Guest article: Logan City moves forward with Canyon Road Improvement Plan
Editor’s note: This guest submission was written for a USU class and was not edited or altered by The Utah Statesman.
By Sam Isaacson
On Tuesday Sept. 2, the 30% design plan for the Canyon Road Improvement Plan was presented to the Logan Municipal Council at their biweekly meeting.
Mike Johnson, a municipal council member, said the improvement plan is part of the 1st Dam Tank & Waterline, which will help fix the issues Logan City has with water storage and delivery.
“The state has requirements of how much water we have to have on hand, and currently we’re roughly four million gallons shy,” Johnson said. “This project will bring us up to state standards and help us in terms of drinking water supply for the citizens, fire flow, emergency preparedness, and overall system functionality.”
The 10-million gallon water tank is going to be installed near Riverside on USU’s former ropes course property. Mark Anderson, a municipal council member, said once the location had been decided they found Canyon Road would be the best location for the waterline.
“It had been identified that Canyon Road was probably the location where it needed to be,” Mark Anderson said. “It was going to impact the fewest residents and be the least expensive for the city.”
The improvement plan will go from 600 E up to 1500 E just past Herm’s Inn on Canyon Road, and will feature a 66 foot right of way. Zan Murray, project manager for the improvement plan, said they decided to go with this right of way design for the residents’ benefit.
“The city wants to maximize the benefit and lower the impact to citizens in the area by creating an efficient 66 foot right of way which really focuses on the needs the master and neighborhood plan documents have outlined,” Murray said. “It allows us to get the most benefit with the least impact to residents.”
The improvement plan will implement narrower travel lanes, four foot shoulders on each side of the road, wider park strips, curbs and gutters, new trees, and an eight foot sidewalk on the north side of the road.
Leila Shultz, a Professor Emerita in Wildland Resources at USU, said Canyon Road doesn’t need a new sidewalk on the north side of the street.
“We in the neighborhood always felt the south sidewalk is the best solution,” Shultz said. “It’s what people will use naturally, there’s really almost no traffic on the north side, and would only serve a few homes. I don’t think we need a private sidewalk that costs a couple of million dollars, but the city says we do.”
Murray said the plan will meet future needs for transportation and traffic, along with improving bicycle mobility and providing safe pedestrian movement. Murray also said it will help create a uniform streetscape to match the neighborhood feel and fit into what the community and neighborhood want to see.
Shultz said she believes there are other alternative options to deal with the expected traffic increase along the road.
“Frankly, I think it would be safer to keep pedestrian traffic on the south side with the plan to connect it to the pathway up behind the canal,” Shultz said. “There’s a good canal pathway which goes through Memorial Park. Why in the world would you even put a sidewalk on the north side when there’s an underutilized sidewalk on the south side? I don’t know why they can’t resurface it and make it more pedestrian friendly.”
The Canyon Road project was officially announced back in October of 2024, and residents were quick to voice their disapproval of the project. An ad hoc citizen’s group called the Canyon Road Coalition was formed and publicly announced they were against the project. The removal of the Island’s historic ash trees was one of the major driving factors behind the coalition’s disapproval of the plan.
Part of the plan is to plant new trees, but Shultz said replacing the trees won’t fix the fact that they are removing these ash trees.
“The trees are irreplaceable and they’d probably have another 100 years of life if they weren’t cut down. They’re talking about replacing them with two inch caliper trees at most, which is basically twigs as a replacement.”
Johnson said as the project moves forward the city is planning on meeting with the residents who will be directly impacted in hopes it will make this change a little easier.
“People care about their landscaping,” Johnson said. “They care about their neighborhood, and they care about their home. It’s where their memories are. This project’s obviously going to impact the front of people’s property, so making sure we’re working with each property owner along the route is necessary. We need to make sure they understand what changes are coming in front of their home. If there’s particular issues or concerns the homeowner has, we can work to accommodate them as much as possible.”
Murray said they are wanting to hear what residents think about the new 30% design and have released a survey for residents to take.
Shultz said she felt that with how the plan has moved forward and progressed over the last year, it seems the city doesn’t actually care to hear feedback.
“Yes, they’ve asked for public input, and they have said that they’re considering public input, but we’ve clearly seen that they’re not considering it,” Shultz said. “We’ve been told that they’ll listen to our arguments, but they don’t. Their plan is unchanged, and I think this decision that the city’s making sends a bad message to the community.”
Amy Z Anderson, a Logan City Municipal council member, said she hopes residents will realize how beneficial the improvement plan will be for the community.
“Change is upsetting for people, but I hope over time they’ll recognize how beneficial it is for the community as well as for them.”
To learn more about the 1st Dam Tank and Waterline project visit the public works capital projects page on the Logan City website.