Utah Governor Offers Smart Growth Carrot To Cities

The newly formed Utah Quality Growth Commission will "provide planning help and priority funding for Utah communities" if they adopt smart growth plans and ordinances. Money and technical assistance will come from programs in the departments of Transportation, Community and Economic Development, Natural Resources, and Environmental Quality. Some of the conditions for approval are mixing of housing types, creation of greenbelts and argicultural preservation, transportation plans, and cluster development. In addition, cities will be designated "Quality Growth Communities" by the governor. Gov. Walker explained the goals of the program by saying "This is going to allow communities to look at their assets and begin planning for the future. They're going to have to decide what they want to look like in 5 or 10 years and what they want to be."

Thanks to Peter Christensen