An application to develop an open-air dinosaur tracks museum on property at the corner of U.S. 191 and state Route 313 was tabled earlier this month by the Grand County Planning and Zoning Commission. The action was designed to give staff more time to review new information provided by the applicant.

At the same meeting, the planning commission voted to recommend rezoning the property from range and grazing to resort special. The recommendation now goes to the Grand County Council for action.

That unanimous vote came after a short discussion confirmed that both the Grand County General Plan and the U.S. 191 North Corridor Area Plan identified the area for commercial development.

The dinosaur museum, to be called Moab Giants, is proposed for property that fronts on the Dead Horse Point/Island in the Sky Road (state Route 313) and is tucked in between U.S. 191 on the west and Union Pacific railroad tracks on the east. High voltage power lines run the north/south length of the land.

The proposal identifies a path winding through displays of casts of dinosaur tracks and replicas of animals from the early Jurassic through the late Cretaceous geologic periods. Participants would be allowed to “dig” for bone replicas. Two “artificial lakes” are also included in the plan. Dinosaur replicas would be life-size, except that their height would be limited to 24 feet due to height restrictions included in the county’s land use code.

The proposal is touted as “educational,” but the inclusion of a 380-stall parking lot plus even more parking, child-oriented features, and two artificial lakes raised doubts among planning commission members and the audience.

“I don’t like a 380-slot parking lot in our area,” said commissioner Mike Duncan. He also asked why there should be lakes in the desert.

Tim Keogh, who appeared with Kristie Whipple on behalf of Gerard Gierlinski, who they said has the property under contract, called the lakes a “water feature,” after explaining that a well exists on the site and that a permit to use the water is in the works.

“Why do dinosaurs need water,” Grand County resident Dave Erley asked.

Moab resident Sarah Fields said she had no objections to the proposal but she did object to the commission scheduling a public hearing when the application is not complete.

Subsequent discussion revealed that additional information had been provided, but that it did not get into the packets prepared for the commissioners prior to the meeting.

“Ditch the lake and plant some trees,” Duncan said after explaining that it will be very difficult to screen the large parking lot next to state Route 313 because the elevation of the site is considerably lower than the highway.

Except for site drawings prepared by Keogh Land Surveying there is no written explanation of the proposal attached to the package, only information from geologists in Colorado who apparently verified the scientific qualifications of the applicants, and a slideshow printout explaining that Moab Giants is part of the Dinosaur Safari Project.

The Dinosaur Safari Project was established by the Polish Geological Institute in 2003. The slideshow describes dinosaur theme parks in Poland and across Europe. But they “are not the show business oriented developments,” the institute states, “they are scientific-educational-tourist enterprises establishing a network of field localities... There are no dinosaur bones, just their fossilized footprints.”

The slideshow concludes with the statement that, “Moab Giants will become a fourth, so far missing corner, of the so-called Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway.” A map shows a near rectangle connecting Moab to dinosaur museums in Price and Vernal, along with Fruita, Colo.