Planning for orderly growth

Salt Lake County has the right idea with its "patchwork master plan," an effort to get communities on the same page when it comes to growth in the southwest part of the county. The process of drafting this plan has just gotten under way. We hope it's not too late. The southwest corner of the county is growing more quickly than anyone anticipated.

But one could say the same about much of the rest of the county, as well. County officials are to be commended, for example, for putting more resources into planning along the west bench, where a half-million new residents are expected to move within the next several decades. A more aggressive countywide effort would be better — one that involves leaders from all cities within the county.

This isn't a new idea, nor are today's leaders the first to recognize the need for more cohesive planning across municipal boundaries. Decades ago, people already were envisioning the day of either wall-to-wall cities in the county or the consolidation of all cities into one unified city-county government.

Back in the 1980s, the county organized the "Government for the Next Century Task Force," made up of prominent residents and political leaders. Its charge was to recommend the best way to govern the county in the 21st century. The group came up with a plan for changing the county's form of government — one similar to the council-mayor form eventually adopted. But it said the real long-term solution would be to consolidate everything into one.

That way, the county wouldn't be home to so many separate police and fire departments, planning commissions and animal control divisions. And, perhaps more importantly, it wouldn't end up with cities and developers fighting over annexations, while some neighborhoods remain permanently unincorporated because they are considered economically unattractive.

But a consolidated government isn't going to happen. The next best thing is to provide a reasonable process for orderly and consistent planning, and for logical annexations. The county shouldn't be left with the responsibility to provide municipal services to a disjointed patchwork of neighborhoods that cannot provide the tax base necessary to support those services. Cities shouldn't be allowed to simply cherry-pick the most lucrative annexations.