Students help design Hyde Park recreational area
Students contributed their ideas for a new recreational area in Hyde Park on Tuesday.
Members of the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning class at Utah State University presented various resolutions to the Hyde Park City Council about extending Lions Park.
USU is a land-grant university – one built on land designated by Congress for educational purposes.
Joyce Kinkead, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies and Research, said as such, it has a mission to apply knowledge that will benefit the community.
So, students presented their resolutions for changing an existing gravel pit into an extension of Lions Park as part of their class project.
After four weeks of planning, including researching similar parks, performing a site analysis, developing independent programs of the park itself and making a map of their representation of the park, seven of the 30 students in the class presented their ideas to the city council.
Michael Timmons, professor of the class, said, “We are looking for the highest and best use for this particular parcel of land.”
The section of land studied stretches about one-half a mile north to south from 100 North to the Smithfield canal.
The land has many constraints, including a lot of vegetation and downhill slopes, Timmons said.
The students faced such obstacles while designing their resolutions. Many students debated whether to put a road heading east to west through the park. Other students considered a road through the park would conflict with existing transportation plans followed by the city.
Jesse Allen, student of LAEP, said, “I didn’t put a road through the park for safety reasons and the freedom to walk through the park.”
Allen also put a one-mile pathway around the park in his recreational design.
Other students incorporated an amphitheater and picnic areas in their designs, along with wide, open areas for physical activities and sports. Many students took the approach of highly wooded areas to emphasize the natural side of the park.
Gavin Wyman, student of LAEP, said, “I want to keep people into the site and make them feel like they are away from everything.”
The designs included many multi-use facilities, including ponds, rivers, horse trails and jogging trails.
Timmons said, “There were a number of things embodied in these solutions.”
The recreational designs by the students will be considered by the members of the city council to eventually develop the land into an extension of Lions Park in about five years.
David Kooyman, member of the city council, said, “You’ve opened a lot of doors to the community. It’s opened my eyes to a number of things that I don’t have the ability to vision.”
Some of the students will also develop plans for Jordan Park in Salt Lake City at the end of the semester.
Kinkead said previous projects contributed by the LAEP include a looking-ahead perspective of Franklin and Summit counties and environmental impacts on Bluff, Utah.
-mmackay@cc.usu.edu