Pandemic-weary residents of Salt Lake City flocked in droves to find respite and sanctuary in parks and greenways.

They showed their feelings two years later in massive numbers by voting overwhelmingly to raise taxes and pump $85 million into improving the city’s park and trails system, with projects planned citywide.

Then the waiting started.

The public campaign to secure support for that 2022 bond portrayed it as fueling an ambitious plan to fund seven major park projects, including wholesale creation of new regional spaces in park-hungry areas like Glendale and the Granary District. It would also, backers said, reimagine about a dozen smaller open spaces that residents love across the city.

Alongside that, the City Council approved a separate $67.5 million sales tax-funded bond that same year that is covering upgrades to historic places like Fisher Mansion and Pioneer Park.

Nearly four years after the voter-approved bond passed by a 71% margin in Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s first term, tax bills are definitely headed upward, yet progress toward a new era of parks in Utah’s capital has seemed slow on many fronts.

“We set the expectations so high,” said council Chair Alejandro Puy, “then we hit reality.”

But in many corners of the city, the wait may be coming to an end.

Why has progress been slow?

The general obligation and the sales tax bonds are funding up to 100 public lands projects now ramping up or already underway, according to one top city parks official. That collection of projects is worth up to $200 million.

“It is no surprise based on the numbers that this is the largest single investment that Salt Lake City has ever made into public lands and public spaces,” said Tyler Murdock, deputy director of the city’s Department of Public Lands. “It really is a generational opportunity.”

Part of the seemingly slow progress until now has flowed from the fact that the city has borrowed the $85 million in voter-approved bond money in stages — an effort to stagger the blows to tax bills for residents and businesses.

Officials borrowed $24 million in 2023, then came back late last year with approval for borrowing another $49.3 million. Still a third layer of bond debt — for around $10 million — could follow in 2028 or 2029.

That’s all set what seems like a sluggish clip to some. On top of a slower rollout of funding, all the proposed park improvements have undergone extensive public input, which city officials note can be a lengthy process.

At the same time, there’s been turnover at the Department of Public Lands overseeing it all. Kim Shelley, former executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, took over as the city department’s head in early 2025, replacing Kristin Riker, who retired at the end of 2024.

Toby Hazelbaker was then replaced as the city’s parks director in February of this year, after just over three years in that post. The spot is currently being filled on an interim basis by City Forester Tony Gliot.

Some parks projects, too, have gotten snarled on supply chain issues, including the yet-to-be-delivered playground equipment for Liberty Park.

“Although park projects may appear simple,” Mendenhall told The Salt Lake Tribune, “they require extensive coordination, permitting, design work and contracting.” The standard timeline for capital projects in the city, she added, is about three years from start to completion.

The mayor said officials at City Hall “understand residents want to see improvements as quickly as possible — and that work has been moving steadily.”

But, Puy added, that’s not to say some residents haven’t been frustrated with what has seemed like long delays in refreshing their favorite open spaces.

“I know that we have made good progress in many places in the city,” he said, “but it’s something I’ve had a hard time explaining to my neighbors.”

Now, highly visible results of the first two waves of that parks bond cash are expected to land over the coming months. Work is about to bust out in many corners of the city.

New park for Glendale, with more to come

Perhaps the most obvious effect of the bond’s first wave was infusing $9 million into creating Phase 1 of Glendale Regional Park at the former site of Raging Waters in Glendale.

That is up and open, to much enthusiasm from residents, with a second phase soon to follow.

The first batch of bond money has also pushed forward a nearly completed overhaul of Rotary Playground in Liberty Park — sans the still-awaited playground equipment — and funded upgraded water lines in Allen Park, which reopened a few weeks ago.

Also newly opened, thanks to the bond: Backman Community Open Space in Rose Park.

This summer and into the fall, city officials say, long-crafted plans for several more beloved large parks, smaller green spaces and stretches along the Jordan River will jump off the proverbial drawing board into actual construction.

Bond-funded planning and design work is now giving way into construction for Steenblik Park (the one with the cat sculptures) and for historic Donner Trail Park, which recently closed for construction.

Soon to follow from the bond’s initial cashflow is construction at Ida Cotton Park, Madsen Park, Taufer Park and Richmond Park.

The bond’s first phase has also paid for planning and design to popular Fairmont Park in Sugar House and for design toward converting a major part of that huge flat expanse of concrete at the Fleet Block into a park to serve the growing Granary neighborhood.

Second wave of cash to turn plans into reality

The second batch of bond money — known as tranche two, worth $49.3 million — will hit city coffers within days, if it hasn’t already. That’ll essentially pay to turn so much of the public listening, planning, design and permitting work the city has done in Phase 1 into real plans for more construction.

For now, there are two exceptions.

Plans for the Folsom Trail, according to Murdock, are currently on hold pending negotiations with Union Pacific over rights of way.

Work on green space at Warm Springs is also paused as the city confers with tribal authorities and explores a redevelopment of the historic building there, once known as Warms Springs Plunge.

But with that cash in hand, Glendale Regional Park will go into its second phase of construction work, starting next spring.

Fairmont Park, which saw its refreshed designs go public in the spring, is to get at least $5.8 million to turn those into a construction plan. Actual work could commence there in 2027.

The mayor has reviewed new designs for the blank slate of the Fleet Block, which will soon go from conceptual rendering to real construction design. The city has announced plans for housing and other community amenities on that block as well, once used to house its vehicle fleet.

Work is also going to begin along several stretches of the Jordan River, where the bond is expected to infuse $9 million — along with an added $4 million in outside grant money — into improving segments of the west-side corridor. There, the city is using bond money as part of gradually making a reality of its Emerald Ribbon Action Plan, which maps out an aspiring vision for 10 miles of river corridor.

First among those, according to Murdock, will be work on Modesto Park and Bend in the River along the river’s parkway trail, near the International Peace Gardens. That is to be followed by work on Cottonwood Park and 17th South River Park near the new regional park space in Glendale.

All the parks projects citywide will also have public art installations paid for with bond money.

These many investments, Mendenhall said, are part of a broader strategy “focused on open space and trail investments, planting thousands of trees, and a greater focus on natural areas, water-wise landscapes, and improved long-term maintenance.”

They’re also aimed at fulfilling that special hankering for the renewal and relief of natural spaces, added Murdock, especially as the city’s population continues to grow.

“It’s fair for the public and every community to feel eager anticipating these projects,” he said. “That’s a really cool thing about Salt Lake residents. They care deeply.”