The Deseret News editorial on Nov. 20 called for Utah County residents to embrace high-density housing and abandon NIMBYism in order to deal with future explosive growth.
The opinion glosses over the need to convince people who want to live in family neighborhoods to fundamentally change their goals. Owning a home is still the American dream. Married couples and individuals typically first rent apartments and then opt to purchase a home when they can afford it. My married children all have followed this pattern, moving from high-density condos into a home, even when they could barely manage the change financially.
This happens all over America; studies show that over 95 percent of Americans who grew up in a family home want to have their own home and live in a residential community neighborhood. The government and media suggesting otherwise doesn’t change that fact. Legislating families into apartment complexes will not work if that’s not what people want. Rather than accuse Utah County residents of NIMBYism to push an apartment-complex agenda (like large cities in California), we can capitalize on Utah County's growth to create wonderful future residential neighborhoods in an ever more-crowded America.
The high-density one-size-fits-all approach also ignores what is unique about Utah County and how our differences make us an attractive place for people to work and live. We need genuine long-term solutions that 1) preserve all that is wonderful about Utah County, 2) realistically take into account Utah County’s growth needs and 3) accurately include changing demographics in Utah and society at large.
Murray Low
Orem