City officials have approved the concept of a pedestrian trail system and future
recreation facilities that would be shared by Farmington City and Lagoon along the park's east side. This would be the first step in closing off Lagoon Lane.The city and the recreation park have been negotiating for several months, with Lagoon asking that the narrow, winding road be closed to allow for park expansion.
The city, in turn, wants Lagoon to develop a pedestrian and equestrian trail through the area, in addition to eventually building ball fields, picnic pavilions and other recreation facilities.
After a review by the city's Planning Commission, the City Council has given conceptual approval to a trail system and revised master plan for the park's eventual expansion, including looser height restrictions on rides on the park's east side.
Under the agreement, the center section of Lagoon Lane will be closed, turning the street into two cul-de-sacs, one to be designated 300 North and the second stub coming south off Main Street to retain the Lagoon Lane designation.
Lagoon will build and maintain a north-south trail that generally follows Farmington Creek, connecting from a point on 500 North down to 200 North. A shorter section will connect the south stub of Lagoon Lane back into the main trail.
The plan submitted by Lagoon and approved by the city shows a ballfield, tennis and volleyball courts, picnic pavilions, and other recreation facilities that will be built by Lagoon for joint use with the city.
The revised master plan for the park shows construction of new rides in the area, including a runaway mine train and river rapids.
In approving the revision, the council debated at length on new height restrictions for the rides.
The Planning Commission recommended that rides not be allowed to go any higher than the trees that screen them from adjacent residential areas. But the council found that recommendation too general, noting that tree heights can change.
Instead, the council decided to restrict rides south of 300 North to a 50-foot height limit and 75 feet for rides north of 300 North and west of the creek.
The trail system designed by Lagoon puts the pedestrian-equestrian path as far east on the property as possible, park spokesman David Freed said, to allow maximum use of the remaining land and preserve access to the creek for maintenance and landscaping.
Any property east of the path will be lost to the park for development, Freed told the council, calling it a "dead area for us."
The council wants the trail system and recreation area to serve as a buffer between the park's noisier and more intrusive features, such as the rides, and the city's residential area along Main Street.
The trail will be part of what the city envisions as a system of trails running along Farmington Creek from the mouth of Farmington Canyon out west past the county justice complex and fairgrounds, eventually reaching the Great Salt Lake.
Although granting conceptual approval to the plan submitted by Lagoon, details of a final agreement covering landscaping, fencing and joint use of the facilities that will be built remain to be worked out.