Growth creates challenge

OGDEN VALLEY — Skiing. Hiking. Boating. Kayaking. There isn't much one can't do in Weber County. As the area becomes sought after by many looking for profit and others seeking to keep it the same, the trick becomes predicting the future.

Confronted with writing the recreational element of the general plan for Weber County, county planners are using every resource but a crystal ball. Much of the focus for planning is on Ogden Valley, the recreation-rich mountain area east of Ogden city.

BioWest was hired to evaluate the area. County representatives and Envision Utah gathered a stakeholders committee comprised of businesses owners, representatives from the ski resorts, developers and area residents who have been planning for a year and a half to study the area's future.

Predictions of the valley's future mean big changes, and planners now realize that they need to do something to manage the growth and, hopefully, also preserve some of the current way of life.

"Unless we want it to look like Snyderville Basin in Park City, we probably had better implement some growth tools," said Chris Sands, BioWest principal and senior planner.

Those tools are being utilized in the recreational element of Weber County's general plan. The planning commission is now reviewing the plan, which the panel hopes to give the county direction in development while protecting some open space.

BioWest's study also predicted a loss of full-time neighbors. Currently 30 percent of homes in the valley are second homes. In two decades, that number will top the residential number, with an estimated 70 percent of the homes for vacationers.

Change has been influenced by multiple factors. The 2002 Olympics opened a flow of international tourism that has yet to stop and developers are seeking to build more resorts to keep the flow going. And as Utah grows, more people are discovering Pineview Reservoir and the trails and ski resorts that are a quick drive from the Wasatch Front.

Residents and travelers alike are concerned about development of the remaining open space in the valley.

"I wouldn't like it. I'd feel like I was in the middle of a city, like Liberty Park," said Tyler Brey of Bountiful. He was enjoying a sunny day at Pineview with the Madrigals from Viewmont High School. The lively group was adamant that they didn't want the serene hills of Ogden Valley looking like those of their hometown.

Some, however, are more concerned about what people do on the water. Bountiful resident Peggy Brown calls Pineview her favorite, but she refuses to come on the weekend because of the "dangerous personal crafts" that come too close to her boat and the alcohol being consumed around the beaches.