Editorial

by Wilf Summerkorn

In recent weeks, there has been increasing public attention to the issue of effective, coordinated planning among Wasatch Front communities to deal with issues of growth. This issue has been a touchstone for me for several years as I have watched our area's growth and participated in efforts to manage it.

There is no question in my mind that we must find ways to work more effectively as a region to deal with the big picture problems brought about by growth. We are no longer a series of separate, isolated communities doing our own thing. Today's global economy is one in which city regions are the thriving engines, competing and complementing each other. The United States no longer competes directly with Japan, Germany, and Brazil. Instead, it is New York and Los Angeles and yes, even Salt Lake City competing with Hong Kong and Tokyo and Frankfurt. Each of these regions is composed of the many cities, towns and counties that meld together into a single functional entity, much like we now are in the Greater Wasatch area.

A recent report released by U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties shows that some 89% of the economic growth that has occurred in the U.S. since 1992 has taken place in metropolitan areas. It is our metro areas that produce the economic well being of this country and of the world, and it is the metro areas that must find ways to deal with their problems and keep themselves competitive as desirable places to live and work.

The report goes on to say that "state and local boundaries are increasingly irrelevant to economic growth. Many metro economies ... encompass many communities. City and county leaders believe ... that public policies and economic planning must focus on the needs of metro regions, rather than artificial political boundaries."

Neal Peirce, a noted writer and columnist on urban affairs, notes in his book Citistates,  "the problem, of course, is that virtually no problem of the modern citistate (what Peirce calls metro regions) be it strategic economic planning, environmental protection, education and workforce preparedness, parks, recreation, urban growth management....can be handled entirely on a municipality-by-municipality basis."

The National Civic League warned in 1989 that "life in urban and suburban America...will decline seriously if the big governance issues, from education to social services to land use patterns..., are not guided and ultimately directed on a region-wide basis."

Peirce goes on to note that "anyone who is tempted to tarry with the region's status quo (of leaving issues to individual local governments) might consider what one of the most powerful mayors told us about how things work today. 'The biggest things people expect me to work on,' he said, 'big land-use issues, new highways, sewers, solid waste, water quality, air quality, transit...  are all beyond my official jurisdiction.'"

In 1995, the Salt Lake County Council of Governments, at the behest of Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan and others, attempted to do some cooperative planning with all the local governments in the county. But the effort eventually foundered and died, as local turf battles emerged, and then as the issue of townships and annexations and incorporations set everyone against each other.

In 1996 and again in 1997, former Senator LeRay McAllister introduced bills in the state legislature that would have provided incentives and encouragement for local governments to join together in cooperative efforts to address growth issues. Neither effort succeeded because of lack of support from both local governments and legislative leaders.

Utah now has another opportunity to address this important topic. The Quality Growth Commission, established by the legislature last year and appointed by the Governor, is charged with taking a big picture look at growth. One of the issues they are to study and report back on is intergovernmental cooperation. Now is the time for the Commission to recognize and endorse cooperative planning amongst the local governments in Utah, and recommend incentives to foster it. Without it, we will surely put ourselves at a disadvantage with other metro areas around the nation and around the world, and we will harm the very quality of life we have all come to love in Utah.