Salt Lake County eyes ‘generational opportunity’ for 5-city regional park centered along Jordan River

Despite its woes, the Jordan River has emerged as a popular Salt Lake County recreation destination in recent decades.
Yet people rowing, biking, running or just taking a casual stroll on any part of the trail between Utah and Davis counties likely don’t realize the river doesn’t quite look like when pioneers settled in 1847, says Dustin Wiberg, a park development project manager for Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation.
He walks over to a large map standing in the corner of a library conference room that depicts how the river’s path today differs from nearly a century ago.
“It used to meander a lot more, which is typical of rivers like this,” he says, pointing to a section of the river in the middle of the county. “You can see we’ve straightened it out over time. In some areas, it’s a similar trajectory.”
Different projects, including levees, were created to control the river’s flow as suburban development began encroaching on the riverbanks, especially during the second half of the 20th century. County experts say many changes to the landscape were done with residential or industrial use in mind and not so much about the natural flow of the river.
The adjustments created unintended consequences over time, including a faster river that dumped sediment in certain areas and flooding challenges in other areas without proper dredging — often pushing issues downstream rather than solving any problems.
However, that could soon change.
Wiberg is in charge of the much-anticipated Central Jordan River Reconnect Project, which could ultimately repair and restore a large section of the riverbank in parts of Millcreek, Murray, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville and West Valley City.
The project would rehabilitate the river from state Route 21 to 5400 South, building on some scattered work cities and private landowners have done to restore it as much as possible to its pre-pioneer settlement state. The section would also become the county’s newest regional park.
“We want to help the river function the best that it can, and then we’ll build around that — whether that’s natural spaces, recreational community spaces (or) development,” he told KSL.com during an open house in South Salt Lake on Monday. “This is a generational opportunity.”
The reconnection project dates back to 2018, when Utah lawmakers designated a “recreation zone” that would require cleaning up the trail system within about a 2-mile section, especially after a sudden rise in homelessness in the area at the time. County leaders used the same map to craft their plans for a regional park, but the idea ended up on the back burner during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What a river-based regional park would look like remains to be seen now that the county is circling back to it. Monday’s event was one of two that county officials held this week to collect information about what people like and don’t like about the river’s current state within the project areas, as well as what they’d like to see in the future.
A handful of residents showed up at Salt Lake County’s Granite Branch locations, where they came to support more rowing, biking, disc golf, wildlife viewing and nature exploring. That could include bikes and canoes for rent, which could be made available somewhere within the zone.
“It should be very family-friendly so kids can grow up invested in the river and other shared spaces in their community,” one person wrote on an orange sticky note.
Three additional open houses are scheduled for mid-November:
Feedback can also be submitted online.
The information gathered will be used to create different design concepts over the next few months, which could be unveiled as early as the spring of 2025. Wiberg said the plan would likely include ways to add “more natural function,” such as possibly reestablishing the meanders straightened over the past few decades.
The final concept would be implemented in a master plan that could be completed by the end of next summer.
All five cities would likely have to vote to approve the plan after that, Wiberg said. All five do have connections via the Jordan River Commission, though.
Commission officials say they are thrilled that the project is now picking up steam after falling dormant over the past six years. Soren Simonsen, the commission’s director, said it could pile onto some of the changes being implemented in other parts of the river to help clean it up.
He was on hand for a major celebration at the Big Bend Restoration Area in West Jordan this summer, where a $7 million project to boost the river’s ecosystem is taking place. A lawyer representing Larry H. Miller Company said last week that the company is seeking a $4 million grant toward an estimated $10 million cleanup of the river by the growing Fairpark neighborhood.
Salt Lake City also compiled an Emerald Ribbon Action Plan tied to future improvements.
“(The reconnection project) continues that effort now,” Simonsen said. “There’s efforts happening further south in Lehi and Saratoga Springs down near Utah Lake do incredible work. … We’re trying to manage those in a way that creates a healthier natural area.”