The article refers to a WSU "study" commissioned by WSU. We talked about this in an earlier Weber County Forum comments thread:
Imagine, if you can, an "'upper WSU 21th-century campus": in the Emerald City foothills, at the base of our glorious limestone mountains. Ensconced in the cradle of the WSU mountains it would be.. with a glorious view of the valley and the setting sun over the lake in the west.RudiZink said...
Thanks to Dan S. for the RDA agenda heads-up. As you can see we've added it to the maim page as an update.
And OgdenLover, here's the link to the Saturday article that you mentioned, concerning the WSU "study":
WSU orders land study
Imagine young scholars at WSU contemplating from the UPPER CAMPUS -- the world in earth's warm embrace, without the evil intrusion of a Downtown Gondola, or the greedy Matt Godfrey/Dumbass Peterson combine breathing their greedy gaseous money-grubbing venom down our local scholars' necks.
Imagine if you can young WSU Scholars NOT having to defer to any of the dippy local greed-head political manipulators.
Imagine how wonderful it'll be in Emerald City, after Godfrey is ushered out with tar, feathers and a rail, in November 2007.
Imagine Matt Godfrey "enjoying" a prolonged vacation in beautiful Draper, Utah, once his INNATE EVIL misdeeds catch up with him.
Imagine that..
Comments, anyone?
17 comments:
We should remember that Godfrey has shown skill in manipulation. His statements that the sale of the golf course may no longer be central to Peterson's intent may very well be calculated to give a false sense of security to his many opponents. Peterson himself has said only that for him to get the golf course is key to the whole proposal. This is what information we have. Godfrey's statements are meaningless and should be disregarded.
. . . as far as for Neil Hansen's candidacy, remember . . .
that any fool can see that Godfrey is politically dead. And the Geigers and the good old boys are far from being fools. Look for them to run at least two stealth candidates for mayor to cover their bases for them after Godfrey is voted out.
We must be vigilant to insure that we do not simply support somebody because they are not Godfrey. Remember what happened after Stephens and Glasmann got elected. Glasmann was supported by Geiger. There will be candidates in the race other than Godfrey who are Petersonites, Geigerites, their cronies, and other assorted undesirables.
We've been tripping over ourselves looking for a fitting Mayoral candidate for how long, Dan?
Nobody seems to want to step up to the plate...except Neil Hansen.
Part of the problem seems to be that nobody wants to be seated in the Mayor's chair, when Godfrey's Ponzi-Scheme mountain of debt blows up in 2008. The effete & dillitante Mayoral candidates of Emerald City don't want to take the blame, when the Rec Center fiasco goes belly-up. (We're predicting the Rec Center group won't last nine months.)
If there's a better mayoral candidate than Neil, he/she should speak up soon, or otherwise forever hold his or her peace.
Neil Hanson has put his money where his mouth is; and we think he's highly electable.
If there's a more electable candidate who's willing to run, please speak up NOW!
We're tired, frankly, of waiting for EVERYBODY's PERFECT MAYORAL CANDIDATE TO EMERGE.
It's time, we think. for other potential candidates to either speak up or shut up.
Gee, hope it doesn't get confusing around here, with "dan" and "dan s." (two different people, I swear).
But I'm inclined to agree with the other dan that those of us who don't support the Peterson proposal shouldn't get any false sense of security. Even if Peterson and the mayor decide to remove the sale of the golf course from the proposal, this is probably just because they've finally realized that you can't move half the golf course up onto even steeper terrain anyway. As long as the course has to stay where it is, the city might as well keep it. I would assume (until he says otherwise) that the mayor still wants to sell Peterson the 60 adjoining acres of city-owned park land, where many of the trails are.
The WSU study results aren't surprising. What the article doesn't discuss is the implications for the Peterson project, if WSU were to sell the land to him. With less than 60 buildable acres on the WSU property, and less than that on the other land he wants to acquire, Peterson is gonna have to put those houses pretty close together if he wants to squeeze in 400 of 'em. That'll be tough when even the buildable land has an average slope of about 20%. Under the current Sensitive Area Overlay Zone ordinance, minimum lot size on slopes between 20% and 30% is 20,000 square feet, or about half an acre.
Speaking of which, I learned from the Planning office yesterday that next Wednesday's (1/17) Planning Commission work session will cover both the revisions to the Sensitive Area Overlay Zone and the proposed MU zone. To legally put more than about 200 houses on the foothill property, Peterson would need at least one of these ordinances to pass (in the form that we saw last fall). Let's hope that the Commission insists on appropriate modifications to both draft ordinances. They're scheduled to vote on the ordinances three weeks later, February 7.
Rudi:
With regard to Neil Hanson's running for mayor: this Yellow Dog Democratic is reluctant to have one of the few Democrats in the Utah Legislature [aka Right Wing Wingnut Central] step down from his legislative seat. There are few enough voices of reason there now. And what happens there very much affects what happens here. Witness the proposal, coming up this session, to roll back the ban on using eminent domain powers for the benefit of private businesses.
Rudi, I have to agree with you on the Mayor's race. Who wants to take responsibility when the house of cards comes tumbling down? I certainly wouldnt want that Albatros hanging around my neck. My only other hope is that the little pecker on the ninth floor gets to room with BUBBA when he gets to the Draper motel. And I hope it's very soon, we cant take too much more of the indecisions, and smoke getting blown up the asses of the taxpayers in Ogden by the little guy and his cronies.
Hey Dan S!
Has anyone checked out the snow in Malan's Basin? I know reality doesn't impact the Mayor's enthusiasm, but with Snowbasin and Powder Mountain approaching 100" bases, I'm guessing Malan's Basin has a staggering 6" to 20" at the top. Any guesses?
Anonymous' comments got me Googling Malan's Basin. For a blast from the past, check out this petition.
OgdenLover:
I remember that. The student paper took a poll as the same time or thereabouts as I recall. And I remember that many many of the students who liked "the" gondola idea [many did not know two gondolas were planned, not one] were under the impession that the gondola would go from WSU directly to Snow Basin. One asked me why I was opposed to the idea of students being able to hop on a gondola at the WSU Union [one of the then-touted plans] and so get to Snow Basin in fifteen minutes. The ones I talked to afterwards were surprised to learn it would not go to Snow Basin at all. As one put it to me when I explained that: "what's the point of building a gondola that won't go to Snow Basin?" Exactly.
Yesterday's Trib -- "Geologic Report: WSU has room to expand" -- offers better insight into the idea that WSU has no interest in selling to Peterson, preferring to expand on more buildable acres than expected. It's reported that Peterson said the deal was dead if he couldn't get the WSU land; he won't. It's been reported that the only way Peterson can finance his roadless resort in the hills is by home sales on the Mt. Ogden property; turns out he doesn't have the requisite capital to make the initial land deal, and even the mayor isn't going to come to the council with a proposal that Peterson make debt service payments to the city based on lot sales; turns out putting 400-650 homes on the entire property and keeping a golf course is not feasible; turns out much of the acreage outside the golf course is unbuildable, as several engineers told the mayor more than a year ago; turns out the entire idea is a house of cards, and it's just starting to tumble. The only variable is the deviousness of the mayor. Remain vigilant and stay opposed to the removal of sensitive overlays, adoption of a no-zoning zone, changes in the general plan. The mayor is stalling, hoping for time to prove the Snowbasin link is eventual. But Peterson will eventually be forced to pull the plug if all the cards (comprising the truth) are shown. And as to the mayor's race in 2007, the water bottle on my desk could beat Little Matty Godfrey. The question is, who is more electable than a stealth Godfreyite? Who can capture the Godfrey base (East Bench, from 20th to Shadow Valley, predominantly LDS) that's long since abandoned him (minus a few obvious names)? I don't know if Neil Hansen can, but I admire his tenacity and experience representing us lowly, uneducated, poorly paid, reticent-to-change CAESSBG (Citizens Again Everything Stupid Suggested by Godfrey) in OTown in the Legislature.
anon,
Haven't been up to Malan's Basin yet this winter, but I suspect that the snow depth there isn't much different from what's at Snowbasin, at the same elevation and aspect (and without snow making). Last spring the snow at the former resort site in Malan's Basin was surprisingly deep. It's an exaggeration to imply that Malan's Basin doesn't have decent snow. It does (whenever any place around here does), but only on about 180 contiguous acres, most of which are pretty steep.
The real snow problems are on the southern and western aspects. Unfortunately for Peterson, there's no way to expand the skiing beyond 180 acres without taking in some southern and western aspects. It's been quite amusing to hear Peterson, the mayor, and the Geigers claim larger acreages for the Malan's Basin ski area--I've heard everything from 400 to 900. However, none of them have produced a map showing where the additional acres would be, because they know there's no way to do it without including steep southwest-facing slopes that don't hold snow for long even in mid-winter. The suggestion that it might be possible to add ski trails going all the way from Malan's Basin down to the golf course is especially laughable. At the elevation of the golf course we usually get at least one good mid-winter rain each year (e.g., last December 27).
People have asked me on a number of occasions whether global warming won't make this situation a lot worse in the future. My answer has generally been that there are worse problems to worry about. This is because it'll be many decades before average global temperatures increase by more than a couple of degrees. However, I failed to realize that inland continental areas will generally warm up quite a bit more than the global average. The details are, of course, very difficult to predict, but it's looking like we'll have a whole lot more rain, and less snow, in the bench areas in as little as a few decades.
"The details are, of course, very difficult to predict, but it's looking like we'll have a whole lot more rain, and less snow, in the bench areas in as little as a few decades."
Exactly right, Dan S.
As you'll recall, we had a good discussion about this back in October.
(Comment promoted to main article)
To Dan S. you mentioned,
"I learned from the Planning office yesterday that next Wednesday's (1/17) Planning Commission work session will cover both the revisions to the Sensitive Area Overlay Zone and the proposed MU zone"
Question, Can the public attend this Planning Commission workshop and if so where is it being held and at what time?
One comment about Neil Hanson's willingness to run for mayor. I can't say that I know the man well but I will say that what I do know of the man is that he is a very good hearted, honest, hard working man that I am confident would do an excellent job for the residents of Ogden.
Anon:
I am pretty sure PC work sessions are open to the public. I've attended them in the past. No public participation, but you can attend and listen, I'm pretty sure.
anon:
Yes, the PC work sessions are open to the public. I'm assuming that the location is the 3rd floor conference room in the municipal building.
Any idea of what time the meeting will be held?
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