Intergovernmental Planning Coordination

by John Ayer, AICP

Utah Planner Newsletter Editor

While reviewing the state regulations requiring communities to plan for moderate income housing (UCA 10-9-307), I could not help but notice the requirement to annually report to the state, "efforts made by the municipality to coordinate moderate income housing plans and actions with neighboring municipalities."  This requirement surprised me because there are so few times where communities are truly expected or legislated to coordinate their planning efforts.  The concept of intergovernmental coordination in planning is a very practical idea and can prove to be very beneficial (not to mention neighborly), but where one community’s ideas differ from its neighbor’s, it can also be very difficult since neighbors cannot always agree.

Planning coordination can be especially beneficial when determining where to locate undesirable land uses so one community is not pushing its unwanted land uses onto its neighbor.  Coordination also helps with making a street system function properly.  In the area of moderate income housing, one community’s plan could differ vastly from its neighbor’s plan leaving little room for or interest in coordination.  Such efforts are worth whatever can be gleaned from them, however, even if coordination does not lead to cooperation.

With the development of a new I-15 interchange, Lindon City and Pleasant Grove City have had to work closely in a coordinated way to make the interchange a reality.  Working in a short time period and with very limited resources, these communities’ coordinated efforts made it possible to get funding, plans, and approval for the interchange prior to the air quality time clock running out.  Without working together, the interchange would have never been possible and the anticipated boon to each community would be put off indefinitely.  Further, both Pleasant Grove and Lindon have anticipated that this would be no ordinary interchange, and plans for the project always included a discussion of significant upgrades above the norm.  Working together ensured that the area around the interchange and the interchange itself will be developed to the highest standard possible.  As development will soon show, landscaping and related aesthetic improvements of the interchange and in the surrounding area will be significantly upgraded, and planning for undeveloped land in both communities should result in a much nicer final product on both sides of the city line.

Coordinating the work of both communities in gaining approval for the interchange and creating a plan for development of the adjacent vacant land has already paid dividends to both Lindon and Pleasant Grove.  Such dividends can be realized by any other communities that can set aside differences long enough to see how working together can be mutually beneficial whether that work is over an interchange, moderate income housing, economic development, or other planning issues.

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