From conservation easements for hang gliders to planning grants to high-minded and controversial definitions of "quality growth principles" — the Utah Quality Growth Commission has spent two years working quietly to build awareness of strategies to help communities stay green, prosperous and livable as the state grows.
Growth commission officials told lawmakers Wednesday they want more money to help communities in Utah plan for open space and quality growth projects. "There really is a dearth of planning money out there," said Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, who is also the chairman of the Utah Quality Growth Commission. "This is money well invested."
In 1999, lawmakers passed the Utah Quality Growth Act. The growth commission was a part of that new law, and legislators asked the 13-member commission to define quality growth and gave them a little money to help communities do the same.
Since 1999, the commission has awarded $400,000 in planning grants to 34 local governments throughout the state. Layton city used its grant money to plan to revitalize its downtown. Moab is looking at the feasibility of expanding sewer and water lines into Grand and San Juan counties. Salina is rewriting its General Plan with the money. Draper wants to map out conservation areas.
And a more green, less crowded state can be achieved without a "net loss" of private property, Cary Peterson told the members of the legislative Political Subdivisions Interim Committee. "This is about achieving net gain versus no net loss," said Peterson, who is also commissioner of agriculture for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
The commission is studying land ownership in Utah, where 78 percent of land is owned by state or federal governments or by American Indian communities. About 22 percent of Utah land is private.
The commission has recommended the state implement a policy to achieve a "net gain" of private land.
Case in point: a 60-acre ridge and hang-gliding haven near the Point of the Mountain.
Once operated by the Utah Department of Transportation, the growth commission followed Gov. Mike Leavitt's recommendation to donate any surplus land that could provide greater "quality growth" opportunities.
And it's lucky for hang-gliders. This land on the Utah County side of Point of the Mountain in the Salt Lake Valley's southernmost corner is now under a conservation easement operated for the county strictly for the benefit of these high-flying recreationists, a member of the Utah Quality Growth Commission told lawmakers.
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