Richard WarnickDevelopers Dream Bill for Washington County?
This Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act (S 3636/H.R. 5769).
Although initially described as wilderness legislation, the proposed Washington County land use bill has become known as the “developers’ dream.” Its primary purpose is to allow the sale of between 17,000 and 25,000 acres of public land to private developers. Revenue from these land sales would then be used to pay out millions to local governmental entities for activities like road building and water developments.
This bill is being pushed by Senator Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson, who both argue that this is the responsible way to “manage growth” in one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. Critics point out that (according to the St. George Chamber of Commerce) of the 225,000 acres of potentially developable private land in the county, only nine percent has been developed so far. There is no need to sacrifice public land. Indeed, many local residents reject the proposal, and three Washington County town councils (Rockville, Virgin, Springdale) have passed resolutions against the bill.
It’s only fair to point out that the Washington County bill also offers some small but long-overdue wilderness designations in Bureau of Land Management study areas such as Cougar Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon, and Canaan Mountain. Most of the proposed wilderness acreage is within Zion National Park. The bill also proposes an off-road vehicle trails system and Utah’s first-ever wild & scenic river designation (mostly within Zion National Park).
More information:
Zion-Mojave Wilderness campaign
November 13th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
This is a terrible bill and an embarassment for Rep. Jim Matheson who is usually the representative who at least does no active damage to Utah. Washington County growth is already hard to manage; this is an attempt to make it a disaster.
Read my weblog.
November 13th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Once again the trusting and chronically dissasociated people of Utah will barely notice while our state legislature gives away the farm to the greedy and already very rich.
Then they will bitch about the eventual tax increases that subsidize the cost of the utility hookups, pavement, and disproportionate utility (water) costs that come out of their pockets and directly into the pockets of the developers.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
[...] you want an example of a land grab, look at the Washington County “developers dream” bill proposed by Rep. Matheson and Senator Bennett in [...]