CEDAR CITY — Cedar City has taken the first few steps to bring a long-awaited park on its north side to fruition. Still, not everyone is happy with the potential path being taken.

The park project has been in the works for years. The city recently began moving forward on it, obtaining two parcels near East Nichols Canyon Road and Main Street from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration after working on the agreement for nearly two years, according to a February City Council packet.

The city plans to build a park on one of the two properties, which is approximately 8.2 acres, within the next 10 years. Councilmember R. Scott Phillips said the city purchased two other connecting parcels as well.

In exchange, the city deeded over 42 acres a half-mile east of Main Street to the administration. This land was previously slated for the park project but was ultimately traded as there is no paved access to the property, and it would require a utility extension, the packet states.

Additionally, the master-planned Fiddler’s Canyon trail extension has been funded, allowing the city to expand the trail through the park, under Interstate 15, and to Canyon View High School, Phillips said.

Part of the parcel could be slated for commercial use to fund the park’s construction on the remaining land. The City Council began its most recent discussion on the matter on May 15.

“We had a discussion many, many months ago when we were trying to get the property from SITLA,” said Cedar City Mayor Garth Green. “And we talked about a split down the middle going one way, and then we talked about a split going down the middle the other way. I formed a committee; they’ve been meeting, and from the very first day, it was obvious that they wanted more.”

Councilmember Carter Wilkey said he examined the county records to determine the amount of land already designated for commercial use nearby.

“There are approximately 242.66 acres that are already zoned commercial that are undeveloped within 1 mile of that location,” he said. “So part of that, … in my mindset, is how much more commercial do we as a city need to create when we already have almost 250 acres?”

The park could cost between $3 million to $5 million, said Councilmember Tyler Melling. And while some projects have received donations of land, water rights or money, the city hasn’t received any for the north-side park and has begun considering other options to fund it, including selling some of the land.

“The discussion wasn’t ever, ‘How can we add commercial to Main Street?’ As much as it was, “How can we pay for a park?’ … And so the initial proposal was: ‘Well, let’s use some of the Main Street frontage, sell those pieces so that we can put in the rest of the park and not sit on an empty piece of dirt for 20 years,'” he said.

Phillips said that if the council set aside 2.98 acres for commercial, 7.16 acres would be left over for the park — making it the second largest park in the city, not counting sports fields or complexes. Comparatively, Main Street Park is 4.15 acres, Park Discovery is 3.44, and West and East Canyon parks are a combined 9.54.

City Attorney Randall McUne said the city could restrict the types of commercial business run in the parcels next to the park. For instance, they could choose to only allow restaurants. However, Melling said being too restrictive could reduce the property’s marketability and value.

Kim Schoonmaker lives in the Fiddler’s Canyon area and served on a committee created by Green to discuss the potential park. In 2017, the city adopted the Leisure Services Parks, Trails and Recreation Master Plan, a 110-page document that outlines the state of the city’s parks and goals the government hoped to achieve, she said.

The city’s first goal is “Cedar City neighborhoods shall have adequate park, trail and open space access or distribution.” Schoonmaker said the general guideline determining the level of service, or appropriate ratio of parks, open space and trails to people, is approximately 10 acres for every 1,000 residents.

In 2015, there were over 206 acres of open space and an estimated 30,000 citizens, giving the area a level of service rating of 6.8.

Because the city is located near national parks, it doesn’t need to reach the 9.6 rating that similar-sized cities would have, as a “7 would be good,” Schoonmaker said.

To calculate the city’s level of service rating in 2024, she increased the park acreage to 250 to account for the Iron West Sports Complex, plus an additional 14 acres. With a population of nearly 42,000, the rating fell to 5.96, creating a deficit of 43.5 acres to reach a rating of 7.

By 2030, calculating based on an estimated 4% growth, Schoonmaker said the level of service would fall to 4.7, with a deficit of 121 acres without additional parks, trails or other open space areas.

In the Fiddler’s Canyon Area, Schoonmaker estimated a 2024 level of service of .33, based on a population of approximately 3,000 people to 1 acre of trail — a deficit of 21 acres.

“It just shows that we would be in need of using all of that land,” she added.

Kristy DeGraaf, owner of the Learning Tree Child Care and Preschool, added that while Cedar City residents live within a short drive of national parks, many children “rarely get the opportunity to go outside because of their family circumstances.”

“We have to recognize that that is not equal access for all of our residents,” she said.

Sheral Whicker, also a resident and committee member, said the residents understood why the land trade was required but that it reduced the potential park’s acreage by half, from 20 to 10. And slating part of the land for commercial would reduce it by half once again.

“Half of half doesn’t seem very fair for the citizens,” she said, adding that when she began working with the committee, she and others were hopeful they “could help come up with something amazing that would include a little commercial, like a Crumbl Cookie shop or an ice cream parlor.”

“We even assisted a designer to try to fit everything in,” Whicker said. “We were then surprised that the commercial properties needed to be larger — about an acre — to accommodate parking and driver-throughs and whatever else.

“In addition, we found that a very expensive 45-foot road would need to be included at the city’s expense in order to put these commercial properties onto this property. We cannot use Main Street as an access point.”

Melling later said the road would more likely be a short, 55-foot road.

With the addition of the road and accounting for a power box located on the parcel, Whicker said less space would be available for a park than they initially realized.

“It simply will not fit. It destroys, it cuts up, it slashes this property into something unusable,” she said.

The following week, on May 22, the City Council met again to vote on the issue. During public comment, Cedar City resident Trish Topham presented the council with a petition asking the city to use the land solely for a park. The document was created the week before and, as of May 21, had reportedly nearly 600 signatures — a number Schoonmaker said has increased slightly since then.

“It’s just a small representation of the great interest and resolve that the north end residents and other residents have,” Topham said.

Phillips said he’d changed his perspective since the week prior as he thought parents would favor commercial lots to act as a buffer between the park and busy Main Street.

“I’m not sure what we gain by putting commercial spaces on it,” he said.

Wilkey said he was interested in tabling the discussion about slating some of the land for business in favor of focusing on additional research and a project on the south end of the parcel using the $2 million already budgeted for the park. He made a motion to that effect, which passed.

“I think we should start and finish a project,” he said.

In 2022, Whicker created a GoFundMe account to donate to the project. They would also petition for naming rights for all or part of the park from Cedar City in honor of Pam Garfield Smith. Smith was an Iron County teacher for three decades, spending much of that time educating children at Fiddler’s Elementary School. She died in May 2022 of cancer.

Wilkey said beginning on the south end would give residents and advocates of the GoFundMe a chance to contribute to a less intensive project.

“If they can really step up on a smaller piece, then I believe them when they say they’re going to step up on the bigger piece,” he said.

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