Envision Utah hails quality-growth efforts

Envision Utah, a program aimed at promoting quality growth and development throughout the state, honored 11 projects Wednesday for helping to do just that.

"That's life and that's growth," Dan Lofgren, chairman of the Utah Quality Growth Commission, said jokingly during the ceremony held at the Memorial House in Memory Grove. "It slaps the crap out of all of us."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., however, said the projects honored with the fifth-annual Governor's Quality Growth Awards are helping lessen that blow by improving Utah's future and ensuring that future generations are able to enjoy "that very elusive commodity called humanity.

"These are all great examples of projects that add to our quality of life, our economic vitality, our sustainability," he said. "They represent a very futuristic look at these issues, and I think that's something to be applauded."

The Harvest Park Development in Mapleton was given the Grand Achievement Award for a project that would preserve more than 100 acres of critical hillside land, while providing the city with more affordable housing and safe walking trails, Envision Utah Chairman Bruce Christensen said.

"There was an abundance of large lot development and the city wanted to provide alternative housing and alternative lot sizes," Mapleton planning director Mathew Evans said. "This project will be a great benefit to the city.

Envision Utah also honored three projects with awards of excellence and four with awards of merit.

Award of Excellence:

• Midvale city for a planned residential, commercial and office development to be built on a former polluted site.

• Park City for a development aimed at energizing an existing part of the city, rather than building around its perimeter.

• West Valley City for a plan that will support future transit along 3500 South by redeveloping commercial, residential and office space in the area.

Award of Merit:

• Park City's Blue Sky program for promoting wind power in the community

• Utah Botanical Center for its efforts to inspire Utahns to work toward a more sustainable future.

• West Point city for a trail system that enhances walking routes throughout the community.

• Salt Lake City's Water Reclamation Project for its use of methane gas produced during anaerobic digestion to power its facility, reducing methane emissions in the air by 450,000 cubic feet per day.

The Utah Quality Growth Commission also honored three projects for work in Utah's land conservation efforts.

The Cache County Agricultural Advisory Board was given the Critical Land Planning award for its creation of a land evaluation and site assessment handbook, Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen said.