ENVISION UTAH QUALITY GROWTH STRATEGY AND TECHNICAL REVIEW January 2000 E NVISION U TAH •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• A Partnership for Quality Growth Keeping Utah Beautiful, Prosperous, and Neighborly for Future Generations Envision Utah • P.O. Box 30901 Salt Lake City, UT 84130 801-973-3307 www.envisionutah.org Sponsored by Coalition for Utah’s Future ENVISION UTAH Keeping Utah Beautiful, Prosperous, and Neighborly for Future Generations INTRODUCTION The urbanized area of Northern Utah is about state and local spending priorities. experiencing tremendous growth. The Greater Preparing for this growth also presents some Wasatch Area (GWA), which stretches from unique opportunities. For example, if we were Nephi to Brigham City, and from Kamas to able to reduce the size of average residential Grantsville, consists of 88 cities and towns, 10 lot from 0.35 acre to 0.29 acre, the total land counties, and numerous special service districts. area consumed by the next million people The GWA is currently home to 1.7 million would drop from 325 square miles of new land residents, who constitute 80% of the state’s to 154 square miles, and the amount of population, making Utah the sixth most urban agricultural land consumed by this growth state in the nation. The area’s developable private could drop from 143 square miles to just 27 land, which may total as little as 1000 square square miles. Thus, intensifying land uses miles, is surrounded by mountains, lakes, deserts, through infill in urbanized areas will ease the and public lands that form a natural growth pressure to develop new lands. boundary, within which nearly 370 square miles of A cost benefit analysis shows that if we adhere land is currently developed. By 2020 the area will to Envision Utah’s recommended goals and grow to 2.7 million residents, and will reach 5 strategies, we will save $4.5 billion in future million by 2050, placing additional demands on infrastructure costs over the next 20 years. We the limited supply of undeveloped private land. will conserve more land, provide more housing While most residents view this growth as choices, lower emissions resulting in less positive, they recognize that it can also introduce pollution, reduce water consumption and make a number of problems and challenges. For our transportation system more efficient with less example, these dramatic increases in population congestion on the roads. and land consumption will have profound impacts The impacts of growth may combine to on the quality of life and costs of living in the threaten the economic vitality of the area, which area. Air quality will suffer, new water sources has benefitted greatly from recent growth. If we will need to be developed, crowding and are judicious with our finite resources, and work congestion will increase, housing costs will diligently to preserve quality of life through the increase as land becomes limited, crime will strategies enumerated here, we can maintain the increase, business and personal costs will qualities that make the Greater Wasatch Area increase, and government spending on economically vibrant, aesthetically pleasing, and infrastructure will force some difficult decisions affordable for its residents. ENVISION UTAH QUALITY GROWTH STRATEGY SUMMARY Goals and Strategies to Maintain Quality of Life Through extensive research and exhaustive involvement of the • fostering transit-oriented development (housing and com- public, local and state elected officials, the business, civic, and mercial developments that incorporate and encourage vari- religious communities, and other stakeholders, Envision Utah has ous forms of public transportation); gathered information about what Greater Wasatch Area residents • preserving open lands by encouraging developments that value and how they think growth should be accommodated. This include open areas and by incentivizing reuse of currently involved research concerning core values, and workshops with developed lands; stakeholders, including elected officials, planning commissioners, • restructuring water bills to encourage water conservation; and and city council members, addressing where and how to grow. • fostering mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable neighbor- Above all else, residents like the people who live here, and place a hoods to provide a greater array of housing choices. high value on this area’s good atmosphere for raising a family, and its scenic beauty and recreational opportunities. There are other goals, equally important, that do not lend Based on this information, Envision Utah has identified six primary themselves as easily to a list of discrete strategies. Enhancing goals that need to be addressed in the Greater Wasatch Area if we economic development and adjusting the means by which cities are to protect our environment and maintain our economic vitality generate revenues are among the challenges. Nearly all of the goals and quality of life as we accommodate anticipated growth: identified will help to enhance economic opportunities in the state, and they should be pursued for this reason in addition to those listed. • enhance air quality; The issue of taxation and revenue relates to municipalities’ reliance • increase mobility and transportation choices; on sales tax revenues as a major source of income. This spurs • preserve critical lands, including agricultural, sensitive, and counterproductive competition among communities for regional strategic open lands and address the interaction between retailers, often resulting in sprawl development. This issue is so these lands and developed areas; complex and involves so many stakeholders that, while briefly • conserve and maintain availability of water addressed here as our seventh strategy, it will require further careful resources; consideration and extensive longer-term stakeholder involvement. • provide housing opportunities for a range of family and income types; and Envision Utah’s Role • maximize efficiency in public and infrastructure invest- The primary role for implementation falls on local governments, ments to promote the other goals. state and local incentives, and the actions of developers and consumers in the free market. Envision Utah’s objective is to analyze These goals can be realized over time by the careful and deliberate and disseminate the costs and benefits associated with these pursuit of various strategies, identified and explained here. strategies, and to work with local and state governments, citizens, developers, conservationists, civic groups, and other concerned To support each of these goals Envision Utah has worked with the stakeholders to pursue the strategies outlined below. Envision Utah stakeholders and the public to develop specific strategies, including will seek progress over time by working with the entities that hold strategies that utilize market-based approaches such as state and responsibility for these Quality Growth Strategies and by developing local incentives, and seeks to effect change through education and an awards program to recognize communities that put various promotion, rather than regulatory means. These strategies include: components into place. The action items range from consumer choices to intergovernmental cooperation to local and state decision • promoting walkable development (encouraging new and making, depending on the issue. Most of the strategies are existing developments to include a mix of uses with a incremental steps that can take place over time, provided the right pedestrian-friendly design); regulatory and market environment. Envision Utah’s role will be to • promoting the development of a region-wide transit system encourage the creation of that environment, so existing and (which could utilize buses, bus ways, light rail, lower-cost forecasted market demands can be met, while also maintaining the self-powered rail technology, commuter rail, and small pri- quality of life residents have come to enjoy and expect. Envision Utah vate buses) to make transit more effective and convenient; will do this by providing information and resources to community • promoting the development of a network of bikeways and leaders to broaden the choices available to them and to facilitate trails for recreation and commuting; more informed decision making. 1 market, such as condominiums, apartments, mother-in-law Local Control, Regional Coordination apartments, and town homes to accommodate different life stages. The primary responsibility for land use decisions will remain with Our market research also suggests an increasing demand for single- local governments. These strategies cannot be implemented family homes in a variety of sizes located on smaller lots. In the overnight, nor will they be appropriate to every situation or transportation area, the private vehicle will almost certainly remain community. Envision Utah’s efforts will always acknowledge that the overwhelming means by which we travel. There are, however, every community is unique, with distinctive characteristics and significant segments of the population who cannot use a car (such needs. In some communities, the open space preservation strategies as the elderly, disabled, and children), who cannot afford a car, or may be needed, where in others, affordable housing efforts may be would prefer not to use one if other choices were available. more appropriate. We encourage the implementation of these Providing more choices will also help us address our air quality strategies incrementally