Update: Pioneer Park Revitalization is Underway

The coalition led the way for the first phase of development by committing $300,000 to revitalize the park. The improvements include: tearing down the bathrooms which had become public health and safety hazard, creating a multi-use lawn, and installing pedestrian lighting. In December 2017, after coalition's commitment, the Salt Lake City Council approved a $544,000 budget amendment to use capital improvement funds to begin construction. In July 2018, the Salt Lake City RDA committed $90,000 to cover the full shortfall on the park's great lawn construction this year, as construction costs increased. We cannot express our gratitude enough to the Mayor Biskupski, Public Services Deputy Director Kristin Riker, City Council Member Derek Kitchen, and others from the city who made this possible.

Simultaneously as we have been pushing for this first phase to finish, we are working with the Downtown Community Council, Downtown Alliance, and our Pioneer Park Exploratory Group to put forward a proposal for the second phase to develop the rest of the park to the City Council and Mayor. On August 30, we held an open house for a proposed design that built off the city’s public outreach and design charrette process in 2015. We were overwhelmed with the nearly 100 residents, businesses, nonprofit, government, and community leaders who came and provided their feedback during the event. As a reminder, this proposal is a draft. We are meticulously going through the public feedback and doing our best to work with City Parks Department, Downtown Alliance, and other key stakeholders to keep making progress on the park and the proposal for a public-private partnership.

This is an unofficial rendering of the Great Lawn, which is expected to be completed and opened in Spring 2019. Designed by PPC member and local resident Mike Hatch.

Help Us Improve Pioneer Park This Year!

We need your help. Please donate today to help build a great lawn, sports field, and lighting at Pioneer Park. We have committed $300,000 to Salt Lake City to help with this construction and we have $65,000 left to raise by July 11.

We founded the Pioneer Park Coaltion a little over four years ago to help make our park and our neighborhood safe and inviting to all. To accomplish this, we first needed to address issues related to drugs, crime, and homeless services. In that short time, thanks to your efforts and the efforts of many others, we have seen decisionmakers commit to revamping homeless services, commit to replacing the downtown shelter, and instigating Operation Rio Grande. Our neighborhood is changing.

But to reach our vision of a safe and inviting neighborhood, we still have work to do.

Pioneer Park is the key to the next steps in this effort. If the park becomes a place where all members of the public feel comfortable, this will have significant positive effects on our neighborhood. We see this every Saturday with the Farmers Market.

In 2015, the Pioneer Park Coalition started an effort, with the City and other partners, to redesign the park. The City wants to implement part of that vision this year by constructing a great lawn and sports field in the center of the park. We hope that this is the first step towards major changes at the park.

We committed $300,000 to help make this happen. We have raised most of those funds already but we still have $65,000 left to go. We could be on the hook to write a check to the City as early as July 11. Please help us get there.

Your dollars will have immediate impact and will help make our park more inviting to the public. Please donate today.