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Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner takes the oath of office from outgoing Clerk/Auditor Josh Daniels during a swearing-in ceremony held at the Utah County Historic Courthouse in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2022.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner speaks at the Utah County Historic Courthouse in Provo after taking the oath of office on Thursday, April 29, 2021.

Connor Richards, Daily Herald file photo

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After being first chosen for a seat on the Utah County Commission in a special election, replacing then-commissioner Tanner Ainge in 2021, Amelia Powers Gardner took her oath of office with other newly elected officials first time last Tuesday.

After defeating a primary challenger and two general election opponents in 2022, Powers Gardner was reelected to a full term with 75.33% of votes in November and will chair the body in 2023.

A longtime employee and manager with Caterpillar Inc. and graduate of Weber State University, her first foray into politics came in 2019 when she was first elected to serve as the Utah County clerk/auditor.

Despite an educational and professional background that moved her around Utah and across the country, Powers Gardner stuck to her roots as a seventh-generation Utah County resident. The experiences have also informed her positions and goals for the commission.

Going into the year, Powers Gardner has one issue at the front of her mind — growth. According to a 2022 population study released by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Utah County has a growth rate higher than the next five counties combined.

“So the entire state, one of the fastest growing states in the country, 40% of the growth is our county,” Powers Gardner told the Daily Herald. “We’re growing at such a rapid rate that it is not sustainable unless we are proactively planning for that growth.”

One of the best ways to manage the growth, she said, is for every elected official to work on the same page. With a more collaborative environment, Powers Gardner believes productive work can be done between the county, state, Legislature, Utah Department of Transportation, the Mountainland Association of Governments and others.

Powers Gardner also expressed a desire for senior managers in the county to receive executive management training to better operate and lead their departments.

While high-profile subjects may return to the commission for discussion — namely, a revisiting of the county government structure — tackling an issue of that size would be difficult without an environment that allows for respectful disagreement.

“We have to foster better trust amongst our elected officials and then between the county and the other entities we work with. That’s got to be our No. 1 goal,” she said. “Otherwise, all of the other things we want to do — change of government, legislative priorities, roads, funding, water infrastructure, all of those things — will take so much more time.”

Even if officials are working together toward common goals, voters will get their say when issues come to the ballot box. Voters in Utah County rejected a $595 million bond for Alpine School District in November, a decision Powers Gardner attributes to increased taxes rather than rejecting growth. Voters in Saratoga Springs also rejected construction of a new recreation center in the city.

“One of the reasons why they can’t afford a rec center is because housing costs are through the roof. Well, housing costs are through the roof because we have a housing shortage. We have a housing shortage because we don’t have the infrastructure,” Powers Gardner said. “We have plenty of land on the other side of the lake.”

Not having the housing and road infrastructure puts Utah County in negative financial positions, she claims.

According to Powers Gardner, her brother-in-law bought a home in Davis County despite working in Lehi. When Powers Gardner questioned why he and his wife would move that far away, they told her that his commute across Salt Lake County is shorter than his coworker’s from Saratoga Springs to Silicon Slopes.

“We ran some numbers and the citizens of Davis County over the last decade have received five times more funding per capita on roads than Utah County residents have,” she said. “The reason Davis County citizens have received five times more funding than us is because Davis County works together to pressure UDOT to bring funding to them.”

The bond, she argues, would have passed if it fixed a problem, like building a better path through Lehi.

The question, though, becomes how can north county traffic problems be solved. Her answer is through regional projects — collaboration between the county commission, UDOT and MAG.

For housing, the plan must be building more of all kinds of housing, Powers Gardner believes.

“We need everything from starter townhomes or condos all the way to $2.5 million luxury homes. Because if we don’t build across the board, we lose citizens to Salt Lake County. … Those people move to Salt Lake County and pay Salt Lake County property taxes, and then come work in Utah County. I would rather keep those citizens here,” she said. “At the same time, starter homes are not really a thing in our county right now. Because you can have a four-year college degree and have a good paying job and not be able to afford a house a townhouse in our county.”

By following amended zoning laws, cities can address housing through any combination of transit-oriented high-density housing, single family homes, accessible dwelling units and more.

The focus on growth is not limited to northern Utah County, though. With the second-largest economic industry being agriculture, she’s encouraged to have both of her colleagues on the commission from Spanish Fork, including the newly elected Brandon Gordon, a multigenerational farmer.

South Utah County, in fact, is where Powers Gardner sees the greatest possibility. She hopes to see work on transit projects and large developments there sooner rather than later, when people move to the area in greater numbers.

“Santaquin Main Street has a 45-minute backup on your average afternoon, because it’s the only road out to Goshen and Genola and Elberta, that whole area. There’s one road and it’s Santaquin Main Street,” she said. “And really, it’s Lehi Main Street 20 years ago.”

In addition to long-term goals, Powers Gardner hopes to work with cities on water conservation and treatment, protecting Utah Lake and utilizing it — making the body of water less deadly and, potentially, adding a four-lane road similar to Pioneer Crossing from Saratoga Springs to Vineyard, right across the lake.

Still, even with a focus on housing, growth and water, the top priority for Powers Gardner is a culture shift “to become collaborative, cooperative and start doing strategic planning.”