Envision Cache Valley Town Hall Meetings

Join your neighbors at an upcoming town hall meeting. Get involved today!

At the Envision Cache Valley Town Hall Meetings, Cache Valley residents will learn about the four growth scenarios developed from ideas explored by the public at the workshops. Residents will weigh their potential impacts on air quality, infrastructure costs, water consumption, housing affordability, and other measures that affect quality of life. Participants should plan to attend the entire 75 minute event, so they have time to review the scenarios, hear the presentation, and express their preferences through wireless technology. Feedback will be used as the basis for the draft Cache Valley Vision, a set of principles and implementation suggestions to serve as a voluntary guide for long-term growth decisions.

Envision Cache Valley Town Hall Meetings

Tuesday, May 19:

• Hyrum 2:00 p.m. - Hyrum City Building, 83 West Main Street, Hyrum
• Smithfield 5:30 p.m. - Senior Citizen Center, 315 East 600 South, Smithfield
• Preston 5:30 p.m. - Robinson Building, 186 West 2nd North, Preston
• North Logan 7:30 p.m. - North Logan Library, 475 East 2500 North, North Logan
• Clarkston 7:30 p.m. - Clarkston City Hall, 50 South Main, Clarkston

Wednesday, May 20:

• Richmond 2:00 p.m. - Pepperidge Farm, 901 North 201 West, Richmond
• Dayton 5:00 p.m. - Westside High School, 775 N. West Side Hwy., Dayton
• Nibley 5:30 p.m. - Nibley City Council Room, 625 West 3200 South, Nibley
• Providence 7:30 p.m. - Elementary School, 91 East Center Street, Providence
• Cache County 7:45 p.m. - Historic Courthouse, 199 N. Main, Logan

Thursday, May 21:

• Wellsville 5:30 p.m. - Tabernacle Theatre, 75 South 100 East, Wellsville
• Millville 5:30 p.m. - The Pavilion (Providence S. Stake Center), 360 East 450 North, Millville
• Mendon 7:30 p.m. - Mountainside Elementary School, 235 East 125 North, Mendon
• Logan 7:30 p.m. - City Council Chambers, 255 North Main Street, Logan

Envision Cache Valley

Envision Cache Valley is a project to collect public opinion and feedback about future development of hte valley. Check out the website to learn more about the project. By taking the online survey you can learn a lot about the project and give your feedback.

Attend a workshop to have a great voice in the process. You can attend any of the workshops regardless of where you live. Light refreshments provided. RSVP to Mary at mdavies@envisionutah.org or (801) 303-1462. Workshops will run from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The ones remaining:

Mar. 4th
Hyrum - City Hall, 83 West Main
Wellsville - Wellsville Elementary School, 90 East 100 South

Mar. 5th
Logan - Mt. Logan Middle School, 875 North 200 East
Hyde Park - City Hall, 113 E. Center Street

Ruby Pipeline

An Idaho ABC affiliate is reporting that the Cache County Council has taken a neutral position on running the Ruby Pipeline through the county. This reverses an earlier decision by the council to no allow the pipeline. The buried line will run from Wyoming to Oregon and serve California and Oregon.

I attended a Cache County Council meeting several months ago in which a representative from a local government in Wyoming gave advice to our County Council members on making decisions regarding the pipeline. The major message of this gentleman was that the county could position itself to gain from the pipeline, but that it would have to be well organized to do so. The impression I was left with was that the pipeline company could be quite forceful. If the county isn't careful, we could end up with a pipeline that served no one but the citizens of California and Oregon. If the pipeline company is able to get federal approval for a route and a private landowner along the route will not sell, it will be able to use federal laws to condemn the land.

It seems that the Cache Cache route was considered after several obstacles arose for a route through Idaho. The reasons cited at the Council meeting for considering the Cache route were a prohibition of locating the pipeline too close to (within eyesight of) the Oregon trail and cost savings. The BLM doesn't want the pipeline going through national forest with out road access as would happen on the northern route. Additionally, it sounds like there are many pipelines in a cooridor along the norther route, so it may be getting a bit crowded.

The original reasons cited for the "no" vote on the pipeline were environmental impacts and a disrespect for the private landowners. The reason for the reversal seems to be that no one spoke against the pipeline in an October public hearing. If you've ever had to follow an issue through the county council, you'll know how difficult it is to find out whether your issue is going to be on the agenda. The agendas are not published in advance. The most recent agenda published on the website is currently from September. You basically have to subscribe to the Herald Journal where I assume they publish at least the public hearings. Or you can call every two weeks on the day of the meeting and ask what's on the agenda.

I do hope the county saw to resident's concerns regarding preservation of the national forest, private landowner rights, and reduced natural gas expense for the area before reversing their decision. But I am skeptical that this has occured. The minutes from the December 2nd County Council meeting don't reveal much.

The proposed route is through the Cache National Forest, southwest of Hardware Ranch, North of Porcupine Reservoir, near Avon, then north of of Mantua, over to Brigham City. You can see the topo maps (and perhaps make more sense of them than me) at the Stop the Ruby Pipeline Coalition website. A newsgroup ariticle explains the case against the proposed route.

Since it seems that these pipelines seem to be constructed in utility cooridors, I wonder if this is the first step in establishing a new cooridor.

North Logan Downtown

I just ran across a reference to a development plan for a North Logan "downtown" in the Herald Journal. So I looked into it and found this plan online. Basically, there's an area along 200 E running from 1800 N to 2500 N that is charted to have mixed development including a hotel and luxury condos.

It strikes me as a bit odd because I associate mixed development with the near city communities in Arlington, VA (where I just moved from). I have a hard time understanding how a Ballston or Shirlington would work in Cache Valley. Looking at the plan, one big difference between the mixed development of Arlington and North Logan's is the vast amount of land devoted to parking lots. It's essential for that intensity of land use when parking garages don't make economic sense. It looks like they've done a decent job of hiding the parking lots except for a stretch along the east side of 200 E and the west side of 400 E. I just don't buy that the trees are going to hide much, not here.

I can't decide if it's completely ridiculous to plan mixed development here or if I should look into one of the condos. I do miss some of the conveniences of the arrangement.

This is such a huge change. I run down 200 E from 1400N to Hyde Park because it's relatively flat and there aren't too many cars to deal with. I guess that's going to change. No more horses and fields either. It's sort of neat to see a "downtown" being established. I generally think of them as just springing up naturally. I'm sure in some cases they did.