Alexa Sand
In the late 19th century, American landscape architect and conservationist Frederick Law Olmstead was the nation’s leading advocate for urban planning that incorporated existing natural features of the landscape.
It is thanks to his work, and that of his partners and his sons, that many American cities have the spectacular greenspaces they do today, from New York City to San Francisco.
No city in Utah benefitted from Olmsted planning, but Logan, almost haphazardly, has many of the elements of an Olmsted-plan: plentiful open waterways, big, green parks, meandering footpaths that link neighborhoods, and tree-lined parkways like West Center Street and Canyon Road. Yet, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Current plans to redesign Canyon Road could result in disaster, both for the natural beauty of this historic corridor, and for those who live and recreate along the north edge of the Island.
Geologists have warned that major disruptions such as cutting into the upslope to the north of Canyon Road and removing the mature ash trees between 600 East and Canyon Cove could result in landslides and flooding, and despite residents’ efforts, the city council and mayor have not been willing to seriously consider any real alternatives to current plans to bring a 42” water pipe down this section of the road.
As the nearly 5,000 signatures that our neighborhood group, the Canyon Road Coalition, collected last fall objecting to the cutting of the ash trees suggests, people care about this place, and want to see solutions that will preserve its Olmsted-like character. I urge our city council members and mayor to consider this: Logan is home to Utah State’s Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and Civil Engineering departments, both of which are recognized for the excellence of their faculty and their willingness to engage students with community-based projects.
Instead of leaving all the planning to a Reno-based engineering firm and the brainstorming of council members (none of them trained environmental planners or civil engineers), why not tap into the pool of local talent and engage the next generation in envisioning the future of our city? As devastated as I will be if the current plan to kill the centenarian ash trees proceeds, I would like whatever design takes their place to be more than just a bunch of compromises and engineering “solutions.”
The entire plan for the Canyon Road corridor and the Little Logan corridor should be coordinated, integrated, and expertly tuned before irreversible damage is done. If you are a Logan voter, contact city council members and let them know you support a community-engaged, expert-informed approach to urban planning. Let’s keep Logan Olmsted-like!
