Vision Dixie making progress
thespectrum.com
Article published Jan 5, 2008

KATIE OLIVERI
koliveri@thespectrum.com ST. GEORGE - A five-person committee has been formed to move forward with the implementation of Vision Dixie.

The committee met for the first time Thursday to discuss how it will present information to cities and encourage implementation of Vision Dixie to the various communities across Washington County.

Washington County Commissioner Denny Drake is chairing the implementation committee, which also includes Karl Wilson, mayor of LaVerkin, Rick Rosenberg, mayor of Santa Clara, Ken Sizemore, executive director of Five County Association of Governments, and Kayla Koeber, a resident of Leeds who served on the Vision Dixie steering committee.

James Eardley, chairman of Vision Dixie, also attended the implementation meeting on Thursday.

In summary, the committee agreed to meet again on Jan. 24 to review the long-term and short-term recommendations that have been compiled to implement Vision Dixie and as an implementation committee, come up with a summary checklist of what it sees as the immediate short-term needs and long-term goals and provide that information to communities. Cities can then use those guidelines or recommendations as a resource for implementation.

Then, the committee plans to make initial contact with the various cities, possibly at a city/town council work meeting, to learn where they are as a city and review the Vision Dixie principles. Those principles, which were compiled based on feedback from residents during the Vision Dixie public input process, include plan regionally, implement locally; maintain air and water quality and conserve water; guard signature scenic landscapes; provide rich, connected natural recreation and open space; and build balanced transportation, including a system of public transportation, connected roads and opportunities to bike and walk, among others like focusing growth on walkable, mixed-use centers and directing growth inward.

Rosenberg stressed the need to keep the initial visit with the various cities informative.  

Then, he said, "follow it up with the (implementation) checklist."

"Each city is in a different phase," Rosenberg said at the meeting. "Some of them are ready for it right now; some of them are past it."

Rosenberg sees moving forward as taking more than one trip to the different cities, especially to the smaller communities that perhaps haven't been involved as much with Vision Dixie. Other committee members agreed.

The next step after the initial meetings with cities, according to the discussion at Thursday's meeting, would include setting up a town meeting with that particular city to present short-term and long-term goals and implementation guidelines. Committee members stressed having a town meeting format to encourage attendance from residents.

At the implementation committee meeting, Koeber stressed the importance of having an engaged, active citizenry, emphasizing the need to keep residents involved when presenting information to the various cities.

She stressed the idea of the implementation committee going "out to the towns and not just present it, but keep the interest alive."

At the implementation committee meeting, Drake said the initial meetings with the different cities could start as early as the end of February or around the beginning of March and efforts would move forward from there depending on how quickly the various cities want to proceed.

The next implementation committee meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 24 in the Washington County Administration Building.