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Show Volume II , Issue V Page 21 The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS February 2000 Ogden Valley Circles Wagons Against Sprawl By Kristen Moulton The Salt Lake Tribune Ogden Valley is cupped by awesome mountains. It has three ski resorts, a boating reservoir, campgrounds and snowmobile and hiking trails. Trappist monks still work the fields and aging barns dot the landscape. Heck, this valley even has a mission statement. What’s not to love? Well, too much love, say residents of this valley 10 miles east of Ogden up the winding Ogden Canyon Road. Local planners have embarked on an unusual, though simple, approach to keep the valley from being loved to death. The area’s three planning commissions have started a monthly forum to hash over the valley’s destiny with residents. “The idea of fragmented, separate little areas doing what they choose is a relic of the past,” says attorney Jim Hasenyager, a member of Huntsville Town’s Planning Commission and chairman of a new Ogden Valley Land Trust to preserve open space. “It only made sense to get together.” And none too soon. Two major commercial developments, with restaurants, markets and boutiques, have been proposed for Huntsville and the adjacent East Huntsville Township. Either development would dwarf anything now in Huntsville, Eden or Liberty. The valley has fewer than 6,000 residents. The projects, just 2.5 miles apart, are designed to cater to an increasingly affluent valley population, recreationists and visitors drawn by the 2002 Olympic downhill races at Snowbasin Ski Resort in the southwest end of the valley. Snowbasin owner Earl Holding plans condominiums, hotels, restaurants and vacation homes at the resort, too, though much of that will not even be started until after the Winter Games. But, asks Wally Armstrong, an engineer, “Do we want Park City here?” “Everybody loves what we have. Everybody sees it could go in a hurry. All it takes is a couple of developments that went up fast and bad,” says Kimball Wheatley, Armstrong’s colleague on the East Huntsville Township Planning Commission. Such valley planners are beginning to flex new muscle. The planning commissions for Huntsville, East Huntsville Township and the Liberty-Nordic Township all have approved “dark sky” ordinances to keep light from brightening the night sky. The proposals now go before the Huntsville Town Board and the Weber County Commission. The “dark sky” ordinances are a symbol of changing attitudes, says Weber County Planner Craig Barker. “If someone had tried to do this 10 years ago, they would have been laughed at,” says Barker. Residents gave themselves more say in the valley’s future with the formation of the townships in the past three years. Planning that used to be done by the county’s Planning Commission on the other side of the mountains is now done at home. Eden remains the only area still outside a town or township and under the planning authority of the county. A wrenching two-year process to Haynes Fuller of Eden. write a general plan for the valley in the mid-1990s also pushed residents to think about the future. In the end, those who would rather shut the doors realized that development was inevitable. And landowners and developers who cherish private property rights became reconciled to the public’s role in land decisions. The general plan calls for lower densities of homes—one per three acres outside of communities — and it spelled out a mission statement that puts a premium on scenic vistas, natural resources and agriculture. Regardless, farming soon will die out, says Haynes Fuller, who has farmed along the north shore of Pineview Reservoir with his brother for decades. “Anybody who thinks there will be farming in Ogden Valley in 20 years still thinks there’s farming on Manhattan Island,” says Fuller, a former member of the Utah House who talked about tax incentives to preserve open space long before it was politically popular. “The land that ought to be preserved in the Ogden Valley is always the other guy’s,” he says, scoffing at those who would tell farmers they cannot make their own land decisions. Ogden Valley was settled by farmers in the late 1800s, and for decades they raised peas, grain, alfalfa and cattle on its verdant pastures. Just about everybody had a string of dairy cows to bring in a steady milk check. In the early and middle part of the 20th century, Ogden Valley was a magnet for Weber County’s poor and for those seeking space. But by the 1970s it began attracting developers of condos and hotels who saw the recreational opportunities as a gold mine. Growth came in fits and starts, but heated up in the past eight years as residents realized they could commute as easily from the Ogden Valley as other resort regions along the Wasatch Back. Since then, 50 to 80 new homes have been built each year, says Barker, the county planner. Ben Toone, owner of the Eden General Store and, occasionally, a real estate broker and developer, says the 1995 selection of Salt Lake City to stage the Olympics sent shivers through the real estate industry. “The day after they picked Salt Lake, prices doubled and tripled,” Toone says. “It was like chumming for fish.” Prices settled down some, though MANSELL AND ASSOCIATES THE TRUSTED NAME IN REAL ESTATE Pete Bealba GRI EDEN OFFICE 2580 North Highway 162 Eden, Utah 84310 Phone: 801-745-8800 Ext. 328 Fax: 745-1400 Cell-Voice Mail: 391-4100 E-mail: peteb@konnections.com www.move2ogdenvalley.com Branch Broker they remain high by Weber County standards. The county assessor, for instance, tells Toone his corner lot holding his home and store in Eden, which he paid $16,200 for in 1969, now is worth $500,000. Sharon Holmstrom, an Eden resident who is on the Weber County Planning Commission, says much is at stake in the planning decisions for the Ogden Valley. It is one of northern Utah’s main recreation destinations, she says. “This is more than a bedroom community trying to get its priorities straight,” says Holmstrom, Utah’s Teacher of the Year in 1998. “If the people don’t take an interest and ownership, then economics prevail and it goes the way of development. If it’s wall-to-wall houses, it’s no good for recreation.” Note: This article was previously printed in the The Salt Lake Tribune, January 17, 2000, and is being used by permission. |