No Zion National Park public shuttle system in Kane County, proposition fails in election

A proposed regional shuttle system for the greater Zion National Park area was rejected by Kane County residents in Tuesday's election.

Over 68% of voters did not approve of the system, preliminary results show.

Known as Proposition 10, it would have created the Zion Area Public Transit District, a shuttle service that would have carried passengers to the east side of Zion where a new visitor's center is being built and then through the park, the ballot item's public notice said.

It would also provide "support to existing and future hiking and biking trails, residential and vacation lodging, restaurants, guides and outfitters and other businesses," the notice said.

It would have been the first leg of a greater regional shuttle system proposed in conjunction with the new Zion shuttles, connecting the east side of the park to Kanab and eventually Utah's other national parks — Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

More on the regional system: A St. George-to-Zion shuttle could be key to unlocking So. Utah public transportation

Kane County Commissioner Brent Chamberlain said it would have been tax-free and the $10 million price tag funded completely with private donations, local, state, and federal grants and possible user fees, though the funding source was not set before election day.

Chamberlain has been discussing the system in commission meetings for months and told The Spectrum that it was the next step to decreasing high tourism traffic around Zion.

"Zion National Park is under a lot of pressure," he said.

'Information to disinformation to malformation'

The failure is a result of misinformation, Utah Clean Cities Executive Director Tammie Bostick told The Spectrum, and voters' resistance to a changing landscape created by the high tourism rate around the nation's third-most-popular national park, which saw more than 4 million visitors last year.

"It went from information to disinformation to malformation. It's really unfair," Bostick said.

Bostick said it should be clear that the shuttle project for inside Zion, called EV Zion and partly managed by Utah Clean Cities, was approved under the Trump administration and that organization has no formal connection with Proposition 10.

More on the project: Zion National Park receives $33 million for electric shuttle buses

She said that she personally and her organization had been subject to harassment about Proposition 10, especially about some locals' fears about job loss due to the change to a new energy source, which she sees as a misunderstanding.

"When we look at the shuttle, I don't know how much more patriotic that can be," Bostick said on the shuttle's potential for community benefits like "energy resiliency" as well as moving seniors, those with disabilities and commuters.

Public hearing: 'Locking the gate'

Last month, Kane County held a public hearing about Proposition 10 where locals voiced their concerns about the increase in traffic and visitors, the energy sources available for the shuttles and visitors, changing the energy industry workforce and that the funding had not been nailed down prior to Election Day.

One resident said she didn't like that they were "voting blindly" without a set funding source at the hearing.

Former Kanab Mayor Karen Avey spoke at the hearing saying that while she does not like change, change is going to happen anyway and the shuttle system is a chance to play offense in the tourism management game.

"There's no way of locking the gate on the edge of town and saying no more," she said on Oct. 18. "How we handle it is we put in place a way of making it more bearable for all of the residents of Kane County and yet economically sound for everybody."

Fate of the chargers at Kanab Center?

As for the charging stations already at the Kanab Center, Bostick said they will move them to the East Zion Visitor's Center if need be.

"Kane County was progressive and generous enough to allow us the staging area," she said. "We're listening to the pushback and if need be, we'll pull up the stakes and look for another home for our project."

More on Kanab chargers: Kanab EV charging station a step toward region-wide shuttle system near Zion National Park

Chamberlain drove Zion's first electric shuttle on its maiden voyage last week at the Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit and said that even though the county is sparsely populated, it is doing some heavy work for the East Zion Initiative — something he calls the "holy Zion Initiative."

A March report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah said the initiative would bring to Kane County an average of "451 new jobs each year from 2020 to 2030, along with $16.5 million in additional earnings, $29.6 million in new GDP, and $4.4 million in added state and local tax revenue per year."

Chamberlain was excited about the initiative last week, saying work on the entire east side development is only just beginning.

"You're standing at a point in time here where destiny has brought everything together … We're not done yet," he said last week.

K. Sophie Will is the National Parks Reporter for The Spectrum & Daily News through the Report for America initiative by The GroundTruth Project. Follow her on Twitter at @ksophiewill or email her at kswill@thespectrum.com. Donate to Report for America to support her work here.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: No Zion public shuttle system in Kane County, proposition fails