[0:00] We
[0:02] we'd like to welcome everyone out to our
[0:04] Wasatch Front uh meeting this afternoon.
[0:08] Uh it's good to see everybody. We do
[0:09] want to excuse Mayor Ramsey. Her son is
[0:13] getting married. Correct. Her son is
[0:14] getting married and so she's at a
[0:16] wedding right now. Good good for her
[0:19] >> on that. What we'd like to do is go
[0:21] around the table real quick and have you
[0:23] introduce yourself. And when we get
[0:25] through, those of you that are online,
[0:26] we're gonna ask you to please
[0:28] [clears throat] unmute your mic and
[0:29] introduce yourselves also. So, let's
[0:32] start.
[0:34] >> Hi everyone, Rosie Hernandez with the
[0:36] Wasatch Front Regional Council. I'm part
[0:38] of the admin team.
[0:40] >> Jordan Chandler, also part of the admin
[0:42] team here at WFRC.
[0:44] >> Jim Harvey, Weber County, Utah.
[0:46] >> Jim, are you saving those places around
[0:48] you or is nobody want to sit by you?
[0:52] I'm taking Bob back to the home when
[0:54] we're finished.
[0:57] Okay.
[0:59] >> Katherine Caner, deputy mayor of Salt
[1:01] Lake County. I believe Mayor Wilson may
[1:03] be joining us online, but I'm here to
[1:05] act in herstead until she's here. Thank
[1:07] you.
[1:08] >> Christy Overson, Taylor'sville mayor.
[1:11] >> Lauren Palmer, mayor and Herman.
[1:14] >> Sher Jackson, Mil Creek, Mayor.
[1:17] Andrea Pearson, WFRC admin staff.
[1:21] >> I'm Andrew Guber, executive director
[1:22] here at WFRC. Welcome everybody in
[1:25] person and online.
[1:26] >> Bob Stevenson, Davis County.
[1:28] >> Loren Kamalu, Davis County and UWAC,
[1:31] which if you don't know, Utah
[1:33] Association of Counties, I hate the
[1:35] acronym.
[1:37] >> Jay Fox, executive director, Utah
[1:39] Transit Authority.
[1:41] >> Sher Bingham, Her City Mayor.
[1:44] >> Monica Zultansky, Sandy City Mayor. Ben
[1:47] Hwitt with UD do
[1:49] >> Ivan Morero federal highway
[1:51] administration.
[1:52] >> David Brams, Immigration Canyon.
[1:55] >> Ted Nolton, WFRC, Deputy Director, Chief
[1:57] Planner.
[1:58] >> Ben Nadulski, Audience City Mayor.
[2:01] >> Mike Caldwin. I I kind of think I'm
[2:03] lost. They say when you're lost, you
[2:05] keep wandering in circles. And uh I
[2:07] don't know how I got back here, but this
[2:08] time it's with UTA.
[2:17] Bill Har was front regional council
[2:19] staff.
[2:20] >> Ben Wood City Weekly,
[2:23] >> Cody Lutz with the vision Utah.
[2:26] >> Miranda Jones Cox at WFRC.
[2:29] >> Jory John Longrange Planning Group WFRC.
[2:33] >> Roger Borgganick Utons for better
[2:35] transportation.
[2:37] >> Val Potter, US Senator, John Curtis.
[2:42] Josh Reynolds, WFRC staff. Kwander, WFRC
[2:46] Analytics.
[2:48] >> Barry McLaren, Senator Curtis.
[2:52] >> Ryan Mikum, Sandy City.
[2:55] >> Nicole Burau, UTA.
[2:58] >> Samantha Deilhorse, WFRC, Longrange
[3:01] Planning.
[3:03] >> Hugh Van Wagon, WFRC staff.
[3:07] >> Byron Head, WFRC staff.
[3:10] Paula Aguilera, WFRC staff.
[3:14] >> Bert Granberg, analytics team, WFRC.
[3:19] >> Benwith Rich, council staff.
[3:23] >> Sarah Lawless, WFRC staff.
[3:27] Susie Swim, WFRC staff.
[3:29] >> And Lee, WF,
[3:33] Sultan, WFRC staff.
[3:37] >> Wayne Ben, WFRC staff.
[3:40] Christopher Day, WFRC Analytics.
[3:44] >> Madison Ailis, WFRC staff.
[3:47] >> Sean A. Nardone, WFRC Communications.
[3:51] >> Marshia White, WFRC, uh, community and
[3:54] economic development.
[3:55] >> Chrissy Dolberg, WFRC, community and
[3:57] economic development.
[3:59] >> Marian Florence, WFRC, Finance and
[4:02] Administration. Is that everybody?
[4:03] >> And and we did have one late straggler,
[4:06] this beautiful lady next to me.
[4:09] Well, who you talking now?
[4:12] >> Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake County.
[4:14] >> She might call those here.
[4:16] >> Oh, there you go. Oh, wow. Hi.
[4:20] >> Anyway, one of the things that uh Oh,
[4:23] yeah. We need to go through the online
[4:24] people.
[4:25] >> Okay. Those of us uh uh joining us
[4:28] online, if you will just take a moment
[4:29] to introduce yourself, I'll read names
[4:31] off in threes. We have Mayor Manzion,
[4:35] uh, Mayor Ben.
[4:37] Julie Bjornstead,
[4:39] >> uh, Mara Manzion, mayor of Tula City,
[4:43] >> Gaylin Benan, Mayor of Cottonwood
[4:45] Heights. Julad, deputy first staff,
[4:49] >> Mayor Gtle, Mayor Gibson, Mayor Wampler.
[4:55] >> Hi, Dustin Gtle, Mayor Midell City.
[4:57] Sorry I couldn't be there in person. I
[4:59] see some of my favorite people in the
[5:01] world sitting around the table. I'll be
[5:02] there next quarter.
[5:06] » Commissioner Fer,
[5:08] >> Gage Fer, Weber County.
[5:12] >> Uh, Mayor Petro.
[5:14] >> Sorry, Mayor.
[5:15] >> Ogden Valley City.
[5:17] >> Apologies. Mayor Wapler. Um,
[5:20] Commissioner Newton. Uh, Mayor Pro.
[5:24] Mayor Mann.
[5:25] >> Mike Newton. Morgan County Commission.
[5:34] Okay. Um,
[5:36] >> Mayor Petro, Leighton City.
[5:38] >> Thanks, Mayor. Okay. Mayor M.
[5:39] >> Mayormon, Syracuse City.
[5:42] >> Then we have Mayor Groberg, uh, Senator
[5:44] Harper, and Representative Defay.
[5:48] >> Mayor Groberg, Fruit Heights City.
[5:52] >> Senator Wayne Harper, Taylor'sville and
[5:54] West Jordan.
[5:59] Representative Ariel Def, Davis County,
[6:02] Cisville, Leighton, and Syracuse.
[6:05] >> Thank you. And then we also have uh some
[6:08] attendees joining us as well.
[6:15] » Okay, we appreciate appreciate everybody
[6:17] online. Also, um, one of the things that
[6:20] you may notice, uh, is that Beth
[6:22] Hullbrook or Carlton are not with us
[6:25] because of the change in the UTA
[6:27] structure from our last meeting, but we
[6:29] do have the new board chair, Mike
[6:31] Caldwell, which we'd like to turn just a few minutes over to him to maybe
[6:36] introduce himself and give us any
[6:38] insights.
[6:39] >> Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Mike
[6:41] Caldwell. I did a run on this a number
[6:44] of years ago. I was chair with Andrew
[6:46] for a long time. Um, they were kind
[6:48] enough to invite me to participate with
[6:50] the UTA board, if you'll call it kind.
[6:52] Um, I was voluntic.
[6:56] UTA is a great organization. We're just
[6:58] learning how it all works and learn how
[7:00] we can be effective and thank goodness
[7:02] we have great leadership and Jay Fox who
[7:04] was here early
[7:05] >> right here.
[7:06] >> Okay.
[7:07] >> On the other end of the corner. So,
[7:09] we're very excited. We're in the
[7:10] learning phase right now. A lot to lot
[7:12] to get on in [clears throat] front of
[7:14] this board and I think that it's going
[7:16] to be great. they work well together and
[7:17] we're gonna attempt to do all the work
[7:21] we can. So, thank you.
[7:23] >> I appreciate you. Appreciate welcome,
[7:25] Mike. Uh we'll move down to items um 1A,
[7:28] which is uh approve over our minutes
[7:30] from our meeting held on May 28th. Uh
[7:33] then also our current financial report
[7:34] financial statements for April, May, and
[7:37] June. If I could have a motion on that,
[7:39] I'd appreciate it.
[7:41] >> So move, second.
[7:43] >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. All
[7:45] in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank
[7:49] you. Appreciate that. We'll now move
[7:50] down to our chair report. Uh each year
[7:52] as the council sets goals for this
[7:54] organization. And after the year is
[7:57] over, the Wasatch Front team produces a
[7:59] report uh for us on the agency's
[8:01] activities and accomplishments towards
[8:03] these goals. We're going to ask Andrew,
[8:05] Ted, Miranda, and Marian if they'll
[8:07] maybe take a few minutes and go through
[8:08] this and enlighten us a little bit from
[8:11] last year this year.
[8:12] >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um and
[8:14] again welcome everybody and just quickly
[8:17] to uh Mike Caldwell. Uh it is really
[8:21] nice to have you back in the fold. Mike
[8:23] was a former chair of WFRC and of the
[8:25] League of Cities and Towns and a
[8:27] three-time uh uh mayor of Ogden City and
[8:30] now uh Mayor Nadolski is aly carrying
[8:33] the torch for Ogden City and it's just
[8:35] great to have uh the you back here Mike.
[8:37] Uh welcome and doing the important work
[8:40] with Jay and the team at UTA. Okay. Um,
[8:43] so what we're going to do over the next
[8:44] few minutes is we're going to go over
[8:46] WFRC's fisc year 26 annual report. Uh,
[8:52] you may remember that you as a council
[8:55] set goals for us as an agency for the
[8:58] work that we are to accomplish over the
[9:01] course uh of a year. Uh, we obviously
[9:03] take those goals seriously. We think as
[9:05] a public agency, reporting back to you
[9:10] and also to the public about our
[9:12] activities is a core function of our
[9:14] accountability as a public agency. Um,
[9:18] candidly, we're also really proud of the
[9:20] work that our agency has done with you,
[9:22] for you, uh, and our region and its
[9:25] residents over the course of the last
[9:27] year. So, we're going to go over this
[9:28] annual report. um on the screens in
[9:31] front of you. Uh this is what you're
[9:34] going to see is the actual annual report
[9:35] itself. So these are not slides of this
[9:38] is the annual report.
[9:40] >> Oh, thank you, Mayor. It's so nice to
[9:41] see you, Mayor Dirk Burton from West
[9:43] Jordan blocking the sun and joining us.
[9:45] Thank you, Mayor. Um uh the uh the what
[9:49] you will see is the annual report. It's
[9:51] sort of hot off the virtual presses.
[9:53] We'll be sending this around to you um
[9:55] after the meeting. So, we're going to go
[9:57] through the whole thing. We're not going
[9:58] to talk about everything in the report.
[10:00] We're just going to hit a few
[10:01] highlights. Uh and then who's changing
[10:04] slides? Okay, the next next slide is um
[10:09] uh that and we all know this that
[10:11] working what WFRC does is we're working
[10:14] together for a thriving region. Our work
[10:17] starts with you working with you
[10:20] supporting your communities uh and our
[10:23] partners. I like to think of it that
[10:25] collaboration, working together, is in
[10:28] this organization's DNA. It's who we
[10:31] are. It's how we're created. And so, we
[10:34] start with our goal is to help serve you
[10:36] and your communities. Um the we you
[10:39] adopted for us last year three goals.
[10:42] You see them on the screen in front of
[10:44] you. Ted Nolton, our uh deputy director
[10:47] and chief planner, is going to talk
[10:49] about goal number one. Summarize.
[10:51] Miranda Jones Cox, our government
[10:53] affairs manager, is going to talk about
[10:54] goal number two and Marian Florence, our
[10:57] CFO and CEO, is going to talk about goal
[10:59] number three. So Ted, take it away.
[11:03] >> Okay, thank you Andrew. First goal is
[11:05] collaboratively advance the Wasatch
[11:08] Choice vision to accommodate growth and
[11:11] enhance quality of life. We know the
[11:13] Wasatch Choice vision, right? This is a
[11:16] locally generated vision for land
[11:19] development over the next 30 years and
[11:22] how that works well together with
[11:24] regional transportation infrastructure
[11:26] to ma maintain and enhance quality of
[11:29] life even in the face of growth. Now, as
[11:31] I talk about our accomplishments over
[11:33] the last year, I'm going to focus on two
[11:36] things in the advancement of the Wasuch
[11:39] Choice Vision, planning and
[11:42] implementation, which includes funding
[11:44] and other things. So on the planning
[11:46] front,
[11:47] uh, one of the things that we released
[11:50] in the last year, which sounds nerdly,
[11:53] but is actually super incredibly
[11:55] important, is the regional
[11:58] transportation plans preferred scenario.
[12:02] I paused for dramatic effect. The
[12:04] preferred scenario, the idea of a
[12:06] preferred scenario is what's the package
[12:09] of transportation investments and
[12:11] improvements? How do they work with
[12:13] anticipated growth that follows the
[12:16] vision over the next 30 years almost as
[12:18] if you've gotten your time machine and
[12:20] you landed in 30 years? What does it
[12:23] actually look like? It's a working
[12:25] draft, but it's meaningful and now we
[12:27] work on the details of advancing the
[12:30] preferred scenario and developing it
[12:32] into a well-rounded regional
[12:34] transportation plan. Um, we've done
[12:37] other things like a a really important
[12:40] deep dive into transit in southwest Salt
[12:43] Lake County that you can look at in the
[12:46] activities and accomplishments report.
[12:48] Now, planning together with
[12:50] implementation is not planning it is not
[12:53] an end in and of itself. It is intended
[12:56] to create changes on the ground. In the
[12:59] last year together, we celebrated the
[13:02] Mid Valley Express from vision to
[13:04] reality. So this tells the story of a
[13:07] project that was born in the regional
[13:08] transportation plan and then we worked
[13:11] together to implement it and uh it
[13:14] benefits and connects Murray Taylorville
[13:17] and West Valley City. These are the
[13:19] kinds of fruits that come out of the
[13:21] work that we do here at Wasach Front
[13:23] Regional Council and of course advanced
[13:25] by local governments and UTA. Uh you can
[13:29] look at
[13:30] >> Can I add something today? Yes, please.
[13:32] >> Add delivered. Thank you, J and under
[13:34] budget. Early and under budget.
[13:37] >> Add that.
[13:42] » That was a very good ad. Um you can take
[13:46] a look at some of the rural planning uh
[13:48] activities that we've done uh together
[13:52] with uh communities in T in Tilla and
[13:54] Morgan County as well like work on the
[13:58] mountain green interchange with UD do.
[14:01] That's all on the planning side. Now
[14:02] let's turn to the implementation of
[14:05] these plans and focus on that second
[14:07] half of advancing the Wasatch Choice
[14:10] vision. Um, now I'm going to talk a
[14:13] little bit about what we call the
[14:15] transportation improvement program. WFRC
[14:18] works with UDOT and UTA and local
[14:21] governments to think about what are the
[14:24] improvements we're going to fund over a
[14:26] six-year time horizon through something
[14:28] called the transportation improvement
[14:30] program. This is where the rubber meets
[14:32] the road almost quite literally. Can I
[14:35] do that? Is that fair to say?
[14:37] >> Fair.
[14:37] >> Okay. Thank you for that. So, this is a
[14:40] big deal and we do this every year and
[14:42] it is a labor of love. We love it and it
[14:45] really ties the plan to changes on the
[14:48] ground. Here is one of those changes in
[14:51] Roy at the intersection of 3100 West and
[14:54] 6,000 South. On the left is before the
[14:58] funding and on the right is what
[15:00] happened and got accomplished just in
[15:02] the last year. You can see it's more
[15:04] beautiful. It's safer. reduced a lot of
[15:07] crashes and it made it more inviting for
[15:10] bicycles and pedestrians and the like.
[15:13] We tell the story in the activity and
[15:14] accomplishments report of other
[15:17] improvements which I love and I don't
[15:18] have time to talk about as in Karns
[15:22] along Cougar Lane. All right, so that's
[15:24] on the funding space. Also in the
[15:26] implementation spaces, how do we go from
[15:29] the big blueprint of the Wasatch Choice
[15:31] vision into more detailed planning? A
[15:35] lot of that is through the
[15:36] transportation and land use connection
[15:38] program which in and of itself is a
[15:41] partnership with UD do UTA was front
[15:44] regional council. Lots of detailed and
[15:47] important plans. Um here is one that is
[15:50] sort of uh look I live in this area. Uh
[15:53] and so I love it for that reason. Uh but
[15:56] it also sort of tells the story of
[15:58] collaboration.
[16:00] Here's what this is. uh Utah Trail
[16:03] Network led by UD do has identified a
[16:07] network of safe and protected bike lanes
[16:09] so that we have real choices to get
[16:11] around by bike and ped jogging or what
[16:14] have you around the region. Well, the
[16:16] communities in South Davis County, North
[16:18] Salt Lake, Bountiful, Centerville,
[16:21] Farmington thought, let's take a look at
[16:24] this. How would we make this happen in
[16:27] our area? And through the transportation
[16:29] land use connection program, we
[16:31] facilitated the South Davis Greenway.
[16:33] This is in the middle of going to each
[16:35] community to say, "What do you think? Is
[16:37] this something we want to advance?" So,
[16:39] it's in progress, but this tells you the
[16:41] story of some of the work that we do
[16:43] collaboratively through the
[16:44] transportation land use connection
[16:46] program. Let me tell you about one other
[16:49] big thing in in sort of the kind of the
[16:53] transportation land use connection
[16:54] space. This is a huge deal.
[16:59] Um, how many of you around the room have
[17:01] been engaged in station area planning
[17:04] work in the last couple of years?
[17:08] So, this is a locally driven effort to
[17:13] ask and answer the question, what's the
[17:16] form of plans that welcome homes and
[17:19] jobs near transit?
[17:21] What should that those plans be as we
[17:25] like roll up our sleeves and think about
[17:26] how do we make the most out of these
[17:28] assets around the region? Stations for
[17:32] rail and high-capacity transit. And the
[17:34] amazing thing, if you think about the
[17:37] housing crisis that Utah has,
[17:40] collectively across all of these
[17:42] stationary plans in 29 communities,
[17:45] these communities have welcomed
[17:48] through these plans
[17:50] 18,000
[17:53] housing units.
[17:55] Now, that's a big deal in and of itself,
[17:58] but think about where these homes are
[18:00] being welcomed. They're being welcomed
[18:02] in places that create a like a gathering
[18:05] place in communities in a lot of cases.
[18:07] And it also puts enables the people that
[18:10] live and work in these station areas to
[18:12] be able to get around using less money.
[18:14] They have more choices, notably of
[18:16] course public transportation. We are so
[18:19] proud of this and it really is locally
[18:21] driven. We've seen over the last couple
[18:23] of years the story of the communities
[18:25] coming forward and saying, "Look, this
[18:27] is what we've done. We're proud of it."
[18:29] And the story is kind of unfolded here
[18:31] at WFRC.
[18:33] All right. There's other stories you can
[18:35] see like uh South Salt Lake's downtown
[18:37] connect effort uh through the station
[18:40] area planning process. Um lots of work
[18:43] that we've done through with within in
[18:46] uh with our small communities through
[18:48] the local administrative advisor program
[18:50] and our Madison of Elles who is amazing.
[18:53] um stories uh like this in Plain City
[18:57] associated with the local administrative
[18:59] advisor program, investing in small
[19:01] communities, uh community development
[19:03] block grant program. Uh there's stories
[19:06] in the activities and accomplishments
[19:08] report about building safer communities,
[19:11] including through advancement of active
[19:13] transportation and safety. Um a lot of
[19:16] stories like that in here which you can
[19:19] peruse. Okay. Now, I'm going to hit on
[19:21] two things that underpin
[19:24] all of the work that we do at WFRC. One
[19:26] of them is that we're constantly working
[19:29] to bring in data and inform our
[19:33] decisions. Let's understand the issues
[19:35] that we face together. Let's think about
[19:39] data and informing. Let's also think
[19:41] about how can we forecast
[19:44] the future. Are there models and you
[19:47] know mathematical equations that we can
[19:49] use that help us understand if we build
[19:51] this or that here or there what are the
[19:55] implications for the traveling public
[19:57] and our quality of life. We're
[19:58] constantly working on improvements uh to
[20:01] our ability to forecast. It's uh a lot
[20:04] of the people that sort of really know
[20:05] WFRC know that this is central to the
[20:08] work that we do here. Um, another aspect
[20:12] that is central to the work that we do
[20:13] here is public engagement. Public and
[20:17] stakeholder engagement. It underpins all
[20:19] of the work that we do. I don't have the
[20:21] story to tell you about this in detail,
[20:24] but I just want to note that and we're
[20:26] proud of the work that we do in that
[20:28] space uh and have been doing over the
[20:30] last year. Um, Andrew, I think that is
[20:36] the story of goal one. Ted, thank you
[20:40] very much. Let's roll right into uh
[20:42] Miranda on goal number two.
[20:45] >> All right, thanks Ted. Um the second
[20:48] goal, provide subject matter expertise
[20:50] to federal, state, and local officials
[20:53] like yourself and to policy makers. Ted
[20:56] shared some about the plans and products
[20:59] that we have and the work that we've
[21:01] been doing and communicating and
[21:03] informing uh decision makers about that
[21:06] work is critically important to how we
[21:08] implement our work. But it's more than
[21:10] information sharing. Um the work that we
[21:13] do with our elected officials helps
[21:14] shape the transportation policies and
[21:17] transportation related policies and
[21:20] funding and investment which is key. uh
[21:23] influencing policies and funding is
[21:25] critically important for Utah's
[21:26] transportation partners because in order
[21:28] to make the plans, the vision that we
[21:31] have a reality, we need resources to get
[21:34] those projects in the ground. Um in
[21:37] communicating and uh informing our
[21:40] elected officials, we also uh seek to
[21:43] build confidence in the collaborative
[21:45] planning processes that we have as
[21:48] transportation partners. We want our
[21:50] elected officials to um have confidence
[21:53] in the datadriven approach that we have.
[21:55] Uh confidence in how our projects are
[21:58] selected uh and confidence that
[22:00] transportation dollars and taxpayer
[22:03] dollars are used to the highest and best
[22:05] use.
[22:07] So what have been some of the core
[22:10] things we've been working on this year?
[22:12] to mention a few. Uh on the federal
[22:14] level, we've been working uh to advance
[22:16] the next surface transportation
[22:18] reauthorization bill um that will expire
[22:21] uh in September of this year here
[22:23] shortly and working to advance Utah's
[22:25] shared uh transportation priorities.
[22:28] We've been supporting our congressional
[22:29] partners in the legislation and bills
[22:31] that they've been uh advancing in the
[22:34] transportation space. We've been working
[22:36] with our national associations
[22:39] um and coordinating with them and our partners uh our metropolitan
[22:43] planning organization partners
[22:45] nationally. Uh and we also been working
[22:47] with our uh legislative partners through
[22:49] the legislative session and interim
[22:51] period to provide analysis and weigh in
[22:54] on the pieces of legislation um that
[22:57] they bring forward. Uh in the report it
[23:00] mentions some of the highlights from
[23:02] this this last legislative session. And
[23:04] I won't share more on that, but what I
[23:06] will say is that uh our our main goal
[23:09] when it comes to working with our
[23:11] legislative partners uh on on
[23:14] legislation is to really seek for the
[23:16] best outcomes. We may not always be
[23:18] supportive of exactly how a bill is
[23:21] written or drafted um but we work
[23:23] diligently with them uh to to seek for
[23:27] the best outcomes possible.
[23:30] Uh I want to highlight a few uh a few
[23:33] things that we've been doing. Uh one for
[23:35] example is that WFRC along with our
[23:37] partners our other AOG partners and the
[23:40] governor's office of economic
[23:42] development uh we've been working to
[23:44] help inform the federal opportunity zone
[23:47] designations uh to focus on areas that
[23:50] have already been established for
[23:52] visions of grow growth like city and
[23:54] town centers and station area plans.
[23:58] Uh we have partnered with some of our
[24:01] partners on um home ownership uh
[24:04] webinars and and sharing information
[24:06] about housing affordability.
[24:08] Um
[24:10] and then lastly, I just want to
[24:12] highlight um the visit of the former FTA
[24:15] administrator Mark Molinaro who came to
[24:17] Utah earlier this year for a roundt on
[24:20] the surface transportation
[24:21] reauthorization bill. uh WFRC and our
[24:24] partners and the business community that
[24:27] was involved in this were able to uh
[24:30] share with the administrator the
[24:31] importance of double tracking of
[24:33] FrontrRunner. And this is an example of
[24:35] the type of impactful engagement that we
[24:38] do to uh advance our priorities.
[24:41] And with that, I'll turn it over to
[24:43] Marian.
[24:49] Thank you. This is our third goal out of
[24:52] three and this one is centered
[24:54] internally. This is our organizational
[24:56] excellence and it's focused on
[24:59] budgeting, staffing, policies,
[25:01] procedures, professional development and
[25:03] it's all so that we can run a great
[25:06] organization to serve our region. And so
[25:08] we really feel like it's important to
[25:10] take that that look inward to um to
[25:14] achieve this goal of organizational
[25:16] excellence. There are two main efforts
[25:19] reflected in this goal. The first is
[25:21] stewardship. Um, and we highlight here.
[25:25] It's it's tiny print, but there's a
[25:26] whole document about it. Our 11 million
[25:29] dollar budget, which I come and present
[25:30] to you three times a year, and our clean
[25:33] audit, which I just went through, so I
[25:35] can I can report on that. We pride
[25:37] ourselves on our fiscal transparency,
[25:39] our accountability, and compliance. And
[25:41] we come to you as I said a few times a
[25:44] year with both budget updates and also
[25:46] with policy reviews which we will do
[25:48] shortly after this. All the work we have
[25:51] mentioned today along with much more in
[25:54] the report reflects the goal that you
[25:56] set for us to use our resources
[25:58] prudently and efficiently.
[26:02] The second is our remarkable staff. You
[26:06] set a goal for us to create and maintain
[26:08] a work environment that maximizes the
[26:10] health, happiness, and productivity of
[26:13] an excellent staff. And that's exactly
[26:16] what we're doing. So in our report, you
[26:18] can meet our four new staff members,
[26:21] Pukar, Fariba, Joel, and Paulo. And you
[26:24] can also
[26:27] marvel again as you did last year.
[26:31] Oh, it Yes. I'll get to the tuxedo
[26:34] first. We're admiring the trophy which
[26:36] you can see through the windows here.
[26:38] Sara for the second year in a row has
[26:41] been awarded as the um iron ctographer
[26:46] which we described last year and she did
[26:48] it again. Um, and Ted, yay, Sarah.
[26:55] And Ted, seen here in a tux, was
[26:58] recognized as a newly named fellow of
[27:01] the American Institute of Certified
[27:03] Planners, which is the highest honor of
[27:05] this professional organization. So, yay.
[27:12] So throughout the year, we also invite
[27:14] you to celebrate milestones of all of
[27:16] our staff as they hit 5, 10, 15, 20,
[27:19] even 30 years with WFRC.
[27:22] Our staff is talented, dedicated, and
[27:25] cares really deeply about this region.
[27:28] We pride ourselves on our transparency
[27:29] and our collaboration with you. And as
[27:32] we embark on a new fiscal year, we
[27:34] remain committed to excellence in all
[27:36] aspects of our work. To you,
[27:38] >> Maryanne. Thank you very much. I'll pick
[27:41] up just to close out on this annual
[27:43] report um update. I'll pick up where
[27:46] Marian left off, which is um I I am so
[27:50] proud of our team um and the amazing
[27:53] work that they do. We highlighted a few
[27:55] of them here. Um but the way that I that
[27:59] I think about our team and one of the
[28:00] things I'm so that I love most about
[28:02] them is that they don't we don't think
[28:05] of our work as just a job.
[28:07] uh you know this is our home too. We
[28:10] care about this place and um I think
[28:14] that the way that I've come to think
[28:15] about it over the years is that the role
[28:18] that we have at WFRC and that our team
[28:20] has we would have what I would consider
[28:22] an organizational ethos which comes in
[28:26] three parts. One is planning of course
[28:29] that's our the core of our work. We plan
[28:31] for the future. Uh the second is
[28:34] collaboration. We talked about that
[28:36] already, but our working together. And
[28:38] then the third, which maybe is the most
[28:42] important, is caring.
[28:45] We do this work not just as a job, but
[28:47] because we care about our community and
[28:50] its residents uh and its future. And I
[28:53] see that in all of our team. So, I'm
[28:54] going to ask if I can everybody who's on
[28:56] WFRC staff, can you stand up, please?
[28:59] Everybody on WFRC staff, stand up. And
[29:02] you guys, yeah, thank you. Thank you.
[29:05] They're dedicated. They're really
[29:07] talented. So, thank you very much. Wait,
[29:10] stay standing. Stay standing now because
[29:13] now what I want to note is that um we
[29:17] get to do this work, right? We get paid.
[29:20] It's a job. It's a full-time job to do
[29:23] this work. Uh but those of you that are
[29:25] elected officials,
[29:27] um it's practically volunteering for the
[29:30] job. We know this. the hours that you
[29:32] put in, the dedication um that you put
[29:35] in, and we sincerely could not be um
[29:39] more appreciative uh we could not admire
[29:42] more the work that you guys do uh in
[29:44] your communities. To paraphrase
[29:47] Teddy Roosevelt, you are people in the
[29:49] arena. You are stepping forward because
[29:51] you care about the future of your
[29:54] communities. Um, even if that means
[29:57] you're sometimes in the turbulent storms
[29:59] of politics, which can be challenging,
[30:02] uh, you do this work not for money and
[30:05] not for glory, but you do it because you
[30:07] care about your communities and we are
[30:09] deeply honored to be able to do this
[30:11] work with you. So, from our folks at
[30:12] WFRC, we are now going to give you a
[30:15] round of applause. Thank you.
[30:20] very much. Okay. Um uh just
[30:24] looking ahead uh we're going to send
[30:26] this report out to you. Looking ahead
[30:28] the next year is an important one. We'll
[30:30] finalize the updated regional
[30:32] transportation plan and updated unified
[30:34] transportation plan. We'll refresh the
[30:36] Wasach's choice vision. Um we'll work on
[30:38] keep working on federal reauthorization
[30:40] as Miranda mentioned and we'll keep
[30:42] providing resources and funding and
[30:44] technical assistance and partnering with
[30:45] you and all of your communities. Mr.
[30:48] Chair, that concludes the report on the
[30:50] annual report. Thank you. Thank you. Any
[30:52] comments anyone would like to make on
[30:54] that? Okay, we'll move down to our uh
[30:57] item B. Uh this is that we need to
[31:00] approve the Wasatch Front Title Six plan
[31:03] uh and the related appendences. Uh these
[31:06] are one of these things that uh comes up
[31:08] each year every so often that we have to
[31:10] reapprove. And I think Miriam's going to
[31:12] give us a little insight on this real
[31:14] quick.
[31:14] >> Yes, thank you. Just uh very briefly, as
[31:17] I mentioned before, we bring policies to
[31:19] you um for formal approval. The title
[31:22] six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a
[31:25] federal law, as you all know, that
[31:27] states if an organization accepts
[31:29] federal funding, they must maintain a
[31:31] set of legal documents, operational
[31:33] policies, and public facing procedures
[31:35] that demonstrate a commitment to
[31:37] treating everyone without de
[31:39] discrimination. And so as an a
[31:41] metropolitan planning organization and
[31:43] recipient of Federal Highway
[31:45] Administration and Federal Transit
[31:46] Administration funds, WFRC is required
[31:49] to review, update, and formally adopt a
[31:52] title six plan every three years. That's
[31:55] where we are now. So we have a title six
[31:58] policy that has related appendices that
[32:00] cover required procedures,
[32:02] accommodations,
[32:04] and a plan for public participation in
[32:07] our planning process. that public
[32:09] participation plan. This is a lot of P's
[32:12] has been out for public comment. Um and
[32:15] we had one comment from UTA to make a
[32:18] clarification and otherwise um didn't
[32:21] receive any public comment on that and
[32:23] have done a formal review of that plan.
[32:26] So this year we prepared updates to the
[32:28] title six plan, the public participation
[32:30] plan, the limited English proficiency
[32:33] plan, and the ADA effective
[32:35] communication policy in compliance with
[32:38] federal requirements. Um, so what's
[32:41] changed and what hasn't? Uh, as many of
[32:44] you all of you probably know, the US
[32:46] Department of Transportation enacted a
[32:48] major regulatory change on June 11th of
[32:51] this year. Um and so that was a final
[32:54] rule eliminating disperate impact
[32:57] liability from its title six regulations
[33:00] um to shift to align US DOT with a
[33:03] broader federal directive aimed at
[33:05] limiting civil rights enforcement
[33:07] strictly to cases of intentional
[33:09] discrimination. So we've removed
[33:12] references to disperate impact from our
[33:14] document. We do, of course, continue to
[33:17] work to ensure that all of our
[33:19] communities have good transportation
[33:21] access and choices about how they move
[33:23] around the around the region. So, we've made those small changes and we've
[33:28] also made changes to reflect updated
[33:30] demographics. Um, as we've said, we're
[33:33] data driven. We look at that data, we
[33:35] incorporate that into our policies and
[33:37] align with any federal directives. And
[33:39] details about all of that were in your
[33:41] packets. I just wanted to give you kind
[33:43] of an overview. happy to answer any
[33:45] questions about our process or the um
[33:47] resulting policies and those are up for
[33:50] your approval with this uh motion.
[33:53] >> If there are no questions, I'll look for
[33:55] a motion to approve this.
[33:58] >> So move, Mr. Chair.
[34:00] >> Second, by Mayor Durk. All in favor say
[34:07] I.
[34:08] >> I opposed.
[34:10] >> Any opposed?
[34:12] Okay, thank you. That's unanimous.
[34:14] Appreciate you.
[34:20] » Okay, we'll move down to our public
[34:22] comment portion uh of our meeting.
[34:25] Uh this is the point in time if anyone
[34:27] wants to step forward and make any
[34:29] comments related to the Wasatch Front.
[34:31] This is time to please state your name
[34:34] and what city you're from.
[34:39] » Uh anybody online?
[34:42] No.
[34:43] >> Okay. With that, we'll move on to our
[34:44] next item.
[34:48] This will be our regional growth uh uh
[34:50] committee. And we've asked Commissioner
[34:52] Kamalu. Uh Tammy Tran is uh I think uh
[34:56] out of the country out of the country
[34:58] with her husband on an anniversary if I
[34:59] remember correctly. So Loren,
[35:02] >> thank you.
[35:04] We had as we always do great attendance
[35:07] to regional growth meeting last week and
[35:10] uh whole bunch of engaged leaders whole
[35:13] bunch and great staff support. So um the
[35:18] brief note first we had a discussion
[35:20] about a proposed amendment to the 2023
[35:24] to 2050 regional transportation plan the
[35:28] RTP
[35:29] to do an update. The update is fa the
[35:32] phasing of an interchange project in
[35:35] Farmington on the West Davis corridor
[35:38] that had always been imagined. Um the
[35:40] regional growth committee voted to
[35:42] release the proposed amendment for
[35:44] public com comment and um to add to that
[35:47] the tiniest bit, Ted um UD do already
[35:50] reached out to me, Mike Romero, and he
[35:54] uh he gave me even more information
[35:56] about how um how the city most involved
[36:02] with the construction that will happen,
[36:03] Farmington, with a high school not far
[36:05] away from that have they've they've
[36:07] certainly been a part of all of this
[36:09] already. So, good for you, Dot, to get
[36:12] back so quickly on that little comment.
[36:14] Um, so there is today one item to bring
[36:17] to this body.
[36:19] This is 4A, transportation's secret
[36:22] weapon, jobs, housing, balance. This was
[36:26] this took most of the meeting and it was
[36:29] fruitful um with everybody chiming in.
[36:33] So, this agenda item looks at an
[36:35] important dynamic. This will not this
[36:39] will not surprise you, but it's not
[36:40] something we've necessarily in our state
[36:42] been talking about as much. Um, Utah has
[36:46] been very successful in building
[36:48] transportation,
[36:49] but we can also look at how balancing
[36:52] the location of jobs and homes can
[36:56] improve our transportation outcomes and
[36:58] that is data driven. Andrew will open
[37:01] the discussion that we'll have here.
[37:02] Thank you.
[37:03] >> Okay. Thank you very much, uh,
[37:05] Commissioner. So, you know, at WFRC with
[37:08] all of our transportation partners, the
[37:09] focus of our work is on transportation
[37:13] and mobility. Uh, and I'm going to say
[37:17] in Utah, Utah is amazing at
[37:19] transportation, nationally recognized
[37:22] for being great at delivering
[37:24] transportation. Uh, but it is not
[37:27] enough. Being great at transportation is
[37:30] not enough in doing our work. And so
[37:33] what I want to do today is invite you to
[37:35] think a little differently about
[37:38] transportation.
[37:39] Uh and what I want to talk with you
[37:41] about, what we're going to talk with you
[37:43] about is what we would call
[37:45] transportation's perhaps not so secret
[37:48] weapon, the jobs housing balance.
[37:52] The basic premise of what we want to
[37:55] demonstrate to you today and talk about
[37:56] with you today is that balancing jobs
[37:59] and housing, balancing jobs and housing
[38:02] helps our transportation system as much
[38:05] as building more infrastructure.
[38:08] And why are we talking about this now?
[38:10] In part because you all know there is so
[38:12] much focus on housing appropriately.
[38:15] Well, how are we dealing with housing?
[38:18] How are we how are we dealing with
[38:19] economic development? And can we do
[38:21] those things in a way that actually
[38:22] helps the performance of our
[38:24] transportation system. Okay, before we
[38:26] dive into that, let me just acknowledge
[38:29] something that we are all experiencing
[38:32] acutely and that is that travel times
[38:35] are getting longer. This is data that
[38:37] comes from UD do statewide mobility
[38:39] dashboard. It's showing the delay
[38:42] statewide hours of delay on Utah's
[38:46] freeways. Okay, so on the on the
[38:48] highways. Now, what do we mean by delay?
[38:50] If at free flow speeds you're going at a
[38:52] certain rate of speed and then if
[38:54] there's congestion and you have to slow
[38:56] down, that's the delay. So, post
[38:58] pandemic, the delay on Utah's roads has
[39:01] gone up by 135%.
[39:04] Yes. A lot. A lot. Now, there are some
[39:07] of you that are online and we're we're
[39:10] watching you online, meaning we welcome
[39:13] you're chiming in here. That's what I
[39:15] mean. Um, and some of you just before
[39:18] this meeting got in touch and said,"I
[39:20] was going to come, but then I looked at
[39:22] the travel time and it's gone up and I thought I would have half an hour,
[39:27] but it's going to take 45 minutes." This
[39:29] is the reality of the situation that
[39:31] we're that we're confronting. We feel
[39:33] it. We know it. It's stressful. It saps
[39:36] time from our lives, and it also creates
[39:38] uncertainty, the lack of reliability of
[39:40] being able to plan accordingly. Yes.
[39:43] Mayor Burton, will you if you're gonna
[39:45] if you're going to speak, will you use a
[39:46] microphone? Particularly if it's a
[39:48] really good dad joke.
[39:50] >> I don't have any good dad jokes. I don't
[39:52] know what they are.
[39:52] >> Comment, please.
[39:54] >> Does this How does this fit in with
[39:57] bicycle riding? Has that time gone down
[39:59] or up for riding bicycles or is this
[40:01] just cars on the free? We don't have
[40:03] bikes on the freeway.
[40:04] >> We don't have bikes on the freeway. Uh
[40:05] active transportation utilization is up.
[40:08] Transit ridership is up. And that's part
[40:10] of what we do in Utah is provide
[40:11] transportation choices.
[40:12] >> So when the freeway backs up, the bike
[40:14] still rolls.
[40:15] >> Yes. There you go. Agreed. Agreed. So
[40:18] what do we do in Utah given the
[40:21] challenges that we face? There are three
[40:24] basic strategies that we utilize for
[40:26] transportation in Utah. Strategy number
[40:28] one is Utah builds. Utah builds
[40:33] transportation. We have a nationally
[40:35] recognized Utah unified transportation
[40:37] plan. We have a very high performing UD
[40:41] do and UTA. Uh we have the highest per
[40:44] capita transportation investment in the
[40:46] nation when you look at all funding
[40:48] sources. Um and we have hundreds of
[40:51] road, transit and trail projects over
[40:53] the next 10 years, I think before the
[40:56] Olympics that we will implement. So we
[40:59] have resources and we use them very
[41:01] well. But and I think this this may be a
[41:05] challenging but not a controversial
[41:06] statement. We cannot build our way out
[41:09] of congestion.
[41:11] So what do we do? So we get to our
[41:14] second strategy which is Utah innovates.
[41:17] So think signal timing optimization and
[41:20] ramp metering and connected and
[41:22] autonomous vehicles and advanced air
[41:25] mobility. Utah again is really really a
[41:30] leader around the country not just in
[41:33] building but also in innovating. So in
[41:36] this regard we innovate to make the most
[41:38] out of the transportation system that we
[41:40] have.
[41:42] But if you think about building and
[41:43] innovating they're both about increasing
[41:45] supply right they increase the capacity
[41:48] of the transportation system. They don't
[41:50] get at the demand on the system. So that
[41:53] takes us to our third of three key
[41:56] strategies. Utah balances jobs and
[41:59] housing. So now we all know this
[42:01] intuitively. When homes and workplaces
[42:03] are farther apart, trips are longer and
[42:06] roads are more crowded. But if we can
[42:08] have more balance in our system with
[42:12] jobs and housing, that means that we can
[42:14] have shorter trips and less strain on
[42:17] our transportation system. Now you may
[42:20] have noticed that we have a question
[42:21] mark on this balancing jobs and housing
[42:24] and the reason for that is that we think
[42:26] this is an area that we can do more. We
[42:28] can improve in a way that can impact
[42:30] demand. Now this relationship between uh
[42:34] land use and transportation. This is
[42:36] nothing new to WFRC and our work. Right?
[42:40] The Wasatch Choice vision is based on
[42:41] this premise of coordinating land use
[42:43] and transportation. Um, but what is a
[42:46] little different is thinking about
[42:48] balancing jobs and housing as an
[42:50] intentional strategy for transportation.
[42:53] And that's what we want to talk about
[42:55] with you and why jobs, right? Like
[42:58] people are traveling for all sorts of
[43:00] things all the time. But as Ben could
[43:02] tell you, we design our transportation
[43:05] system for the peak periods and that's
[43:07] when people are commuting uh for work.
[43:10] Now before I go on, I just want to note
[43:12] we are not in any way suggesting that we
[43:16] should restrict people's choices or
[43:18] freedom to move around. People should be
[43:20] able to travel where they want and when
[43:22] they want. What we are talking about is
[43:25] giving people more and better options if
[43:28] they want to live and work closer
[43:30] together uh to take shorter trips, give
[43:33] people more choices. So again, here's
[43:36] the three strategies building. We're
[43:38] doing great at that. innovating. We're
[43:40] doing great at that and balancing and we
[43:43] think we can do better in this area.
[43:46] Now, with that, I'm going to turn to
[43:48] Bill Har who's from our analytics
[43:50] department at WFRC. Um, he's going to
[43:53] set us up for some discussion that we
[43:55] want to have with you uh about and he's
[43:58] going to show you some new data and new
[44:00] analysis to inform some of our
[44:02] decisions. Uh, and then we're going to
[44:04] have some discussion how can we improve
[44:07] our jobs and housing balance. Well,
[44:18] thank you, Andrew.
[44:20] In a few moments, we're going to take a
[44:22] journey together through this web app.
[44:25] This app helps us understand the
[44:27] regional transportation impact of our
[44:29] housing job balance. And this app uses
[44:32] census data. The data shows where people
[44:35] live and where people work.
[44:38] Our focus in this app is on work trips.
[44:42] And why work trips? Work trips are the
[44:45] main reason that we have some of the
[44:46] busiest times on our roads. We build our
[44:49] transportation system to handle these
[44:51] busy times. And if we can reduce
[44:53] pressure on our roads during these
[44:55] times, we can make a big difference.
[44:59] But before we jump into the app,
[45:04] let's think a little bit about what
[45:06] housing and job balance looks like looks
[45:08] like in our region and our communities.
[45:12] Every morning, thousands of people leave
[45:14] the city that you live in to work
[45:16] somewhere else and thousands of people
[45:18] come into your city to work. So, let me
[45:21] ask you this question.
[45:23] Thinking about the Wasatch front,
[45:26] what percent of people both live and
[45:28] work in the same city?
[45:31] >> And if you were at the regional growth
[45:32] committee when we talked about this,
[45:34] you're not allowed to answer. Okay?
[45:38] Any guesses?
[45:42] 20%. Good guess.
[45:46] Okay.
[45:48] So in most surf cities, it's actually
[45:50] 10% or less in most Wasatch Front
[45:53] cities. So that means 90% of people are
[45:57] leaving the city they live in and going
[45:59] somewhere else to work.
[46:01] So let's jump into this web app um and
[46:04] explore some of the data.
[46:11] So there's a lot going on here. So let's orient first. This map in the
[46:16] middle is a map of our region, the
[46:19] Wasatch Front. The lines show where
[46:22] people are coming to and going. We're
[46:24] commuting to and from. So, right now
[46:27] we're showing people commuting out of
[46:29] Haramman. So, let's zoom in a bit.
[46:34] So, the thicker the lines, the more
[46:37] people making that trip. So, you can see
[46:38] from Herman to Salt Lake City. That's a
[46:40] big
[46:40] >> Herman loves Salt Lake City.
[46:45] So
[46:46] the number in the top left shows how
[46:48] many people 29,000
[46:51] airman residents leave the city every
[46:53] day to commute outside their city.
[46:58] And this number is also down here on
[46:59] this figure here. 29,000
[47:02] leaving. But we also have people
[47:05] remaining in Herman that work. So
[47:07] 1.6,600
[47:09] people live and work inside of Haramman.
[47:13] And that's 5%. So 5% of her hairman
[47:17] workers work in that city and 95% leave
[47:21] to work somewhere else. And they leave
[47:24] and travel on our transportation system.
[47:29] You can also see people coming into
[47:31] Herman.
[47:33] There are about 6,5800
[47:38] people commuting into Herman every day.
[47:40] And that's on this left side here.
[47:46] So that's a lot of people coming into
[47:48] and leaving Herman. Um so only 5% of
[47:52] people stay within Haramman. 95% commute
[47:54] out. We can also explore other
[47:57] communities. Is there anyone that want
[47:59] to see a community maybe not in Salt
[48:01] Lake County?
[48:04] >> Why don't why don't you show us how many
[48:06] people are leaving Davis County and
[48:08] going into Salt Lake County?
[48:13] Can we do a county? Okay.
[48:14] >> Using using legacy
[48:16] >> for fair of using the same joke at the
[48:18] other re previous meeting the regional
[48:22] growth commission. Um I hope you're
[48:24] bringing your wallets and purses.
[48:29] » So Davis County we have 1,200 almost
[48:32] 13,000 people. Oh that's Kisville.
[48:35] Sorry. County.
[48:40] This is why you don't do a live demo. I didn't practice this. Davis County.
[48:46] Okay, that's better. 106,000 people
[48:49] leaving Davis County. Going to Salt Lake
[48:52] County, we have 65,000
[48:55] people.
[48:57] Inside Davis County, we have 63,000
[48:59] working. So, 37% of Davis workers
[49:04] work within the county. And then coming
[49:06] into the county, we have 67,000
[49:09] people entering Davis County to work.
[49:14] >> And then after it'd be interesting to
[49:16] see Salt Lake City's core and if
[49:19] anyone's going out from there,
[49:20] >> if anyone leaves Salt Lake to go
[49:22] somewhere else. Okay.
[49:24] >> Okay. Weieber, we have
[49:27] 62,000 leaving, 68,000 staying. So
[49:30] that's 52% stay in Weber. Pretty good.
[49:34] Let's go to
[49:36] Salt Lake City. I don't know if we can
[49:38] do the urban core. Salt Lake.
[49:41] Okay. Alpine,
[49:47] Salt Lake City.
[49:50] We have 50/50. So, we have 49,000 people
[49:53] leaving Salt Lake City, 49,000 staying.
[49:56] So, 50%.
[50:01] Okay, let's go.
[50:06] It's alphabetically the the top.
[50:09] [laughter]
[50:10] Okay. So, Salt Lake County, is that what
[50:12] you're asking?
[50:15] So, we have 80 83% stay within the
[50:18] county to work.
[50:26] Okay.
[50:37] In Davis County, we had 37%.
[50:41] Sorry, you asked about how many people
[50:43] are coming in and leaving Davis.
[50:48] So
[50:50] that was Salt Lake. Salt Lake City was
[50:52] 50/50. Weber is 50% stay. Davis was 37%
[50:57] stay in the county.
[51:00] 67,000 come in. So 63 stay
[51:07] 106,000 leave.
[51:11] So this we've sorry yeah I just want to
[51:15] add one more thing because we just had a
[51:16] meeting in Herman and and so you brought
[51:18] that up another and we're starting to
[51:21] get our hands around cell data and
[51:23] tracking utilization as well. um and
[51:25] we're not ready for prime time on it,
[51:27] but we've got some initial numbers. And
[51:29] one of the things that we were able to
[51:30] talk about last night at Herman was
[51:33] here's a service we have there. We have
[51:34] route 126 we have on demand down there.
[51:37] But we're also able to show that a
[51:39] number of people leave Herman to board
[51:42] transit at park and rides, you know,
[51:44] tracks or FrontrRunner. That's true for
[51:48] pretty much all the cities down there,
[51:49] including Riverton. And so they are
[51:52] utilizing the system well. Um but again
[51:55] people are leaving uh to you know to go
[51:58] to other places in order to use utilize
[52:00] that system. So that's important for us
[52:02] because everybody'suh contributing tax
[52:05] revenue to what we're doing and so we
[52:08] want to ensure that that they're
[52:10] actually utilizing service and that's
[52:11] utilizing service doesn't necessarily
[52:13] mean that they're boarding in the city
[52:15] where they live.
[52:16] >> Yeah. Bill, let me just jump in for one
[52:17] sec. Yeah. There's there's nothing just
[52:20] to be clear there's nothing wrong with
[52:22] people living their city. I know you're
[52:23] not saying like and in fact providing
[52:25] choices in the way you're talking about
[52:26] is terrific. The majority of people 90%
[52:30] when you put it all together as Bill
[52:31] said 90% of the people that work are
[52:34] leaving their home city and the
[52:36] overwhelming majority of those people
[52:38] are driving and so as Bill was noting
[52:41] that is creating tremendous pressure on
[52:43] our roadway system. So that's the sort
[52:46] of underlying issue. I love the interest
[52:49] you have. We are going to share this.
[52:51] It's actually live on our website right
[52:52] now and if particularly if you're data
[52:54] nerds, you can dig in here and get lots
[52:56] and lots of uh information on this at
[52:59] your leisure.
[53:00] Thanks, Andrew.
[53:03] Okay. To better understand how improving
[53:07] the jobs and housing balance and
[53:09] creating shorter commutes can make a big
[53:11] difference on our roads, we used our
[53:13] regional travel demand model. We took we
[53:16] are looking at a hypothetical situation
[53:18] here. We looked to see what would happen
[53:20] if 10% of people who currently live
[53:24] currently work outside their city found
[53:27] an opportunity within their city and
[53:29] worked in the city. So for Haramman
[53:32] 30,000 people leaving this would be
[53:34] 3,000 people 3,000 of those people
[53:37] finding a new opportunity inside of
[53:39] Haramman to work and take that and apply
[53:42] it to all communities every city
[53:43] throughout the region. What kind of
[53:46] impact would that have on our
[53:47] transportation system and how much road
[53:50] congestion could we get rid of? So here
[53:53] we're taking 10% away.
[53:56] So that would result in a 23% reduction
[53:58] in delay.
[54:01] That's a very large impact.
[54:04] So just think of how much just think of
[54:07] how much it would take to make that big
[54:09] of a change using transportation
[54:11] projects alone. It would be very
[54:14] expensive. maybe tens of billions of
[54:16] dollars.
[54:16] >> Bill, it might be obvious, but that's a
[54:20] reduction in delay, not just for that
[54:22] 10%, but for every single person that
[54:24] drives on our roads.
[54:26] >> Yes, that's true. So, yeah, that's the
[54:29] average across the whole region, all the
[54:31] delay across the region. So, why such a
[54:34] big reduction with only 10%.
[54:37] Our roads work a little differently when
[54:39] they get crowded. I'm sure you've
[54:40] noticed when a road is empty, you get on
[54:43] early morning and drive, you can add
[54:46] more cars without big impact on on your
[54:49] speed. But once a road gets close to
[54:52] being full, every new car you add has a
[54:55] disproportionate impact. So as you add
[54:58] cars, when it's already full, it just
[55:00] the congestion gets much greater and
[55:02] much quicker.
[55:03] So the same applies in reverse. If you
[55:05] take a few percent off the roadways,
[55:08] that can have a big impact on our delay.
[55:11] And long commutes are especially
[55:13] important. They use they use more of our
[55:16] region's road capacity during the
[55:17] busiest times of the day.
[55:20] So, giving people more opportunities to
[55:22] work closer to home can reduce the
[55:24] strain on our roads. And our model shows
[55:27] us that can have a big benefit for the
[55:29] entire system.
[55:33] So, we've been talking a lot about data,
[55:35] numbers, percentages coming in and out
[55:38] of towns.
[55:39] So, let's switch gears a bit. What we're
[55:42] talking about has real impacts to all of
[55:44] us, to real people.
[55:48] So, I'm going to share the story of
[55:49] Cameron who lives in Haramman.
[55:53] Cameron's an accountant for a medical
[55:55] logistics company here at the Gateway
[55:56] just down the road here. Her commute
[55:59] during rush hour takes 39 minutes in the
[56:02] morning to drive in from Heramman and 51
[56:05] minutes to get back. That's 90 minutes
[56:07] of her day commuting.
[56:10] Cameron's hoping to get a job with a
[56:12] company that recently moved from out of
[56:14] state into the Haramman Town Center.
[56:18] So Cameron has an opportunity to work
[56:20] within Haramman and she takes that
[56:22] opportunity. So now with her new job,
[56:26] she only spends 15 minutes of her day
[56:28] commuting.
[56:29] So she gets back 75 minutes. Just think
[56:32] if you had an extra 75 minutes of your
[56:35] day. She can now spend more time with
[56:37] her family. She can work on her hobby,
[56:39] which is um making pottery. She makes
[56:43] mugs and hopes to sell them at the
[56:45] Heramman weekend crafts market. She
[56:48] drives 45 fewer miles per day. She saves
[56:50] money on fuel and wear and tear of her
[56:53] car, about $20 a day.
[56:56] But the benefit isn't just to Cameron.
[56:59] Her shorter commute takes pressure off
[57:01] the roads at a time when traffic is the
[57:03] worst. So that's a benefit to everyone
[57:06] that lives around Cameron that has to
[57:08] make that trek to Salt Lake City every
[57:10] day.
[57:13] So imagine this happening across the
[57:15] entire region. More people working
[57:17] closer to their homes could make a big
[57:19] difference in how well our transport
[57:21] transportation system works. It would
[57:24] help us get more out of the roads and
[57:26] other transportation options we already
[57:28] have and also more out of the
[57:30] improvements we are planning.
[57:40] Bill, thank you very much. Let's come
[57:42] back to the basic premise here again. Um
[57:46] and then let's have some discussion
[57:48] about how we can improve our jobs
[57:51] housing balance. Again the basic premise
[57:54] balancing h balancing jobs and housing
[57:58] helps our transportation system just as
[58:00] much as building more infrastructure. So
[58:03] let me let me seed this a little bit. Um
[58:06] we have been talking about city
[58:08] geography in this conversation. Uh the
[58:12] reason for that is just to illustrate
[58:14] well and county to some extent of course
[58:15] as well but to the reason for that was
[58:18] to illustrate these impacts but really
[58:20] the way to think about addressing these
[58:22] issues is one city cannot do this on its
[58:26] own. It really takes a combination of
[58:29] local governments, transportation
[58:31] agencies, land owners and developers,
[58:34] economic development agencies all
[58:36] working together. Achieving a better
[58:38] balance requires all of us. This is
[58:40] really inherently a regional issue,
[58:43] multiple stakeholders uh working
[58:45] together. So I'll show you just a few
[58:49] high-level concepts for ways that we
[58:51] could think about how to tackle this. Um
[58:55] and those highlevel concepts are not
[59:00] something that I'm going to show you
[59:02] evidently. I'll tell you instead until
[59:05] we can show them to you. Uh two things.
[59:07] The first would be um identifying
[59:11] strategic locations for balanced housing
[59:15] and job growth, right? Because this is
[59:18] not just one or the one action or the
[59:20] other, but if we can balance these
[59:22] things out and if we can add jobs in
[59:24] areas that are housing rich. So, I'll
[59:27] give you an example. Mayor Manzion, if
[59:28] you're if you're still on and hearing us
[59:31] from Tilla City, there are, let's see,
[59:34] uh 32,000 people that leave Tilla County
[59:37] every morning and come over to the
[59:38] Wasace front uh for work. That's a
[59:41] number of people that commute. Uh
[59:42] because the there's a jobs housing
[59:44] mismatch in Tilla County. Well, there is
[59:48] talk about developing a nuclear campus
[59:51] in Tilla County that would provide
[59:53] thousands of jobs and that could provide
[59:55] more opportunities for people to live
[59:57] and work uh in Tilla County. Think about
[1:00:00] our friends in Saratoga Springs or Eagle
[1:00:02] Mountain where there's so much housing
[1:00:04] but relatively low numbers of jobs and
[1:00:07] then of course that puts a lot of
[1:00:09] pressure on east west mobility coming
[1:00:11] out of uh Saratoga Springs and Eagle
[1:00:13] Mountain. Wouldn't that be a great idea
[1:00:15] area for an increase in jobs? So
[1:00:18] identifying locations and then aligning
[1:00:21] these activities or perhaps another way
[1:00:24] to think about it is getting at the
[1:00:26] disconnect that sometimes exists. What are we doing for economic
[1:00:30] development incentives? Uh state
[1:00:33] economic development incentives. What is
[1:00:35] the locationational consideration for
[1:00:37] where we're incentivizing jobs to occur?
[1:00:40] uh housing policy at the regional growth
[1:00:43] committee. Um multiple uh people talked
[1:00:46] about the extreme pressure that uh to
[1:00:50] build more homes from the state and from
[1:00:52] other actors to build more homes. Um
[1:00:55] does that crowd out the ability to try
[1:00:58] to seek more of a balance in our
[1:00:59] development? Of course, we need more
[1:01:01] homes. But if we uh only build homes in
[1:01:05] areas that don't have good job
[1:01:07] availability, then what happens? Well,
[1:01:09] then aren't we having people have to
[1:01:10] drive long distances to access work? And
[1:01:14] then land use actions, of course, at the
[1:01:16] local level, your general plans, your
[1:01:17] zoning development agreements, how do
[1:01:19] they consider these items? And then
[1:01:21] finally, within a community, if we're
[1:01:24] going to have a mix of uses and more
[1:01:26] homes and jobs within communities, how
[1:01:28] do we make sure that there's good road
[1:01:30] and transit and trail connections within
[1:01:32] the community so people can get around?
[1:01:35] So, you can drop the slide now. Drop the
[1:01:38] slides. Jordan, I will ask you uh we can
[1:01:41] have hopefully just a few minutes of
[1:01:42] conversation here. What are the barriers
[1:01:46] to creating more of a jobs housing
[1:01:48] balance? Uh what are you doing in your
[1:01:51] communities that's helped to achieve
[1:01:52] more of a balance? Uh and what could
[1:01:55] help what could help as we uh try to
[1:01:58] have more of a jobs housing balance? So
[1:02:02] we open it up to input from anybody in
[1:02:05] the room and also to our friends online.
[1:02:10] >> Andrew, I'll ask you a quick question.
[1:02:11] >> Yes, Commissioner.
[1:02:12] >> So when it comes to jobs and housing,
[1:02:14] you know, it's the old chicken and the
[1:02:15] egg. So which you got to have first, the
[1:02:18] housing or the jobs?
[1:02:22] » Is that actually a question you want me?
[1:02:24] I feel like that's more of a statement.
[1:02:25] Well, I figure you're the smartest guy
[1:02:26] in the room, so I figure that's
[1:02:28] >> Wait, I'm going to hand the mic off if
[1:02:30] you want the smartest guys in the room,
[1:02:31] Bill.
[1:02:32] >> Okay. I mean, you this I would state the
[1:02:36] obvious that you have to plan for both
[1:02:38] of them at the same time. Uh that's the
[1:02:41] magic of planning for jobs and housing.
[1:02:43] I know from from my experience and
[1:02:45] people can correct me on this, but
[1:02:46] usually at job centers, you know, the
[1:02:49] housing, the apartments and that are
[1:02:51] what become the most important thing to
[1:02:52] have those being built before a lot of
[1:02:55] office space and that, you know, anybody
[1:02:57] wants to build it because of the fact
[1:02:58] that you need to have people there to be
[1:03:00] able to fill those spots. And I think
[1:03:02] that's one of the problems in I think in
[1:03:04] all cities especially the smaller cities
[1:03:07] uh trying to they have their job centers
[1:03:09] or they're trying to create job centers
[1:03:11] is they try to work between the housing
[1:03:13] and the jobs on getting it and then
[1:03:16] there's always the fact that and again
[1:03:18] I'm I'm not a big apartment person but I
[1:03:20] do believe apartments are important when
[1:03:22] it comes to job centers and having that
[1:03:24] housing condensed around there. uh a lot
[1:03:27] of cities don't want to support you know
[1:03:30] the apartments in in various areas. So I
[1:03:32] think it I think that's one of the
[1:03:34] barriers that exists.
[1:03:36] >> Yeah, you raised a few important issues
[1:03:38] there. Part of what you're getting at,
[1:03:39] of course, is the time lag in
[1:03:41] development. You need to have rooftops
[1:03:42] to support business development. Um and
[1:03:46] of course those are market forces which
[1:03:47] impact all of these things. But then
[1:03:49] there's lots of intervention. Uh Steve
[1:03:52] Waldrip talks about how the housing
[1:03:55] market, it's a private market, but it is
[1:03:57] so affected by governmental policy. So
[1:04:00] are there policies that we could employ
[1:04:03] to help get at that time lag and have
[1:04:06] jobs come sooner as we're doing housing
[1:04:08] development in Greenfield area so we
[1:04:10] don't unintentionally exacerbate or
[1:04:13] create transportation problems. We have
[1:04:14] to chase those with transportation
[1:04:16] dollars. Is there a way to utilize some
[1:04:18] of that investment to have more balance
[1:04:21] from the beginning?
[1:04:23] Other thoughts? Mayor Burton,
[1:04:26] >> West Jordan has been dealing with this
[1:04:28] exact same problem with the construct
[1:04:29] with the east west challenge that we
[1:04:32] have on traffic. There was a time when
[1:04:34] UDOT came in and wanted to put
[1:04:38] changeable lanes on 90th South. We
[1:04:41] resisted that. But at the same time in West Jordan and our southwest
[1:04:44] quadrant, we've been adding additional
[1:04:46] industry and more business there. Not
[1:04:49] just restaurants, but but real
[1:04:51] businesses where people can have a
[1:04:53] suitable income to support families
[1:04:55] with. And as time has gone by, we had a
[1:04:58] study done just earlier this year that
[1:05:01] showed that changeable lanes aren't a
[1:05:02] good idea because we're getting
[1:05:04] increased traffic going both directions
[1:05:05] now, which means people are now coming
[1:05:08] into our southwest quadrant into those
[1:05:10] businesses that are actually employing
[1:05:12] people and doing it there. So that map
[1:05:15] you showed, I would like to see if we
[1:05:17] could go back in years and see the
[1:05:19] change that's happened.
[1:05:21] >> How how far back in history can does
[1:05:24] that map go? Yeah. It goes back how
[1:05:26] long?
[1:05:28] >> To 2003.
[1:05:29] Yeah. So you can we can evaluate the
[1:05:32] changes over time and associate them
[1:05:34] with different transportation
[1:05:35] investments as well.
[1:05:36] >> Right. Then we can see if it's working
[1:05:38] or if it's getting worse and if we need
[1:05:39] to shift or make some changes or keep
[1:05:41] going. So
[1:05:41] >> yeah, great idea.
[1:05:42] >> I think that's wonderful. And and which
[1:05:44] comes first?
[1:05:45] >> In my mind, the housing came first
[1:05:47] because people are going to get there.
[1:05:48] But then the businesses look for a place
[1:05:50] where they can have a good source of
[1:05:53] employees. Yeah, thank you. I see Mayor
[1:05:56] uh Petro from Leighton and then Laura
[1:05:58] Hansen from GOPB. Mayor.
[1:06:01] Okay, just to build upon that, I will
[1:06:05] say this, and this probably isn't really
[1:06:06] the forum for it, but I believe that a
[1:06:10] few years ago when the state took away
[1:06:12] the uh incentives for the cities to be
[1:06:16] able to attract businesses kind of
[1:06:18] really put a damper on us to work both
[1:06:22] the housing and the jobs simultaneously.
[1:06:27] That's just my my view.
[1:06:30] >> And a lot as as we talked about some in
[1:06:33] the regional growth committee, a lot of
[1:06:35] the uh tax incentives um that cities and
[1:06:39] counties have at their disposal have
[1:06:41] been affected, let's say, over the last
[1:06:43] few years by state policy. I'm not
[1:06:45] intending to attack our partners in the
[1:06:47] state. We have to all be in this uh
[1:06:49] together. And then the encouragement is
[1:06:52] strongly for a housing first focus,
[1:06:54] which again we understand why that is,
[1:06:56] but Mayor Petro, to your point, there's
[1:06:58] a challenge there about the use of
[1:07:00] tools. Uh Laura,
[1:07:05] » hello everyone. I'm sorry I'm not there
[1:07:08] in person. Um it's been a day, but hey,
[1:07:11] I I love this new map. I have pulled it
[1:07:14] up multiple times over the last couple
[1:07:17] of weeks um to illustrate things with
[1:07:19] colleagues and conceptually I really
[1:07:23] like the idea. I think it makes a lot of
[1:07:25] logical sense that you know the fewer
[1:07:27] people who have to travel to get to
[1:07:30] employment um the better and that does
[1:07:33] get more out of our our limited
[1:07:36] transportation network. a couple of not
[1:07:39] critiques, but just sort of sideboards
[1:07:42] or things to consider. Um, there's
[1:07:45] always going to be an employment center
[1:07:48] sort of heavy hitter, right? Downtown
[1:07:50] Salt Lake is always going to be this
[1:07:53] sink for bringing people in for jobs.
[1:07:56] Uh, there's always going to be places
[1:07:58] where [snorts]
[1:08:00] it just attracts folks from from all
[1:08:02] over the region. That I think we need to
[1:08:05] acknowledge. So you kind of have to take
[1:08:06] it as sort of like, you know, this is a
[1:08:08] rule of of thumb, but not a we have to
[1:08:11] get the math to balance out. Exactly.
[1:08:14] >> Agreed.
[1:08:14] >> The other thing that I would note is
[1:08:15] land values have a big uh a big impact
[1:08:19] on this as well. Um
[1:08:23] you may have noticed that the governor's
[1:08:25] office caused a bit of a stir uh in some
[1:08:28] Wasach counties over the last couple of
[1:08:30] weeks. I'll just like put it out there
[1:08:32] since it's out there. Um, you know, and
[1:08:35] I pulled up this map and I was actually
[1:08:37] looking. I said, "How many people
[1:08:38] commute into Summit and Wasach counties
[1:08:41] every day?" And a lot commute in because
[1:08:44] the land is very expensive. But a lot of
[1:08:47] people commute into Salt Lake County as
[1:08:50] well from those counties. Um, people,
[1:08:53] you know, want to live in in areas uh
[1:08:56] where they have more space sometimes and
[1:08:58] they work in a place that's that heavy
[1:09:00] hitter employment anchor. Um, [snorts]
[1:09:03] and also in Summit County in particular,
[1:09:06] you know, Park City is so expensive that
[1:09:09] just the ability for a lot of people to
[1:09:12] live there, it's just, you know, it's
[1:09:14] just hard to pack that many,
[1:09:16] [clears throat] you know, people in
[1:09:17] there and balance out the jobs. So,
[1:09:19] anyways, just a couple of of caveats or
[1:09:22] nuances for people to think about. Um,
[1:09:25] but in general, I I love the concept of
[1:09:29] thinking about how we can allow people
[1:09:32] to accomplish more of their daily needs
[1:09:34] and more of the the basic things to get
[1:09:37] through life in their own communities. I love that. I would be interested if
[1:09:42] through your searching of the map if
[1:09:44] there is an area where it's pretty
[1:09:46] 50/50, where there actually is a really
[1:09:48] good balance because that might be a
[1:09:50] good example for us to um to say, well,
[1:09:52] what does that community look like? How
[1:09:54] could we model that elsewhere?
[1:09:56] >> Yeah, Laura, thank you so much. Um,
[1:09:59] I should note Laura is is leading a lot
[1:10:02] of work in great partnership through the
[1:10:05] build coordinating council try to
[1:10:07] integrate the consideration of these
[1:10:09] issues and has been an amazing partner
[1:10:11] at the state level for us as uh local.
[1:10:14] So, Laura um thank you very much. I I'll
[1:10:18] say and Mayor Benian go to you in one
[1:10:19] moment and then maybe Mr. share. After
[1:10:21] that, we'll we'll uh wrap up this
[1:10:23] discussion. Um Laura, you just made the
[1:10:25] point about there's always going to be
[1:10:27] certain areas that are more uh
[1:10:28] employmentheavy. Uh Salt Lake, of
[1:10:31] course, Ogden City is a job center for
[1:10:33] Weber County, of course, and has great
[1:10:35] uh balance. Um so, it's this is why so
[1:10:39] and that's that is an appropriate thing.
[1:10:41] Uh but this is why we showed you the 10%
[1:10:45] analysis that if just 10% more of the
[1:10:49] people now are commuting out of their
[1:10:51] homes, out of their home cities for
[1:10:52] work, just 10% were able to work in
[1:10:55] their own cities, it would have a huge
[1:10:57] transportation impact. So we're not
[1:10:59] necessarily talking about a goal of
[1:11:02] every community has perfect balance.
[1:11:04] That's not realistic. but having even
[1:11:06] modest impacts that more people could
[1:11:08] live and work within their home
[1:11:09] community can have a huge impact on
[1:11:11] transportation. Mayor Benian,
[1:11:14] >> yes, I also think this is a great map
[1:11:17] and I thank you for all your work to
[1:11:19] create it and to have this discussion.
[1:11:21] And I think that's really crucial. And
[1:11:25] um just thinking about our city and many
[1:11:29] people in our city heading to the UD to
[1:11:30] work that we aren't going to be able to
[1:11:33] change things like that that are so set.
[1:11:35] I know they have satellite clinics and
[1:11:37] things and the same with Hill Air Force
[1:11:39] Base like it's just not moving and that
[1:11:42] you can't really have public
[1:11:43] transportation and like front runner
[1:11:45] going in there. But I'm wondering if
[1:11:48] we're um maximizing van pools and other
[1:11:51] things where we know we have big
[1:11:53] employers and maybe having incentives
[1:11:55] for those employers to because we could
[1:11:58] maybe get 10% more of or more of their
[1:12:02] employees using van pools that would be
[1:12:05] able to reduce the traffic on our roads.
[1:12:07] I think it's a great goal to reduce that
[1:12:10] traffic.
[1:12:10] >> Mayor Benny, thank you. transportation
[1:12:12] choices key satellite locations for
[1:12:16] medical facilities is another great
[1:12:18] example of this basic uh dynamic. So uh
[1:12:22] Mr. Chair, what happens next now? Um to
[1:12:25] be honest, we don't know exactly what
[1:12:27] happens next with this. We're trying to
[1:12:29] put this information out and have good
[1:12:32] dialogue with you all with all of the
[1:12:35] stakeholders in the community about how
[1:12:38] what policies we can implement that
[1:12:40] would be that would help you advance
[1:12:42] your goals and also try to improve this
[1:12:44] jobs housing balance. We'll talk about
[1:12:46] this more as we go forward uh at the
[1:12:48] transportation conference at UD do
[1:12:50] sponsors at the league of cities and
[1:12:52] towns conference at the UAC conference
[1:12:54] etc. Uh but if we want to solve our
[1:12:56] transportation issues, build, innovate,
[1:12:58] balance. We need to do all three. Okay.
[1:13:00] >> Okay. Thank you very presentation and
[1:13:03] it's interesting how technology is
[1:13:05] moving to allow these types of things
[1:13:06] for us to be able to see. I know there's
[1:13:08] probably a lot more questions. This is a
[1:13:10] subject we could carry on for a long
[1:13:12] time for all of us to be able to learn
[1:13:13] and see. But with that, we will move on
[1:13:15] to uh Commissioner Harvey and
[1:13:19] turn the time over to him for
[1:13:20] transportation.
[1:13:26] Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have actually
[1:13:28] four items today. Three of which require
[1:13:30] action uh regarding this. Um they're the
[1:13:33] modifications that were approved by
[1:13:35] Transcom in June. And the second is an
[1:13:38] opportunity to take an action which most
[1:13:40] was most recently heard just last week
[1:13:43] about the 2027 through 2032 tip. And
[1:13:46] then uh we'll have uh Ben help us with
[1:13:50] those things. So, first off, on the
[1:13:52] modifications of the 2026 to 2031 tip,
[1:13:56] for those of you who are prepared and
[1:13:58] familiar with that, are there any
[1:13:59] questions of that?
[1:14:02] Hearing none, then uh I'll go on to item
[1:14:04] number 5B. Uh if there's no questions,
[1:14:08] Ben, I'd like to turn the time over to
[1:14:09] you. Thank you for being ready at the
[1:14:11] mic so we can hurry along as our chair
[1:14:13] has asked us to. And so, go ahead, Mr.
[1:14:15] Wridge.
[1:14:16] >> Wonderful.
[1:14:18] Thank you, Commissioner. So, as the
[1:14:20] commissioner mentioned there, when when
[1:14:23] we have the opportunity to have a board
[1:14:25] modification or an amendment to the
[1:14:27] transportation improvement program,
[1:14:30] we try to bring that to the regional
[1:14:32] council. But in those months when the
[1:14:34] regional council doesn't meet, then the
[1:14:36] regional council has delegated that
[1:14:38] responsibility to transcom. Hence the
[1:14:41] action that the commissioner just
[1:14:43] related to. But this particular month,
[1:14:46] the month of August is a unique
[1:14:47] opportunity when we have both transcom
[1:14:49] and the regional council meeting. So we
[1:14:52] met with transcom and and in the meeting
[1:14:55] materials they had opportunity to review
[1:14:58] those three tables that identified seven
[1:15:01] projects for this board modification.
[1:15:05] But they made that recommendation for
[1:15:07] the regional council. But to enable you
[1:15:09] to understand the projects and to be
[1:15:12] able to prove those projects, we thought
[1:15:14] rather than going through each one
[1:15:16] individually with particular slide, we
[1:15:19] would show them in a list format and we
[1:15:21] would quickly go through them. So the
[1:15:24] first project that was part of that
[1:15:26] board modification is a new project.
[1:15:28] It's on 2700 North. This is for a future
[1:15:32] railroad grade crossing project on 2700
[1:15:36] North there. the Union Pacific and the
[1:15:39] light rail um or the commuter rail
[1:15:42] crosses. Um this is for phase one. It's
[1:15:44] concept design. The funding is $2.5
[1:15:48] million
[1:15:50] and there's a pending a federal aid
[1:15:52] agreement application out for the $2
[1:15:54] million for that project. The next
[1:15:57] project is also a new project. This is a
[1:15:59] project in Davis County on I-15. It's
[1:16:02] actually where I-15 goes over 650 north.
[1:16:06] This is to replace those structures that
[1:16:08] are just worn out. They've been rehabbed
[1:16:10] and repaired so often now that it's time
[1:16:13] to replace those structures. The funding
[1:16:16] for that project is 81 million estimate
[1:16:20] and there's a pending federal aid um
[1:16:23] grant application out for $64.8 million.
[1:16:30] The next project is a project in Salt
[1:16:32] Lake County and this is on I80. This is
[1:16:35] to address the climbing lanes between
[1:16:37] the turnoff there at Mountain Dell and
[1:16:40] it goes up east to the Lamb's Canyon
[1:16:43] turnoff. This project for those climbing
[1:16:45] lanes is estimated to be 71 million.
[1:16:48] There's also pending a federal aid grant
[1:16:50] application for 42.6 million. So those
[1:16:54] three projects are new to the tip. The
[1:16:56] next projects are projects that require
[1:16:58] additional funding. First project is a
[1:17:02] project in Salt Lake. This the
[1:17:03] Cottonwood Canyons grade separated
[1:17:05] interchange. This is an interchange on
[1:17:07] Wasach Boulevard at about 6900 South. Uh
[1:17:12] this project is currently on the
[1:17:14] program. This is going to help implement
[1:17:16] the mobility hub and the additional
[1:17:19] transit plus improve mobility in and
[1:17:21] around the canyons area. Uh the request
[1:17:24] is for an additional $16 million for a
[1:17:27] total of $72 million on this project.
[1:17:31] The next project requesting additional
[1:17:33] funds is on I-15.
[1:17:36] This is between 106 South and 90th
[1:17:38] South. There's a project that's ongoing
[1:17:41] right now. It's to repair the concrete
[1:17:42] panels and it's including some pavement
[1:17:45] grading, but there's been additional
[1:17:47] needs identified with this project. So,
[1:17:50] they're requesting that we add an
[1:17:52] additional million dollars to this
[1:17:53] project, making this total project 11.6
[1:17:57] million. The next project is also on
[1:17:59] I-15, just a little further north
[1:18:02] between 7200 South and 5300 South. This
[1:18:06] project is also to repair the concrete
[1:18:09] panels, do some pavement grinding, but
[1:18:13] in addition to that, there were some
[1:18:14] barriers that needed some additional
[1:18:16] attention. So, they're asking that an
[1:18:19] additional 1.7 million be programmed for
[1:18:21] this project, giving this project a
[1:18:23] total fund of 14 plus million. The last
[1:18:27] project then before you is a funding
[1:18:29] reduction. Back in 2025,
[1:18:32] the legislative session approved $300
[1:18:35] million for pedestrian crossing project
[1:18:38] on 300 West. This is somewhere between
[1:18:41] South Temple and First South. This is
[1:18:43] also to address the mobility and improve
[1:18:46] safety.
[1:18:47] This past legislative session in 2026,
[1:18:50] they reduced the amount of that project
[1:18:52] down to 250 million. So those are the
[1:18:55] projects before yet this time for this
[1:18:57] board modification.
[1:18:59] >> Perfect. Thank you board. Are there any
[1:19:01] questions with any of those? May Mayor
[1:19:04] Sotansky.
[1:19:04] >> Yes. I have a question. Is it the are we
[1:19:07] expanding the scope of these projects or
[1:19:09] is it construction costs that are
[1:19:11] increasing? What's happening out there
[1:19:13] in the capital projects land with
[1:19:15] respect to construction costs? I heard
[1:19:17] they were actually going down. Are we
[1:19:19] experiencing that?
[1:19:21] >> We are. Ben, maybe if you can on a
[1:19:26] deeper note.
[1:19:28] Yeah, like the the projects on I-15,
[1:19:31] these examples, the the cost, these are
[1:19:33] um mostly related to the scope of the
[1:19:35] project. Like when you get out there
[1:19:36] with the pavement, they um they get into
[1:19:39] the project and then they see the extent
[1:19:41] um they uncover some additional work. Uh
[1:19:44] construction cost index. I think that's
[1:19:47] a that's an interesting topic. Um
[1:19:50] overall over the you know over the last
[1:19:53] few years the construction cost index
[1:19:55] has gone up by quite a bit. I think that
[1:19:58] I was just pulling it up before the
[1:20:00] meeting is there has been a little bit
[1:20:01] of a flattening on the the construction
[1:20:04] cost index as far as the rate of how
[1:20:06] much it's going up. Um I think
[1:20:09] anecdotally I think the last little
[1:20:11] while on some of the UD do projects that
[1:20:13] we report with our transportation
[1:20:15] commission we've been seeing increased
[1:20:17] um number of biders which is always
[1:20:19] good. I think that that that competition
[1:20:22] usually has an effect on on cost and you
[1:20:25] know when we were in the highest levels
[1:20:29] of construction cost inflation there was
[1:20:32] fewer bidders you know less competition
[1:20:35] that types of thing. So I think it's um
[1:20:38] overall like I said it's it has
[1:20:40] increased but there has been a little
[1:20:42] bit of a leveling off recently.
[1:20:43] >> Hope the costs continue to go in that
[1:20:45] trend. Uh but you're saying that these
[1:20:48] are once you get into a project you're
[1:20:50] discovering more is needed and
[1:20:52] unexpected conditions.
[1:20:54] >> Yeah. Like the the I-15 ones
[1:20:56] specifically. I think we had when we
[1:20:58] went over these with our transportation
[1:21:00] commission, we had some pictures and
[1:21:01] things like that where, you know, you look at a panel, they remove the
[1:21:05] panel, they see some more extensive
[1:21:07] damage, and then they adjust the scope
[1:21:09] to to fix that.
[1:21:11] >> Needs to happen every time. Thanks.
[1:21:13] >> Great. And and and also just a sidebar
[1:21:15] comment on that, mayor, is uh we've seen
[1:21:17] the cost of we've seen the cost of iron
[1:21:19] mainly in buildings. smaller iron jobs
[1:21:22] may be flattened quicker than as so iron
[1:21:24] maybe so but asphalt not so much and
[1:21:27] that's related a lot of it related to
[1:21:29] oils and so at this that's what we've
[1:21:32] learned okay Ben I'm going to take
[1:21:34] action on I 5B if that's okay with you
[1:21:37] and thank you
[1:21:37] >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to
[1:21:40] adopt the resolution to modify the 2026
[1:21:42] through 2031 transportation improvement
[1:21:45] program or the tip is presented. Like to
[1:21:47] get a second for that.
[1:21:48] >> Second.
[1:21:50] >> John Cross.
[1:21:52] >> Great.
[1:21:54] >> All in favor say I.
[1:21:56] >> I.
[1:21:57] >> Opposed?
[1:21:58] >> I should That's unanimous.
[1:22:00] >> Thank you. like to move on to item
[1:22:02] number 5C if there if I could please
[1:22:04] which is the 2027 through 2020 to
[1:22:08] through 2032
[1:22:10] tip or transportation improvement
[1:22:12] program so the next year thank you Ben
[1:22:14] go ahead perfect thank you commissioner
[1:22:16] so this is a big day this celebration
[1:22:19] here as we have opportunity to review
[1:22:22] and approve the 2732 transportation
[1:22:25] improvement program as well as the
[1:22:27] conformity I'd like to review real quick
[1:22:30] with you just some of the benefits or
[1:22:32] some of the the abilities or the
[1:22:35] opportunities that the document the
[1:22:37] transportation improvement program
[1:22:39] actually provide. So as we look at this
[1:22:42] year once you approve we'll have the
[1:22:45] 2732
[1:22:47] we will submit this information it'll go
[1:22:50] with you do with the full state all the
[1:22:53] tips making the state transportation
[1:22:55] improvement program or the stip that'll
[1:22:58] go to federal highways and federal
[1:22:59] transit for their review during the
[1:23:01] month of September. Then come October
[1:23:04] one we will be working under the 2732
[1:23:07] transportation improvement program. So,
[1:23:10] what is the transportation improvement
[1:23:12] program? As a reminder here, it is for
[1:23:15] all of the highway, active
[1:23:17] transportation, and transit projects
[1:23:20] over the next six years. It's those
[1:23:22] projects that were referred to when we
[1:23:24] were talking about the regional
[1:23:26] transportation plan. It's the urban
[1:23:28] areas. It's a Salt Lake Dog and
[1:23:30] Leighton. So, essentially from Utah
[1:23:32] County all the way up through Bigham
[1:23:34] City. It's funded with federal, state,
[1:23:36] and local government funds. And it's
[1:23:38] also for all of the cities, the
[1:23:40] counties, UDOT and UTA. So there's a lot
[1:23:43] of projects in there. And these projects
[1:23:45] include pretty much in these categories
[1:23:48] or silos there, the new construction,
[1:23:50] the rehabilitation, the maintenance,
[1:23:53] safety, intelligent transportation
[1:23:56] systems, transit, operating and
[1:23:58] maintenance, pedestrian and bike. Now,
[1:24:00] as an elected official, you plan, you
[1:24:03] program, you do a lot of work. Seldom do
[1:24:05] you have the opportunity to just sit
[1:24:07] back and see what's going on. You got
[1:24:09] too many things going on. So, real
[1:24:12] quick, I'd just like to show some
[1:24:14] pictures of the projects that have gone
[1:24:16] on or going on, let you reflect quick
[1:24:20] some of the things that are happening
[1:24:22] along the Watch front. So if you were to
[1:24:24] look at 5600 West, a project that's
[1:24:27] nearing completion, but the significance
[1:24:30] amount of work in the area,
[1:24:33] then we've got down on Bangar Highways.
[1:24:35] You're probably well aware of all the
[1:24:37] work that's going on in these areas.
[1:24:40] Some of this is amazing, right? Shepher
[1:24:42] improvements along here, project that's
[1:24:44] opening up in sections and in just in
[1:24:47] general, construction happening all
[1:24:49] around us. Well, if we were to look at
[1:24:51] the rehab and the maintenance type of
[1:24:53] activities that are going along, that
[1:24:55] white stuff's called snow. We look at
[1:24:58] forward to that. Uh the next here is
[1:25:01] operations and safety things that are
[1:25:04] happening.
[1:25:06] And then we've got our bicycle and
[1:25:08] pedestrian I sorry, skip the transit,
[1:25:11] the capital improvements and the
[1:25:13] operations and maintenance.
[1:25:15] And then we've got our pedestrian and
[1:25:17] bicycle facilities. So the
[1:25:20] transportation improvement program has
[1:25:22] all of these projects that have funding
[1:25:24] associated with them. This is the
[1:25:26] document that contains those projects.
[1:25:29] So as we were preparing this, we know
[1:25:31] and understand the TIP represents
[1:25:34] billions of dollars, hundreds of
[1:25:35] billions of dollars. We're looking at
[1:25:38] thousands, well not hundreds of
[1:25:39] billions, hundreds and millions, but
[1:25:42] several billion. thousands of jobs, the
[1:25:45] economic growth and development, the
[1:25:46] mobility and access, preservation of
[1:25:49] life, and the quality of life that we
[1:25:51] were referring to earlier in the
[1:25:53] discussion. All of this ties in with
[1:25:55] everything else we've been talking
[1:25:56] about. Well, so we needed to take this
[1:26:00] out for the public for their review.
[1:26:02] That's part of the requirements set by
[1:26:04] the federal highways
[1:26:06] uh transmit on the 18th and they said,
[1:26:09] "We want you to go out for public review
[1:26:11] and comment." and that initiated on the
[1:26:13] 27th. That concluded on August 2nd.
[1:26:16] During that time, we had three open
[1:26:18] houses, two, one in Ogden, one in Salt
[1:26:21] Lake, and one online.
[1:26:24] And in addition to this, collecting this
[1:26:26] information, these comments from people,
[1:26:29] we had the hard documents that we were
[1:26:31] able to. But one of our most effective
[1:26:33] ways to collect comments is through our
[1:26:36] interactive map where someone in the
[1:26:37] leisure of their own home, maybe with
[1:26:39] their family all around them, clicking
[1:26:41] on a button on the project, being able
[1:26:44] to reference that project, seeing the
[1:26:46] information, and then leaving a comment.
[1:26:49] Well, in your meeting materials, you
[1:26:51] also have a summary of all of those
[1:26:53] comments.
[1:26:55] And in addition to the summary, you also
[1:26:57] have a list of all of the projects we
[1:27:00] received. Now, this is something that
[1:27:02] occurred to me and I made a note and
[1:27:03] shared it with Transcom, but we have a
[1:27:06] little misunderstanding on our public
[1:27:08] comment. Sometimes we hear from the
[1:27:10] people, why I told you I didn't like the project and you build it anyway, so
[1:27:15] you didn't listen to me. Well, sometimes
[1:27:18] we don't have that choice to not build a
[1:27:21] project. We have a project that needs to
[1:27:24] happen. The reason for that comment,
[1:27:26] public comment review and opportunity is
[1:27:29] for you to tell us how we can make this
[1:27:31] project better. What do we need to see?
[1:27:34] What do we need to do? What's necessary
[1:27:37] to address the concerns that you have?
[1:27:40] There's a project that happened not too
[1:27:42] long ago, a couple of years ago. This
[1:27:44] was the improvements to US89.
[1:27:47] That had to happen. A lot of people
[1:27:50] didn't like it. But the comments that
[1:27:52] made a difference were those that come
[1:27:53] in and says, "We don't want to look out
[1:27:55] the back window and look right onto the
[1:27:57] highway. What can you do to make that
[1:28:00] not happen?" And so the department
[1:28:02] looked at that. They were able to
[1:28:04] analyze it to where they were able to
[1:28:06] drop the grade of 89. If you've driven
[1:28:08] on 89, they've dropped the grade. Well,
[1:28:11] in the analysis, that benefited two
[1:28:14] projects. one, we actually that 89
[1:28:17] project cost less, but then all that
[1:28:20] hall material, they used it to the west
[1:28:23] when they were building the West Davis
[1:28:25] Highway. So, we got a benefit from the
[1:28:28] public comment that come in and said,
[1:28:30] "We don't want to be looking at the
[1:28:32] road. We know you got to build it. How
[1:28:34] about this idea?" And so, those public
[1:28:36] comments are important. So when we get
[1:28:39] that public comment, we take those
[1:28:42] information or we take that we take it
[1:28:44] to the project management meetings and
[1:28:47] the appropriate project action happens
[1:28:50] and we're able to get a better product
[1:28:53] utilizing the funds that we've been
[1:28:54] entrusted with and we're able to make
[1:28:56] things happen. So with that
[1:28:59] understanding and on the very heel of
[1:29:04] the approval of the 2732 tip, I'd like
[1:29:07] all of you if you reach under the table
[1:29:09] about to your elbow right in front of
[1:29:12] you, you'll have a little something
[1:29:14] there that once you approve that
[1:29:16] document,
[1:29:18] all of you should have one around the
[1:29:20] table.
[1:29:23] So hopefully you got one. If you don't,
[1:29:25] I got extras in my pocket just in case.
[1:29:29] It was dark at night when I was
[1:29:33] You got them under there. Okay. So,
[1:29:38] >> Commissioner, if if if there's no
[1:29:41] further questions on that, that's all I
[1:29:43] have for this portion of the agenda.
[1:29:48] >> Thank you, Ben. Always very creative.
[1:29:50] they go along with their the first
[1:29:53] slides on this particular section on
[1:29:55] these little uh those of you who aren't
[1:29:57] in person you'll maybe have this
[1:30:00] excitement in your next lifetime but uh
[1:30:03] we always good and so I'm looking Mr.
[1:30:08] Chair, with your permission, are there
[1:30:10] any questions from the board, either
[1:30:11] online or here?
[1:30:13] Seeing none online, seeing none in here,
[1:30:15] I'll I I'll make the motion we approve
[1:30:17] the 2027 through 2032 TIP program as
[1:30:21] presented by Mr. Wridge today. Looking
[1:30:23] for a second.
[1:30:31] » I I
[1:30:36] » Thank you. Here we go. Ready?
[1:30:41] Oh, that was exciting.
[1:30:44] >> I wish all of you online could have been
[1:30:46] here.
[1:30:47] >> Thank you, everyone. Our liability
[1:30:49] insurance is uh up to date, so we're
[1:30:51] good.
[1:30:52] >> Uh-huh.
[1:30:53] >> I've got one thing. If I could,
[1:30:56] >> please uh buckle up. The next one, I'd
[1:30:59] like to turn a couple of minutes over to
[1:31:01] Wayne Benign, our ambassador of
[1:31:03] excitement. and uh if you could talk to
[1:31:06] us about the self-certification in the
[1:31:08] planning process. Wayne, go ahead.
[1:31:11] >> Thank you, Commissioner.
[1:31:13] When the TIP is submitted to Federal
[1:31:16] Highway and Federal Transit, as Ben
[1:31:18] mentioned, we also have the opportunity
[1:31:21] to submit a document that certifies that
[1:31:24] the regional council is complying with
[1:31:27] all the federal requirements in its
[1:31:30] regional transportation planning
[1:31:32] process.
[1:31:33] Uh that self-certification is in the
[1:31:37] meeting materials and transcom had the
[1:31:40] opportunity to review and discuss that
[1:31:43] last week at their meeting and has
[1:31:46] recommended an approval of that
[1:31:48] self-certification
[1:31:49] and I'm happy to answer any questions.
[1:31:53] >> Thank you. Are there any questions for
[1:31:55] Mr. Benyan?
[1:31:57] Hearing none, Mr. Chair, I'd like
[1:31:58] >> Well, I had a question. If it's
[1:31:59] self-certification, why do we need to
[1:32:01] approve it? That's that's something
[1:32:03] you'll have to self adjust in your own
[1:32:05] your sink. So there you go. Thanks,
[1:32:07] Mayor Burton.
[1:32:09] >> We appreciate that. Mr. Chair, I'll make
[1:32:11] that motion we approve the resolution
[1:32:13] certifying the transportation planning
[1:32:14] process.
[1:32:15] >> Do we have a second?
[1:32:18] » Second. All in favor say I.
[1:32:21] >> I.
[1:32:21] Any opposed?
[1:32:23] >> Mr. Chair, that concludes my report.
[1:32:25] Thank you, Mayor Burton. Thank you. By
[1:32:27] voting for that self-certification, you
[1:32:29] affirm that you've carefully read the
[1:32:31] entirety of the documentation and you
[1:32:33] agree that we are fulfilling all of the
[1:32:34] applicable requirements. Thank you very
[1:32:37] much.
[1:32:37] >> I did it myself.
[1:32:39] >> Thank you. Thank you. And just if I
[1:32:41] might really briefly before we move on,
[1:32:43] um Ben quickly went through uh the the
[1:32:49] transportation improvement program which
[1:32:51] includes as he said hundreds of millions
[1:32:53] of dollars for hundreds of projects in
[1:32:56] every community in the region. And the
[1:32:59] way and with little drama, a touch of
[1:33:02] fanfare, a little drama. And this is
[1:33:05] indicative of the way that we do
[1:33:08] transportation work. As I noted before
[1:33:10] in Utah with all of our partners working
[1:33:13] together from federal level Ivan to the
[1:33:17] state to UDOT to UTA to the counties to
[1:33:20] the cities to the MPOS's the elected
[1:33:22] officials and staff the level of
[1:33:24] partnership and effective collaboration
[1:33:28] is really terrific here. It is known
[1:33:30] around the country and tons of work goes
[1:33:33] into this from you and all of your
[1:33:35] teams, Ben uh and the other folks at
[1:33:38] WFRC.
[1:33:39] So, I just want to express appreciation
[1:33:41] and acknowledgement. These things don't
[1:33:42] happen on their own. It takes
[1:33:44] intentional collaboration and effort.
[1:33:45] Thank you.
[1:33:47] >> Appreciate that. We'll now move on to
[1:33:49] item six. Uh this deals with programming
[1:33:52] for funds for transportation. I think
[1:33:54] we're going to ask Wayne to come up uh
[1:33:56] again and maybe just give a little
[1:33:58] insight on this.
[1:34:01] >> Thank you, Mr. Chair.
[1:34:04] Uh, as we've got our annual funding
[1:34:06] cycle, the beginning of our annual
[1:34:08] funding cycle approaching, we just want
[1:34:10] to take the opportunity to uh review
[1:34:15] quickly with you uh the funding programs
[1:34:19] that WFRC administers for these first
[1:34:23] five. You'll note that a letter of
[1:34:25] intent is due September 30th.
[1:34:31] And then these others are on an ongoing
[1:34:34] or have different timelines, but uh
[1:34:38] please reach out if you have interest in
[1:34:41] and any of these uh last programs as
[1:34:45] well. Um we encourage you to talk with
[1:34:48] your staff, think about needs in your
[1:34:51] communities, and uh submit a letter of
[1:34:54] intent to help you address those needs.
[1:34:57] I'll note that there's an email coming
[1:35:01] uh next week with more information and
[1:35:04] we're also intending to go out to the
[1:35:06] councils of government and present a
[1:35:09] more detailed presentation.
[1:35:12] Thank you.
[1:35:13] >> Yeah, Wayne, we we did not want to do a
[1:35:15] detailed uh presentation about all these
[1:35:18] programs that we have to help you in
[1:35:20] this meeting because not everybody's
[1:35:21] here. So, we're as Wayne's noting, we're
[1:35:24] going to do it at the COG so every
[1:35:25] community can hear it. And then also,
[1:35:27] don't worry, we're also, as Wayne noted,
[1:35:29] communicating with your staffs directly.
[1:35:31] They get the information about these
[1:35:33] funding programs. So, um, you'll get it
[1:35:35] and they'll get it as well.
[1:35:37] >> Okay. Thank you, Wayne. Appreciate it.
[1:35:39] We'll now move down to item 6B, active
[1:35:42] transportation. Ask Mayor Troy Walker.
[1:35:44] And as he's unmuted himself and coming
[1:35:46] on, I had an opportunity uh here the
[1:35:48] last couple of weeks to spend some time
[1:35:50] in Amsterdam. And I don't know how many
[1:35:52] of you have ever been to Amsterdam, but
[1:35:54] I guarantee you there is more active
[1:35:55] transportation going on in that place
[1:35:57] than anywhere in this world. It was
[1:35:59] absolutely crazy the amount of bikes and
[1:36:02] the buses and everything else that uh
[1:36:04] realistically I think bikes had
[1:36:06] preference uh that they ruled. So with
[1:36:09] that uh we'll turn if Troy's ready turn
[1:36:12] the time over.
[1:36:13] >> Ready? Can you hear me?
[1:36:14] >> We can hear you.
[1:36:16] >> Great. I um have not been to Amsterdam,
[1:36:18] Bob, but I look forward to it someday.
[1:36:22] All right. So, my report would be um
[1:36:25] just a few things. First of all,
[1:36:27] celebrating some progress. Perry City
[1:36:29] and Boxeller County recently completed
[1:36:31] another section of the historic Orchard
[1:36:34] pathway which beginning at the existing
[1:36:36] trail to over three more miles. The
[1:36:39] committee has already embraced the new
[1:36:40] section which connects to Willard City.
[1:36:42] When totally complete, that historic
[1:36:44] Orchard Parkway will run over 10 miles
[1:36:47] through southern Boxelder County and
[1:36:48] connect into Wever County. So, that's
[1:36:51] cool. The Utah Trail Network, um Hugh's
[1:36:54] going to put up a map. You got the map,
[1:36:56] Hugh?
[1:36:57] >> That's up.
[1:36:58] >> In June, the Utah Transportation
[1:37:00] Commission approved the UDOT trails
[1:37:02] division to fund 25 new UT projects, 12
[1:37:07] F feasibility studies, and 13 projects
[1:37:09] for design and construction. Um, that's
[1:37:12] also cool. The Utah Trail Network
[1:37:14] program now consists of 46 total funded
[1:37:17] projects uh equating to over 314 miles
[1:37:21] and over $248 million in trail systems.
[1:37:26] I bet there's not any other state in the
[1:37:27] country doing that. That's that's uh
[1:37:29] hats off to our governor and our
[1:37:31] legislature and and you do DOT for uh
[1:37:34] and everybody. I mean, we are in a
[1:37:36] really really great place. It's amazing.
[1:37:38] That's the end of my report, Bob.
[1:37:40] >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it, Troy.
[1:37:41] Any questions for Troy before we move on
[1:37:43] to Gage? Okay. If not, we'll move on to
[1:37:46] Gage Fer.
[1:37:49] >> Good morning, chair, or good afternoon,
[1:37:50] Mr. Chair. Can you hear me?
[1:37:52] >> We can hear you.
[1:37:53] >> All right. I just want to give an update
[1:37:54] on the Wasatch Front Economic
[1:37:56] Development District meeting we had last
[1:37:58] June. Uh, I think we continue to see
[1:38:00] these meetings are real examples across
[1:38:02] our region of how our econom opportunity
[1:38:05] and goals of the Wasatch Choice Vision
[1:38:08] work together. Uh and in June we had
[1:38:11] actually two presentations. Lance Sophie
[1:38:13] with the governor's office of economic
[1:38:15] development provided an update on
[1:38:17] opportunity zone which would be 2.0 and
[1:38:20] the upcoming track designation process.
[1:38:23] He discussed how federally designated
[1:38:25] opportunity zones were intended to
[1:38:27] attract private investment and encourage
[1:38:29] development in our lower private
[1:38:32] investment uh communities as well as
[1:38:35] roll cities counties no AOGs and play
[1:38:38] that play in identifying eligible areas.
[1:38:41] Wendy Leone and Jake Wood of Jay Fisher
[1:38:44] Companies provided an overview of public
[1:38:47] private partnerships and how they could
[1:38:49] help our local governments address
[1:38:51] housing infrastructure and redevelopment
[1:38:54] needs. They highlighted the
[1:38:56] opportunities we have and u to work and
[1:39:00] continue to leverage our private uh
[1:39:02] public sector investment and innovative
[1:39:04] financing approaches to advance our
[1:39:06] local development priorities. They also
[1:39:09] showed various developments they are
[1:39:10] currently working on in both Utah and
[1:39:13] Idaho. And I believe uh Mayor Sodowski
[1:39:16] is there. She'd like to take a few
[1:39:18] minutes if she could to follow up. She
[1:39:19] actually had a meeting with Jay Fisher
[1:39:21] Companies and wanted to have her give
[1:39:24] her personal perspective of how that
[1:39:26] transpired.
[1:39:28] >> Thanks, Gage. Yeah. Uh Mayor Zultansky
[1:39:30] here. I was really looking forward to my
[1:39:34] participation on the economic
[1:39:35] development committee because for so
[1:39:38] long Sandy's been I'd say relatively
[1:39:40] conventional about working with
[1:39:41] developers where we sell the property
[1:39:42] and then trust that they're going to get
[1:39:44] this plan together and then in recent
[1:39:47] years we've seen the developers really
[1:39:48] struggling to get projects out of the
[1:39:50] ground because of interest rates,
[1:39:52] construction costs, what have you. So
[1:39:55] learning more about the P3 public
[1:39:58] private partnership opportunities um
[1:40:00] through the committee has been inspiring
[1:40:02] to me. I recently at the beginning of
[1:40:04] June attended the council of mayors in
[1:40:07] uh the national um con convention of
[1:40:11] mayors in Long Beach, California and
[1:40:12] toured their civic center and wow what
[1:40:15] an incredible urban redevelopment
[1:40:18] project that is $550 million rebuild of
[1:40:21] their civic center. new city hall, new
[1:40:23] port authority headquarters, parks,
[1:40:26] housing, uh all this incredible
[1:40:28] infrastructure
[1:40:29] on the same dollar year-toear, $12.6
[1:40:33] million they were paying to maintain
[1:40:34] their city hall. They had all this land
[1:40:36] that was in really rough condition. So,
[1:40:39] they put out to bid call for public
[1:40:41] private partnerships. Um said, "We'll
[1:40:43] pay the same $ 122.6 million a year for
[1:40:46] the next 40 years, but give us new
[1:40:48] buildings, new infrastructure." and the
[1:40:50] development community really responded.
[1:40:52] Um they have a beautiful lead standard,
[1:40:55] gorgeous new city hall and basically
[1:40:57] they're paying that same uh maintenance
[1:41:00] on&m costs line item for 40 years, but
[1:41:03] at the end of that term they get the
[1:41:04] building back with 85%
[1:41:07] new build standard. So it's going to be
[1:41:09] basically returned as a new building
[1:41:12] with uh high environmental standards and
[1:41:15] um efficiency standards. And that's just
[1:41:17] one aspect of it. So, when I saw that
[1:41:19] firsthand in uh Long Beach, came back
[1:41:22] and heard the um the presentation at
[1:41:26] this committee, I immediately called my
[1:41:28] friend, Mayor Nadulski, and said, "What
[1:41:30] the heck are you guys doing in Ogden? I
[1:41:32] got to come up and see it." So, we went
[1:41:34] up um took my team up for a tour of the
[1:41:36] Wonderblock in Ogden and the really
[1:41:39] impressive project, 25th in Quincy.
[1:41:41] Mayor Nadulski could speak better about
[1:41:43] it, but sometimes it's nice to hear what
[1:41:44] stands out from an outsider. Um what
[1:41:47] stood out to me and my team was that
[1:41:49] beautiful residential housing uh rentals
[1:41:53] you would not know it's afford
[1:41:54] affordable housing lower income housing
[1:41:56] or any type of subsidy subsidized
[1:41:59] housing because it's very modern
[1:42:01] lifestyle centered with meeting areas. I
[1:42:04] encourage everybody to if you're looking
[1:42:06] for a model for affordable housing
[1:42:08] what's uh developable in Utah to go
[1:42:11] check out that project. Uh the the
[1:42:14] developer
[1:42:15] JF Fisher Companies, they are looking
[1:42:18] for places that are kind of a little bit
[1:42:20] out of the Salt Lake City Salt Lake
[1:42:22] County urban core, more affordable um
[1:42:25] costs to enter the market as far as land
[1:42:28] values go. But with long-term land
[1:42:31] leases that you can do in these public
[1:42:33] private partnerships, you can do
[1:42:35] something as simple as a land lease to a
[1:42:37] fullon like lease, design, build,
[1:42:40] maintain project. A lot of flexibility
[1:42:43] under these P3 um relationships. So,
[1:42:46] it's inspired us. We're looking, we are
[1:42:48] reexamining in Sandy how we are putting
[1:42:50] our projects out to build. We have a a
[1:42:53] property that was a former u nursery.
[1:42:56] It's right by the state, the soccer
[1:42:58] stadium between the soccer stadium and
[1:43:00] our new fire station. So, we put that
[1:43:03] kind of re revamped that and put that
[1:43:05] out to build and now we're getting
[1:43:06] proposals on how those parcels can be
[1:43:09] developed with a mix of um ground lease
[1:43:11] for housing and mixed use. So, rather
[1:43:14] than just selling the raw land and
[1:43:15] hoping that you know the developers do
[1:43:17] the best that they can, it gives us more
[1:43:19] control, more flexibility, and
[1:43:21] potentially even a revenue stream. So,
[1:43:24] uh I'm learning and growing. Andrew as
[1:43:26] [laughter] a result of my participation
[1:43:28] with all of you. So hats off to you,
[1:43:30] Mayor Nadulski and your predecessor. Uh
[1:43:34] it was really inspiring afternoon we
[1:43:36] spent. We all had a lot to talk about on
[1:43:38] the way home. Sandy,
[1:43:41] >> I I'll just say it's an honor to have
[1:43:42] you in our city and we welcome any other
[1:43:44] city who wants to come and see how it's
[1:43:45] being done. These joint ventures are um
[1:43:48] intended to have benefits for everybody
[1:43:50] and and I think we're proving that. So,
[1:43:51] thank you for for sharing the thoughts
[1:43:53] of of your own and of the team.
[1:43:54] >> Building a grocery store right on 25th
[1:43:56] Street. Incredible.
[1:43:58] >> Yep. If you don't know what's happening
[1:43:59] in Ogden, come see Ogden and I think
[1:44:01] you'll have your eyes wide open.
[1:44:06] » Gage, back to you.
[1:44:07] >> Thank you, Mayor, for that presentation.
[1:44:09] It's a great uh to hear that these
[1:44:11] private uh public partnerships are
[1:44:13] working very well. So, with that, uh Mr.
[1:44:15] Chair, I'd be happy to answer any
[1:44:16] questions. That ends my report.
[1:44:19] >> Any questions for Gage? Uh Loren Kamalo
[1:44:22] has one question. Yeah, it's a it's just
[1:44:24] a super fast comment and that is um yes,
[1:44:28] we've seen Ogden transform anyone who's
[1:44:30] paid attention to Ogden over years and
[1:44:34] um just wanted to highlight especially
[1:44:37] maybe for Laura and others here
[1:44:41] when when Bob and I came into office
[1:44:43] there had already been effort in the
[1:44:46] economic development space with a little
[1:44:49] bit of criticism that Davis and Weber
[1:44:52] counties were punching below their
[1:44:54] weight in when it comes to economic
[1:44:56] development and opportunity for job
[1:44:57] growth. That is when the Northern Utah
[1:45:00] Chamber Coalition was formed with
[1:45:01] support from the legislature. And I
[1:45:03] think it's just important to realize
[1:45:05] that sometimes with neighboring cities,
[1:45:07] sometimes with neighboring counties. I
[1:45:09] mean, this is how we are now attempting
[1:45:12] to compete and we're having some success
[1:45:15] with the draw to Salt Lake City, Salt
[1:45:17] Lake County. Um, and that is by working
[1:45:20] with our neighboring local governments.
[1:45:22] I think it's super powerful.
[1:45:24] >> And municipalities, we've only got so
[1:45:26] much land and so much public financing
[1:45:28] incentive tools to use, but if you can
[1:45:30] optimize it and leverage that against uh
[1:45:33] with with lease agreements and other
[1:45:35] creative uh partnerships, it's that
[1:45:38] blows your options wide open.
[1:45:42] >> Okay. Appreciate that, Gage. Appreciate
[1:45:44] your time.
[1:45:45] >> Thank you, Mr. chair, members of the
[1:45:47] committee.
[1:45:48] >> Okay, that brings us down to uh item 6D,
[1:45:51] which is our executive director's
[1:45:53] report.
[1:45:54] >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'll hit
[1:45:55] you with three really quick items. The
[1:45:58] first one, we have some representatives
[1:45:59] from Senator Curtis's office here. You
[1:46:01] may have seen in the news um that just
[1:46:03] last week we were able to host Senator
[1:46:06] Curtis along with the transportation
[1:46:09] other transportation agencies for a a
[1:46:12] roundt discussion and then a site visit
[1:46:14] out at the front runner North Temple
[1:46:17] Station platform. This was to recognize
[1:46:20] the fact that Utah will be receiving uh
[1:46:25] $1.3 billion dollar in funding from the
[1:46:27] F through the Federal Transit
[1:46:29] Administration um for the Front Runner
[1:46:32] 2X double tracking project. Now, the
[1:46:35] check isn't cut yet. Technically, we're
[1:46:37] moving into the engineering phase of the
[1:46:39] project, but it's a very encouraging
[1:46:41] sign that those funds will be uh
[1:46:43] committed to Utah. Lots of folks are
[1:46:45] involved in this. UD do of course UTA um
[1:46:49] and Senator Curtis and his team did an
[1:46:51] amazing job working on this with the
[1:46:52] federal government. So want to express
[1:46:54] appreciation for that. He also sponsored
[1:46:56] two other pieces of legislation which
[1:46:58] are important um to Utah. Um legislation
[1:47:02] that would help fast growing areas that
[1:47:04] are planning for transit in the future
[1:47:05] to compete better for federal transit
[1:47:08] grants. And then also another piece of
[1:47:10] legislation that would help enable
[1:47:13] federal financing tools to be available
[1:47:16] for communities to use for tod for
[1:47:18] transit oriented development. So a great
[1:47:20] package of um of uh support and
[1:47:23] leadership that the senator is working
[1:47:25] on for Utah. So I just wanted to
[1:47:26] highlight that. That's one. Number two,
[1:47:29] um we talked a little bit about Tilla
[1:47:31] County before and the how much people
[1:47:34] are traveling from Tilla Valley into the
[1:47:37] Salt Lake Valley. We have been having
[1:47:39] dialogue with uh the local elected
[1:47:42] officials in Tilla County uh with UDOT,
[1:47:45] with UTA, with other stakeholders about
[1:47:48] the possibility of the Tilla Valley
[1:47:50] being officially part of the WFRC
[1:47:53] Metropolitan Planning Organization. We
[1:47:55] work with Tilla County and their
[1:47:57] municipalities all the time, but
[1:48:00] technically they're not an urban area,
[1:48:02] so they're not part of our metropolitan
[1:48:04] planning organization. Um eventually
[1:48:07] they'll need to be under federal law,
[1:48:10] but they can come in sooner so that we
[1:48:12] can better integrate the planning
[1:48:15] between our that intercount uh
[1:48:17] coordination. Um and uh we're working
[1:48:20] with them. The reason I'm bringing it up
[1:48:21] now is a because I think it's really
[1:48:23] important what happens in Tilla County
[1:48:25] and affects what happens in on the
[1:48:27] Wasatch front and also because if that
[1:48:30] happens
[1:48:31] um then that would require action from
[1:48:34] WFRC from the council. So that is
[1:48:37] something that we'll we'll be looking at
[1:48:38] before. I know Mayor Manzion is on the
[1:48:40] line. We've talked with her. We're going
[1:48:42] to be talking more with her and the
[1:48:44] county and the other communities. So I'm
[1:48:45] just putting that out there as a FYI
[1:48:47] dialogue that's that's happening. Um,
[1:48:50] and then the last thing,
[1:48:51] >> Andrew, would we change the name to
[1:48:53] Ochref Front Regional Council then?
[1:48:55] >> Um, we'll take that under advisement.
[1:48:58] Uh, I don't think that was a motion
[1:49:00] though, so I'm going to move on. Okay.
[1:49:02] Um, and then the last item, you know,
[1:49:05] that every year we do a a series of
[1:49:08] workshops around the region, sub
[1:49:11] regional workshops. Um, yeah, we do them
[1:49:15] in the fall and the next round of
[1:49:17] workshops is planned. Uh, Jordan has
[1:49:20] already sent out invitations to all of
[1:49:22] you for those workshops. We're doing
[1:49:25] eight eight of them around the region.
[1:49:28] The map is on the screen. You have the
[1:49:30] um invitations.
[1:49:33] This year's round of workshops that we
[1:49:35] do, by the way, in collaboration with UD
[1:49:37] do and UTA as well. This year's round of
[1:49:39] workshops is going to focus on the
[1:49:42] phasing of transportation projects in
[1:49:45] the regional transportation plan. When
[1:49:48] are projects needed over the next 30
[1:49:51] years? When are they needed? And when do
[1:49:53] we anticipate we'll have the revenues to
[1:49:55] actually afford to move those projects
[1:49:58] forward? These are the meetings where
[1:49:59] you proverbally speaking roll up your
[1:50:01] sleeves and talk with some of your
[1:50:03] neighbors um and give feedback on the
[1:50:06] drafts of the transportation plan going
[1:50:08] forward. Cities, counties, your elected
[1:50:11] officials, city councils and county
[1:50:14] commissions um and uh key staff are
[1:50:18] invited to those meetings. So, we
[1:50:19] encourage you to participate in them for
[1:50:21] the meetings in your area. If you're
[1:50:23] like, "What? I don't know what you're
[1:50:25] talking about. I don't have a calendar
[1:50:27] appointment." I'll bet you do have a
[1:50:28] calendar appointment, but if you think
[1:50:30] you don't, just let us know and we're
[1:50:32] happy to follow uh up with you and with
[1:50:34] your teams. Okay, Mr. Chair, that
[1:50:37] concludes my update.
[1:50:38] >> Thank you. Just uh two little things
[1:50:41] here. First of our next meeting will be
[1:50:43] Thursday, October 22nd. Um, again,
[1:50:46] Andrew just talked about the fall
[1:50:47] workshops, but there is one last thing
[1:50:49] I'd like to bring up is that last
[1:50:52] Tuesday afternoon, uh, Andrew Gruber
[1:50:56] received an award from the, uh, chamber,
[1:50:59] Salt Lake Chamber. And Troy, are you
[1:51:01] still online?
[1:51:03] >> I am.
[1:51:04] >> Can you, uh, maybe just give us a little
[1:51:06] insight about this award that, uh, Mr.
[1:51:08] Gruber was able to receive?
[1:51:10] >> It was a major award. Um, first of all,
[1:51:13] um, so proud of Andrew. Um, it was a,
[1:51:17] you know, recogni Andrew was recognized
[1:51:19] with the group of folks that, uh, are, I think the best term is, uh, movers and
[1:51:24] shakers in the community, if you will.
[1:51:27] And, uh, Mr. Gruber as he as he's worked
[1:51:29] all these years for WFRC certainly
[1:51:31] entitled to recognition for his great
[1:51:34] ability to collaborate with uh local
[1:51:36] leaders, state leaders, federal leaders,
[1:51:39] and work together for the better and
[1:51:42] overall good of our county and our our service area, all of our county. So,
[1:51:47] it was a it wasn't a big enough award in
[1:51:49] my opinion. It could have been a maybe a
[1:51:52] foot taller would have been better, but
[1:51:54] I wasn't in charge.
[1:51:56] you know, if if it's up to me next time,
[1:51:57] it'll be a much larger award. It might
[1:51:59] even be similar to a lampshade type of
[1:52:02] award, but you know, we'll work on that.
[1:52:04] But no, Andrew, it was really good.
[1:52:05] >> So, Troy, now I I know I wasn't able to
[1:52:07] attend, but I I thought somebody said he
[1:52:10] got a car to be able to use for the next
[1:52:12] year. Is it was it a Mercedes, BMW,
[1:52:14] Lexus? What was it?
[1:52:16] >> He didn't get any car. No,
[1:52:19] >> I got I got a a very a very small award.
[1:52:22] It was not a It was not a a lampuh that
[1:52:25] was Italian or file or anything. Um it
[1:52:29] wasn't goldplated, but uh thank you.
[1:52:31] That's very nice of you to to mention.
[1:52:33] Uh the award was called Chamber
[1:52:36] Champion. And what it reflects is uh
[1:52:38] people who work uh very closely with the
[1:52:41] private sector and chambers of commerce.
[1:52:44] And the reason that I was really happy
[1:52:45] to receive the award was because it's an
[1:52:47] endorsement of the value of the public
[1:52:49] sector and the private sector working
[1:52:51] together. I believe strongly that that's
[1:52:53] how we get things done. Public sector,
[1:52:54] private sector, collaboration leads to
[1:52:57] success. So, um, uh, Mr. Chair, thank
[1:52:59] you. And it was at it was at the
[1:53:01] aquarium. Thank you,
[1:53:05] Mayor Mayor Walker was happy because
[1:53:07] the, uh, award ceremony was held at the
[1:53:09] aquarium with the giant um, fish and
[1:53:11] shark tanks going by. So, that was a treat. A good place to go.
[1:53:15] Thank you. That's nice of you. Anyway, I
[1:53:18] uh I think it's cool that there's a lot
[1:53:19] of people in this room who receive
[1:53:21] different types of accolades and Andrew,
[1:53:23] you're you're very deserving of it.
[1:53:25] Thank you, Troy. Appreciate it. With
[1:53:26] that, we'll conclude our meeting at this
[1:53:28] time and we'll see you all in the
[1:53:30] various meetings between now and October
[1:53:32] 22nd. Thank you.