CLEARFIELD -- The city has become so urbanized that residents taking long walks these days must undoubtedly pass over sidewalks alongside busy roadways.
However, that could change in the next few years as Clearfield hopes to build a 3.5-mile trail along a solitary canal.Clearfield Recreation Supervisor Tracy Heun hopes this will be a north Davis County version of Salt Lake County's Jordan River Parkway.
She's working to gain a public easement along the Davis and Weber Canal where it comes into the city at the boundary of Sunset, paralleling I-15 and Hill Air Force Base. The canal passes under I-15 at 200 South and heads southeast at 700 South, passing by Summer Place Drive before heading into Layton.
Heun's hopeful the easement will be granted at a Canal Board meeting in January. She has also involved Layton recreation officials in the process so that city receives an easement for a future trail there. With Layton segment added, the canal path would be at least six miles long.
"I would like to start construction in the next fiscal year," Heun said.
That means 1999-2000.
She has $15,000 available now for design of the trail, which would go from one end of the city to the other. She'll seek some state trail money, plus an allocation from the City Council, to actually build a paved, 10-foot-wide bike/foot bath along the canal.
"We're really excited about this. It'll be really nice," Heun said.
She feels the trail will not only be a great recreational asset to the city, but that it will also provide another form of transportation across Clearfield and will even probably provide good walking access to Hill Air Force Base.
The trail also conveniently passes by the future site of the Weber State University Davis County campus.
While this trail won't actually free up any more open space in Davis County, it will provide public access to some existing open areas and could be the focal point for future city parks and adjoining trails.
For example, Heun's planning that two future city parks will adjoin the trail and offer parking space for users. Clearfield owns three acres near the Pinnacle Apartments (700 S. Angel St.) and another 10 acres east of 1500 East, near Summer Place Drive.
Heun has been working with Layton Recreation Supervisor Dean Allen to ensure the trail will someday go through the heart of Layton and even connect to its proposed Kays Creek Corridor Trail.
"We don't have precise plans," Allen said. "We're just getting permission now," he said, explaining he'd like to get the Kays Creek Trail going first.
Allen wants to develop the upper two miles of the Kays Creek Trail first, from Hobbs Reservoir to Antelope Drive. Still, he admits the canal trail will be a great asset to the city.
The Kays Creek Trail would eventually connect with the canal trail near Fairfield Road and Cherry Lane.
The Layton segment of the canal trail would be about 2.5 miles long. It intersects Fort Lane just south of Antelope Drive and then heads east to Church Street and Cherry Lane.
Heun said while the canal trail won't cater to horses, she's planning another trial segment on Clearfield's west side -- under the Utah Power line corridor -- that will allow equestrian use.