By Cassie Goff | [email protected]

A trail access plan for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail within the city limits of Cottonwood Heights was presented by Senior Landscape Architect Rob Donigan from Blu Line Design to the city council on Feb. 6. Blu Line Designs has identified five potential local access points and three potential regional access points for the Bonneville Shoreline Trial.

“A number of places that might work have been identified. That doesn’t mean they all have to work, or that they all will,” said Community and Economic Development Director Michael Johnson.

Local access points are aimed to serve city residents and are located within residential neighborhoods with limited amenities and parking. They are meant to serve as secondary access points, next to regional access points. The goal is to have a local access point every one to two miles. Typical amenities at local access points may include trail signage and wayfinding, waste receptacles, benches and limited parking.

“Local access points would see minimal improvements and would really just be for neighborhood use,” Donigan said.

The potential locations identified for local access points “are mostly dead-end roads or cul-de-sacs that currently have open access to the proposed Bonneville Shoreline Trail Alignment. Most of them have ownership issues as they would be crossing privately owned property. We believe there are opportunities here and the access points are necessary,” Donigan said.

The potential local access points identified are on Mountain Cove Circle (the LDS chapel location), 3676 East 8335 South (off of Top of the World Dr.) Golden Oaks Drive (providing access to Deaf Smith Canyon) and the open end of the cul-de-sac on Kings Hill Drive and Kings Hill Place.

“We want a good idea of where access will come from, what the impact of those access points will be and what the challenges are,” Johnson said.

Regional trailheads are aimed to serve both local and regional trail users. The goal is to have a regional trailhead every one to four miles. The typical amenities for these include trail signage and wayfinding, waste receptacles, benches and tables, restroom facilities, pavilions, drinking fountains, bike repair stations and parking lots. 

One of the potential areas identified for a regional trailhead within the city is the gravel pit (6900 Wasatch Boulevard). This potential trailhead could include a plan for a rather large parking area and could be included with the expected recreational hub. The timing of development here could prove to be an issue though. “Whatever development occurs there, hopefully it would accommodate or include a trailhead access point to the north end of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail,” said Donigan.

Another potential area identified for a regional trailhead location is the Big Cottonwood Canyon Pull Off (on Big Cottonwood Canyon Road, before Dogwood Picnic Area). This area was identified because there is already existing parking with visible and easy access.

The last potential area identified for a regional trailhead is the Ferguson Canyon Overflow (between Prospector Drive and Wasatch Boulevard, approximately 7652 South). Through Salt Lake County, the land is available and it’s easily accessible from Wasatch Boulevard.

These regional trailheads would “have restrooms and more meaningful signage,” said Donigan.

After Blu Line Design receives some feedback from residents and city staff members, they will begin to evaluate additional factors such as topography and land ownership. From there, they will begin developing preliminary conceptual designs for these access points and trailheads.

Eventually, they “will wrap it up into a final proposed master plan document that we can deliver in about six months,” said Donigan. This master plan is anticipated to come before the Cottonwood Heights City Council later this year.

“The goal here is to provide meaningful, useful and safe access points to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail,” said Donigan.