Cache Valley Growth

Fourth in a series of blogs from the recently Cache Valley Chamber of Commerce Luncheon.  Today's topic - growth in Cache Valley.

QUESTION #3: With growth projections for Utah and Cache Valley, how do you propose we balance growth with infrastructure needs and still continue the quality of life we have currently?​

Three points: Build smart; Keep and steward our water; Keep and steward our public and agricultural lands

1. Build smart: Towns, cities, and counties make the big decisions on patterns of growth, through planning and zoning. Cache County and its towns and cities have master plans to guide development as the valley grows. These are periodically revisited and updated. That process works best with good community input and buy-in. The Envision Cache Valley process from about 10 years found strong public support for “keep the city, city” and “keep the country, country” – we like the open beauty of Cache Valley, and that means we must build at higher density in some places. 
   
   As we build infrastructure, we need to think to the future. We need to consider not just the immediate financial and other impacts of infrastructure, but also the longer-term costs of maintaining it. Scenario processes have been very effective in leading to growth that works well – that is economically sustainable - and that people like.
   
   We also need to account for the increasingly hotter, drier, more extreme climate we have and build for those conditions.
   
2. Keep and steward our public lands and open agricultural lands – they provide an environment that is very forgiving of growth and development by letting us keep our beautiful views, rural feel, and easy access to outdoors – and they support our recreation and tourism industries.
   
3. Keep and steward our water. The new Water Conservancy District should help us do that, and we have a lot of room to get more from our water with conservation.