By james art 
A pair of land bills advanced with unanimous votes from the Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment on Tuesday, which will create a mechanism for the creation of state camps and then to facilitate up to 30,000 acres of land management for the purchase or lease rent.
Reporter’s bill Steve Eliasson, R-Sandy, allows the state to create campsites not a complete blown state park-through the process from below.
The Utah state parks received more than 1.3 million visitors in the fiscal 2024 and are often packed. Eliasson talks about how he tried to make a reservation in a specific park at the beginning of the season, but he was already booked during the first time of camping.
His bill, HB34, will allow the state to create state campsites, but only with the approval of the local governing body as a city council or district committee. The camping proposal will also need entrance from the state representative from the area as well as the state senator.
“This bill does not create any state campsites. It simply creates the process by which we would evaluate and potentially approve of state campsites, “Eliasson said. “This is an approach from the bottom up against the top down that we are all too familiar with.”
Eliasson pointed out the example presented by Utah Raptor State Park, which should be opened later this year. It was moving forward, together they put a number of parcels for landowners, including the land administration of the school trust, the fire department, the forestry and the state lands, as well as the Federal Government.
This type of cooperative approach was attached to a bill last year, which had unanimous support, but Eliasson said the Senate simply exhausted the time to pass it.
“There are all kinds of opportunities,” with state campsites that can relieve a pressure valve in state parks to some extent, he stressed.
Another measure directs the coordination service of public land policy in Utah to conduct a study of federal lands that may be suitable for rent or purchase. It limits the area to 30,000 acres a year and will have to be for the purpose of providing a public good.
The SB158 introduced by Senator Keven Straton, R-Olem, creates a process of facilitating a study of federal land, which, if acquired, will achieve a useful public goal.
The counties worked in tandem with the federal government for such purposes, such as placing a depot, park or fire station.
“What this bill does is that it is a collection of information and a unifying voice in the country, under the guidance of PLPCO to track and provide resources and allow it to be prepared (information),” Straton said. “We must follow this and have this information if we want to continue and continue the course of wise management of resources in our care.”
Redge Johnson, director of PLPCO, said the mechanism was successfully used before with the federal government successfully, using provisions in the Federal Recreation Act for public purposes.
“But I don’t think anyone knows exactly how many acres we have received, so I think it’s a good account to get in and trace and see how much we have,” he said.
The bill does not exclude private non -governmental organizations from making purchases or leasing.