SALT LAKE CITY BUYS 154 ACRE FOREST PARK

Rocky, others hail purchase; area will never be paved

Diane Urbani: Deseret News staff writer

August 27, 2001

Salt Lakers, be they hikers, skiers, elk or deer, just got richer.

The city is buying for them 154 acres of aspen and maple forest on the slopes of Big Cottonwood Canyon, to set aside as a park, never to be paved. United Park City Mines Co. sold the parcel, called Willow Heights, to Salt Lake City for $2million.  Mayor Rocky Anderson is delighted that the deal, years in the making, is being finalized on his watch. He praises the state's Quality Growth Commission for providing $700,000 of the sale price; city Public Utilities chief Leroy Hooton for locking in a sizable portion of Salt Lake's drinking-water supply; and Utah Open Lands for drafting an agreement to hold the Heights in trust forever. "We're working with (Utah Open Lands) on a conservation easement," said Anderson. "The nice thing about that is that it doesn't matter who's mayor or who's on the City Council" in future years. Once the conservation agreement is established, "it's in perpetuity." The first Salt Lake conservation easement was conveyed last year, Anderson added, when the 3-acre Hidden Hollow park in Sugar House was signed over to Utah Open Lands. This summer the city had to defend the hollow from Mecham Development, which mistakenly encroached on the park when preparing to build an office tower nearby. The money to buy Willow Heights came largely from a 50-cent surcharge on Salt Lakers' water bills, according to Hooton. So it's appropriate, he added, that the land now belongs to the public. "It's just a very beautiful area. And it's prime watershed," Hooton said. "As our ancestors found, the best way to protect the land is to own it," to stave off construction of hotels, houses or whatever else developers might want to put in the canyon. Some 22 percent of metropolitan Salt Lake's drinking water supply flows from Big Cottonwood Canyon, Hooton said. The city's purchase of Willow Heights ensures that supply won't be eroded. "Water is absolutely critical to our future in this valley," he said. "This contributes to that quest" for watershed. There may be someone who is still happier about the city's latest purchase. Utah Open Lands' Joel Atwood fairly gushes when asked to describe Willow Heights. "It's mule deer and elk-grazing habitat in summer. Backcountry skiers and snowshoers can go up there and tour around" in winter. "Also what's really cool is it sits across from Solitude (Mountain Resort), so people can ride up in a chairlift, look across the canyon, and say look at that beautiful piece of land over there . . . I just hope the city doesn't go in and put a parking lot" in for hikers who want to use the trails through the property. "Absolutely not," was Hooton's response to that. The land "is going to stay exactly as it is." The fall foliage, with the canyon maples and the aspens is just going to be spectacular," Atwood added. "The animals are going to roam around without being pressured." He means wild animals, since dogs and other domesticated beasts aren't allowed onto watershed land. But "it's going to be a benefit for everyone who loves the canyons. Here's something that's always going to be the same. It's not going to go change."

E-mail:  durbani@desnews.com