Located just east of Westminster College in the Sugar House district of Salt Lake City, Allen Park is a nearly eight-acre parcel – the eclectic former home and estate of the Allen family – that stretches along a quarter mile of Emigration Creek. With support from community members and organizations, the City bought the culturally and environmentally important site in early 2020 with the intent to create a public park.

Determining how best to adapt the property into a public park is the next step in the process. Creating an Adaptive Reuse and Management Plan for Allen Park was prioritized in the City’s Public Lands Master Plan, Reimagine Nature, adopted in 2021. A General Obligation Bond to fund parts of the Citywide public lands master plan was approved by voters in 2022, with $4.5 million identified for Allen Park improvements.

With public support, the City desires Allen Park to be an open, public pedestrian park that highlights the site’s unique history, preserves and enhances ecological features, repairs and celebrates the artistic expressions scattered throughout the site, and retains the most culturally significant structures on the site.

To reach this goal, Salt Lake City Public Lands is following recommendations in the Allen Park Cultural Landscape Report (CLR), completed in 2022, and seeking public input through robust online and in-person public engagement throughout summer and fall 2023 to determine preferred uses for the site.

Allen Park is a treasured, one-of-a-kind, culturally rich, and environmentally important landscape along the banks of Emigration Creek. One of the last remaining largely undeveloped parcels in the Sugar House area, Salt Lake City acquired Allen Park in March 2020 to prevent its development and create a publicly accessible park. The City’s reasons for purchasing the property include the following:

• Save one of the large parcels of open space left on the east side of the City;
• Preserve important City history and Allen Park as a cultural resource;
• Protect and enhance the Emigration Creek riparian corridor;
• Improve the creek’s floodplain to better control water flow;
• Preserve the potential to connect trails through Allen Park; and
• Create a new park with active community use.

Allen Park was created by Dr. George Allen, his wife, Ruth Allen, their family members, and local folk artists, largely between 1931, when the Allens moved to the site and Dr. Allen’s death in 1961. Dr. Allen was also known for his eclectic interests, ranging from creating mosaic poetry to collecting and caring for exotic birds. He helped launch Salt Lake City’s Hogle Zoo and Tracy Aviary. Allen family members and renters in the property’s duplexes continued living at Allen Park until 2018, when the land was sold for development. Salt Lake City then bought the property in 2020 with the intent of creating a public park. The cultural importance of Allen Park is documented in the Cultural Landscape Report (CLR), published in 2022.

The biggest change is that the Allen Park property is now in public ownership as a park cared for by the City’s Public Lands Department. The City opened Allen Park to public access in October 2020, and it is subject to the same rules that apply to all parks by ordinance. A security guard is posted at the Park’s entrance as a temporary measure, given the danger of numerous dilapidated buildings and the need to protect the unique artworks.

The City is now in the process of developing the Allen Park Adaptive Reuse and Management Plan, which will determine future decisions made in the park based on public engagement and the findings of the Allen Park Cultural Landscape Report (CLR), which documents the site’s history and cultural importance. Until the Adaptive Reuse and Management Plan is completed, the City will use the CLR to guide management and operations at the Park.

What we know for sure is that the park will remain open as a public pedestrian park that celebrates the unique ecology and Emigration Creek that runs through the park. Recommendations for future programming and capital improvements to the site and structures will be made in the Adaptive Reuse and Management Plan. As part of the Parks, Trails, and Open Space General Obligation Bond approved by City voters in November 2022, $4.5 million is allocated for improvements at Allen Park. We are currently gathering public input for the future of the site and would love your thoughts! Visit our community engagement page here to participate.

Allen Park’s houses and other buildings are in generally poor condition and are fenced off from public access for safety reasons. Technical and cultural assessments, along with public input conducted as part of the Adaptive Reuse and Management Plan process, will help determine if and how the Park’s buildings can be renovated and used. The future of each structure will be based on its physical condition and ability to be repaired, its cultural contribution, the financial investment required, the public’s priorities, and the programming identified for the site.

The reuse and management planning process continues through the end of 2023, after which the plan will be considered for implementation by the Mayor and City Council. In the meantime, urgent property repairs may occur to high-priority structures such as the main Allen Lodge, and the others will remain in place if they do not pose a safety risk to park visitors. A damaged wooden bridge across Emigration Creek was removed in May 2023 by flood-control crews to prevent it from collapsing into the high water and damming the stream.

When the City acquired Allen Park in 2020, Public Lands requested funding to maintain the site as it existed. Without a plan for the future of the landscaping and/or structures, the City did not want to spend money on assets that would not persist into the future. As we begin detailed design of the improvements outlined in this site plan, Public Lands will request a full maintenance budget for all the proposed elements as the come online within the park.

In addition, there is limited infrastructure on the site for irrigation and other utilities to support regular maintenance. Public Lands is working on projects currently to install the necessary infrastructure to improve maintenance.

The Adaptive Reuse and Management plan recommends saving and rehabilitating all of the artwork on the property. Artwork will be retained in place to the greatest extent possible, but some may be required to be moved in order to preserve as well as possible. Currently, there is some funding in-hand to begin rehabilitation, so Public Lands will begin with works in the most critical condition.

It is the City’s goal to ultimately remove all of the black chain link fence, and open up as many landscaped areas as possible to the public, including the meadow, landscaping surrounding some of the structures, and larger gathering areas that will replace structures slated for removal. Fencing may be required to secure structures and prevent access, but the current chain link will be removed and replaced with something more appropriate for the site, in accordance with the Cultural Landscape Report. It is likely the entry gate will remain for safety reasons due to structures remaining on-site.