In the 1870s, businessmen platted the mining camp's streets from their offices in Grand Haven, Mich. Unless you had a mule in the silver-rush days, walking was the mode of transportation in Park City, and it was relatively safe.

A hundred years later, a new boom fueled by tourists attracted more out-of-towners. New developments and neighborhoods sprouted, but few sidewalks and bike routes. Add the explosion in automobile traffic since the 2002 Winter Olympics and you have something other than a pedestrian-friendly town.

The so-called $15 million "walkability" bond would tack $111.72 onto the annual tax bill of a primary residence on the average ($665,000) Park City house. For businesses and second homes, the rate would be almost double that.

Bond critics concede that some improvements are necessary to keep pedestrians safe as they navigate clogged streets such as Kearns Boulevard, where students dash between cars, trucks and buses on their way to and from school. But they argue the $15 million price tag is arbitrary and represents far more than needed to solve problem pedestrian crossings.

Proponents say it's high time Park City lived up to its world-class-destination status by making the streets safe for walkers and bikers, whether they are residents or visitors.

Park Meadows resident Carolyn Frankenburg launched Park City's "walkability" movement in 2005 after her young daughter was almost run over in their neighborhood. She brought together like-minded neighbors who eventually formed a grass-roots organization called Coalition for Safe Streets and began pushing City Hall for improvements.

"I did not feel like our children should be unsafe making their way to school," Frankenburg said. "We can't get from one neighborhood to the next without risking our lives."

When the City Council offered to spend $150,000 for sidewalks in Park Meadows, Frankenburg and her group said they would rather the money be spent to identify upgrades throughout Park City.

Residents from other neighborhoods eagerly joined the Coalition for Safe Streets, Frankenburg noted, because they, too, wanted more bikeways and pathways.

"The city started to listen," she said, "because there were so many people involved."

In March, Park City unveiled a "Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhood Study" commissioned from Salt Lake City-based Landmark Design. It details some 150 improvements outlined by residents in numerous town and neighborhood meetings and includes everything from pedestrian tunnels under major thoroughfares to pedestrian-activated crossing lights to new bike lanes and sidewalks.

The council pegged $1.9 million in this year's fiscal budget for increased walkability, aimed largely at Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive. But Frankenburg's group saw that as a Band-Aid and pressed for more comprehensive funding - a bond.

"It's important that we really solve these problems now," she said, "rather than piecing it together across the the next 10 to 20 years."

But longtime resident Tom Hurd said he remains curious about the process that placed the "walkability" bond on the ballot. Although the council discussed pedestrian and cyclist issues, he said, there was no public hearing specific to a bond election.

"The bond proposal was but forward by a vocal minority," Hurd said. "They browbeat the Council."

The $1.9 million council allocation is sufficient to ease pressing safety concerns, Hurd noted.

The bond, he added, is about "solving problems that are perceived in the minds of people who are adamant."

Hurd also worries about the bond's dent on wallets of longtime residents, who now find themselves in houses valued at $1 million due to the skyrocketing Park City real estate market.

Mayor Dana Williams said he could sympathize with taxpayers but insisted that putting the bond before voters was the right thing to do.

If the measure passes, the $1.9 million will go back into the general fund and a residents' committee will be established. The panel, Williams explained, would prioritize upgrades outlined in the study for the council then to consider.

"Some older residents may be bond weary," he said, noting that Parkites recently have approved $40 million in open space bonds and a $4 million recreation bond. "But it's not irresponsible to let the people decide if they want to make $15 million in improvements."

csmart@sltrib.com