Write It Down So You Don't Forget It

We'll kick off the new weekday thread with a wrap up of several Standard-Examiner weekend items which we believe to be of particular interest to our Weber County Forum readership.

First, we link a Sunday Guest Commentary by Smart Growth Ogden's Mary Hall. This excellent guest piece provides a succinct overview of the concept of mixed use development, together with a discussion of Emerald City's General Plan, and the manner in which it was compiled to guide development in our community, as a reflection of our community's collective vision. It also cites a series of "elements" which are addressed in our community's General Plan, and are also common to successful mixed-use ordinances in other communities.

All-in-all, we consider Ms. Hall's Sunday piece to be "must reading" for anyone interested in local zoning issues. And keeping in mind that another mixed-use zoning ordinance discussion is on the planning commission agenda this coming Wednesday evening, we hope everyone will read and re-read Ms. Hall's commentary in advance of that meeting.

Secondly, we direct our readers' attention to Sunday's delightful lead editorial, in which the Std-Ex editors clumsily attempt to clarify their newspaper's position with respect to "Ogden's gondola proposal." What's apparent here, we think, from a reading of the following language, is that even the Godfreyite/Gondolist Std-Ex editors are finding it increasingly difficult to remain nominally "on the fence" with regard to the Landgrab Swindle:

"We urge Peterson to make the specifics of his development proposal public as soon as practical. Until these details are thoroughly aired, we cannot in good conscience throw complete support to, or completely reject, what could be one of the largest developments in Ogden's history."

That's right. The Std-Ex still remains "on the fence," notwithstanding the complete absence of any specific information on what Weber County Forum readers label "The Peterson Non-proposal Proposal." The Std-Ex editors have now taken to mentioning their conscience, however, so we guess that has to be something positive. And the fact that they're at least bringing up the option of "rejecting" this ridiclous concept altogether could be interpreted, we suppose, as a plus.

"Write it down so you don't forget it," the Std-Ex editors say.

"What a pack of gullible and spineless schmucks," say we.

And lastly but not leastly, we link yesterday's fantastic Calvin Grondahl cartoon, which graphically summarizes the current Emerald City political atmosphere, re the Godfrey/Peterson land grab/gondola scheme. Particularly astute readers will carefully note Grondahl's insertion of several of your blogmeister's personal favorite political action motifs: tar, feathers, a rail... pitchforks and torches. If the Std-Ex publisher had half a brain (which it doesn't) it would be handing the editorial board its walking papers, and putting Calvin Grondahl in charge of the whole operation.

So what's on our readers' minds this fine Monday Morning?

Update 2/6/07 7:29 a.m. MT: Mary Hall informs us that the Planning Commission's Mixed Use Ordinance discussion, originally calendered for this coming Wednesday, has now been dropped from Wednesday's PC agenda. "The discussion will be continued for another month," according to Greg Montgomery, inasmuch as "it is not ready."

Wednesday night's agenda will however include discussion of equally-controversial proposed Sensitive Area Overlay Zone Ordinance Revisions. We link here PDF formatted uploads of the most recent version of the proposed SA ordinance, together with the Planning Commission's revised SA Report, wherein PC staff recommend "approval of the proposed ordinance language revisions to the sensitive area overlay zone and the addition of a regulation regarding cutting into hillsides over 30% in all zones."