Utah Governor Offers Smart Growth Carrot To Cities – New program offers funding, technical assitance if cities commit to Smart Growth.

Cities offered growth deal

Utah’s Quality Growth Commission has an offer for the state’s cities and towns: Embrace smart growth strategies and gain access to financial help and technical know-how from a host of state agencies.

By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01222004/utah/131445.asp

Gov. Olene Walker put the deal in writing Wednesday, signing an executive order that launched the Quality Growth Communities Program.

In development for months, it is designed to provide planning help and priority funding for Utah communities — and special service districts — that meet the program’s application guidelines.

"This is going to allow communities to look at their assets and begin planning for the future," Walker said during a morning news conference. "They’re going to have to decide what they want to look like in 5 or 10 years and what they want to be."

Quality Growth Commission Chairman Dan Lofgren calls the new program a tool for long-term economic development — one that will allow cities and towns to increase the efficiency of their infrastructure while also ensuring local control over land-use issues.

"How we allocate and how we spend is the crux of the Quality Growth Communities Program," he said.

The Quality Growth Communities Program will require no additional funding from the Legislature; rather, qualifying groups will be able to tap into a range of funds and services offered by state agencies, including the departments of Transportation, Community and Economic Development, Natural Resources and Environmental Quality.

But to gain access to such resources, applicant cities and service districts must enact plans and ordinances that follow smart-growth principles in areas such as economic development, infrastructure, housing and conservation.

That would include encouraging "cluster" development, which concentrates infrastructure in a smaller area, when planning housing or commercial projects; providing a variety of housing types; creating transportation plans; and creating green belts by preserving agricultural and other critical lands.

Qualifying cities will not only gain state assistance, but will also be designated a "Quality Growth Community" by the governor.

Draper has become a test city for the program, and will probably be the first to earn the Quality Growth designation.
"There seems to be a broad awareness that this is the right thing to do," said Lofgren. "There’s been a lot of enthusiasm among the communities we’ve had conversations with."