By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
"May we use Juab County as an example of excellent
planning for future growth?" asked Michael D. Crane, AICP
Planner with the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget at
a public hearing in Nephi held on Wednesday.
Part way through the meeting, Crane said he was highly
impressed with the planning which had been done by the
county and by communities in the county.
"I have been to nine of these meetings in counties now,
and I have never seen this. It is quite impressive," said
Crane. "In other counties we are told the county needs the
state to enforce cooperative agreements. Here you have a
number of those agreements which work very well and you
don't want state interference."
"We could use Nephi, in particular, as an example," said
Crane.
"It's been done before," said Chad Brough, mayor.
Crane and Cary Peterson, a member of the governor's
cabinet as Commissioner of Agriculture for Utah, met with
all interested area citizens in the meeting held to receive
public in-put on community needs in facing the future.
"We have been assigned by the Quality Growth Commission
to hold a hearing in each county in the state," said
Peterson.
He said the commission wanted citizen in-put on the best
way to prepare for the growth which was predicted to come to
the area in the near future.
Since Utah was the second driest state in the Union, said
Peterson, in his opinion watershed areas, protecting those
watershed areas, and assuring future water sources should be
of primary interest in planning for future growth.
"It is a critical issue," said Peterson. "We must not
degrade water sources with excessive recreation and
development."
"The Quality Growth Act of 1999 was passed for the
purposes of addressing growth issues throughout Utah," said
Crane.
"Rapid population growth, lack of affordable housing,
increased costs of providing state-financed infrastructure
and the disappearance of farmland and open space, has
created the need for the legislature to take action on these
growth-related problems," Crane said.
The act, he said, mandates nothing. It does establish a
13-member Quality Growth Commission appointed to four-year
unpaid terms by the governor and approved by the state
senate.
"The East Juab Water Efficiency project, the installation
of a pressurized pipe system," said Brough, "is an example
of a water conservancy plan which saves 50 percent more
water over the open-ditch method."
Tom Fowkes, who once served as county assessor, said he
had a concern about roads and the lack of money to maintain
and rebuild those roads.
"The people from Salt Lake County use Juab as a
recreation playground and put on more miles than any of the
folks who live here but they, Salt Lake, don't want us to
have any money."
Road miles should be used in helping determine the money
coming to a county, he said. "Population is not the only
factor that should be considered."
The population of Juab County, on any given weekend,
could increase from the 8,000 natives to 8,000 plus the
40,000 recreationists visiting the county, said Earl
Andrews.
"We need some revenue sharing," said Andrews.
Eagle Mountain was the example of a community where there
were no shopping services. "Nephi is just as short a drive
away from the big shopping centers to the North," said
LaDaun Ray, local realtor. "Many people from our area work
in Utah County and shop there. We need a mix of commercial
and residential development."
The county planning commission was assisting the
preservation of farm land by the zoning ordinance enacted in
the county, said Ray.
"The acreage requirements are high&emdash;50 acres to
150-acre zones&emdash;so that no one can build just
anywhere. The land is just not going to be chopped up into
home sites here and there."
Development rights money may be an important issue in the
future, said Robert Steele, commissioner. "It is a
possibility, someday."
"There will never be enough money for that," said
Peterson. It may be necessary, instead, to center the focus
on critical land. Perhaps a city would need to obtain a
piece of ground where a park and a sump and filter to clean
storm drainage water could share the land.
"The park would be used by the citizens of the
community," said Peterson.
The one problem with having a 50-acre limit land
requirement before residential homes could be built on a
property, said Steele, was that it was discriminatory toward
the farmer who wanted to sell his land.
"I still think the east bench is the best place to put
residential growth," said Steele.
Locally, said Ray, new growth of communities was
encouraged from within the community and on property located
in and identified growth area on the edges of communities.
"This makes sense from the point-of view of infrastructure
development because the infrastructure already exists inside
the community."
"We don't want to annex property until we are ready to
grow," said Brough. "Nephi City wants to encourage growth
inside the city limits. We are encouraging interior
development."
"We also have a philosophy that those who benefit from
the development are the ones who should pay for it. The
burden should not all be on the taxpayers who already are
established."
The city has a master plan, a water master-plan, and a
recreation development master plan.
Those who do develop subdivisions, for example, must
extend the utility through the property so that those who
come after can build on the extension.
"There have been a lot of fill-ins on empty lots in
Nephi," said Andrews. "As a result, new homes in the
community are making the city a better place. Exterior
subdivisions are located within city limits."
Nephi has maintained some control over annexation," said
Steele. One person wanted to build a residential subdivision
where the new county jail is now located. The city did not
want the annexation because it was not ready to expand in
that direction at the time.
"Those located in the growth area must build according to
city specifications," said Ken Ware. Juab County developed a
master plan, said Ware. "When the county was working on the
plan, they went to each town and asked them to identify
future growth areas around the town."
The leadership of the communities of the county and
county government leaders had good working relationships,
said Brough. "We have good working relationships and are in
agreement about development."
Planned Unit Developments were also planned for. Those
PUDs will become independent communities.
Crane said the definition of quality growth was still
being formed. For that reason, the Commission was interested
in the comments of citizens. For example, he asked, what
should be the role of the private sector in the
implementation of the principals of growth?
Craig Sperry, county recorder, said he had a complaint
about the way taxes were collected from centrally assessed
property. "When private enterprise is being supported by
taxing entities, there must be something wrong with the
system."
"What it amounts to is that they are a self-assessed
property," said Fowkes.
Each of those attending the meeting was given a Utah
Quality Growth Commission Survey dealing with principles of
quality growth. Attendees filled out the surveys and
submitted them before leaving the meeting.
In addition, each attendee was given four colored
stickers and asked to place them near the statements made by
members of the audience which most closely mirrored their
individual thoughts.
Peterson said one place the county might need help in the
case of future growth was in the money schools received. "If
Nephi continues to grow as a bedroom community, the schools
will need more uniform school support and the county will
also need help with highways."
The Quality Growth Commission make up consists of two
state government level appointees (one of those from the
Department of Natural Resources), six locally elected
officials--three nominated by the Utah Association of
counties and three by the Utah League of Cities and Towns,
one person nominated by the Utah Home Builders
Association.
There is also one person nominated by the Utah
Association of Realtors, two people from the agricultural
community nominated by Utah farm organizations, and one
person selected from the private profit or nonprofit
sector.
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