Jordan River Parkway Trail »Invest in Fisher Mansion »Invest in Glendale Regional Park »Identify opportunities for separated bike lane/ multiuse paths to close gaps »Implement the Surplus Canal Trail »Add uses to Glendale Golf Course to make it more accessible to the community. »Improve westside park amenities, placemaking and programming Glendale Golf Course Glendale Regional Park 1700 S Park 9 Line Trail 900 S River Park Fischer Mansion Jordan Park Jordan River Parkway Trail Jordan River Parkway Trail Rosewood Park Riverside Park Constitution Park CottonwoodPark WestpointePark Poplar Grove Park Regional Athletic Complex Sherwood Park Proposed Surplus Canal Trail 1700 S 2100 S 70 0 W I-15 I-15 RE D W O O D R D . RE D W O O D R D . NORTH TEMPLE Rose Park Golf Course Future SLCPL Native Plant Nursery Chapter Seven: Grow 154 CAPITOL HILL DOWNTOWN CENTRAL CITY GROW:EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM CAPITOL HILL, DOWNTOWN AND CENTRAL CITY These areas of the city are experiencing an extremely high degree of change. They have the least amount of park space and are the fastest-growing, adding both population and density at a rapid rate. Downtown in particular has a very high percentage of surface parking lots that are quickly converting to high density housing, oce, and retail. Buying and developing land for park space in the city’s center is Near Term Investments: »New Park in Granary District (Fleet Bock!) at least 25% of the block or 3 acres on the corner »Green Loop to create new green space downtown, 8 acres along the green loop segment on 200 E »Invest in Pioneer Park to make it a ﬂagship downtown park »Identify opportunities for separated bike lane/ multiuse paths »Encourage developers to create park space as part of their development for their residents, at a minimum »Invest in the Civic Campus (Washington Square) and Library Square to bring more uses and programming to the site »Look for community garden and pocket park opportunities Near Term Investments: »Invest in the Civic Campus (Washington Square) and Library Square to bring more uses and programming to the site. »Identify opportunities for separated bike lane/ multiuse paths »Encourage developers to create park space as part of their development for their residents, at a minimum. »Look for community garden and pocket park opportunities Near Term Investments: »Invest in Warm Springs Park and the historic bath house property »Create on and o-street multi-use trail connections to the Foothills Natural Area, Ensign Peak Open Space and the City Creek Natural Area »Identify opportunities for separated bike lane/ multiuse paths »Encourage developers to create park space as part of their development for their residents, at a minimum »Look for community garden and pocket park opportunities expensive but is critically needed. A multi-varied and aggressive approach which includes public and private strategies as well as public-private partnerships is needed to address the need for more green space in the heart of the City. The City should identify ways to reinvent city streets, taking advantage of the wide right-of- ways to create linear green space. Other ways to provide green space could involve allocating space for parks on City-owned blocks. Additionally, the City could encourage developers to include outdoor green space assets for their residents to provide respite from the urban environment. Strategies could also include expanding sidewalks and park strips to create space for more outdoor dining and pedestrian activity. Expanding the park strips provides permeable surfaces for stormwater collection and adequate growing space for trees, cooling the hot, paved urban environment. Identifying space for community gardens, which are in high demand in these neighborhoods would also provide needed urban green space. Warm Springs Park Memory Grove Park Swede Town Park Guadalupe Park Ensign DownsPark 600 N B E C K S T . Ensign Peak Open Space I-15 20 0 E 20 0 W MA I N S T . 400 S 800 S Green LoopPioneer Park Washington Square Green Loop Fleet Block Liberty ParkJeerson Park Library Square Herman Franks Park Cotten Park Faultline GardensPark 600 E Park Proposed 9 Line I-15 30 0 E 400 S 1700 S 1300 S 70 0 E 13 0 0 E WE S T T E M P L E I-15 Chapter Seven: Grow 156 EAST BENCH Sh'Z,KhSsEhS GROW:EXPAND OUR PUBLIC LANDS SYSTEM AVENUES, EAST BENCH AND SUGARHOUSE These areas are relatively stable and are experiencing less change and growth compared to other parts of the city. The neighborhoods are built out and the street development pattern is of a more suburban character, consisting predominantly of single Near Term Investments: »Continue to invest in trails and linear recreation to reduce gaps as well as create connections between neighborhoods and the rich trail network in the Foothills Natural Area »Create on and o-street trail connections to link the neighborhoods with urban natural araes such as Wasatch Hollow and Miller Bird Refuge »Invest in Rotary Glen Park »Invest in Bonneville Golf course to expand uses Near Term Investments: »Continue to invest in Fairmont Park »Investments in Forest Dale Golf course to expand uses »Invest in Nibley Golf Course to expand uses »Invest in Allen Park Near Term Investments: »Invest in the City Cemetery to make it an open space resource. Utilize the roads for multiple use »Continue to invest in trails and linear recreation to reduce gaps as well as create connections between neighborhoods and the rich trail network in the City Creek Foothills Natural Areas family homes. The population consists of a relatively older group than is found throughout the rest of the city. While these planning areas have a small percentage of park acres compared to other parts of the city, they have the greatest access to natural lands due to their proximity to the foothills. Investments in linear recreation, and multi-use paths that connect neighborhoods to existing natural lands and the Foothills Natural Area will be key to improving park service in these neighborhoods. Utilizing or adding multiple uses to other greenspaces such as the City Cemetery and golf courses are also top strategies to improving access. Imperial Park SugarhousePark Parley’s Historic Nature Park Sunnyside Park Bonneville Golf Course Connections to Wasatch Hollow Connections to Miller Bird Refuge Rotary Glen Park Foothills Trails & Natural Area AllenPark Westminster College FairmontPark Forest Dale Golf Course Nibley Golf CourseCity Cemetery Popperton Park Lindsey Gardens Memory Grove Park 11th Ave. Park Foothills Trails & Natural Area City Creek Natural Area 2100 S 500 S 2700 S F O O T H I L L D R 13 0 0 E 21 0 0 E 1300 S 11th AVE I S T S TEMPLE I-80 Chapter Seven: Grow 158 The following recommended strategies and policies are high- level guidance for Public Lands operations and maintenance (O&M) that direct how Public Lands will achieve the plan goal of “Grow” over the next decade. The community identiﬁed two CASE STUDIES The Laﬁtte Greenway, a 54 acre multi-use trail and linear park system, utilizes a former shipping canal and railroad right-of-way to create a network of shaded green space which connects people and communities in seven historic New Orleans neighborhoods. The planning process accompanied a community-led revitalization strategy for each neighborhood, showcasing neighborhood character and integrating the desires of local residents. The greenway “incorporates sustainable design through green stormwater infrastructure, native plantings, adaptive re-use of existing buildings and the reduction of impervious surfaces.” The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan provides stewardship opportunities for residents to help maintain local parks through their Adopt-a- Park volunteer program. The program allows neighborhood associations, individuals, or group organizations to customize their own program for volunteering by setting their own maintenance regiment, schedule and plan for what they would speciﬁcally like to work on. Volunteers are able to foster a sense of park ownership while learning about topics of interest. The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) creates partnerships to activate Downtown parks and public spaces. The group collaborates with the Seattle Parks department, friends-of-the-parks groups, and local artists to enliven Downtown spaces with events and art installations. Artists and organizations are invited to host an array of activities in parks such as “ﬁtness classes, arts and crafts, children’s activities, dance and pet events.”1 The DSA also facilitates projects that include adding ﬂowers, vibrant, artistic crosswalks and creative lighting and wayﬁnding to Downtown spaces. 1 https://www.a2gov.org/departments/Parks-Recreation/administrative/ adopt-a-park/Pages/Adopt-A-Park.aspx Photo: Laﬁtte Greenway, New Orleans Louisiana, Design Workshop Photo: Ann Arbor Adopt-A-Park Volunteer Program, https://www.a2gov.org/departments/Parks-Recreation/administrative/adopt-a-park/Pages/Adopt-A-Park.aspx Photo: Downtown Seattle Association art in public spaces, https://downtownseattle.org/art-projects/come-play-westlake-park-occidental-square/ GROW:STRATEGIES AND POLICIES OVERVIEW transformational projects to support the overall goal of “grow.” Working in tandem with the overall strategies and policies in this table, these projects root the 20- year vision with on-the-ground improvements that will expand and optimize the use of public lands, aligning the growth of Salt Lake City’s public lands system with the growth of the City. Additional detail for implementation is provided in Chapter 8 Action Strategies. GROW: HIGHLEVEL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES Strategy 'Ͳϭ e proactive and strategic about groǁth of the Wublic >ands System. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϭ /nvestment of resources into new lands, new assets and amenities is driven by policy and informed by data and public engagement. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.Ϯ dax increment or other dedicated funding sources for KΘD are established so that additional maintenance resources keep pace with new capital asset funding and proũects. ^upporting Wolicy ϭ.ϯ /ntegrate growth planning for public lands with economic development initiatives and community planning and ǌoning. /nventory and develop longͲrange plans for ityͲowned land that is not currently in the Wublic >ands͛ system in order to make strategic planning, ǌoning and land use decisions which utiliǌe existing spaces with parks and open space characteristics. Strategy 'ͲϮ Kvercome diĸcult obstacles to groǁth needs through creativity and through leveraging eǆternal assets and resources. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϭ Daximiǌe usability of public outdoor spaces, including golf courses, rightͲofͲway, and publicͬsemiͲpublic spaces ;such as library groundsͿ outside the Wublic >ands inventory. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.Ϯ >everage innovative publicͲprivate partnerships and collaborations with developers to help address the growth needs of the Wublic >ands system. ^upporting Wolicy Ϯ.ϯ Wosition Wublic >ands to take advantage of private contributions, including ͚adoption͛ of amenities, corporate partnerships and philanthropic giving. Chapter Seven: Grow 160 INCREASE THE PROVISION OF GREEN AND ACTIVE SPACES DOWNTOWN THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO LIVABILITY AND ECONOMIC VITALITY Projects Include: •Invest in Downtown SLC’s Pioneer Park to create a vibrant destination that is welcoming to all, with daily activities for the neighborhood and events that serve the region. •Initiate creative projects and partnerships to integrate a network of large and small green areas and plazas into a mosaic of public outdoor TRANSFORMPIONEER PARK INTO THE CITY’S MOST ACTIVE & DESIRABLE PUBLIC SPACE Enhancing Urban Greenspaces at Downtown locations such as Pioneer Park and Fleet Block would combat urban heat island eects spaces that become the foundation of an activated downtown. •Grow SLC’s Downtown and Central Community Park access, where future growth is expected to be the highest in the City yet has the least access to parks and trails. •Reimagine the Downtown SLC’s wide streets in key locations to create a Green Loop with trees, a multi-use recreational trail, linear park space and places for outdoor seating. •Create festival streets in key locations that provide comfortable spaces, amenities and infrastructure to support events and pop-up festivals. 9. DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE Transformative Project Photo: (Left) Salt Lake City Arts Council Chapter Seven: Grow 162 This transformative project aims to help meet the gap in amount of greenspace available to downtown residents and commuters. With Pioneer Park as the downtown’s only greenspace, creative ways to relook at urban space and add green amenities and recreation is needed. Working with private landowners and businesses, this transformative project calls all hands on deck when it comes to providing green space downtown as well as supporting urban trees with irrigation and care. An example of this is Fleet Block, a city- owned property, that is currently being imagined to include public greenspace to meet needs for recreation, socialization, and nature within the urban area. Planning experts have cited the city’s “Mormon Grid” and large 660’x 660’ blocks as originally having multiple uses in mind from agriculture to streets that primarily served as unpaved green space around minimal roads. Recreation and natural areas in the traditional right of way inform big ideas like “The Green Loop,” which aims to add 60 acres of park space to the urban core. Additional green space and tree canopy coverage will provide a cooling eect to counter the urban heat island warming of the primarily hardscaped city. In addition to street trees and green stormwater management, Public Lands should creatively invent ways to infuse recreation and public gathering spaces as mini-parks that take pressure o the few downtown parks. The Green Loop will be a considerable investment in the city in coordination with City Planning and Engineering Departments. GROW:DOWNTOWN COMES ALIVE OUTSIDE Figure 31: Activating downtown SLC diagram. THE G R E E N L O O P THE G R E E N L O O P NORT H T E M P L E 900 S O U T H 50 0 W E S T 20 0 E A S T ENHANCE EXISTING GREENSPACE RIO GRANDE FESTIVAL STREET Create shaded park space with room for activities that serve Downtown residents and daytime workers. Use the city’s large right of ways as ﬂexible public space to host events. RECLAIMED PUBLIC SPACES Find opportunities to inﬁll with greenspace in downtown Salt Lake City FLEXIBLE STREETS Create shaded and adaptable street space for city eventsCreate a shaded experience along the Green Loop INCREASE TREE CANOPY Create bikeable and pedestrian friendly network for all ages and abilities along the Green Loop BIKE FRIENDLY DOWNTOWN Create future connections between Green Loop and Downtown nodes PIONEER PARK RIO GRANDE FESTIVAL STREET FLEET 9 Line segment construction to begin 2022. Chapter Seven: Grow 164 FU T U R E GR E E N I N G O F DO W N T O W N Figure 32: Before and after Green Loop sections. One possible conﬁguration. Bike Path & Pedestrian Track Linear Park The Green Loop Planting Planting Sidewalk Sidewalk 8’8’ Typical Carriageway with Off-Peak Parking Typical Carriageway High Sun Exposure High Levels of Noise Pollution Long & Unsafe Crossings Minimal Space for Downtown Street Trees Shaded Experience Reduced Level of Noise Pollution Improved Water Management Shorter Crossings 14’14’88’ 14’14’6’62’36’ Minimal Space for Downtown Street Trees Long & Unsafe Crossings Shorter Crossings PP PP INCREASE TREE CANOPY Downtown’s urban forest is limited compared to other neighborhoods in SLC. Trees struggle in the developed, paved environment. Adding to Downtown’s urban forest in parks and the proposed Green Loop linear park would reduce higher temperatures created by the urban heat eect and clean the local air. INCREASING PARK ACCESS DOWNTOWN With only one park to serve 9,685 residents and a daytime population of 41,072 people,1 Downtown is identiﬁed as a High Needs Area for additional park space. Finding underutilized spaces, such as the paved and abandoned Fleet Block, and taking advantage of SLC’s large right-of-ways can help inﬁll with needed green space. BIKEFRIENDLY DOWNTOWN While Downtown has bike lanes, they require a conﬁdent cyclist, comfortable navigating busy trac. The Green Loop would create a low-stress option for all ages and abilities to bike, jog and walk to Downtown destinations. SLC’s wide streets provide opportunities to create green space downtown in key locations. 1 U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2010 Summary File 1. Esri forecasts for 2021 and 2026 Esri converted Census 2000 data into 2010 geography. THE GREEN LOOP WILL PROVIDE AT LEAST 60 ACRES OF PARK SPACE TO DOWNTOWN SALT LAKE CITY THE GREEN LOOP WOULD DOUBLETHE AMOUNT OF PLANTING SPACE FOR TREES IN THE RIGHT-OF WAY 10 ACRES OF PARKSPACENOW80ACRES OF PARKSPACE AFTER GREEN LOOP & FLEET BLOCK 0 MILES OF MULTI-USE PATHSDOWNTOWN NOW8 MILES OF MULTI-USE PATHSAFTER GREEN LOOP BEFORE AFTER x2 Chapter Seven: Grow 166 Projects Include: •Introduce alternative recreation and activities on golf courses for general public recreation as appropriate to not conﬂict with golf. This may include walking paths/trails, concessions, o- leash dog walking, frisbee golf, running races, cross country skiing or groomed sledding. •Incorporate additional environments beneﬁts through INVITE APPROPRIATE ALTERNATIVE USE OF OUR PUBLIC GOLF COURSES FOR GREATER BENEFIT NATIVE PLANTS AND GRASSES PROVIDE NATURAL BORDERS AND CONTOUR AND MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF STORM EVENTS Integrate golf courses into neighborhoods by inviting the community to enjoy clubhouse amenities such as dining Photo: Cross Country Ski Activity at Mountain Dell Golf Course, The Utah Nordic Alliance (TUNA)10. WELCOME TO THE GREEN tree plantings, diversifying vegetation, stormwater management, and nature centers in our golf courses. •Re-wild courses with biodiverse and native plants, creating wildlife sanctuaries outside of playable golf areas. •Expand golf’s involvement in environmental protection by incorporating constructed stormwater wetlands in unplayable areas of our courses. •Incorporate water-ecient irrigation practices such as revising the irrigation system and redesigning holes to reduce the amount of manicured turf, substituting drought-tolerant grasses where appropriate. Transformative Project Photo: The Utah Nordic Alliance Chapter Seven: Grow 168 In 2021, City Golf joined the Public Lands Department along with City Parks, Natural Areas and Urban Forestry. At ﬁrst glance, this consolidation has received comments during the Reimagine Nature process on the value of golf lands to the green spaces and natural areas of the city. Public survey results can be broadly categorized into the following topics: •Community members who want to keep golf for golf play; •Community members who state that golf needs more investment; •Community members who would like golf courses to be more open to other recreational uses; •Community members who want golf courses to support the environment or have more natural ecosystems; and •Community members who want to replace golf with other uses. The planning team conducted extensive case studies looking at best practices that address the community’s feedback topics and these are explored in the “Welcome to the Green” transformative project. The most promising examples that align with the core value expressed by the public to protect the city’s environment include telling the story of how important existing golf lands are to biodiversity and providing ecosystem services including improving air quality. Exciting precedents and environmental certiﬁcations show how future improvements could support the environment even further. Rose Park golf course oers opportunities to enhance riparian habitat along the Jordan River. GROW:WELCOME TO THE GREEN Chapter Seven: Grow 170 CITY GOLF TRANSFORMATION CONTINUUM OPERATIONS AND COURSE RECONFIGURATION Description: Oering dierent types of golf play or reconﬁguring courses (18-hole to 9-hole). Pros: Oers less time intensive play options for today’s lifestyle. Cons: Mid to long-term implementation and large investment. Recommended Direction: Leverage learnings from recent pandemic pivots and sta recommendations for courses that could oer more ﬂexible play. A literature review of best practices in golf - both for cost recovery ideas and complementary uses of golf courses - revealed a continuum of options Salt Lake City Public Lands can consider to help oer golf while providing more green space to the growing population over the next 20 years. The options below could be used individually or in tandem to help provide open space more equitably, improve stewardship of the environment and enrich the city’s livability. AUDUBON SANCTUARY CERTIFICATION Description: Pursue certiﬁcation or other program that rigorously captures baseline condition and provides strategic plan to make golf landscapes more ecologically diverse. Pros: Supports plants and wildlife. Cons: Investment of time and resources. Recommended Direction: Pursue pilot project and potential for implementation as part of Golf Master Plan. ADD DIFFERENT TYPES OF RECREATION PROGRAMS AND/OR AMENITIES Description: Adding dierent types of recreation into existing golf courses (e.g., trails, cycle paths, etc.). Pros: Maximizes space and oers use of golf courses to other constituents. Cons: Safety and liability considerations. Could also add “nuisance” complaints from area neighbors with increased public use/parking. Recommended Direction: Monitor recent perimeter trail project and identify other potential areas in future golf master plan. STORM WATER QUALITY INFRASTRUCTURE Description: Add storm water ponds or other green infrastructure features to golf courses that also act as a landscape amenity. Pros: Helps allow for more adjacent density around golf courses. Potential to treat quantity and quality of runo and support ecosystems. Cons: Loss of some space for water quality features. Cost of implementation and ongoing maintenance. Recommended Direction: Partner with Public Utilities and Planning departments to assess feasibility in golf master plan. WATER EFFICIENT IRRIGATION UPGRADES Description: Update old irrigation infrastructure to be more water ecient and more reliable. Pros: Saves water and time for sta to focus on innovation areas. Cons: High initial cost and potential temporary closures of courses for construction. Recommended Direction: High priority to fund and implement as this investment would beneﬁt golf operations and create opportunities for additional native plantings. ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS Description: Keep golf courses as essential open spaces that provide environmental beneﬁts rather than transferring them to other land uses such as aordable housing developments. Pros: Retains permeable, planted landscapes that absorb stormwater and reduce urban heat island eects. Cons: Other solutions for aordable housing must be explored. Recommended Direction: Protect golf and open space from development to retain environmental beneﬁts to the city, and conserve space for wildlife and plants. Maximize the opportunity for golf to provide ecological services. FLEX OPERATIONS ADD RECREATION ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP TRANSFORMATION LAND USE Chapter Seven: Grow 172 REIMAGINING GOLF FOR PUBLIC LANDS Public Lands is anticipating undertaking a comprehensive Golf Master Plan to strategically plan for operations and future improvements. During the Reimagine Nature planning process, the planning team took the ﬁrst steps toward this process by assessing the Golf Division’s stang, funding, and operations and maintenance to identify challenges and opportunities. Resulting major topics to be addressed in a future Golf Master Plan include assessing funding mechanisms and strategies, possibilities for concessions and clubhouse improvements; and improvements to deteriorating irrigation systems. IRRIGATION AND RESOURCE SAVINGS Maintaining the current irrigation systems at the golf courses is one of the most maintenance intensive and expensive tasks. Maintaining faulty irrigation systems consumes a majority of sta’s time and resources. Additionally, inecient irrigation systems can contribute to higher water bills, which currently make up 81% of Golf’s annual utility budget. It is uncertain how much a new irrigation system would reduce utility costs, but using the City of Spokane as an example, they estimate that their new irrigation system reduced water use by one-third. Assuming SLC Golf could see a comparable reduction in both sta time dedicated to repairs, we can assume an overall potential saving of almost $500,000 annually. It is recommended that SLC Golf develop a prioritized irrigation repair and replacement plan. While it is not expected that irrigation systems can be replaced fully in all golf courses, additional methods are being implemented to reduce water costs such as replacing turf grass with low-water species in strategic areas. Prioritizing such investments will help address the cost of water, support ongoing conservation of water, and align with the City’s Water Conservation Plan by reducing water leaks and water use. ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS Golf courses are predominately greenspaces of grasses, shrubs and trees that provide environmental services to Salt Lake City such as cleaning and managing storm water runo, reducing urban heat island eect, and providing habitat for pollinator species. Innovations in contemporary course management can leverage all these services to provide more environmental beneﬁts to the surrounding city. FUNDING STRATEGIES During the Reimagine Nature engagement, one main point of community feedback expressed that City golf courses are valued assets that need increased investment and upkeep. Similarly to municipal courses in other cities, 1/3 of which operate with a deﬁcit,1 SLC Golf has not been able to generate enough revenue to meet annual operating costs and maintain a reserve for capital repairs and upgrades, resulting in a backlog of deferred repairs and increased maintenance costs. Golf is an Enterprise Fund while the other divisions within the Department receive their funding from the General Fund. As an Enterprise Fund, Golf receives some supplemental funding from the General Fund. The majority of their budget is required to cover its annual operating costs and capital repairs with revenue from golf activities. Despite being a city municipal service, Golf is does not generally receive City support, either direct or shared services, from other City departments and divisions such as: •Funding for engineering services (“discounted services”); •Cost of vehicle replacement or new equipment programs; •Urban Forestry with tree care services; 1 https://www.thengfq.com/2019/06/better understandingmunicipalgolf/ •and Equipment from other divisions within Public Lands. The ability to use and share other division resources (and at the same rates as other City divisions) and expertise within the department would lower some operating costs and help Golf fund capital improvements to keep up with maintenance needs. SLC Golf should explore additional revenue opportunities to generate funds for capital improvements such as special packages, branded merchandise, sponsorships and tournaments, and winter-uses such as groomed cross-country skiing. Improving Golf clubhouses and associated amenities to act as community centers and event space would both generate funds and better serve the community. Partnerships options with local restauranteurs or other third-party concessionaires could be one way to fund added amenities such as a restaurant or meeting space. CASE STUDIES: FUNDING STRATEGIES SPOKANE, WASHINGTON: CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT The City of Spokane conducted a survey in 2017 that sampled 1,200 golfers. The results showed 40- 68% of golfers felt the city should invest in capital improvements and repairs to remain competitive. Spokane Parks and Recreation borrowed $7.5 million from the city to pay for the capital projects and implemented a Facility Improvement Fee at all golf courses to repay the $7.5 million loan for capital investments that was secured in 2018. The collected fees are deposited into a dedicated fund used to pay back the loan. BOISE, IDAHO: GENERAL FUND MODEL The Boise Golf Division, while part of the Parks and Recreation Department, is funded entirely by the General Fund, unlike Salt Lake City and Spokane. For every tax dollar collected, the Parks and Recreation Department receives 12-15%, making Parks the third highest funded department, after only Police and Fire. FORT COLLINS COLORADO: ENTERPRISE FUND MODEL WITH SHARED CITY SERVICES Similar to Salt Lake City, the Golf Division at Fort Collins is an Enterprise Fund. However, it is important to note that while the budget identiﬁes the Golf Division’s expenditures as its own line item (Enterprise Fund), there are other “hidden” costs that Golf shares with other city departments throughout the budget (General Fund). Golf shares many resources with the City and is included in a number of City-wide programs that are funded by the General Fund such as Community Services Administration and Technology Support, the Park-Ranger program, the Horticulture Crew and Fleet fuel and equipment. Indian Hills Golf Course in Spokane. Photo Source: https://www.golfcourseranking. com/courses/washington/spokane/usa/indian- canyon-golf-course/3076/ Dining and events rentals are oered as amenities at Boise, Idaho’s Quail Hollow Golf Course. Photo Source: https://www.quailhollowboise. com/dining/banquets/ Fort Collins, Colorado’s Southridge Golf Course is a Certiﬁed Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Photo Source: https://www.fcgov.com/southridge/ Chapter Seven: Grow 174 CASE STUDIES:TONY FINAU FOUNDATION The Tony Finau Foundation was started by the local golf legend, Tony Finau, who grew up golﬁng at Salt Lake City’s municipal golf courses. The foundation “aims to empower and inspire youth and CASE STUDIES:FIRST TEE YOUTH PROGRAM First Tee, a national program with a Utah chapter, provides programs to make golf “accessible and aordable”1 to youth. First Tee 1 https://ﬁrsttee.org/about First Tee Summer Camp at Glendale Golf Course, Photo Source: https://www.ﬁrstteeutah.org/glendale/Photo: Tony Finau Foundation, Photo Source: http://tonyﬁnaufoundation.org/events/ partners with youth organizations such as the YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club to bring golf curriculum to kids that may otherwise not have the opportunity to learn and play the sport. The curriculum also teaches life skills and values. The Utah chapter hosts summer camps at the Glendale golf course taught their families to discover, develop, and achieve the best of their gifts and talents through the game of golf, educational funding, and core family values”1 and focuses on fostering underprivileged youth. 1 https://tonyﬁnaufoundation.org The foundation is an example of how golf can be utilized to bring together community and promote educational opportunities. by volunteers coaches from the SLC Police Department, building community and relationships on the green. CHAPTER FROM IMAGINATION TO REALIZATION Reimagine Nature is a culmination of the collective imagination of the community. Their efforts have laid out bold, innovative ideas that will truly transform Public Lands into working natural assets that provide environmental and social benefits. The community envisions a Public Lands system that is climate resilient, provides habitat, promotes healthy lifestyles and increases equitable access to nature in the city. Realizing these goals will take concentrated effort by Public Lands Staff, and collaborative support and contribution from City departments and the community. This chapter serves as a playbook, outlining steps and actions to achieve plan goals and re-emphasize nature as a centerpiece of Salt Lake City. Chapter Eight: Action Strategies 176 8ACTION STRATEGIES Community members share ideas at an engagement event. Chapter Eight: Action Strategies 178 10 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l Pr o j e c t s Future Plans by Public Lands and other City Departments that reﬁne supporting policies and strategies with actionable, details, prioritized timelines and strategic planning. NEXT STEPS The Reimagine Nature master plan lays out an inspiring, community- driven vision for the next twenty years that addresses complexities that face public lands from aging infrastructure to climate change. Throughout the listening to over 12,000 stakeholders, the planning team has captured not only the community’s vision for the future but implementation steps. The next step in the process is to create a Public Lands 5-Year Strategic Plan, which will be updated annually by sta. Initial implementation steps have been woven into each of the goal chapters (Sustain, Connect, Welcome, Protect and Grow) as high-level strategies and policies to guide the Public Lands Department over the next decade. Working in tandem with the overall strategies and policies, the plan also lays out ten community- supported transformational projects to root the 20-year vision with on-the-ground improvements. More detailed approaches for action and future planning eorts are included in this chapter, organized by the ﬁve goals. Figure 33 summarizes the relationship of master plan elements from vision to implementation components (projects, strategies/policies, plans). Fu t u r e P l a n s Figure 33: Master Plan Framework and Deﬁnitions 10 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l Pr o j e c t s Speciﬁc policies and actions to realize the transformative projects, plan goals, and direct operations and maintenance strategies. Master Plan Vision Sa l t L a k e C i t y P u b l i c La n d s D e p a r t m e n t Vi s i o n & M i s s i o n 3 V a l u e Le n s e s 5 B i g Go a l s 10 T r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l Pr o j e c t s St e w a r d s h i p Li v a b i l i t y Eq u i t y We l c o m e Co n n e c t Pr o t e c t Gr o w Su s t a i n 1) P u t E n v i r o n m e n t F i r s t 2) G r o w O u r U r b a n F o r e s t 3 ) C o n n e c t M o u n t a i n s t o t h e L a k e 4) J u s t 5 M i n u t e s F r o m H e r e 5) R e i m a g i n e N e i g h b o r h o o d s P a r k s 6) C o m i n g S o o n t o a P a r k N e a r Y o u 7) R e v i v e O u r R i v e r 8) S u s t a i n i n g O u r St o r i e s 9) D o w n t o w n C o m e s A l i v e 10 ) W e l c o m e t o t h e G r e e n Statements that guide Public Lands in their role and what the department aspires to achieve. Guides the master plan and all other aspects of the department’s operations and planning eorts. City-wide, long-range vision for the next 20 years of Public Lands’ work. Guiding principles that align with other city plans and policies and focus the master plan goals. St r a t e g i e s a n d A c t i o n s What the master plan aims to achieve, supports values and is supported by high-level strategies and policy actions. Speciﬁc, inspirational projects identiﬁed by the community to realize over the next 20 years. Chapter Eight: Action Strategies 180 Figure 34: Value Lenses Relationship to Goals Diagram. IMPLEMENTATION ELEMENTS The strategies, policies, transformational projects, future plans and approaches for action create a web of interconnected implementation tools to ensure the plan does not sit on the shelf and is reﬂective of high-level values of the Public Lands Department and community. Figure 34 visualizes how the three value lenses of stewardship, equity and livability are woven into the implementation elements. FUTURE PLANS The list below provides guidance for future planning eorts that the citywide Reimagine Nature eort identiﬁed as crucial next steps. RECOMMENDED PLANS FOR PUBLIC LANDS TO LEAD: »Public Lands 5-Year Strategic Plan »Public Lands Strategic Acquisition Plan »Asset Management Plan »Cartegraph »Capital Replacement Projects »Irrigation Renovation Plan »Capital Facilities Plan »Financial Plan »Fiscal Management Procedures »Impact Fee Spending Plan »Urban Forestry Master Plan »Golf Master Plan »Climate Resilience Plan »Drought Management Plan »Water Budget Plan »Operations Management Standards/Plan »Development Standards »Public Outreach and Communications Plan RECOMMENDED PUBLIC LANDS COLLABORATION WITH OTHER CITY DEPARTMENT PLANNING EFFORTS: »Area Master Plans/Neighborhood Plans »Long-range Planning Eorts »Homelessness Response Plan Sculptural Seating at Imperial Park. 182Chapter 8 Action Strategies SUSTAIN:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Strategy S-1 Position Public Lands to increase the ambition of Salt Lake City’s climate- resiliency goals. Supporting Policy 1.1 Create a Climate-Resilience Plan which establishes environmental metrics combined with robust data collection and monitoring to guide adaptive management that beneﬁts climate resiliency. Action 1.1 A Identify a sta position or positions responsible for data collection and monitoring, visitor use data collection, and data management. Action 1.1 B Develop written management plans for all signiﬁcant public land properties, including Community, Regional & Special Event Parks, and Natural Areas, which incorporate data collection and adaptive management goals. Action 1.1 C Work with community partners like Sageland Collaborative to identify Public Lands that serve as habitat corridors, linkages, biodiversity hot-spots, or valuable intact habitat. Identify select acquisition priorities based on the same data. Action 1.1 D Collaborate with the Sustainability Department to develop and monitor environmental / climate metrics & strategies related to carbon emissions and carbon capture. Action 1.1 E Work to secure funding for full-time positions and research assistantships and grants to ﬁll expertise gaps in restoration ecology and native horticulture, along with funding for part-time positions or specialized volunteer roles in wildlife management, botany, and climate science. Supporting Policy 1.2 Emphasize water conservation and stormwater management in Public Lands capital projects and infrastructure upgrades. Action 1.2 A Create an Irrigation Renovation Plan which develops new standards for waterwise/drought-tolerant irrigation infrastructure across all public lands properties, including underground irrigation to support ﬂexible naturalized planting patterns and landscape evolution, in collaboration with Red Butte Garden. Action 1.2 B Work to quickly secure funding for upgrades to aging, malfunctioning and inﬂexible irrigation systems across SLC Public Lands to reduce water waste. Action 1.2 C Innovate to develop functional, low-cost/low-maintenance stormwater LID infrastructure standards for public lands and the public streetscape, in collaboration with SLCDPU. Action 1.2 D Create a Drought Management Plan for Public Lands. As part of the plan, test, pilot and develop new standards for low-water landscape interventions in low-trac areas of parks and golf courses. Action 1.2 E Identify and pursue opportunities to restore natural ﬂoodplain functionality along stream corridors, through strategic implementation of streambank regrading and natural channel design projects, streambank bioengineering, riparian planting projects, and implementation of Beaver-dam analogues (BDAs) and similar techniques, in collaboration with Public Utilities, SLCo Flood Control/Watershed Restoration, and other partner Supporting Policy 1.3 Develop an Operations Management Standards Plan which continues to reduce the climate impact of Public Lands operations through ecient practices, equipment upgrades, and sta training. Action 1.3 A Develop an urban wood re-utilization program to reduce carbon footprint and increase sustainability of operations. Action 1.3 B Update Public Lands’ 2012/2016 Invasive Pest Management Plan (IPMP) to include current best practices for invasive species control in natural areas, as well as current functional practices for low-pesticide/no-pesticide parks, golf courses, gardens, farms & orchards. Action 1.3 C Work with the Sustainability Department to fund and collaboratively manage the development of a Climate Adaptive Strategies Plan for Public Lands, including an audit of PL’s operations practices, ﬂeet and equipment. Action 1.3 D Appoint a PL sta representative to take a leadership role on the cross- departmental Sustainable Infrastructure Steering Committee, with the goal of improving coordination and resolving barriers around green infrastructure improvements in the city. Action 1.3 E Provide education, training and support so parks and golf operations can successfully improve climate resiliency and biodiversity of landscapes without ballooning O&M costs. Strategy S-2 Position Public Lands as a City leader for driving improvements in environmental health and environmental justice. Supporting Policy 2.1 Develop an Urban Forestry Master Plan that will increase tree canopy across the city, with a focus on equitable distribution of tree cover. Action 2.1 A Change City code to make tree protection ordinances enforceable and eective at deterring intentional violation. Engage the Police Parks Squad or create a Tree Protection Ocer position to assist in enforcing tree protection ordinances. Action 2.1 B Develop a citywide information and education campaign to encourage residents to request street trees, and develop a framework to ensure residents understand their obligations in terms of ensuring adequate water to street trees, and reporting on tree condition in order to mitigate tree mortality 184Chapter 8 Action Strategies Action 2.1 C Train, educate and support ﬁeld sta to appropriately protect and maintain trees in parks, golf courses and other open spaces. Action 2.1 D Identify and take advantage of unrealized tree planting opportunities in public spaces such as retention basins, trail corridors, medians, etc. Action 2.1 E Fund citywide adaptation of irrigation systems in public lands to provide independent watering for trees to improve drought resiliency. Supporting Policy 2.2 Increase the scope and capacity of the Native Plants & Biodiversity Program and incorporate biodiversity and native plants into every compatible city project. Action 2.2 A Identify and secure funding for the creation of an innovative native plant center to expand native plant production capacity and native plant restoration research, and advance public education and volunteer engagement in native plants and biodiversity eorts. Action 2.2 B Develop sustainable funding solutions to strengthen ﬁnancial resources of the native plant program, such as capital campaign, revenue generation from native plant sales, ﬁscal partnerships, etc. Action 2.2 C Integrate the Public Lands Native Plant Program with the Parks Division’s Horticulture Team, and secure funding for key roles including a Horticulture Program Manager, Lead Restoration Ecologist, Native Plant Center Manager, Monitoring Coordinator and Part-Time restoration technicians. Action 2.2 D Conduct a system-wide inventory and prioritization of restoration opportunities in the public lands system, and establish regular opportunities for education, training and support for ﬁeld teams to increase internal capacity for installing and maintaining resilient/biodiverse landscapes. Action 2.2 E Conduct research and experimentation in collaboration with institutional and agency partners to establish successful techniques for dryland restoration tailored to Salt Lake City environments and lands. Supporting Policy 2.3 Collaborate across jurisdictional boundaries to restore the quality of SLC’s land, water and air. Action 2.3 A Improve coordination and collaboration with SLC Public Utilities, Planning, Economic Development, Sustainability, Transportation, and the Oce of the Mayor to identify and collaborate around mutal objectives for environmental health and climate resilience. Action 2.3 B Engage in collaborative management and control of state- and county- listed noxious and invasive species, in partnership with Salt Lake County, the Utah DNR, the Watershed Restoration Program, SLC Public Utilities, regional weed cooperatives, and national eorts like ‘Clean, Play, Go.” SUSTAIN:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Action 2.3 C Coordinate with Public Utilities, State DNR and other jurisdictions to secure in-stream water rights to maintain year-round baseﬂow in urban creeks for habitat, and springtime water releases into the lower Jordan River to simulate natural ﬂoodplain function. Action 2.3 D Lead through eorts with the Jordan River Commission, Utah Lake Commission, and state, county and municipal governments and water quality management agencies to continue to improve water quality in Utah Lake and Jordan River upstream of SLC. Action 2.3 E Engage in dialogue on the Inland Port development, in collaboration with the Oce of the Mayor, SLC Planning, SLC Public Utilities, local community leaders, Economic Development and business interests, landowners, and state ocials, to advocate for establishment of robust green infrastructure in the Northwest Quadrant, including an urban forest, park spaces, stormwater green infrastructure, and trails. Supporting Policy 2.4 Prioritize investments to address equity and environmental justice as guided by equity mapping, such as Figure 15 Equity Map. Action 2.4 A Continue to reﬁne and develop equity maps that evaluate park asset management and investment to direct resources to environmental justice causes. 186Chapter 8 Action Strategies CONNECT:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Strategy C-1 Connect people to information about their park system to increase visitation. Supporting Policy 1.1 Help the public navigate to and around their public lands system with intuitive physical wayﬁnding and digital information. Action 1.1 A Coordinate with internal and external partners to develop multi-lingual wayﬁnding in key areas of SLC that aligns with public information on events, public spaces, trail systems, business districts, art, libraries, restrooms, bikeways and neighborhood byways, economic/community hubs, and public transportation. Action 1.1 B Improve wayﬁnding, regulatory and educational signage for the Jordan River Parkway and Foothills Natural Area. Action 1.1 C Conduct a professionally-driven overhaul the Public Lands website, with a focus on user-friendly access to information about the public lands system. Consider models from other cities’ successful web platforms for public lands, and evaluate alternative web platforms. Action 1.1 D Develop a professionally-driven comprehensive and cohesive brand identify for SLC Public Lands, including strategic sub-identities for speciﬁc divisions, programs, events and amenities that remain connected to the SLC Public Lands brand. Action 1.1 E Develop printed and digital “handout” materials that can be made widely available to visitors and residents via local businesses, organizations and institutions, which provide helpful information about accessing and enjoying signiﬁcant parks, trail systems, and amenities. Supporting Policy 1.2 Provide information that helps the public interpret and appreciate their parks and natural lands, with the use of diverse, interesting programming and activities, education and messaging, physical and digital interpretive content, and park ambassadors. Action 1.2 A As part of a Public Outreach and Communications Plan, integrate internal coordination of all forms of Departmental public engagement, including activities & events, PR/media coordination, visitor use information, donor development, partner coordination, education and content development, volunteerism & stewardship, digital communications (web/social media) and marketing, service requests and visitor information services, and establish clear communication channels with Public Lands administration and operations teams. Action 1.2 B Invest in interpretive content creation for the park system, with system- wide expansion of interpretive signage, informational videos, audio-tours, informational / educational brochures and pamphlets, and social media posts. Content on wildlife and natural history, park history, public art, recreation and educational programming opportunities, stewardship and advocacy opportunities, calls to action, and similar items of broad interest should receive special attention. Action 1.2 C Develop robust educational programs in the parks, hosted by Public Lands sta, partner organizations and/or volunteers, with established content related to history and natural history, stewardship, outdoor skills, and cultural awareness. Action 1.2 D Expand the use of ambassadors, hire seasonal Park/Trail Ambassadors, and/ or enlist the support of a volunteer Ambassador program to spread education and stewardship information to visitors at heavily-used sites. Action 1.2 E Explore the establishment of a City-sponsored conservation corps program that engages under-represented groups in environmental stewardship, environmental education, public engagement, park improvement and data collection. Supporting Policy 1.3 Facilitate access to information about use of SLC’s public lands by people experiencing homelessness, including available services and resources, hotlines, community partners, and opportunities to engage in cross- community dialogue to help make SLC parks welcoming and safe for sheltered and unsheltered alike. Action 1.3 A Provide quarterly training to Public Lands sta and park maintenance workers regarding homelessness resources, understanding of homelessness and appropriate engagement with people experiencing homelessness. Strategy C-2 Increase the ease of access to public lands, making it easier to travel to, between and within them. Supporting Policy 2.1 Promote walking and active transportation by connecting our parks & natural spaces to the City’s active and public transportation networks, including bus, TRAX, SLC Green Bike, and on-street / o-street trails. Action 2.1 A Integrate the recommendations of the SLC Pedestrian & Bicycle Master Plan into Capital Improvement project prioritization for Public Lands. Action 2.1 B Map active and public transportation connectivity to all city parks, and identify gaps in connectivity and barriers and prioritize adding or enhancing parks and trails within walking distance of transit and bus stops. 188Chapter 8 Action Strategies Action 2.1 C Advocate with state and NGO partners for expansion of active and public transportation options that improve accessibility of parks and public lands amenities, such as SLC Greenbike station expansion, dedicated bus routes that service parks and trailheads, and improved wayﬁnding that directs people between transit routes and transit stops, and public spaces. Action 2.1 D Pursue projects that overcome barriers to non-motorized transportation, such as over/undercrossings of major roadways and railways, bridges, protected bike lanes, and o-street trail corridors, with a focus on projects that break down barriers to west-east connectivity. Action 2.1 E Engage UDOT, State Parks, Salt Lake County and other key agencies in planning for regional trail connections to the Great Salt Lake Marina, the Oquirrh Mountains, and up Parleys Canyon to the Wasatch Back. Supporting Policy 2.2 Invest in greening the urban trail network through tree plantings, stream daylighting, and other methods to interconnect parks with park-like trails. Action 2.2 A Provide leadership in the planning, public engagement, design and implementation of major greenway projects such as the Folsom Trail Project and Downtown Green Loop. Action 2.2 B Investigate viability of community land trust and/or other creative models to gradually acquire and assemble public property over urban stream corridors with potential for future daylighting. Action 2.2 C Explore and pilot low-maintenance/no-maintenance landscaping concepts for linear trail corridors, including tree-speciﬁc irrigation infrastructure, solar- powered lighting, xeriscape, artwork, single-species vegetation massings, and similar techniques. Action 2.2 D Explore no-maintenance shade structures and artworks in place of irrigated/ manicured vegetation for trail corridors in industrial areas. Action 2.2 E Collaborate with SLC Planning, Mayor and community partners to achieve planning and zoning guidance for restoration of the Jordan River corridor between 200 South and the State Fairpark, in advance of the area undergoing redevelopment. Supporting Policy 2.3 Incorporate careful consideration of physical limitations, language barriers, and other accessibility accommodations into all Public Lands projects. Action 2.3 A Audit ADA accessibility of all public land sites, including curb ramps, sidewalk / path condition, accessibility of park features, amenities and signage. Action 2.3 B Survey SLC trail systems (including natural surface trails and water trails) for barriers to accessibility - including wheeled cycles; identify and remove prioritized barriers. CONNECT:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Action 2.3 C Explore use of a multi-lingual translation service to provide online versions of most signage, newsletters and other information available in many languages. Action 2.3 D Make bilingual (english and spanish) information, or language-neutral information (i.e. widely-recognizable icons), standard practice for all physical and digital communications, including signs, social media, web content, newsletters, etc. Consider use of a translation service or sta translator. Action 2.3 E Request an audit of Public Lands facilities, practices and procedures by the Mayor’s Oce of Equity, including the Mayor’s Accessibility Advisory Council. 190Chapter 8 Action Strategies Strategy W-1 Design and program Neighborhood Parks to highlight the unique natural, historical, cultural and economic identify of the surrounding area and community in which they are located. Supporting Policy 1.1 Study and collect data on system-wide park use, answering questions about who, where, when, what and how park users are engaging with the neighborhood parks. Action 1.1 A Update the SLC Needs Assessment Study to reﬂect 2021 census data and park land provision on an ongoing basis, timed with release of new census data. Action 1.1 B Audit the physical accessibility of all park amenities to inform a feasibility study to consider opportunities for improvement (Universal and Inclusive Design Audit and Feasibility Study). Action 1.1 C Create and acquire data on an ongoing basis to evaluate equity of investment in resources in parks and recreation assets and programming, use the information to address identiﬁed inequities through targeted and strategic resource investments. Action 1.1 D Identify a ‘Chief Data Ocer’ for SLC Public Lands with broad responsibility for collection, storage, organization, analysis and reporting on park useage data. Action 1.1 E Install widespread visitor counting devices in SLC’s key public spaces to better understand and track visitor use trends, combined with a widespread surveys of park users through standardized, quantiﬁable survey that can be conducted at scale with the support of volunteers, interns, youth corps, etc. and incorporate data into resource prioritization. Supporting Policy 1.2 Engage the community in the visioning of our public spaces and work especially to foster engagement with under-represented groups. Action 1.2 A Enhance the Park Board’s understanding of and attention to equity and work to engage them in development of Public Lands policy, tools and approaches to help address inequities in the Public Lands system. Action 1.2 B Identify and empower community relations managers for Public Lands who support planning and project development eorts, track and coordinate regular communication with key organizational partners and community leaders, and work to strengthen relationships and strategically-valuable partnerships, including engagement with plans and projects. Action 1.2 C Diversity the methods used to engage with members of the public, increasing the eciency of communications via Community Councils and traditional forms of communication, while also using more creative intercept engagement, meeting community members where they are and ‘on their terms’, and leaning on collaborative relationships with community leaders. Action 1.2 D Work to expand representation of, and support for, people of color in the Public Lands organization, including positions of leadership and positions on the citizen advisory board. Action 1.2 E Invest signiﬁcant ongoing sta attention and resources to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the PL organization and its work in the City. Supporting Policy 1.3 Enhance sense of place and community pride within parks. Action 1.3 A Engage the community and volunteers in mapping signiﬁcant cultural, historical, natural or economic features of their parks or of the surrounding community which could be used for placemaking eorts, including opportunities for collaborative partnerships with nearby businesses, institutions, nonproﬁt organizations, and others. Develop innovative, inclusive community engagement and placemaking strategies to direct improvements in neighborhood park design and programming that help parks reﬂect and serve the community identify and demographics of the surrounding neighborhood. Action 1.3 B Engage the community and the Planning Division to develop or update holistic Community/Neighborhood Master Plans which include community priorities for park and public space investment and redesign, and which manage the impacts park renewal can have on the immediately adjacent community (i.e. gentriﬁcation) by developing innovative partnerships (such as with housing providers), considering impacts, using a community-led approach to design and management, and advocating for planning and policy that reduces displacement. Action 1.3 C Develop master plans for all Regional and Special Event parks, and improvement plans for community, neighborhood/mini-parks, and nature parks and natural open spaces, with standardized processes but ﬂexible methods for public engagement and design. Improvement plans for multiple smaller parks could be developed simultaneously. Action 1.3 D Work with community partners to rename some parks with names more meaningful to the community, including indigenous names for places, names that celebrate community leaders, and similar approaches. WELCOME:APPROACHES FOR ACTION 192Chapter 8 Action Strategies Action 1.3 E Display beautiful, well-maintained, sustainable horticulture by integrating Public Lands’ separate horticulture programs, undertaking a comprehensive review of horticulture throughout the public lands system and establishing service level standards including areas for horticulture expansion, waterwise and biodiversity standards, and standard design and maintenance strategies. Work to increase horticultural stang while also creating opportunities to enhance horticultural beauty through volunteerism, friends groups* and ‘adoption,’ and identify funds to reconstruct the aging greenhouse infrastructure at Jordan Park and Liberty Park to expand capacity and eciency and elevate public engagement with the horticultural program. Strategy W-2 Support active programming that brings people out to their parks for art, events, programs, recreation and community. This programming should be diverse and adapted to represent the community culture and encourage creation of social connections. Supporting Policy 2.1 Remove barriers to park activation, addressing aspects such as physical assets, public safety, and laws and ordinances. Action 2.1 A Map event infrastructure for all parks, and work to develop appropriate event infrastructure for neighborhood and community larger parks throughout the system, including as appropriate, seating, power, lighting, etc. Engage event planners in updating and improving the usability of existing event infrastructure as well. Action 2.1 B Revise SLC ordinances that create barriers to park activation, including changes to facilitate beer gardens, food trucks, markets and vendors in public spaces, busking and entertainment, and updated park hours to allow later-activities in parks with well-lit and safe spaces, such as basketball courts, where legitimate late-night activities can occur. Action 2.1 C Revise SLC protocols around ﬁeld fees and reservations, to ensure that community groups with limited means can access ﬁeld space and that groups providing social and community beneﬁts beyond league sports can retain access to some spaces. Action 2.1 D Evaluate potential to collaborate with unsheltered service providers in new and innovative ways to improve safety and comfort of unsheltered people using park spaces during park hours, such as lockers and quiet areas/napping areas. Hire and place ambassadors in park spaces experiencing crime and illicit uses, to increase the real and perceived safety of using the space, including safety for unsheltered individuals. Action 2.1 E Support community art, entertainment and performance in public spaces, by establishing low-cost programs that provide temporary access to facility space (such as Allen Park, Fisher Mansion, Warm Springs and similar facilities), and the use of open hours for informal use of performance spaces. Supporting Policy 2.2 Creative and strategic installation of diverse park amenities supports active park use by many dierent user groups. Action 2.2 A Establish a pilot program to hire community members and temporary “fellows” who are embedded with Public Lands and who lead community engagement eorts around public space design and improvement, and who help manage city-funded mini-grants to engage diverse community groups and individuals to engage and assist with park improvement and activation. Action 2.2 B Improve opportunities for donations, sponsorships, adoptions, memorial asset programs (trees, benches, etc), foundations and “friends of”* groups to support public lands investment and operations & maintenance costs. Update policies and processes, collaborate with the Finance Department, and identify or securing funding for a sta position that can commit signiﬁcant resources to development of private funding. Action 2.2 C Expand programming to provide small-scale seasonal, pop-up park amenities such as picnic tables, lounging chairs, games and other colorful, joyful additions to parks. Action 2.2 D Include (a) in-person qualitative and/or quantitative surveys of park user demographics and (b) analysis of demographics of the neighborhood surrounding a park, as part of the process of engaging in park design, and consider the types of park features and amenities that would beneﬁt those demographics. Action 2.2 E Utliized the Project for Public Spaces model and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) standards for thinking about the factors that inﬂuence active and safe putlic spaces. Supporting Policy 2.3 Generate proactive, targeted activation of citywide parks to leverage staff resources and external partnerships and to make parks the community focal points for every neighborhood. Action 2.3 A Collaborate with neighborhood community leaders to address community-building needs through park events and park improvement, including ways for neighbors to volunteer/steward their spaces, with resources and assistance from Public Lands. WELCOME:APPROACHES FOR ACTION *Public Lands’ partnerships with “friends-of groups” or 501(c)(3) organizations to support or maintain the City’s parks and open space will require that these groups are separate from the City, not managed by City employees, and have a contractual, transparent relationship with the City to support and maintain the City’s parks/open space that includes City processes for any budgeting, receiving of funding and contracting for the management or maintenance of these City assets. Chapter Eight: Action Strategies 194 Action 2.3 B Expand engagement of young people and older adults, including educational and service learning opportunities, recreation and arts opportunities, and programming that caters to a wide range of interests and fosters connection across age groups. Action 2.3 C Develop a programming & activation guide for dierent park types, including appropriate uses and guidelines for activation for all spaces, even mini parks, nature parks and golf courses. Share the guide with the community, to encourage community activation of diverse park spaces. Action 2.3 D Deepen collaboration with key activation partners and forge new partnerships around the activation of underutilized park spaces. Action 2.3 E Expand Public Lands’ public engagement resources, including resources for expansion of education and interpretation programs, health & wellness and community-building activities, arts and entertainment events, and administration and engagement program management. WELCOME:APPROACHES FOR ACTION 196Chapter 8 Action Strategies PROTECT:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Strategy P-1 Ensure iconic, irreplaceable assets are not lost or rendered less valuable due to neglect, destruction or development. Supporting Policy 1.1 Identify and direct capital funding for acquisitions and infrastructure investment that protects iconic assets. Action 1.1 A Pass a Parks Improvement Bond to fund the restoration, improvement and redevelopment of the Fisher Mansion, Warm Springs Plunge, Raging Waters, Fleet Block, Jordan Greenhouse, Liberty Greenhouse, Fairmont Caretaker’s Residence, George Allen Home, the City Cemetery, and other iconic spaces and structures to enrich our parks. If feasible, acquire interests in SLC properties like SLCDPU campus and Old PSB if these could serve park expansion needs. Action 1.1 B Develop a new Public Lands Strategic Acquisition Plan to direct capital investment in new properties. Make the plan along with a list of associated planned, ongoing and completed projects available to the public by publishing it on the Public Lands’ website. Action 1.1 C Develop a cyclical 30-year capital asset replacement plan for all Public Lands assets, using data from Cartegraph, with generalized costs, inﬂation, and accommodations for the expansion of the Public Lands system, to project annual capital replacement costs into the future. Action 1.1 D Identify solutions to eectively conduct capital campaigns for iconic assets, including the creation of O&M endowment funds for the perpetual maintenance and protection of certain spaces and features. Action 1.1 E Hire full-time, part-time, or volunteer positions to manage and oversee speciﬁc assets that require specialized knowledge and attention. Supporting Policy 1.2 Improve equitable distribution of maintenance resources, with a focus on improving the condition and usability of the Jordan River Parkway and Westside parks. Action 1.2 A Provide additional maintenance, activation and improvement resources to west-side parks in order to promote a similar degree of attractiveness and usability compared to east-side parks (equity, not equality). Secure park maintenance funding for the Jordan River Parkway equivalent to those resources allocated to Liberty Park and other regionally-signiﬁcant assets, on a per-acre basis. Action 1.2 B Prioritize improvements for west-side parks, natural areas and trail corridors by including an equity measure in funding request prioritization which identiﬁes whether an project is located in Council Districts 1 & 2. Action 1.2 C Hire community leaders on a part-time/temporary basis to lead deep community engagement around placemaking and design. Action 1.2 D Engage with the Planning Division, Housing & Neighborhood Development, Economic Developement Department, and other City entities to further community goals for housing, business development, community health and livability through collaboration with Public Lands. Action 1.2 E Secure funding for and initiate Cultural Landscape Reports for all historic properties in the Public Lands inventory, and use the reports to guide maintenance and management decisions that protect culturally-signiﬁcant landscapes. Supporting Policy 1.3 Establish and expand a Park Ranger program to enforce protective ordinances, educate park users, and safeguard public land assets from damage and abuse. Action 1.3 A Change SLC ordinances to make protective park and urban forest rules enforceable by SLC Parks Police squad and others (compliance, Forestry, etc) Action 1.3 B Complete the transformation of the SLCPD Parks Squad to a dedicated ranger program, with ranger uniforms and enhanced coordination with Public Lands sta. Grow the program to include one or more trail rangers for the SLC Foothills, and an administrative support position to route calls and complaints, track call-outs and reports, and investigate cases of encroachment and property damage. Action 1.3 C Invest in training and education for the Ranger Program and engage rangers/ ocers in leading education activities for the public, including stewardship education. Action 1.3 D Create and grow a seasonal-employee & volunteer-based Ambassadors Program, with uniformed volunteers and seasonals providing public education on park interpretation (history, natural history, culture, etc) and visitor etiquette/stewardship, supported by a full-time administrative lead position. Action 1.3 E Expand the use of ambassadors in park spaces experiencing signiﬁcant crime, misuse and/or abuse, to improve public safety and to deter abuse of park resources, such as late-night partying, break-ins and vandalism. 198Chapter 8 Action Strategies Strategy P-2 Leverage the power of the community to help steward SLC’s Public Lands. Supporting Policy 2.1 Empower friend’s groups and community organizations to increase stewardship capacity, add value, and maximize their contributions of expertise and resources. Action 2.1 A Integrate a Community Partnership Coordinator position into the PL Public Engagement Team, with a focus on supporting community organizations and enhancing the scope and quality of the work they do to beneﬁt public lands. Creation of formalized partnership agreements will help clarify respective roles and responsibilities. Integration into the Public Engagement team supports cross-collaboration with sta dedicated to communications, fundraising, volunteerism, and other aspects of engagement highly relevant to maximizing the contributions of community organizations. Action 2.1 B Use Public Lands facilities like Allen Park, the Fisher Mansion and the Warm Springs Plunge to help provide a venue for under-resourced community organizations to engage with their audience in public spaces and activate public lands. Action 2.1 C Establish an annual “Friends of SLC Public Lands” gala to thank and celebrate those organizations that contributed to the success of SLC Public Lands and encourage additional contributions and cross-collaboration, as well as shared identity and enthusiasm. Action 2.1 D Actively work to seek out new and creative partnerships that strategically beneﬁt SLC Public Lands, through connections to underserved communities, connections to resources, capacity and expertise, etc. Action 2.1 E Identify opportunities to adapt procurement policies to hire partner organizations to perform skilled work for SLC Public Lands that would otherwise be outsourced to private contractors or consultants. Supporting Policy 2.2 Grow a robust volunteer management apparatus to empower individual residents to contribute their time, eort and knowledge to help support their public lands system. Action 2.2 A Establish dedicated funding for volunteer management support sta and volunteer program resources (tools, materials, uniforms, management software, vehicle and trailer), to compliment and expand capacity of the existing Volunteer & Education Coordinator position. Action 2.2 B Identify key roles, responsibilities and supervisory sta for dedicated volunteers who can lend time and skills as unpaid sta members for appropriate positions, and work to seek out and cultivate these dedicated volunteers. PROTECT:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Action 2.2 C Secure and deploy resources for enhanced volunteer education, training and skillbuilding, as well as volunteer appreciation and retention eorts. Action 2.2 D In collaboration with the Oce of the Mayor, develop a seasonal conservation corps program focused on stewardship education, data collection and public engagement, as well as job skill development for key groups, potentially including veterans, native american youth, refugees, BIPOC teens, and unsheltered teens. Action 2.2 E Analyze and identify aspects of Public Lands administration and operations which could beneﬁt from incorporation of volunteerism to expand capacity, ﬁll gaps in professional skills and knowledge, increase public access and transparency to decisionmaking, and oset costs. Work to incorporate volunteers in these areas. Supporting Policy 2.3 Used targeted education campaigns to create a culture of stewardship in SLC. Action 2.3 A Launch a PR campaign to improve public perceptions of the Jordan River and Jordan River Parkway, in coordination with the Jordan River Commission, Jordan River Foundation, Seven Canyons Trust, and Get to the River Festival. Action 2.3 B Work to establish dialogue and partnership with representatives of the Ute, Goshute, and Shoshone tribes to understand, honor and promote knowledge of ancestral lands. Make tribal land acknowledgement standard practice, work to empower Native American voices to inﬂuence land management decisions, and develop programs to engage tribal members in stewardship and cultural education. Action 2.3 C Cultivate future stewards of SLC’s public lands by facilitating early exposure to positive experiences in nature that inspire wonder, curiosity, and connection to place. Expand place-based environmental education and nature-discovery programming that build on the successes of the Salt Lake City Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights. Collaborate with Youth & Family Services and other providers to engage youth in park planning/design, volunteerism and stewardship, nature-based curriculum development, nature and outdoor adventure clubs and camps, and other strategies that give SLC youth a voice at the table. Encourage the creation of youth boards and grassroots organizations, and fund grants and projects for university students, that place young leaders in positions to have a tangible impact on their public lands. Celebrate the role that these young leaders play in public lands. 200Chapter 8 Action Strategies Action 2.3 D Work with partners and other government jurisdictions to create and sustain an ongoing media campaign to help SLC residents identify with a culture of public lands stewardship, connected to a sense of local pride and ownership of public land resources. Action 2.3 E Expand the Public Lands Communications team to elevate the Public Lands brand, and the professionalism and eectiveness of PL communications, messaging and marketing. Identify resources to expand key roles and skillsets, especially graphic design and content development. PROTECT:APPROACHES FOR ACTION 202Chapter 8 Action Strategies GROW:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Strategy G-1 Be proactive and strategic about growth of the Public Lands System. Supporting Policy 1.1 Investment of resources into new lands, new assets and amenities is driven by policy and informed by data and public engagement. Action 1.1 A Increase stang to meet capacity demands of planning & projects team, achieve reasonable project loads for Public Lands PMs, and free up capacity for the many policy and programmatic planning documents recommended as action items. Action 1.1 B Use the PL Master Plan, Needs Assessment, Impact Fee Facilities Plan, Community Master Plans, Strategic Acquisition Plan, and other city plans to guide new development, including prioritization of funding applications. Establish clear, transparent policies for ranking and prioritizing funding Capital Improvement and Impact Fee funding applications, including the incorporation of feedback from the Public Lands citizen advisory board. Action 1.1 C Create a Capital Facilities Plan based on cyclical asset renewal projections and asset condition inventory data from Cartegraph and other sources. Ensure the plan is adaptible to accommodate new data as well as growth in park lands and assets. Use this plan and associated data to guide funding applications for asset renewal and replacement. Action 1.1 D Identify and secure resource needs for continual, regular updating of needs assessment asset maps, user satisfaction surveys, demographic mapping, park plans, and other documents to ensure Public Lands planning guidance does not become so outdated as to become invalid. Action 1.1 E Engage community members in ongoing robust data collection program on park use statistics, demographics, and basic user feedback about public lands, through internships, volunteer positions, conservation corps, and community partnerships, and communicate to achieve transparency in how the data is incorporated into Public Lands planning. Supporting Policy 1.2 Tax increment or other dedicated funding sources for O&M are established so that additional maintenance resources keep pace with new capital asset funding and projects. Action 1.2 A Commission analysis of anticipated growth of maintenance and capital replacement costs as new assets are added to system and inﬂation impacts O&M and construction costs, and incorporate into budgetary increase requests and budget planning. Action 1.2 B Agressively pursue alternative funding mechanisms to make up gaps in General Fund capacity to accommodate growing costs. Action 1.2 C Evaluate opportunities for revenue generation to beneﬁt speciﬁc sites and assets where user fees, parking fees, event and activity fees, or other revenue generation methods may be appropriate. Action 1.2 D Evaluate opportunities to use local revenues, levees, fees or income streams to fund growing park operations needs, similar to the model employed by Salt Lake County Parks & Recreation. Action 1.2 E Identify desired standards for operations and maintenance level of service standards, including per-acre maintenance budgets and stang for dierent categories of parks and public spaces, and identify and address areas in the public lands system where desired service level standards are not being met. Supporting Policy 1.3 Integrate growth planning for public lands with economic development initiatives and community planning and zoning. Inventory and develop long- range plans for City-owned land that is not currently in the Public Lands’ system in order to make strategic planning, zoning and land use decisions which utilize existing spaces with parks and open space characteristics. Action 1.3 A Modify city development codes to simplify park improvement projects and mitigate technical obstacles like inaccurate park zoning or internal property subdivisions within park spaces. Action 1.3 B Engage the community in visioning for major park expansion opportunities, such as the Green Loop, the Fleet Block, the Public Utilities Central 9th Campus, SLC Public Lands Campus, the Northwest Quadrant, and the Jordan River - North Temple Redevelopment Area. Action 1.3 C Integrate the work of Planning & Public Lands; actively engage Public Lands sta in future Area and Neighborhood Master Plans, and engage Planning sta in future park master plans and improvement plans. Action 1.3 D Identify and pursue collaborative projects with Economic Development, and establish the role of Public Lands in advancing concepts like Tech Lake City and economic development programs like Visit Salt Lake. Action 1.3 E Incorporate Economic Development tracking and metrics into aspects of Public Lands annual reporting, similar to the model employed by the Regional Athletic Complex. Action 1.3 F Collaborate across City departments and divisions, such as Transportation, to incorporate thoughtful consideration of islands and medians as beneﬁcial park and open spaces. 204Chapter 8 Action Strategies GROW:APPROACHES FOR ACTION Strategy G-2 Overcome dicult obstacles to growth needs through creativity and through leveraging external assets and resources. Supporting Policy 2.1 Maximize usability of public outdoor spaces, including golf courses, right- of-way, and public/semi-public spaces (such as library grounds) outside the Public Lands inventory. Action 2.1 A Map public and semi-public green spaces outside the Public Lands inventory to better understand level of service in communities. Action 2.1 B Collaborate with Salt Lake School District and local churches, especially for compatible access to playable/programmable ﬁeld space. Action 2.1 C Develop a Golf Master Plan which will evaluate golf courses for opportunities to expand urban forest, ecological restoration, trails, and public programming. Action 2.1 D Work with Library System to diversify and activate public green space surrounding library campuses. Action 2.1 E Work with Transportation Division to map opportunities for linear parks along streets and right-of-way eligible for lane reduction. Identify opportunities to put streets and parking lots underground to create or connect important park spaces. Supporting Policy 2.2 Leverage innovative public-private partnerships and collaborations with developers to help address the growth needs of the Public Lands system. Action 2.2 A Work with local businesses and educational institutions to collaborate on job development and training, improve professional development opportunities for Public Lands sta, and provide pipelines for training and careers that beneﬁt Public Lands hiring goals and job placement for prospective employees. Action 2.2 B Explore partnerships with the Utah Outdoor Recreation Industry, Tourism Industry, and Healthcare Industry to collaboratively plan, fund and develop recreational infrastructure, land adoption and acquisition, and youth education & recreation programming. Action 2.2 C Establish communications and collaboration with development, in particular in areas of very active redevelopment such as Central 9th, Downtown, Sugarhouse, East Bench, North Temple @ Jordan River. Improve coordination with the SLC RDA and identify mutual/overlapping objectives. Action 2.2 D Explore opportunities to trade underperforming green space to development for equivalent or higher-performing green spaces elsewhere in the City, with an eye to service gaps, stream daylighting opportunities, and walkable neighborhood access to park spaces. Action 2.2 E Pursue private support and funding for urban forest improvements and wetland mitigation projects in large industrial areas - and in particular, the Inland Port and industrial parks west of Redwood Road - that provide environmental services while also improving the livability / workability of oce parks, contain heat-island eects, and reduce maintenance costs for businesses. Supporting Policy 2.3 Position Public Lands to take advantage of private contributions, including ‘adoption’ of amenities, corporate partnerships and philanthropic giving. Action 2.3 A Strengthen relationships with friends-of organizations* and help empower them to fundraise for speciﬁc improvements and maintenance. Action 2.3 B Facilitate the development of a Friend of Salt Lake City Parks 501c3 organization* to oversee the funding and management of speciﬁc components of PL responsibilities, such as fundraising for transformative projects in excess of $10M. Action 2.3 C Enlist the services of contractual fund management and capital campaign ﬁrms to help SLC Public Lands navigate the legal and accounting challenges of capital campaigns. Action 2.3 D Formalize and simplify adoption and sponsorship programs like memorial tree adoption and bench adoption, reducing PL’s long-term ﬁnancial commitments and increasing revenue from adoptions. Action 2.3 E Identify or add a development coordinator role within the Public Lands admin team to manage capital campaigns for expendable and endowed funding for projects and properties, manage and facilitate major gifts, and oversee donor development as well as contractual capital campaign management, fund management, and coordination with SLC Finance. *Public Lands’ partnerships with “friends-of groups” or 501(c)(3) organizations to support or maintain the City’s parks and open space will require that these groups are separate from the City, not managed by City employees, and have a contractual, transparent relationship with the City to support and maintain the City’s parks/open space that includes City processes for any budgeting, receiving of funding and contracting for the management or maintenance of these City assets.