It is no secret that Utah Valley has grown over the past decades and will continue to grow extensively over the following decades. As Envision Utah’s tagline states, “How we grow matters.” It matters to every person living here and their children, to every business, city, and neighborhood, and to our schools, colleges, universities, and technical schools.

A tug-of-war exists between keeping historical traditions and lifestyles juxtaposed to the complexities of today’s different interests and market forces that are hindering our posterity from living and thriving here.

Since the days of our founding settlers, Utah Valley has been a place of growth. Families and communities worked hard to provide for the people of this valley. They built farms and rich lands of agriculture; they built businesses and communities, schools, and houses of faith. As a result, they increased their influence in our state and country in meaningful ways.

Today, many of our cities and towns have long since evolved from small-town agricultural communities to urban municipalities. As our Valley changed, many agricultural landowners began selling those lands to provide space for homes, schools, and businesses. So again, creating a tug-a-war between the property owners with rights to sell or develop their land against those desiring to keep the Valley more as it has traditionally been and cherished.

With a projected population increase of 1 million people by 2065, 85% from internal growth, it became clear that an initiative — a movement — like Valley Visioning was necessary. Started by the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, and in partnership with Envision Utah and all chambers of commerce in Utah County, stakeholders and interested parties gathered to work on and coordinate plans and ideas related to Valley Visioning, which yielded six areas of focus: natural resources, housing, transportation, healthcare, business, and education and workforce development. All priorities requiring careful planning and management of our limited resources.

Valley Visioning has brought the planning efforts of UDOT, UTA, municipalities, MAG, chambers of commerce, Utah County, institutions of learning, public education, and others in our community into a collaborated movement to bring greater attention to individual plans and to see how they can be better coordinated based on common ground and interests to ensure Utah Valley is the best place to live, learn, work, and play for generations to come.

In other words, cities cannot simply implement their individual growth plans without considering other communities since their strategies can directly impact the infrastructure demands in a neighboring municipality or the county. One city, for example, may have a plan to build hundreds or even thousands of homes over so many years in response to market demands and consumer interests, but those new residents may have to travel through two or more other cities to access their work, shopping, or school(s) daily — all of which adds stress on the infrastructure of our cities and the county.

Conversely, one city cannot ignore that it is part of a greater whole and take an anti-growth (verses managed growth) position because that places unfair demands and stresses on other cities. The need has never been greater for us all to work together for the common good throughout the Valley.

As our population grows, it becomes imperative that communities and businesses collaborate more to bring ideas, goals, and solutions to the table to ensure a continued and prosperous Valley that can be a sustainable and affordable home for our children, schools, universities, businesses, and people. We invite all municipal leaders, businesses, and organizations to bring their plans, goals, and ideas to the Valley Visioning table to work together for the good of our Utah Valley community.

How we grow matters, and growing together with a shared vision for our valley is how we do it.

Cameron Martin, Ph.D., is the vice president of operations and chief of staff at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. He is also chair of the Valley Visioning Executive Committee, a growth initiative of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.

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