Weber State Should Not Sell its Birthright for "Lukewarm Mush"

By L. Mikel Vause -- Std Ex Guest commentary.

I read with interest Ed Allen’s March 22 letter to the editor headlined “Peterson’s plans include exciting venues.” I found his opening line — “I can hardly wait to hear more about the proposals by Chris Peterson and Ogden City” — a bit disingenuous, as Dr. Allen, a leader in the Lift Ogden organization as well as Mayor Godfrey’s father-in-law, likely knows more than anyone in the community, besides Chris and Matt, about the “plans” and has been part of sharing those plans with a few of Ogden’s select individuals.

Yet for one knowing so much, I find it interesting, not to mention a bit disconcerting, when he levels criticism at the layout of Mt. Ogden Golf Course when it appears he’s done so little research as to understand its purpose.

A number of years ago, Weber State University removed two small dirt parking lots in the area of campus that is now the Lindquist Plaza and the duck pond.

At the time, there was much concern and not a little criticism for such a move as, even then, parking was a premium. But what building the plaza and duck pond did for the university was allow it to expand east with the additional parking for the stadium, gym area and the health-sciences areas. Because WSU is built in the foothills of Ogden’s east bench, there is an inherent problem with storm water runoff, and every square yard of cement or asphalt exacerbates the problem and threatens homes and businesses that lie on the western and down-slope side of the campus.

The duck pond, while taking up some parking spaces, serves as a much-needed catch basin for the yearly run off.

Likewise the design of Mt. Ogden Golf Course, with its narrow, doglegged fairways, allowed designers to maintain much of the indigenous flora to protect the properties west of the course and park from runoff.

Over the years the design has had to be modified. A few years ago we experienced a very intense thunderstorm that put down an extraordinary amount of water and hail, which caused some flooding due to the inadequacy of the storm sewers. Several homes on the west side of Taylor Avenue, adjacent to the golf course and park, were damaged.

This led to the installation of a storm drain near the intersection of 32nd Street and Taylor Avenue, as well as a berm along the west edge of the park to direct runoff into the drain. Every square inch of development along Ogden’s east bench needs to be very carefully considered for several reasons:

• Once our foothills and open space are developed, they are gone forever and will likely benefit only the developer and those few wellenough-off to afford new homes in pricey subdivisions.
  
  
• And unless millions of dollars are spent to upgrade the city’s failing infrastructure, people living downhill will have their property threatened.

Like Dr. Allen, I, too, “hope Weber State University will look seriously at the proposals,” and do the responsible thing and not sell its birthright for some lukewarm mush.

Vause is a professor in the English Department at Weber State University, and a member of Smart Growth Ogden (smartgrowthogden.org).