A peak inside Salt Lake City's first new regional park in over 60 years

SALT LAKE CITY — Children didn't waste any time testing out all that Salt Lake City's newest park has to offer.

Many tumbled down its vibrantly colored slides, which popped even before the sun broke free from the overcast sky on a chilly Saturday morning. Others felt like they were just there for its zip line or flocked to an all-abilities climbing structure designed to resemble a sandhill crane, well before helping city leaders and project officials cut a ribbon to signal the opening of Glendale Regional Park.

Their laughs and smiles seemed to suggest that the transformation of the old Raging Waters/Seven Peaks water park was worth the wait, as the city opened its first new regional park since the designation of Sugar House Park in 1957.

"It's exciting to see the community so excited and engaged," said Jon Ruedas, a senior landscape architect and project manager for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Lands, after the event wrapped up. "They've been patient, and we appreciate that. It's been a long time coming."

The brightly colored slides and crane-shaped climbing feature are just some of the elements in the first phase of the park. There's also a full basketball court, pavilion, looped walking paths, new picnic lawn space, shaded canopies, native planting areas and a parking lot. Many of the elements are bright blue, green and yellow to match the palette of the old water park's slides.

They complete the rest of the park's first buildout phase after its "first chapter" — 12 new pickleball courts — opened in August. Pieces of the old slides will also return next year, when a new art feature is installed to complete the first phase.

However, getting to this point took a few years, and a journey that endured more twists and turns than any of the old water slides.

Raging Waters, which debuted in the 1980s and was a hit for the Glendale neighborhood for years, closed in 2018 and became a hotbed for criminal activity not long afterward. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall first proposed turning the shuttered water park into a regional park in 2021, pointing out that the site was acquired using some state and federal dollars that "required it to be a park in perpetuity."

At the same time, there are more children per capita on the west side of the city, which factored in the need for more park space.

"We heard loud and clear — for years — that the west side needed more and better access to awesome park space because, disproportionately, large parks have not been on the west side," the mayor said on Saturday, as children ran around behind her to try out the park.

Several public surveys and meetings were conducted before the Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Department unveiled its vision for the land in August 2022, mapping out a unique park space with the same vibrancy as the park's old slides.

City residents approved an $85 million general obligation bond for park improvements later in 2022, which directed approximately $27 million toward the construction of the new Glendale park. Another $3.5 million was set aside through fees developers pay that go toward parks and other city features.

Ground officially broke a year later, with a goal to have its first phase open by the summer of 2024, but it quickly ran into snags. Project officials reported in September 2024 that the required paperwork and other due diligence took longer than expected. Environmental remediation and construction also took longer than expected, pushing the projected opening date to this summer and, eventually, to December.

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The 'first chapter' of Glendale Regional Park is now open. When will the rest follow?

Salt Lake City opened 12 new pickleball courts in August, signaling the first of many new elements of Glendale Regional Park.

The park's new pickleball courts were completed first because the city already had tennis courts next to the Raging Waters site, some of which were transformed for pickleball. Those have been quite popular, with daily use at this point, said Kim Shelley, director of Salt Lake City Public Lands.

"It's just the beginning of this park," she adds. "There's so much more to come."

'More to come'

That's because work on the park's next phase — focusing on the park's southeast edge — is already picking up steam. Salt Lake City is preparing to issue the next tranche tied to the 2022 bond in 2026, which figures to fund many of the park's next features.

A winter ice skating/summer roller skating ribbon, skatepark and sledding hill are all part of the planned second phase. It also features a stage for community concerts and events, more art pieces, additional garden space and boardwalks with improved Jordan River access.

Construction could begin by late 2026 or early 2027, and is expected to take two years to complete, Ruedas told KSL.

While it's not part of the next phase, crews plan to set aside space for a potential aquatic facility that could be built at a later time as additional funding is secured. That will likely require a partnership with Salt Lake County or another entity to operate, he explained.

City officials say they are also working toward "staffing and management oversight" for ice skating, kayak rentals or other elements that may require outside help as the new regional park grows.

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