Category Archives: Specialization
There is no such thing as ‘smart sprawl’
What is interesting about the “smart sprawl” idea is how little empirical evidence underlies it.
A bipartisan opportunity to rebuild American infrastructure
While the election has passed, the country remains divided. Despite this polarization, the majority of Americans want their government to cooperate to move us forward.
State and Local Governments Must Further Address Housing Affordability
Utah has become an increasingly desirable place to relocate, especially among those stuck quarantined in coastal states with the highest cost of living in the country.
The Status of Women Leaders in Government – Utah Cities and Towns
Research shows that communities and organizations increasingly thrive when men and women work together in leadership roles.
We have to do something about Utah’s housing crisis
As I anticipate graduating with my bachelor’s degree from Utah State University in the spring, I am especially worried about the worsening housing affordability crisis that Utah finds itself in.
What the Wasatch Front needs is more basement apartments
A lot of people want to move here, but there aren’t enough places for them to live.
Cities Don’t Need High-Rises to Become Affordable
“Density” is a word only an urban planner could love. To normal people it’s a synonym for “crowded.”
Funding Programs Announcement
FISCAL YEAR 2021 Funding Programs Announcement The Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) provides resources directly to its communities and partners across the region. We are pleased to announce this year’s opportunities, totaling approximately $45 million in funding and technical assistance. As the first step, interested applicants should […]
Away from the bustle: Covid-19 and the end of commuterland
Robert Edwards and Mario Stephen have responded oddly to the coronavirus pandemic and the crash in high-street spending that it has caused. They have opened a hair salon. Although both men trained and worked for years in London, their new salon is in Hitchin, a town of some 35,000 people that is 50km north of […]
What’s Keeping Utah’s Real Estate Market Hot in the Time of COVID?
The recent global health pandemic has shaken the foundation
of our everyday lives and likely forced cultural shifts that will
stay with us for a long time. Every part of the economy has been
impacted to different degrees. While the economy fell into a
record recession and experienced all-time high unemployment,
Utah’s construction industry set a record for the first six months
of the year.
(Contract) Zoning by Agreement in Utah
There has been a growing trend by municipalities and counties in Utah in recent years to conduct and approve rezones by what I’ll characterize as agreement, or even as by… contract!
Zoning Reform Is Not Leftism
To characterize proposals for zoning reform as “leftist” is incorrect. It is true that a number of Democratic candidates and progressive organizations have embraced some of these proposals. Yet it remains the case that for most of American history, from the time of colonial settlements to the heyday of the robber barons, American neighborhoods grew in response to markets, not zoning.