SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Salt Lake City hosted its second open house Saturday to give the public a chance to give input on what they would like to see happen at city parks, and the future of the Jordan River and Glendale golf courses, which the city recently voted to repurpose, were part of the discussion.
Residents were given the opportunity to vote on what amenities they would most like to see at parks in Salt Lake City--including wetlands, trails, and educational amenities.
“I want them to fix the baseball fields,” said Salt Lake resident Tom Green. “If the parks are going to be first rate, we need decent fields. We need warning tracks, we need grass on the in-field--and that’s going to take irrigation, so I hope the bond passes so they save the water and fix the baseball fields.”
Green is one of dozens of residents who turned out for the event. Nichol Bourdeaux with Salt Lake City talked about the reasons they’re hosting the events across the city.
“We’ve done our plans, we’ve done project evaluations, and what we’re doing now at this exercise is really taking those back to the community, seeing if what we think our plans predict for the future is still what the community wants,” she said.
Resident Amanda Little said her family moved near the Glendale Golf Course--which the city recently voted to shut down. They hope to now turn it into a park. At the open house, she shared her ideas for how to repurpose it, including creating more wetlands.
“There’s a lot of kids here in Utah, and I think it’s really important to keep them educated about the environment and about nature, in general, because they live in the city and they don’t have that exposure as much,” Little said.
The city also recently voted to shut down the Jordan River Golf Course. Some residents shared their concerns about city golf courses closing and say they hope they will find a way to keep them open.
“The cost for running the park will be almost as much money it would cost to run the golf course,” said Salt Lake resident Brent Black. “I think there will be less people using the park, and they won’t be paying anything, so the golf enterprise’s fund won’t get better, it will get worse.”
The city will be hosting several open houses in various neighborhoods the rest of the month. They have a website set up with a schedule and more information, click here for details.
FOX 13 News' Tamara Vaifanua has a more in-depth story about the city golf courses shutting down and the city’s plans to turn them around, join us Monday on FOX 13 News at Nine for her report.
