There has been tremendous confusion in recent weeks over the gondola/Foothill/Malan's Basin development proposal from Mayor Godfrey and Chris Peterson. As of this writing, neither the city nor the Standard-Examiner has published an accurate map showing current land ownership and what lands would be sold. Perhaps this map can clarify the situation.
Chris Peterson is apparently the owner of Salt Lake Exchange Accommodations, which acquired the 1440-acre Malan's Basin property (tinted gray) in February, 2005. This property abuts the Ogden city limits but does not include any land within the city limits. With only tiny, isolated exceptions, this land is too steep to develop.
The current proposal is for the city to sell to Chris Peterson approximately 175 acres of city-owned foothill property including all of Mt. Ogden Golf Course, plus all of the contiguous undeveloped land lying east and south of the golf course. This is most of the red-tinted area on the map (not to be confused with the pink on the underlying topographic base map). The city would retain ownership of the westernmost strip of the red-tinted area along Taylor Avenue, which includes the soccer fields, tennis courts, and picnic areas. Confusingly, some maps (including the topographic base map used here) refer to the entire city-owned parcel as "Mt. Ogden Park," while other maps refer to only the narrow soccer/tennis/picnic area as "Mt. Ogden Park."
Mr. Peterson is also seeking to acquire all (or nearly all) of the purple-tinted area east of Skyline Drive, owned by Weber State University.
The dark green-tinted areas on the map are owned and managed by the U. S. Forest Service. Note that these lands include a small parcel within the city limits near the 29th Street trailhead, nearly all of the bottom of Taylor Canyon, and much of the bottom of Strong's Canyon. Any new trail construction in these areas would require approval from the Forest Service and, if significant, prior environmental analysis. Note also that nearly half a mile of Forest Service property separates the eastern edge of Peterson's property from the ridge that is the upper boundary of Snowbasin Ski Area. Extending a gondola from Malan's Basin to Snowbasin would therefore require Forest Service approval and environmental analysis.
The dashed black lines on this map show the existing trail system in this area. (Hikers beware: Not all these trails are easy to follow. In particular, the route between Malan's Falls and Malan's Basin involves some scrambling and route-finding skills. There are cliffs in this area that can be deadly if you take a wrong turn!) Most of the trails on private land have been in use for many decades, and are therefore considered public rights-of-way under common law. More than half of the existing foothill trails south of 29th Street would be obliterated according to the latest version of the development plan, although there are promises of new trails that would be constructed within and above the development.
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Last modified 14 May 2006