Residents encouraged by plan for Utah Lake
Draft proposal » Restoring the waterway would also make way for recreation on and around it.
By Donald W. Meyers
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:12/07/2008 04:38:25 PM MST
Lehi » When Gail Gibson was a child, Utah Lake was a happening place.
People would fish or visit the shoreline resorts, he recalled. Some couples would go out for dinner and dancing on some of the show boats that plied the lake, with band music wafting across the water.
"Back in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, it was the gem of Utah County," Gibson, an American Fork resident said. "Now we all live near the lake, but do nothing with it."
After seeing the draft proposal from the Utah Lake Commission for restoring the 150-square-mile freshwater lake and managing its use, Gibson believes that the old days can return.
Gibson was one of 30 people who came out to Willowbrook Middle School Wednesday to learn about the plan and offer comments.
He heard recommendations that include eradicating carp from the lake, developing beaches and trails for recreational use and the drafting a model land-use ordinance for the communities that surround the lake.
Like Gibson, Saratoga Springs resident Annette Harris has seen the lake decline in the 37 years she's lived in the area. She supports the efforts to draw more people to Utah's largest freshwater lake.
"It would bring a lot of attention," Harris said.
But there's another significant project she wants to see built: a causeway across the lake that would tie together the east and west shores. The lake's master plan remains mum on that issue.
The causeway, she said, would make it easier for people living in Saratoga Springs and other lakeside communities to get to the Wasatch Front instead of having to drive north and through Lehi's congested streets.
And that's something that worries Marc Heileson, the Sierra Club's regional representative. He said building a causeway would stir up hundreds of cubic feet of lake mud, fouling the water and disrupting the ecosystem.
He said such a bridge would satisfy only "greedy developers."
While Heileson believes the master plan represents a holistic approach to fixing the lake, he thinks it lacks teeth to stop a disastrous development such as the causeway.
Cox agrees that the commission doesn't have the authority to enforce the plan, but that doesn't mean it can be ignored without consequence.
"The commission does not have regulatory authority, but it has 20 members and the moral influence of its members," Cox said.
He said neighboring cities could exert pressure on each other to uphold the plan's terms and goals.
dmeyers@sltrib.com
What's in the plan
Among the recommendations for Utah Lake:
» Develop access to the lake and use it for boating, fishing, wind surfing and canoeing.
» Restore beaches.
» Establish a bicycle and hiking trail along the shoreline.
» Restore the native June sucker fishery, along with other native species, and continue to eliminate invasive carp.
» Create a model ordinance for cities to adopt that would govern land use around the lake.
»The plan is available at http://utahlakecommission.org/document.html
What's next
Public comments will be reviewed and possibly incorporated into the document, according to Provo native Rick Cox, project manager for San Francisco-based consultant URS Corp.
The commission and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fires and State Lands will adopt the final plan -- URS was paid $210,000 for it -- in April.
Cox said the plan will become the state's management plan for the lake. The state has jurisdiction over the lake and its bottom, while cities and Utah County are responsible for the land adjoining the lake.
