Politico Magazine reports that Utah has seen tremendous population growth and development in recent years, and has struggled to maintain the planning and regulatory mechanisms necessary to handle this growth. To uphold the quality of life of citizens in the face of these pressures, Utah engaged in a 20-year land use planning effort that stands among the most ambitious of the nation and has transformed that state. The effort was intended to conserve water use, promote clean air, and avoid the destruction of open spaces by decreasing housing lot sizes, encouraging higher-density development, and imposing new taxes to build a regional light rail network and commuter rail system. “This approach—voluntary, bottom-up, large-scale and long-term—has clicked with the people of a conservative state and bridged historic divisions between Mormons and non-Mormons, environmentalists and mining interests, farmers and city-dwellers.”
