State planners ask Southern Utah to speak up
The St. George area is again one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., yet the planning process that could decide how that growth is managed — what to do about traffic increases, whether stricter air pollution controls are needed, whether to move forward with major water projects like the Lake Powell Pipeline — has so far seen little participation from actual St. George area residents.
As of last week, only 420 Washington County residents had logged in to participate in an online survey hosted by Envision Utah, the planning organization tasked by Gov. Gary Herbert to help craft the state's long-term vision for the future. With a month left to collect comment, the vast majority of the 21,000-plus residents who have chimed in so far reside along the Wasatch Front, leaving those in southwest Utah with little representation in a process that could have major implications for the state's fastest-growing urban area.
"This is really the last step," said Ari Bruening, chief operating officer for Envision Utah. "It's kind of now or never if you want to weigh in."
The survey, which will remain open through the end of May, is accessible online at EnvisionUtah.org. Bruening said the process can be as involved as going in-depth on each of the 11 different impact areas, or as a quick as simply picking one of five more general scenarios.
"It's kind of up to you how deep you want to go on it," he said. "It might take five minutes or you could really get into the individual issues."
With state demographers and others predicting Utah's population to nearly double by 2050, Herbert and other state leaders launched the "Your Utah, Your Future" initiative in 2013, bringing in Envision Utah to lead the effort.
Meetings were held across the state, and a previous online survey helped develop the scenarios used for the current survey. As the process moves forward, the governor and others have called for more residents take part and have their voices heard, with a goal of gathering 50,000 replies on the website and releasing a new plan sometime before the end of this year.
Herbert called it an unprecedented planning effort in terms of public outreach.
"In Utah, we don't believe in sitting back and seeing where growth will take us," Herbert said. "Growth requires us to look forward proactively and take a thoughtful approach to ensure we maintain a high quality of life and strong economy in the decades to come."
The survey asks Utahns to choose their preferences among alternative futures that impact 11 key areas, such as education, jobs and the economy, public lands, transportation and energy.
"If you live in Utah, your voice is critical," said Robert Grow, president and CEO of Envision Utah. "This is your chance to choose a future for your children and grandchildren."
The survey also asks Utahns for opinions on water, outlining different strategies on how to meet the anticipated demands, typically through a combination of conservation, the elimination of some agriculture and development of new projects such as the Lake Powell Pipeline, which would carry water some 140 miles from the Colorado River to Sand Hollow Reservoir in Hurricane.
Residents can also pick scenarios that eliminate one or all of those options, although it also assumes some of the potential costs of doing one thing or the other, based on input from some state and industry leaders.
Only one of the five scenarios presents an option without the Lake Powell Pipeline.
"A lot of people said they were interested in going really far on conservation," Bruening said. "So one scenario doesn't have (projects like the Lake Powell Pipeline) but it has basically no grass in yards and parks."
The St. George area was the fifth-fastest growing in the U.S. last year, according to a new report from the U.S. Census.
Jumping from an estimated 147,800 to an estimated 151,948, St. George and the rest of Washington County grew at 2.9 percent from July 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014, according to the report, with Utah's southwest corner again showing that its sunny weather and scenic outdoor surroundings are a natural lure. Nearly 14,000 new people are estimated to have moved in since the 2010 census.
State demographers have forecast the county to grow to nearly 200,000 people by 2020, and to more than 280,000 by 2030.