Added Bonus: a new Salt Lake Tribune editorial
Charles Trentelman has a strong op-ed piece in this morning's Wasatch Rambler column, in which he chimes in on the Powder Mountain town incorporation brouhaha. To kick off discussion on this topic again this morning, we incorporate Charlie's opening paragraphs:
I would love to ask the people who own Powder Mountain ski resort where they learned how government operates. Russia? Cuba? North Korea?Read Charlie's full column here, and then come back and comment if you believe there's anything Charlie left out.
It sure wasn’t America.
As readers of this paper know, the owners of Powder Mountain ski resort want to expand their kingdom. They envision hundreds of housing units, larger ski runs, new roads, condos, stores and thousands of visitors a day.
The good people of Ogden Valley, concerned fulfillment of those plans would drop a road-clogging and quickie-mart building bomb on the area’s rural beauty, took the idea under study. Laboring under the impression that, in America, the people have a voice in how their community is built, they wrote up a list of planning goals for the Powder Mountain folks to follow. Their idea was, “You want to be a good neighbor, do this.” The response of the Powder Mountain folks was, “The heck with you.” Leaning on an idiotic law passed by the Legislature last year, the resort owners decided to form their own city. They would appoint their own mayor and council. They would levy their own taxes.
If the people of Ogden Valley, and especially Eden, parts of which were included just to make the population numbers fit, didn’t like it, then tough noogies.
The people don’t like it. Who would?
Update 2/26/08 8:45 a.m. MT: Thanks to a tip from sharp-eyed and alert reader Ray, we direct our readers to this morning's Salt Lake Tribune editorial, which calls for the outright repeal of HB-466. It also provides some historical background on the manner in which the legislature has ignored the ill effects of this legislation, as problems have continued to fester in Weber County and elsewhere in Utah. Read and participate in the comments section below the editorial, where some good comments are already queuing up. Today's SLTrib article presents the ideal opportunity, we think, to educate Salt Lake Valley and other Utah citizens within the SLTrib's broad readership, about the magnitude of the problems, actual and potential, arising from this ill-conceived legislation.
