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Show City council mobilizes push for bike path m by Christopher Smart The Park City Council launched a last minute effort Feb. 7 to keep alive hopes for a bike path to accompany a proposed $14 million highway to Kimball's Junction. The council's unofficial consensus to push for the bikeway sent Park City planners Bill Ligety and Jennifer Harrington scurrying to finalize a plan to deliver to the Utah Department of Transportation, (UDOT) by Feb. 11, the last day the agency would accept public comment on the new highway. By the agreement reached in the council's afternoon session, Ligety will present to UDOT engineers a plan for a ten-foot-wide bike path which would be separated from the highway by five feet. In the area between ParkWest and Silver Springs, the bikeway may be closer to the highway, according to the proposal, because of a lack of right-of-way there. Other groups that support the bike path and have delivered written responses to UDOT include the teachers and staffs of Park City School District schools, the Park City Board Education, Summit County Representative Glen Brown, the Park City ChamberBureau, Deer Valley Resort, the Historic Main Street Association But while there is widespread support for a bike path, a number of concerns were revealed at the council work session. City councilman Jim Doilney said funding for the bike path may present a problem. Referring to an earlier meeting with UDOT, Doilney said, "I came to the conclusion that UDOT would have to fund other projects before a bike path." City manager Arlene Loble said if the bike path were to delay the construction of the new Utah Highway 224, it might not be worthwhile. The bike path along Highway 224 would be constructed on an easement which, for the most part, will be located outside Park City limits. Loble said the city could find itself at "cross purposes' with Summit County government. He added that it might be inappropriate for the Park City government to present a plan for county grounds to UDOT. But city councilman Bill Coleman and Doilney believe the county commission would favor the plan. They said they would clear the plan with the commission and asked Ligety and Harrington to go ahead with outlining the proposal. Coleman admonished the staff not to "pummel" UDOT officials with the proposal. Rather, he said the planners should take a specific plan to the highway officials on their "hands and knees." |
