FARMINGTON -- The Great Salt Lake is an internationally recognized ecosystem, and well-meaning tourists say "Take me to see the Great Salt Lake!" Unfortunately, that enthusiastic request is too often met with an apologetic claim by locals that "there isn't much to see and it smells funny."

The Legacy Parkway Scenic Byway Master Plan is out to change that. "Imagine yourself on vacation" says Sheran Hauri, a landscape architect with MGB&A Grassli Group. "You are driving down a beautiful landscape to a destination that is exciting, new and different. Imagine that place is actually in your back yardÖthe Great Salt Lake."

Hauri is making the rounds of major stakeholders in the Legacy Parkway Scenic Byway project: the cities of Farmington, Centerville, West Bountiful, Woods Cross, North Salt Lake, as well as Davis County, the Utah State Office of Tourism and the Utah Division of Transportation. She is presenting the results of a $35,000 master plan for the Scenic Byway.

"The biggest obstacle we've had to overcome is the people here don't appreciate the lake as an internationally important and interesting place," said Hauri. She said the construction of the new Legacy Parkway provides the perfect opportunity to develop design guidelines that preserve a visually pristine parkway setting and protect the corridor as a special place that is unique and inviting to visitors.

The master plan envisions the scenic byway as the gateway to the Great Salt Lake, and an interface between the urban and natural environment.

The Scenic Byway Master Plan is just the latest step in a journey which has taken many years. In 2002, Legacy Parkway was given the Scenic Byway designation from the State of Utah. This designation places Legacy in the same category as some of Utah's other beautiful drives such as Alpine Loop, Bear Lake, Provo Canyon, Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, Mirror Lake, Zion National Park, Ogden River and Capitol Reef Country.

Eventually, Legacy Parkway will apply for National Scenic Byway designation and the design standards established by the master plan will be critical in attaining that designation.

Hauri says it will be economically significant for the cities that border the Great Salt Lake to be identified with the lake and have that unique character added to their tourism portfolio. Members of the Davis County Tourism office agree and look forward with gusto to new opportunities for funding, marketing and tourism.

The master plan provides guidance for local land use decisions in the communities intersected by the Legacy Parkway. It strives to preserve views, enhance nature and balance urban and wildland character. It envisions the Legacy Parkway as a scenic drive that will give unprecedented access to natural resources of the lake, the seasonal refuge for millions of migratory birds from all around the world.