Members of Utah's first planning commission probably never uttered the words "moratorium," "rezone" or master plan."
Three days after pioneers settled the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles set about the task of deciding where the Salt Lake Temple would go, how the city's now-famous grid of roads would be drawn and where farmland would be located.
"This essentially served as the first planning commission," said Stephen Holbrook, executive director of Envision Utah. "This was really the forerunner for how Utah would develop over the next 100 years."
Now the partnership, called Envision Utah, sponsored by the umbrella group Coalition for Utah's Future, is trying to solve a follow-up question: what to do with the next million people expected to add to the Wasatch Front population by 2020.
On its way to answering this question, Envision Utah has built a strategy designed to enhance air quality, preserve land and water, use infrastructure efficiently and provide housing opportunities for a range of people and incomes. Holbrook outlined the group's history and strategy for students and the media this week at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
"None of us knows the future, but there is no corporation that doesn't think ahead and that doesn't have some kind of game plan as they look ahead," said Holbrook, who was a three-term state legislator.
Envision Utah's scope spans transportation, zoning and land-use policy issues.
For example, under the goal to enhance air quality, which polls show Utahns hold as a top priority, strategies strive to "foster and promote walkable development," "encourage energy efficiency ordinances," "foster a transit-oriented development" and "encourage industrial facilities to use best available technology to meet standards and further reduce emissions."
"We believe these strategies can help improve the quality of life," Holbrook said.
At least one person in the audience challenged Envision Utah's assumption's about light-rail use. Michael Packard, a Sandy resident and longtime light-rail opponent, said the public transit assumption in Envision Utah's plan would amount to "$4 billion wasted."
But a first glance at new modeling by a team within the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget actually showed a greater participation in public transit, Holbrook said.
Response to a recent questionnaire from the group shows Wasatch Front residents are willing to support a tax increase for expanded public transit — if service is convenient and reliable. Eighty percent of 6,000 who responded said they would use public transit at least once a month if it were more reliable and efficient.
A majority also supported the use of gasoline-tax revenue for public transportation.
But, Holbrook said Tuesday, residents must be convinced a transit tax increase will have that kind of effect.
A measure increasing the Utah Transit Authority's current quarter-cent-per-dollar sales-tax share by another quarter cent is likely to appear on ballots this fall. UTA officials say they can expand their current bus system and operate extended light rail and commuter-rail service with such an increase.
However the strategies are implemented, Utah's geographic situation is unique in comparison to other growing communities in the West. Phoenix can expand in a couple of directions; Denver can grow on one side. "But here, you cannot keep going," Holbrook said. You have a limited amount of private land. We are in a unique situation, and we need to be thoughtful about the way we live."