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Residents pack the Provo City Council Chambers for a District 2 Neighborhood meeting regarding the Slate Canyon-area waterpark proposal Wednesday, April 30, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The proposed Splash Summit park and resort at the base of Slate Canyon is pictured.

Courtesy Provo City

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The proposed new development for Splash Summit is pictured.

Courtesy Provo City

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The owners of Splash Summit Water Park are seeking to purchase over 130 acres of city-owned land at the base of Slate Canyon in Provo to build a new waterpark and resort, among other amenities.

The plan, which has yet to be finalized or formally submitted to the city, was presented for the first time publicly in a crowded Neighborhood District 2 meeting Wednesday night in Provo.

Splash Summit, formerly Seven Peaks, is looking to leave the 35-year old water park site located on 1330 East and 300 North in Provo due to aging infrastructure and size limitations of the property, project representative Bryan Bayles said at Wednesday’s meeting.

Ownership wants to replace it with a “world class” water park a few blocks south, Bayles said, and also build a resort, retail and structured parking, a new park with an expanded disc golf course, pickleball courts and other amenities.

“We envision people coming to see the new entertainment options at Splash Summit, walking to the neighborhood retail, grabbing dinner,” Bayles said. “We envision a place where families and friends can gather to play pickleball or any other numerous enhanced outdoor activities. It’s a place where kids will have something to do that is close to home, where they can come and be kids again.”

However, the proposal was met with heavy backlash by the majority of residents at the meeting inside the council chambers, who pleaded with the city during the public comment period to protect open land, preserve the area and limit traffic.

“It’s like Park City on the side of the east bench of Provo,” resident Jennifer Barton said. “And Park City is beautiful. … But not on the east bench of Provo.”

The majority of the land in the proposed area is currently zoned either as public facilities or open space, preservation, and recreation. There is also a critical hillside overlay zone overlapping portions of the area that is intended to protect ridgelines and stabilize slopes.

According to Provo City policy analyst Melia Dayley, the city purchased 29 acres at the mouth of Slate Canyon in 2021 with the intent of preserving open space or potentially building a park. However, public infrastructure improvements would need to be made to expand the current Slate Canyon Park due to the critical hillside overlay zone, and funding for such a project is not included in the city’s 5-year capital improvement plan, Dayley said.

Bayles said that through communication with city public works, Splash Summit believes the project can be viable while still adhering to the city’s hillside overlay zone rules, which say slopes with an incline above 30% can’t be developed on.

He also argued the new development would offer a solution to the unbuilt park.

“Constrained city budgets have placed the Slate Canyon portion of the project on hold for 20 years or longer. We are proposing to work with Provo City to accelerate building these improvements in conjunction with building the water park,” he said.

Residents, though, were adamant the city should not hand the area over to developers.

“Slate Canyon is one of the city’s most beautiful wild and natural places,” Jeff Whitlock said. “We should absolutely preserve it and conserve it. And the city owns this land, so Provo residents should choose what to do with it. The city has long promised to deliver a park on this land, whether the city takes a phased approach to developing the park or starts in 10 years, we should keep the land as ours and make the park happen.”

“Once we pave over our wild lands, that’s all there is. There’s no more getting it back,” added resident and Neighborhood 2 executive board member Ashley Rayback. “And when you take each part of the hillside, this is basically the leftover parts of the Provo hillside, that’s all that’s left.”

With the project in its early stages, Bayles said the developers intend to evolve their plan based on feedback from residents and other stakeholders.

“We realize change is hard for people,” Bayles said. “We could be proposing to build heaven right here in Provo and people would oppose it. Good solutions require compromise.”

Several Neighborhood 2 District community members, though, made it clear they will fight against the development throughout the process.

“This is a sensational project,” resident Melanie McCord said. “I just don’t want it here. And I think that most of the people who live in this area don’t want it here. We want the city to keep their commitments on what they have promised us through these plans. And I want the developer to know this is not where we’re ending, either. We will go to the limit. This project is not going to happen here.”