Envision Utah is conducting a survey to see how Utahns feel Utah should look by the year 2050. Over the next 35 years the population in Utah is projected to double. With all this added growth comes the need for planning. Ari Bruening, is the Chief Operating Officer of Envision Utah. The last time a planning of this type took place was 1997-99. Bruening said from that planning effort came the Front Runner and the Trax lines along the Wasatch Front.
“The planning we did back then just included the Wasatch Front. This time we are including all of Utah. Since the survey was put online, we have only had 29 respondents from Emery County. We would really like to increase that number. We have a team of 400 experts that put together the visions of Utah included on the survey. After the survey is completed, these same experts will prepare a report of what people think Utah should look like. We believe the rural counties need a voice in this survey. As an added incentive after you complete the survey, you can pick the school of your choice from a list and we’ll donate $1 to that school just for participating in the survey.
“There are five different scenarios to choose from on the survey. Pick the scenario that most closely matches how you think Utah should look. Total to date, we have had 15,000 survey’s taken. There isn’t a cap on the number of surveys we’ll accept. There are different issues discussed within each scenario. For example, there is public lands including grazing, energy, agriculture and eleven categories total. For Emery County, we expect public lands and energy would be important. Under energy there are different choices for mixes of energy, nuclear, renewables, coal and natural gas, etc. Under the water category, for example, if the population doubles, where are we going to get the water resources for this population increase, would it come from conservation? moved from agriculture? a mixture of options? These are the kinds of issues the survey deals with. Your opinion is important.
“The survey will be open until the end of May. The concluding report will include goals and strategies taken from input from the survey. We expect the final report to be finished in October and we will hold a press conference to announce the results.
“We don’t want the Wasatch Front to decide Utah’s future. This is a joint statewide effort to create a vision for Utah’s future,” said Bruening.
To take the survey go to the Envision Utah website; envisionutah.org. Bruening said he has had some people spend five minutes on the survey and some as much as an hour depending on how much input you’d like to have in evaluating Utah’s future.
So give rural Utah a voice and take the survey and help out a local school as a result of your efforts.
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']