The effort to create the Snyderville Basin Cemetery District’s first public cemetery is moving along.
A new preferred site was announced in December. Pete Gillwald, a landscape architect and district board member, has prepared a proposed layout for a burial ground at that location.
In February, Gillwald and Max Greenhalgh, district board chair, updated the Summit County Council on the cemetery’s progress. They said board members have been discussing the project with county officials, local government agencies, area property owners and other stakeholders.
On Wednesday, the cemetery board members will discuss their next steps. They will get an initial report on an outside consultant’s marketing study that will help them determine the rates of plot sales and interments, the cemetery’s market area and whether that area might extend beyond the Snyderville Basin, among other factors.
The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Richins Building, where the Summit County Library is located at Kimball Junction.
And on March 18, the cemetery board and the County Council will take comments regarding the proposed new site at a joint public hearing that begins at 6 p.m. at the Richins Building.
A burial ground in the unincorporated area has been under consideration for years because the Park City Cemetery is reserved for people who have lived in the municipality. Snyderville Basin residents voted in 2012 to create the district, but the proposal stalled until 2023, when the County Council appointed board members.
The district’s mission is to provide one or more public cemeteries to benefit residents of the Snyderville Basin area.
The board’s initial preferred site was approximately 10 acres owned by Summit County and the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District in what is known as the Utah Olympic Park. That site is along the north side of Olympic Parkway about a half-mile from the roundabout.
The choice was opposed by community members who said the cemetery would interfere with existing recreational activities at the location and that it was not appropriate to have it next to a public trail network. There was also a perception that having a cemetery along the roadway leading to the Olympic venues could be a psychological distraction to athletes and guests, the cemetery board said in a post on its website.
Other concerns were traffic and the possible impact on residential property values.
Because of the pushback, the cemetery board removed the site from consideration and, after an “exhaustive search,” selected a preferred location it describes as less controversial yet still well-suited for the district’s needs. The new preferred site is at the corner of S.R. 224 and Bear Cub Drive.
The site is geologically adequate for a cemetery based on test pits dug last summer, according to the district. The district offered a survey in the early planning stages to members of the public to learn their preferences for cemetery amenities and offerings.
“We’ve looked at over 20 different parcels that are owned by the county and we’ve been vetting them and discarding the ones that don’t work for us,” Gillwald said.
He said the public will be able to learn more about the process and give their input as the cemetery takes shape, including at hearings when the board acquires the land and applies for a conditional use permit.
“So there’s going to be multiple opportunities for people to weigh in,” Gillwald said.
The proposed layout has burial plots, a memorial garden, cremation gardens, parking and a 3,000-square-foot community building. The building could have restrooms, office space if a cemetery manager is hired and space for visitors if the weather is bad, Gillwald said.
The expectation is that memorial services would be held off-site before an interment so “we’re not looking to be a church or a chapel that has seating capacity for hundreds of people,” he said.
Based on the interment rates, Gillwald estimates the cemetery would have about 160 years of capacity.
Gillwald said the board doesn’t want the cemetery to be a place that people visit once for the interment and never go back. The district’s vision statement envisions the cemetery as a beautiful memorial park that incorporates burial places within the natural environment.
“It is a peaceful retreat that offers our citizens and guests opportunities for community gatherings, public art, and passive recreation, while serving as a place of respectful visitation to honor and memorialize the citizens that lived here and helped make our community great!” the statement says.