Red Rock Advocate the CSU Newsletter September 2020
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September 2020 Newsletter Planning and Voting for Our Future
In this Issue:
Collaborative Planning
My Future, My Vote for Public Lands!
Message from the Board
from Art Haines
vice-president, CSU Board of Directors
Elected officials would have us believe that the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Northern Corridor Highway are examples of visionary regional planning and leadership. But in reality, these damaging mega projects are symptoms of a failure in regional planning and economic development policy that instead should be focused on integrating land use and transportation planning based on growth.
Our elected representatives should take bold steps in forging a regional consensus on developing and mapping out strategies for reducing demand for water, as well as using land for additional highways.
What, then, is the solution? Answer: A commitment to the hard work of effective regional planning that addresses all of our resources: land use, open space, public services, utilities, air quality, and socioeconomic development.
In this issue of the Red Rock Advocate, Susan Crook, a landscape architect and planner who has worked in government service and private practice for over 25 years, continues her series on Smart Growth, with a discussion of what effective regional planning could look like.
What’s Driving Land Use Planning? by Susan Crook, ASLA, PLA
How we regulate the development and use of land affects every aspect of our lives, from air quality and water use to where we live, work, shop and play. Currently, water and transportation decisions determine where our schools, parks, hospitals, libraries, city halls, fire stations, police stations and post offices are located. When transportation planning and water management decisions drive land use, the tail is wagging the dog. Citizens, who should be collaborators in community planning, are excluded from the process.
With funding from tax dollars, the quasi-governmental WCWCD was established in 1962 to manage the county’s water resources. The DMPO has been the de facto regional land planning and transportation planning agency in Washington County since it was created in 2002. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) website states, “A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is the policy board of an organization created and designated to carry out the metropolitan transportation planning process.”
The Problem
In 1991 the Utah Legislature mandated that each city and county prepare and adopt a comprehensive general plan to deal with growth within its boundaries (Utah Code Part 10-9a-4). But the Utah Code does not require cities and counties to collaborate on regional land use planning. It is done in “silos” with cities competing against each other to attract business and industry that generate tax dollars. Region-wide land use planning is the role of transportation planners in the DMPO and water managers at the WCWCD because no one else is doing it.
The Solution - Collaborative Planning
If citizens were involved in planning early and often we could save money by avoiding contentious, drawn-out planning processes like the Lake Powell Pipeline and the Northern Corridor Highway that’s tied to the renewal of the Habitat Conservation plan for Red Cliffs National Conservation Area/Reserve. We could have collaborative regional land use planning where all stakeholders have a voice in decision-making.
We can’t live with each other, and we can’t live without each other. So we created a mediator to help us get along. We call it government. We assigned government the role of parenting our communities. Dispute resolution, “family” planning, and our health, safety and welfare are in the hands of our elected officials and public servants. Land use planning is family planning on a community scale.
Cities and towns are collections of neighborhoods. If our neighborhoods had the basic goods, services and jobs we needed, we would rarely need to travel beyond their borders. Imagine a neighborhood where you can walk or bike to school, work, a medical clinic, library, post office, grocer, hardware store. A place where neighbors know and care about each other.
Geographically-defined community council districts divided into smaller neighborhood associations would give citizens access to the council member representing their district, and a way for the council member to communicate with constituents. Having a two-way communication structure in place would enable citizen collaboration in planning and make it possible for public officials to quickly mobilize citizens to help in emergencies or to assist with community events and other civic wants and needs.
Imagine a regional land use planning board with planning commissioners from each municipality coordinating their general plans and advising water managers and transportation planners on land use as a precursor to water and transportation planning.
Vision for the Future
Conserve Southwest Utah envisions a future where municipalities throughout our region adopt Smart Growth principles and Livable Communities concepts. A region where citizens and public officials collaborate to conserve water, mitigate climate change, improve air quality, conserve biological diversity on public lands and celebrate cultural diversity in our communities. We can do this – together!
Reinventing Community Engagement:Combine planning with a volunteer activity. People like to feel their ideas and feedback can have immediate results. Activities like a local park clean-up provide residents with an immediate sense of accomplishment and help foster community pride. (Io LandArch blog excerpt May 3, 2019. Photo courtesy of Emily Ballard)
My Future, My Vote for Public Lands! by Sarah Thomas
We love the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and we know that you do too. It’s time to turn that love into power by joining the national movement of people who are voting or want to mobilize others to vote for America’s public lands this November.
Join Conserve Southwest Utah on “Motivote” — a one-of-its-kind, peer-to-peer platform that walks supporters through bite-sized "actions" that get them ready to vote and keep them on track to follow through, like making a voting plan and looking at a ballot guide.
Sign up at https://myfuturemyvote.motivote.us/registration/
Bring your friends and your community along to make sure that we elect candidates with the bold vision and leadership necessary to protect our shared land and water resources necessary for healing ourselves, our communities and the planet.
In Washington County, 25.6% of residents are under the age of 18. They, and future generations deserve to experience the same beloved trails, petroglyph panels, dinosaur tracks, threatened wildlife, and beautiful lands acquired through Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars, just as we have. The best way to protect this special place for the future is to vote for your public lands! So much is at stake: the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the future of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.
Kids gather around a Eubrontes dinosaur track protected in the Red Cliffs NCA on a guided hike by Conserve Southwest Utah.
Get Involved!
If you'd like to help and/or make a contribution please visit our website
(link below) to learn more,
or email Sarah Thomas atsarah@conserveswu.organd she will help match
your interests and skills to available volunteer opportunities.
