Goal: Make the Parkway a welcoming place for visitors of all abilities, backgrounds, and circumstances
The communities along the Jordan River Parkway are some of the most diverse in the state of Utah. Although the Parkway is a cherished and well used recreational destination— especially for people living nearby—language barriers and limited cultural representation may lead some people to question whether the Parkway is a space for them. Additionally, growth in adaptive sports and an aging population necessitate the expansion of opportunities in the Parkway that people of all abilities can enjoy. Expanding ADA access and collaborating with people of different backgrounds and circumstances will help ensure that the Jordan River Parkway is a welcoming place for all Utahns.
The limited availability of drinking fountains, bathrooms, trashcans, and ADA compliant facilities is one of the top factors keeping people from visiting the Jordan River Parkway or visiting more frequently. In addition to helping visitors feel comfortable and safe, providing facilities like restrooms, drinking fountains, and trash cans can help encourage proper
etiquette and reduce the accumulation of litter and other waste along the River. Keeping loose waste out of the parkway has numerous benefits to ecosystems and improves recreational experiences.
STRATEGIES:
• Provide additional drinking fountains and restrooms to meet visitors’ basic needs.
i. Explore opportunities for commercial businesses to support Parkway visitors by providing drinking fountains and basic amenities. For example, Radius Engineering ran a water line out to the Jordan River Trail and installed a drinking fountain and dog bowl during renovations.
ii. Incorporate facility provision into municipal and regional planning, capital improvement programs, and budgets.
iii. Reference the map to identify areas of the parkway that may be underserved. Drinking fountains and restrooms are most readily available in larger parks and popular trailheads in the Parkway.
iv. Prioritize adding individual restrooms with locks. These are preferred for comfort and safety.
• Provide one or more trash receptacles that are easily accessible from the trail at each park and trailhead along the Jordan River Trail.
i. Use secure trash cans and lids to prevent trash from being blown out or otherwise removed. Develop and refer to trash can design standards for the Jordan River Parkway.
• Provide areas where people can comfortably rest and linger. The availability of passive infrastructure—including, but not limited to benches, picnic tables, pull outs, permanent hammocks or hanging furniture, hammock parks, and covered structures protected from precipitation and sun—can encourage visitors to extend their stay and develop a deeper
connection with the Jordan River.
i. Explore opportunities to use Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation mini-grants, other grant sources, and business sponsorships to help fund the installation and maintenance of passive recreation infrastructure.
• Provide flexible amenities and venues for cultural activities.
• Combine facility provision with public art and placemaking.
People with physical disabilities, short-term injuries, and the elderly may have a more difficult time using infrastructure and facilities that weren’t designed with their needs in mind. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 14 percent of American adults have a mobility-related disability. Ensuring that all facilities and infrastructure in the Jordan River Parkway meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards and incorporating universal design principles when possible is the best way to guarantee that people with mobility limitations can enjoy the Jordan River Parkway. Some of the most common accessibility issues identified during the 2020 Jordan River Parkway Inventory (Reference Document 2) include damaged or uneven surfaces and transitions on trail surfaces, trail and bridge widths, and sharp turns.
STRATEGIES:
• Refer to ADA standards and best practices when developing new infrastructure and facilities and explore opportunities to rebuild or retrofit non-compliant infrastructure and facilities.
i. Coordinate with Wasatch Adaptive Sports and other partners to identify opportunities to improve accessibility.
ii. Refer to the U.S. Access Board and the Accessibility Guidebook for Outdoor Recreation and Trails for details about ADA guidelines and best practices.
– Ensure all trails, bridges, and smooth surface boardwalks that are open to pedestrian traffic are at least 36 inches wide.
– Explore opportunities to remove or modify tight and confined turns, like the one at the 5400 South underpass.
– Maintain cross-slopes less than 15% across the trail. Consider lining portions of the trail with cross-slopes greater than 15% with rocks/boulders, wood, or other borders to reduce cross-slope percentage.
iii. Provide ADA access in parking lots and trailheads.
– In trailhead signage, provide as much information about the section of trail as possible including, but not limited to overall slope, cross-slope (with minimum and maximum data), width of bridges, width of trail, noteworthy obstacles (blind corners, bollard barriers, etc.), etc.
iv. Ensure that new interpretive signage and other educational infrastructure is designed to meet ADA standards.
v. Provide ADA accessible pull-outs along the Jordan River Trail network.
vi. Use ADA best practices in bathrooms, drinking fountains, and passive use areas in the Parkway.
vii. Improve access to water-based activities by using ADA best practices at boat ramps and fishing areas.
• Work with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to make transit more family and ability friendly for visitors to the Jordan River Parkway. Consider expanding car seat, stroller, and wheelchair areas on busses and trains.
The Wasatch Front is becoming increasingly diverse in terms of the race and cultural background of its residents. While people from many different backgrounds enjoy the Jordan River Parkway every day, additional cultural representation in the Jordan River Parkway can help the Parkway feel more welcoming to everyone.
STRATEGIES:
• Provide signage and other communications in multiple languages. According to a 2016 report by the Utah Department of Health, at least 36% of the population of Salt Lake County speak English less than “very well.” The top languages spoken (following English) are Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tongan, and Samoan.
• Use multiple avenues of communication to promote events, programming, and other opportunities in the Parkway. Online communication can be an affordable way to reach a large audience but exploring other ways to contact people with limited online access or literacy may help better engage the neighborhoods in and near the Parkway.
• Highlight the various ways people of all backgrounds use the Parkway
i. Highlight the stories of current users of the Jordan River Parkway using physical signage or kiosks on the trail, relevant websites, and/or social media. Consider rotating profiles of the many ways people spend their time in the Parkway and what they like about it. Provide these profiles in the most common languages of nearby communities.
ii. Install signs and monuments throughout the Parkway sharing information about the indigenous peoples who lived and still live along the Jordan River. Additionally, identify opportunities to develop programming or events to highlight the history and culture of indigenous people living along the Jordan.
• Partner with community and cultural groups on events, engagement, and volunteering opportunities.
Goal : Provide consistent and comprehensive maintenance, trash removal, and cleaning
As visitation to the Jordan River Parkway has grown, so too has the need to provide a clean and comfortable experience for all visitors. Clean up efforts and community stewardship have grown in recent decades, but Utahns still feel that cleanliness is a significant issue and rank it as a top priority to address in the Parkway. In fact, the 2020 Blueprint Jordan River Refresh Survey found maintenance and cleaning to be the second overall budget priority, trailing water quality only slightly.
The presence of trash, feces, and other debris in the Parkway not only detracts from recreational experiences, but also poses a threat to the health of the river ecosystem. Keeping the Parkway clean and free of waste has many benefits, including those to water quality, wildlife, and safety. During the 2020 Jordan River Parkway Inventory (Reference Document 2), trash was most consistently an issue on the trail north of 3900 South/Meadowbrook expressway, with the highest concentrations of litter found in northern Salt Lake City. Concentrations of litter in the central and southern portions of the trail were generally isolated to specific hotspots.
STRATEGIES:
• Understand the sources of trash and other waste to help professional and volunteer stewards target their efforts.
i. Explore opportunities to identify sources by coordinating with land managers and public works departments.
ii. Provide convenient avenues for visitors to report trash and maintenance-related issues. MyJordanRiver.org provides “report an issue” functionality that can collect descriptions, photos, locations, and contact information. Install signage along the river to promote reporting and ensure comments provided reach the agencies and groups that can respond appropriately.
• Include maintenance and cleaning in public budgets for public services and parks.
• Consider developing a garbage management plan for the Jordan River watershed.
• Explore opportunities to use water quality funds including nonpoint source funding, oil spill mitigation funds, etc. to support garbage cleanup efforts. Trash can collect and deposit microparticles, plastics, and other pollutants into the Jordan River watershed.
• Support and expand volunteer stewardship programs.
i. Develop and expand “friends of the Jordan River Parkway” and volunteer “Corps” to perform natural resource stewardship activities — picking
invasive/exotic weeds, trash pick-up, and interacting with and educating Parkway visitors.
ii. Develop and expand “adopt a river” programs. These programs could be managed by municipalities, counties, and/or educational and other groups.
iii. Explore opportunities to incentivize volunteers, such as providing food or snacks, access to events, free or discounted equipment rentals, etc.
• Explore opportunities to provide a platform or organizational structure volunteers can use to collaborate with each other and coordinate efforts. Volunteer groups can find it frustrating to plan, prepare, and arrive at a location to perform a cleanup activity only to find the area recently cleaned by another group. Improving coordination among volunteer groups will make the most out of cleanup efforts in the Parkway.
i. Consider providing information about each organized cleanup effort on the Jordan River Master Calendar or developing a shared map of recent cleanup efforts and upcoming volunteer opportunities. While adding information about cleanup activities could be primarily
crowdsourced, it would require some occasional maintenance and curation by a knowledgeable organization or individual.
• Collaborate with appropriate agencies to have biowaste and drug paraphernalia cleaned up properly and safely along the Jordan River.
i. Discourage volunteer cleanup efforts from cleaning biowaste and associated items and direct them to the appropriate agencies for response.
Facilities like bathrooms, drinking fountains, boat ramps, educational infrastructure, lighting, and more can become less effective or even unusable if they are not properly maintained and cleaned. Dirty or damaged facilities can also contribute to a sense of decline or danger. Closed or unusable facilities can be frustrating and contribute to negative experiences for visitors. It is essential for all existing facilities and those installed in the future to have a plan in place for their ongoing maintenance and cleaning.
STRATEGIES:
• Support the establishment of maintenance and cleaning plans and protocols to keep facilities safe, open, and enjoyable.
i. Explore opportunities to regularly monitor restrooms and other facilities with professional staff, as budgets allow.
ii. Coordinate with volunteer efforts and user groups throughout the Parkway to help.
• When installing facilities, consider design options that are easy to clean and maintain. Facilities should be solidly constructed, easy to replace, and/or convenient to refinish.
• Provide up-to-date information about the status of facilities, including seasonal closures, on signage, the Jordan River Commission website, and other recreation websites.
Goal: Mitigate homelessness in the Jordan River Parkway
The Jordan River has been a place of refuge and sustenance for humans since pre-colonial times. People, especially those who are otherwise unsheltered, still look to the River as a place to fulfil their physical needs. Uses including unpermitted camping can sometimes threaten water quality and conservation goals within scarce riparian ecosystems if steps are not taken to mitigate impacts. Since the conditions leading to homelessness are a statewide challenge, supporting efforts to prevent Utahns from falling into homelessness and to uplift those currently experiencing homelessness may reduce their need to camp along the Jordan River. Cross-agency collaboration and response to unpermitted camping can help connect people experiencing homelessness with services and shelters.
STRATEGIES:
- Advocate for and support regional and statewide efforts to make homelessness in Utah rare, brief, and non-recurring. According to the State of Utah Strategic Plan on Homelessness, the availability of affordable housing, supportive housing, emergency beds, mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, and case management are areas of unmet community needs.
i. Coordinate with the Utah Homelessness Council and state homeless coordinator to develop more effective models for helping those experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. As of 2021, local governments including Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake, and Midvale are members of the Homelessness Council as well as the Jordan River Commission and can represent the needs of the Jordan River Parkway in statewide discussions about homelessness.
ii. Participate in and support initiatives like the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness. - Connect people experiencing homelessness with shelters and services to reduce their need to camp in the Parkway.
i. Develop outreach teams with expertise in homeless response, mental health, and substance abuse to operate throughout the Parkway.
ii. Provide signage and online information on which social service providers to contact regarding unsheltered individuals in different locations. Combining the functionality of the homeless reporting maintained by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands with the MyJordanRiver.org site is a potential opportunity for universal reporting.
iii. Explore opportunities to establish or identify appropriate areas for people experiencing homelessness to stay if they are unwilling to stay in homeless resource shelters. - Identify opportunities to partner with the unsheltered community on stewardship through education, incentives, and resource provision. Encourage service providers to incorporate waste removal and clean-ups into their outreach plans so that discarded items don’t accumulate in the Parkway.
