West Haven park plans, Ogden Arts Plaza, other projects to share RAMP tax funds
The site of a yet to be developed park in West Haven on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The city has received grant funding to develop the 86.7 acre area tentatively named Prevedel Park.
The site of a yet to be developed park in West Haven on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The city has received grant funding to develop the 86.7 acre area tentatively named Prevedel Park.
The site of a yet to be developed park in West Haven on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The city has received grant funding to develop the 86.7 acre area tentatively named Prevedel Park.
The site of a yet to be developed park in West Haven on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The city has received grant funding to develop the 86.7 acre area tentatively named Prevedel Park.
WEST HAVEN — Plans to turn an undeveloped area of West Haven abutting the Weber River into a sprawling new park have taken a big step forward.
Weber County leaders have approved a $480,000 injection of funding from a special 0.1% county sales tax to help develop Prevedel Park, as it’s tentatively known, in West Haven’s northern reaches. It’s the largest of several projects that will share $3.88 million in tax funds in all for projects focused on arts and recreation.
West Haven Mayor Sharon Bolos on Wednesday lauded the decision to earmark the funding for the park. The plans, she maintains, are a way to preserve a piece of wilderness as growth and residential development eat up more and more terrain in the area.
Rendering supplied, city of West Haven
A rendering of Prevedel Park in West Haven, as it’s tentatively known. Weber County Commissioners on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, earmarked $480,000 for the project.
“It’s going to be the kind of park that people come visit and feel that they’re in that part of the county that they feel they’re losing,” she said. West Haven is the fastest-growing city in the county and the pace of development has been a heated and ongoing point of discussion, with many lamenting what they say is the loss of the area’s country feel.
The park plans aren’t the only projects in line for a big injection of funding from the RAMP tax, meant for recreation, arts, museums and parks development. Weber County commissioners on Tuesday also approved large earmarks for three other projects, boding for continued enhancement of the county’s arts and recreational offerings:
$450,000 for the Ogden Arts Plaza, a plaza to be developed at the site of the former Courtyard Motel in the 400 block of 25th Street, west of the Monarch building and part of Ogden’s Nine Rails Creative District.
$324,241 for further development of Ogden Pioneer Stadium, home to the annual Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. More specifically, the money is to be used to help install new seating in the south grandstands and connect the south and east seating areas with a “safety bridge.”
$200,000 to help install a new audio system in Austad Auditorium in Weber State University’s Browning Center for the Performing Arts.
The RAMP tax, collected since the mid-2000s, generated $4.2 million in all for 2020 for recreation, arts and related projects, according to Maresha Bosgieter, a member of the RAMP Tax Advisory Board.
The Prevedel Park, arts plaza, Pioneer Stadium and Austad Auditorium projects, known as “majors” because of the amount of RAMP funds each received, garnered $1.45 million between them. As part of Tuesday’s action, based on RAMP Tax Advisory Board recommendations, commissioners also approved $1.24 million in funding for 50 other arts and museums projects and $1.19 million for 17 additional parks and recreation projects. Another $340,000 in RAMP funding has yet to be allocated.
The RAMP tax has generated $42.81 million in all for projects since its inception, according to Bosgieter. “It’s a blessing to the smaller communities as well as the larger communities. Everyone benefits from this,” said Commissioner Scott Jenkins, alluding to the range of projects that have received RAMP money.
’NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT'
Here are more details of the four projects getting “majors” funding:
Prevedal Park: The park is to be developed on 86.7 acres, most of that in West Haven but a portion in Marriott-Slaterville. Around 30 acres of the land was donated from the developer of an adjacent piece of land that’s to be turned into a subdivision containing around 200 units, including homes and town homes.
West Haven will match the $450,000 grant with around $500,000 of city money, according to Bolos, and plans call for development of a network of paths in the land and small clearings for camping. Two parking areas are envisioned at the southern end of the park, per a rendering of the facility.
“We want to preserve what’s there, the wilderness that’s there,” Bolos said. “There’s nothing else like it in the county.”
Work should start this summer, but many specifics of the time line and what gets developed first have to be sorted out.
Ogden Arts Plaza: The plaza has an overall estimated price tag of $3 million, according to the application for funding, with additional funding expected to come from public and private sources and foundations.
It will “include (a) multimedia display, water features, concrete amphitheater seating and performance and exhibit space,” reads the application. Boosters estimate it will draw as many as 100,000 visitors a year.
Ogden First Inc., a nonprofit corporation, is spearheading the initiative.
Pioneer Stadium: Donated seating from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, home to the Utah Jazz, was placed in the north side of the stadium in 2018.
Now, boosters’ plans call for installation of new aluminum seating in the south and east grandstands as well as a “beautiful new picturesque entrance,” according to the application for funds. The total project price tag is $4.13 million and the work is to be done before July 2020.
The Ogden Pioneer Days Foundation, which requested the RAMP funds, is also seeking funding from other public and private sources.
Austad Auditorium: The total estimated cost of the sound system to be installed is $404,741, according to the application for RAMP funding, submitted by the Weber State University Foundation.
The existing system “is not capable of delivering clear and balanced sound to all areas of the theater,” the application reads. Austad Auditorium seats around 1,400 people and is the largest venue within the Browning Center.
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