The park Herriman
The closest thing a city built after 2000 has to a town square
J. Lynn Crane Park, a splash pad in July and ice in December
Beside the Herriman town hall sit two adjoining civic spaces with almost the same name and two different addresses, and between them they make the city's closest thing to a town square. The park holds the stage, the playground and the grass. The plaza holds the fire pits, a splash pad from Memorial Day, and an outdoor ice ribbon on timed sessions through the winter. Here is how the two split, what each season offers, and which address is which.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
J. Lynn Crane Park and J. Lynn Crane Plaza are two adjoining civic spaces beside the Herriman town hall, and together they are the closest thing this young city has to a town square. The plaza, at 13082 South Fort Herriman Parkway, is where the water and the ice are: a free splash pad from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and an outdoor ice ribbon on timed sessions through the winter. The park next door, at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway, holds the stage, the playground, the pavilion and the grass. The two names and two addresses trip up mapping apps constantly, so the single most useful thing to know is which of the pair you actually want before you set off.
Start here
One name, two addresses and two completely different seasons
J. Lynn Crane Park sits at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway, beside the town hall, with a stage that carries music, a playground, a reservable pavilion, benches and tables, restrooms, a parking lot and a large open grass area. J. Lynn Crane Plaza sits at 13082 South Fort Herriman Parkway, immediately next door, and the city lists it as a separate park with its own address, its own parking and its own restrooms.
That distinction is the thing that trips people up. The splash pad is on the plaza. The ice ribbon is on the plaza. The playground, the stage and the pavilion are on the park. Mapping apps and listing sites merge the two constantly, so a search for the splash pad will happily route you to the address next door. They are close enough that the mistake costs a short walk rather than a drive, but it also means a phone call to the wrong facility gets you the wrong answer.
Taken together, the pair is the closest thing this city has to a town square, and it is unusual for a Utah suburb in one specific way: it is programmed in both directions of the year. From Memorial Day the plaza runs a splash pad. From the start of winter the same ground becomes an outdoor ice ribbon on timed sessions. Very few suburbs of this size attempt a winter amenity at all.
Get the address right before you leave. The splash pad and the ice ribbon are on J. Lynn Crane Plaza, 13082 South Fort Herriman Parkway. The playground, the stage, the pavilion and the big grass area are on J. Lynn Crane Park, 12998. The city treats them as two parks; listing sites and mapping apps generally do not.
The cold half of the year
An outdoor ice ribbon, sold in one hour sessions
An ice ribbon is a looping skating track rather than a rectangular rink, and skating one is a genuinely different experience: you travel along it rather than circle. Herriman runs one on the plaza beside its own town hall, and the most common misunderstanding about it is that it works like a park. It does not. Sessions are reserved in advance online, they run for an hour, and they are non-refundable. If you need to move one, you call the events department during business hours rather than clicking anything at ten at night. That is a municipal arrangement rather than a commercial one, and it is not what most people assume about an outdoor rink beside a town hall.
The season has typically opened around the first of December and run through February, weather permitting, which for an outdoor sheet at this elevation is a real qualification rather than boilerplate. The shape of a week is worth knowing before you book. Weekday ice is evening only. Saturday is the only day with morning ice and carries the most sessions, which makes it the day that fills first. Sunday sessions are limited and tend to drop off toward the end of the season, and the plaza closes for the main winter holidays with extended hours on the days either side. The exact dates and times change each year, and reservations for a season usually open in the fall.
Pricing is worth understanding as family arithmetic rather than a headline. It is ticketed by the session, adults pay more than children, and skate rental is bundled into the higher price, so a household that owns skates pays materially less. Toddlers skate free, helmets are free for everybody, and ice walkers and strollers are available to rent for anyone who needs one. Theme nights and glow skating turn up through the season and are the cheapest way in, which rewards following the city rather than checking once in November. The city sets the current season's dates and prices when reservations open, so confirm them before you plan around any of it. The county page on the valley in winter covers what the season does to this whole floor.
Sunday ice thins out late in the season, and that catches people. Sunday sessions tend to run early in the winter and taper off by February, while weekdays and Saturdays continue. It is the sort of detail that never makes a listing site and is the difference between a good Sunday afternoon and a drive across the valley to a closed plaza. Confirm the current schedule with the city's events team on 801-446-8658 or [email protected].
Memorial Day to Labor Day
The same ground, with the water on instead
The summer half of this plaza is the exact opposite proposition to the winter half: free, unstaffed, unbooked and open every day of the season. The splash pad runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, 9am to 8pm, at no charge and with no session to reserve. Because it is unstaffed, the city can shut the water off for maintenance without notice, so if it is the whole reason for the trip, glance at the city's page the morning you plan to go. That contrast between the two seasons is most of what makes the place work, because a civic square that only functions for three months of the year is not a civic square.
The fire pits are the underrated part, and they are the reason the plaza works after dark in a season when the water is off. At around five thousand feet on the edge of the valley, a July evening cools fast once the sun drops behind the Oquirrhs, and a square with fire pits and pergolas is a far more useful piece of public space at nine at night than a lawn is.
The pairing with the park next door is what turns either one from twenty minutes into an evening. The playground, the stage and the grass are on the park side, the water and the fire are on the plaza side, and the walk between them is short enough that most visitors never realize they crossed a boundary. Anyone booking the pavilion for a group should be clear which of the two they want, because the city treats them separately and reserves the pavilion on 801-446-5323.
The point of it
Why a young city builds a square before it builds a center
A city that counted 1,523 people at the turn of the century and something close to sixty thousand now has a problem older places do not: it has no inherited center. There is no nineteenth century main street with a bank on the corner, no railway station square, no courthouse lawn everybody has always used. What there is instead is a great deal of newer housing, a highway on one side, a mountain range on the other, and a real question about where people are supposed to run into each other.
Building a plaza beside the town hall and then programming it in both seasons is a direct answer to that question, and a more deliberate act than it looks. The stage, the fire pits, the splash pad, the ice, the food trucks that use the ground and the events calendar attached to it are all attempts to manufacture what an old town gets for free. Whether that takes is a matter of habit rather than design, and habit takes a decade.
The honest read is that it is working better than most attempts of this kind, and the ice ribbon is the evidence. A splash pad is a standard suburban amenity any city can install. An outdoor skating track running timed sessions most days of the week for three months of winter is an ongoing operational commitment, with staff, equipment, weather risk and a booking system behind it, and a city only carries that if people turn up.
For anyone weighing an address here, the practical point is that being close to this plaza is worth more in this city than being close to a park would be in an older one, precisely because there is no alternative center. That is a genuine feature of a young city and the kind of thing that shows up in no listing. The page on moving here takes the rest of that argument, and the reservoir page covers the city's other timed amenity and its own rulebook.
An old town inherits a square. A new one has to build one and then persuade people to use it.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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Read the pageQuick answers
The park, answered
It is beside the Herriman town hall on South Fort Herriman Parkway, and it comes in two adjoining pieces with almost the same name. J. Lynn Crane Park, at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway, holds the stage, the playground, the pavilion, the grass, benches and tables, restrooms and a parking lot. J. Lynn Crane Plaza, at 13082 South Fort Herriman Parkway immediately next door, is where the splash pad and the winter ice ribbon are. The city lists them as two parks; most listing sites and mapping apps merge them.
The ice ribbon runs a winter season that has typically opened around the first of December and run through February on timed one hour sessions, weather permitting. Weekday sessions are evening only, Saturdays carry the most sessions and are the only day with morning ice, and Sunday sessions are limited and drop off toward the end of the season. The exact dates change each year and reservations for a season usually open in the fall, so check the current schedule with the city's events team on 801-446-8658 or [email protected].
It is ticketed by the session rather than sold as open skating. Adults pay more than children, bringing your own skates costs less than renting a pair, toddlers skate free, helmets are free for everybody, and ice walkers and strollers are available to rent. The city sets the season's prices when reservations open in the fall, so confirm the current figures with the events team on 801-446-8658 or [email protected] before you book.
Yes. Sessions are reserved in advance online rather than sold at a gate, they run for an hour, and they are non-refundable. If you need to move one, you call the city's events department during business hours rather than doing it online. Saturday sessions and the holiday slots in late December go first, and weekday evenings carry the most availability. The events team is on 801-446-8658 or [email protected].
The splash pad at J. Lynn Crane Plaza runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, from 9am to 8pm. It is free and unstaffed, with no booking and no session, so that window is the whole of the arrangement. Because it is unstaffed, the city can shut the water off for maintenance without notice, so if the splash pad is the entire reason for the trip it is worth checking the city's page the morning you plan to go.
Yes, and it is on the park side at 12998 South Fort Herriman Parkway rather than on the plaza. The park also holds a stage with music capability, a pavilion you can reserve through the city, benches and tables, restrooms, a parking lot and a large open grass area. The plaza next door holds the water, the fire pits, the pergolas and the winter ice. The two sit alongside each other, so the distinction costs a short walk rather than a drive.
The pavilion is on the park side and can be reserved through the City of Herriman on 801-446-5323. The thing to get right is which of the two spaces you actually want when you book, because the city treats J. Lynn Crane Park and J. Lynn Crane Plaza as separate parks with separate addresses, and a group turning up at the wrong one is a common outcome given how similar the names are.
It is a ribbon rather than a rink, meaning a looping outdoor skating track instead of a rectangular sheet. The practical difference is that you travel along it rather than circling a rectangle, which changes the feel of it, particularly for anybody learning. It is outdoor ice at around five thousand feet, so the season is genuinely weather dependent and the city can cancel sessions, which is one reason it sells timed slots rather than open skating.
The town hall is immediately alongside, which is the whole point of the siting, and the city's events calendar uses the plaza and the park together through the year. Beyond that, Herriman's other two outdoor draws are a few minutes away: Blackridge Reservoir up the bench to the west, which has its own parking charge and permit zone and fills to capacity on summer weekends, and the county trail network at the western edge of the city, which is free and open.
A square a city built because it did not inherit one
A place that counted 1,523 people in 2000 had to build a center from scratch, and the plaza beside the town hall is the attempt, programmed in both directions of the year. How close a home sits to it matters more here than it would in an older city, because there is no second option. Tell me what you are weighing, and a Salt Lake County partner agent who works this corner handles the ground here while I stay on the homework and the financing side.
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