A Remarkable Demonstration of Democracy in Action

UPDATED: Don't forget to attend tonight's debate

We find three articles in this morning's Standard-Examiner which should be of interest to our Weber County Forum readership.

By far the most important item of the day is this story, in which Scott Schwebke reports that the council approved the Mt. Ogden Community Plan, which was the main item on the council agenda at last night's meeting. We incorporate here Ace Reporter Schwebke's pertinent paragraphs:

"OGDEN — Following months of public input, the city council Tuesday night amended the municipality’s general plan by adopting a community plan for the Mount Ogden area.

Community plans have a narrower focus than the general plan and are used to balance the interests of the city and neighborhoods in addressing such issues as transportation, infrastructure, housing and public safety.

The Mount Ogden Community plan was developed by several citizen committees, the city council, and the municipality’s planning commission.

The 30-page document details characteristics and objectives important to the Mount Ogden area.

Those characteristics include community identity, land use, parks, open space, public infrastructure and services. ...

"Several objectives in the Mount Ogden Community Plan seemed aimed at Peterson’s proposal.

For example, the plan says the city should retain ownership of Mount Ogden Golf Course, an adjoining park and adjacent undeveloped open space and trails.

The city’s ordinances should also be revised to prohibit new gated communities and subdivisions in the Mount Ogden area, the plan states.

In addition, the plan recommends development of a citywide open space plan that creates an open space inventory and explores options for funding open space priorities. Also, open space zoning should be retained on Mount Ogden area land currently designated as such, the plan states."

Now that this new plan has been formally adopted, and thereby becomes a part of the Emerald City General Plan, we offer a hearty Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat to each and every Emerald City citizen who participated in our community's herculean effort to bring the plan into fruition. As we've noted before, thousands of hours of citizen efforts contributed to this remarkable achievement, in a political environment in which Boss Godfrey and his administration fought like demons to undermine the process, and to thwart the will of the lumpencitizens. Emerald City citizens should be quite proud of themselves this morning, for their remarkable demonstration of democracy in action.

We'll also briefly highlight the two other stories, with minimal editorial comment:

Sam Cooper's report of last night's mayoral candidate forum is available here; and we invite any gentle readers who attended this event to carry on the discussion, and offer their further comments below.

Finally, as regular readers already know, Judge Baldwin of the Second District Court dismissed Ms. Littrell's lawsuit yesterday, as Tim Gurrister reports this morning. Inasmuch as this matter is now dismissed, without leave to amend, we trust that this will be the end of the discussion of this topic, and that we can all move forward to deal with the primary issues concerning our 2007 municipal election, which looms less than two weeks from today.

What's on the minds of our gentle readers this morning?

Update 10/24/07 10:57 a.m. MT: One reader has emailed us, requesting that we publish a reminder notice concerning tonight's Godfrey/Van Hooser debate. Once again, here's the event information: 7:00 p.m. today, Ogden Eccles Conference Center, 2415 Washington Boulevard, small ballroom. We also plan to establish a separate article thread early in the evening, dedicated to comments and observations from those readers who do attend.