Envision Morgan Open Houses—Plan Now to Attend!
Examine the draft vision principles and map, developed from public preferences expressed at the September workshops. Share your ideas and opinions, and engage in a thought provoking, fun, and interactive evening with your neighbors. Please plan now to attend! This is the last opportunity to participate before final revisions are made to the Morgan County Vision.

Please attend one of the following open houses:

7:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 12
OR
7:00 p.m., Thursday, November 13

Both open houses will be held at the Morgan County Building, located at 48 W. Young St., in Morgan City. Please RSVP to Mary at mdavies@envisionutah.org or (801) 303-1459.

Project Goals

	Engage citizens and stakeholders in a process that explores both future growth and conservation strategies and their consequences.
	Develop a range of potential growth scenarios based on public preferences. Each scenario is a plausible picture of the county’s future and shows the impact of different development and conservation choices.
	Explore consequences and implementation options for each scenario.
	Create a long-term vision map, growth and conservation principles, and a general implementation strategy that is preferred by the public.

Project Background
Concerned about the impact of growth on Morgan County’s quality of life, a group of community leaders decided to engage the public in a process of proactively planning and helping shape the county’s future. Thus, Envision Morgan was born.

A steering committee of Morgan-area citizens is guiding Envision Morgan. Committee members are committed to a transparent and public process in which citizens can explore the challenges associated with growth and work toward the creation of a long-term vision for the region. The challenge is to think about the region with a long-term view, with a goal of envisioning a place that our children and grandchildren will appreciate—a place that preserves and enhances the quality of life that Morgan residents currently enjoy. Challenges associated with this task include thinking about such issues as growth locations and patterns and economic and housing goals. Under the steering committee’s direction, Envision Utah, an experienced and neutral organization, is facilitating the process.

Public Events

Brainstorming the Future Workshops
Three public workshops were held in May and early June to brainstorm how growth should be addressed over the coming decades. Participants provided input through a mapping exercise and a survey. Click here for survey results.

Scenario Development and Analysis
The workshops generated ideas that were captured in several growth scenarios. These scenarios are “snapshots” of what the county might be like, depending on how we choose to grow. The ideas in the scenarios will be tested at upcoming workshops scheduled for September. Click here for a summary of the scenarios.

Through analysis, it is possible to determine the future impact of today’s land-use and transportation decisions. This approach fosters more informed decision-making. Using sound analytical techniques, Envision Morgan will project the impact of each scenario on key measures of quality of life, such as critical lands conservation, housing affordability, air quality, relative development densities, traffic congestion, etc.

Moving Toward Our Vision Workshops
A second round of workshops were held September 17 and 24. This second round of meetings allowed residents to express preferences for concepts explored in the growth scenarios, further explore economic options, and examine how components of the scenarios could be implemented while supporting individual property rights. Two files are available for download:

The workshop presentation is available by clicking here.

Click here to review the survey results, which represents responses to ideas discussed in the workshop presentation.

Open Houses: A Vision for Morgan County
Save the date! Taking the best elements from the scenarios, and steered by public preferences, Envision Morgan will create a draft Morgan County Vision. The public will have the opportunity to review and comment on it at open houses, scheduled for 7:00 p.m., November 12 and 13, at the Morgan County Building (48 West Young Street, in Morgan City). Envision Morgan will identify planning principles embodied in the publicly-supported features of the scenarios. This vision that is created will include a set of guiding principles that can serve as a foundation for future land-use decisions and a vision map representing one plausible way the principles could guide growth.

Media Coverage
Click on the title below for the full text article.

“Get Involved with the Envision Morgan Process” – May 16, 2008
“Envision Morgan Presentation at Morgan Area Chamber of Commerce Meeting” – May 23, 2008
“Envision Morgan Commences” – May 31, 2008
“Envision Morgan” – June 1, 2008
“Envision Morgan Cartoon” – June 4, 2008
“Planning Morgan’s Growth” – June 4, 2008
“The Growth Question” – July 12, 2008
“Envision Morgan Preliminary Results” – July 18, 2008

Project Partners

In-Kind Partners

Steering Committee Members

For Additional Information
Envision Utah Project Facilitator: Christie Oostema (christie@envisionutah.org, 801.303.1456)
Morgan County Planner: Sherrie Christensen (schristensen3@morgan.state.ut.us, 801.845.6091)

Schedule a Presentation Today
Envision Utah staff is available to present on the Envision Morgan process to associations or group in Morgan County. Call or email Christie Oostema for more information (christie@envisionutah.org, 801.303.1456).

What Is Envision Utah?

Because Utah was experiencing an unprecedented growth spurt in the 1990s, and new worries about how growth would affect Utah’s quality of life began to emerge, the Coalition for Utah’s Future created Envision Utah, a non-partisan public/private partnership, in 1997. This public/private partnership consists of diverse and bipartisan leaders and operates on a philosophy of grassroots involvement, local control, and voluntary, market-based strategies.

Over ten years of scenarios analysis, research and public involvement have helped Envision Utah bring the topic of planning and preparing for growth to the forefront of the public mind.
Envision Utah works hard with stakeholders and the public to develop specific strategies that utilize market-based approaches and local incentives, and seeks to effect change through education and promotion, rather than regulation.

Envision Utah provides good information so people can independently make good decisions in their own community. By emphasizing a bottom-up process, leaders and citizens’ voices are heard and they are able to contribute to the region’s solutions. They feel - and truly are - a part of the solution. By being open to all potential stakeholders, even those who oppose some quality growth efforts, Envision Utah has been able to find common ground among the different groups.

Specific Envision Utah activities include the following:

Regional Visioning Projects
Washington County’s Vision Dixie (2007)
Wasatch Choices 2040 (2005) (for Weber, Davis, Salt Lake & Utah Counties)
Ogden Valley Recreational Plan (2005)
Davis County Shorelands (2003)
Salt Lake County Shorelands (2003)
Tooele County Regional Vision (2003)
Mountain View Corridor (2004)
West Weber Community Vision (2002)
Nebo Community Vision (2000)

Local Community Visioning Processes
Sandy (2008), Bountiful (2006), Brigham City (2004 and 1999), Centerville, Midvale (1999), Millcreek (2004), North Logan (2004), Ogden (2000), Perry City (1999 and 2004), Provo (1999), Salt Lake City (1999), Sandy (2006), and West Valley City (2004)

City General Plan Updates
Kearns (2005), Magna (2005), Perry City (2005)

Education Forums
Compact Housing: Markets, Realities, Concerns and Solutions (2006)
Economic Barn Raising (2005)
Roundtable Discussion on Local Sales Tax (2004)
Understanding Transfer-of-Development Rights (2003)
Understanding the 2002 U.S. Farm Bill (2003)
If Density Is the Problem, Design Is the Solution (2002)
Comprehensive Land-Use and Transportation Planning (2002)
Community Solutions (2001)
Public Safety and Street Design (2001)
Water Conservation Conference (2001)
Tax Law Revision Retreat (2001)
Sales Tax Policy, Land-Use & Smart Growth (2000)
Telework (2000) and (2001)

Public Awareness Campaigns
Investing in Our Future (2005)
Affordable Housing Myths and Facts (2004)
Communities Taking Action (2003)
Envision Your Future (2002)
Urban Planning Tools for Quality Growth (2001)
Quality Growth Strategy (2000)
Alternative Growth Scenarios (1999)

Reports
Wasatch Choices 2040 Housing Demand Analysis (2005)
Greater Wasatch Area Housing Analysis (1999)
“Thinking and Acting Regionally in the Greater Wasatch Area: Implications for Local Economic Development” (2005)
Quality Growth Strategy & Technical Analysis (1999)

Transit-Oriented Development Site Design
Layton (2002), Murray (2002), Sandy (2005), South Salt Lake (2002), West Jordan (2002) and West Valley City (2003)

Resources
Redevelopment Solutions (2006)
Compact Housing: Markets, Realities, Concerns and Solutions (2006)
Municipal Economic Development Toolkit (2005)
Role of Transportation in Quality Growth (2005)
IMPACS planning model (2005)
“Envision Your Future” educational materials (2003)
Wasatch Front Transit-Oriented Guidelines (2002)
Urban Planning Tools for Quality Growth (2001; revised 2002)

Envision Utah’s “bottom-up” approach to regional visioning is being replicated by regions throughout the country. In October 2005, the Michigan Land Use Institute wrote: