Planner has vision for Bountiful

BOUNTIFUL — This city may not have a frontage along I-15, but it does have something no other Davis County city can claim — a fairly intact historic downtown.

And that, says new planning and economic development director Aric Jensen, is a good place to start with an economic development plan. Jensen, who left Centerville city to become Bountiful's first economic development director, believes the city can overcome its lack of land for big-box retailers along the I-15 corridor.

With the threat of a Super WalMart in Centerville and the possibility of a Costco in West Bountiful, city leaders see the need to keep existing businesses and attract new ones to the city, City Manager Tom Hardy said.

"A large portion of Bountiful's population is affluent, and we don't know how much we will be hurt by WalMart," Jensen said. "We want to tailor our retail to our residents so they will keep their shopping in Bountiful."

Commercial sales and sales tax revenues have stagnated in Bountiful in the past four years, Jensen said. "Main Street has potential and I believe it has been underutilized. We want to focus on the downtown area between Fifth South and Fourth North on Main Street.

"This is the only existing downtown historical district left in the county. It's the only one with trees, sidewalks with people walking on them and a two-lane road down the middle," Jensen said.

"This is the hook that got me interested in the job," he said. Jensen has a degree in real estate development and a professional certificate in urban planning from the University of Utah. "Every planner dreams of re-creating a downtown."

Jensen, 31, who started the job March 1, was hired to take care of the city's usual planning needs but also to shore up the retail climate in the city, Hardy said. "We want him to encourage new businesses to move in. That includes new restaurants, new theaters, the whole thing, not just shops."

Hardy calls historic Main Street a mixed bag. "Frankly, I think it's doing well now. There's a mixed use where Lakewood's (furniture store) used to be with retail on the bottom and condos on top."

A former car dealership at the north end of Main has been converted to retail, and the Wight House, a clothing store, has approached the city with a proposal to expand its reception business by adding a top floor, Hardy said.

"There is some retail that is working and we'd like to have more retail downtown," he said.