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John Daley ReportingSpectacular. Staggering. Explosive. Those are some of the words being used describe projected population growth on the Wasatch Front. One area in particular has planners biting their fingers.
In areas out on the west bench, population growth in the next 30 years is projected to more than double; in some places it's projected at upwards of 500% growth.
Much of the west side of the Salt Lake Valley is undeveloped now, but that's changing fast. Urban Utah is expected to grow at the twice the national rate in the next thirty years. Conservatively, just on the west bench, 300,000 new residents are expected in the next 30 years.
Ted Knowlton, Planning Manager, Envision Utah: "Growth in Utah is essentially more certain than any place in the country. We have the nation's biggest families, and as the state of Utah projects growth, they're saying about three fourths of our growth is just coming from our natural increase."
Those numbers make transportation planners in particular very nervous. Consider information that says highway capacity is flat while highway travel is racing ahead of population growth. Meantime, there's a 16 billion dollar future funding shortfall.
Carlos Braceras, Deputy Director, UDOT: "There is still a very real funding gap between what is needed and what we have the ability to pay for."
John Inglish, General Manager, UTA: "We still have been behind for the last 20 years or so taking care of our transportation infrastructure needs and now it's reached a crisis situation. I think we've got to step up to it now."
On the drawing boards new light rail lines and a new highway called the Mountain View Corridor are planned for the west side of the valley. Many communities, like Daybreak, want walkable, well-planned neighborhoods, but may face serious development pressures before new transportation options arrive.
Ted Knowlton, Planning Manager, Envision Utah: "It's important on the one hand for us to try to get our public transportation investments in a timely fashion. It's also important for communities to stick to their vision, if that's their vision for their community."
Here's one final statistic for you to chew on, the number of new residents projected for western Salt Lake and Utah Counties is about 10,000 people a year.
