Guest Post by Lee Schussman
Eden, UT
What a Travesty of the Democratic Process.
Come to meetings! Participate! Make your thoughts and ideas known! Get your fellow Ogden Valley residents involved! Over the past 40 years there have been dozens of occasions on which Weber County Commissioners themselves, Ogden Valley Planning Commission members, and members of the Weber County Planning Office have asked me and many others to PARTICIPATE -- to come to meetings, to work with them, to get others involved, and to make our thoughts known.
We were also told repeatedly by our County Commissioners (notably in 1998 when the first Ogden Valley General Plan was created, again in 2002 when the Ogden Valley Recreation Plan was made, and again for the past three years as the new General Plan has been crafted) that we should communicate our ideas to them, that we should TRUST them, and that we should let them know the directions in which we wanted to channel the inevitable growth of the Ogden Valley.
Well, for the past three years, Ogden Valley residents have done just that – they have PARTICIPATED! Many Ogden Valley residents spent hours in multiple meetings and workshops.
As you are probably aware, the original “Advisory Group”of Ogden Valley residents worked with the Simpson Bowles consulting company to create the initial version of the plan. You can see those involved citizens listed in the final version of the plan. However, you may not be aware that, since the initial version, at least four revisions were then written.
Kim Wheatley of Huntsville worked tirelessly for hundreds of hours on these multiple revisions. He worked closely with Charlie Ewert, Principal Planner for Weber County Planning Office and with the Ogden Valley Planning Commission. During the last 2 years, Kim also spear-headed and held together a group of interested Valley residents who met regularly and who studied the issues, tried to understand the ramifications of each part of the plan, and wrote and re-wrote the 60 page document many times.
Given the parameters under which the General Plan had to be written, all these individuals labored long and hard to try to meet the needs of ALL of the many stakeholders involved in the development of the Ogden Valley. They deserve our sincere thanks and respect.
They also deserve the support of our three county commissioners. However, instead, at the last Weber County Commissioners’ meeting on August 30, in a few minutes, an important part of that good work was summarily thrown out by two of our commissioners. In that meeting, after all public input was closed, in an arrogant and audacious manner, a motion to make a last minute change in an important part of the long-debated plan was made and passed. The motion was made by Commissioner Gibson, supported by State Rep Froerer, and voted in by lame-duck Commissioner Bell, while Commissioner Ebert voted against the last-minute change.
That motion re-establishes bonuses for TDR’s. This loop-hole, which Commissioners Gibson and Bell inserted into the General Plan, will allow the potential for further increases in the total density of housing units in the valley—above and beyond the already astronomical numbers of 16,000 housing units and 21,000 residents! Giving bonuses for TDRs sets up the potential for developers to make end-runs around existing caps on Ogden Valley growth.
This decision by two of our county commissioners establishes an important and long-reaching policy, and it was created in such a blatant and arrogant way that I believe it fuels the growing distrust and cynicism regarding our local government.
So…Participate! Come to meetings! Make your ideas known. Involve your fellow Ogden Valley residents, and even work hard to actually help craft the plan! Then watch as a few politicians make decisions that blatantly contravene and are diametrically opposed to the will of the citizens.
The residents of the Ogden Valley deserve and need better representation. Perhaps we will never get that representation until and unless we have five county commissioners, one from the Ogden Valley; or until the Ogden Valley breaks from the Weber County government and is incorporated as its own municipality.
Lee Schussman
Eden, UT
Schussman's letter made it in the Standard Op Ed section, albeit a scaled down version:
And the Standard reported on the same story here:
