Three months later, the mayor surprised the community with his announcement that he wouldn't sell the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, as he had earlier proposed, to help pay for the gondola.² Since then I've talked with many citizens who believe that this means the gondola itself, and the associated housing developments in our foothills, are no longer in the mayor's plans. But that's not what the mayor said.

Mayor Godfrey and Chris Peterson have been working together on gondola plans almost continuously since Godfrey first took office in 2000.³ In that year they proposed removing Taylor Canyon from the Snowbasin land exchange, to keep it in private ownership and facilitate construction of a gondola there. During the Olympics in 2002, Godfrey was consulting with a lift manufacturer on the feasibility of an urban gondola over Ogden's streets. Within days after his reelection in 2003, Godfrey began publicly discussing the urban gondola, and in 2004 he spent $62,000 on a study of urban gondola alignments and costs. Peterson left Snowbasin that year and purchased the Malan's Basin property in early 2005, only two months after Godfrey's father in-law organized the Lift Ogden Committee. The full scope of their plan to convert public park lands into a private residential development wasn't disclosed until 2006, when Godfrey declared that Ogden was in a "downward spiral" and this was his only idea for saving us.⁴

In recent months, Godfrey and Peterson have apparently come to accept one fact that the skeptics were pointing out all along: Their plan to relocate half of Mt. Ogden Golf Course onto steeper foothill terrain simply wasn't feasible.⁵ Godfrey hinted at this⁶ when he announced that he won't sell the golf course. But he also stated that he still believes the urban gondola can be built, and that Peterson can build new residential developments "in different areas" in Ogden's foothills.

Where could these different areas be? Because Peterson's own land is almost entirely unbuildable, and little privately owned land adjoins his,⁷ there are really only two possibilities.

The first is the city's 60 acres of undeveloped park lands east and south of the golf course, including Strong's Canyon and a portion of the Bonneville shoreline. This is the heart of the city's foothill trail system, and it appears to be still in jeopardy. Following his July announcement, the Sierra Club asked Mayor Godfrey three times whether he still intends to sell these 60 acres to Peterson. He has not responded.⁸

The other option for residential development is the foothill land owned by Weber State University. Although WSU has given every indication that it will keep this land for its own uses,⁹ the mayor doesn't seem to accept this decision. Soon after WSU announced its position, Godfrey gave a presentation on campus where he referred to the WSU decision process as a "farce" and a "lapse of academic integrity." He said he expects WSU's position to change after it sees an actual proposal from Peterson.¹⁰

Even if the foothill development never happens, the mayor's commitment to this project continues to hurt our city. In June of 2005, our region's transportation experts recommended that Ogden seek federal funding for a streetcar system to serve downtown, the east-central neighborhood, Harrison Blvd., WSU, and McKay-Dee Hospital.¹¹ Streetcars are not only an efficient and fun way to travel; they are also a proven tool for economic development and neighborhood revitalization. Portland's streetcar has helped stimulate more than two billion dollars in new investment along its route.¹² But the streetcar would make an urban gondola superfluous.¹³

Consequently, for more than two years now, Godfrey has blocked progress on the streetcar. He refuses to permit any further studies of the streetcar to move forward. He exaggerates the streetcar's likely cost to the city as well as the time that would be required for approvals and construction. He publicly predicts that Ogden's citizens and the rest of the county will never support the streetcar.

It's human nature to like our own ideas better than anyone else's, clinging to them even when better ideas come along. I commend Mayor Godfrey for being willing to let go of one portion (the golf course sale) of his intricate gondola plan. But all evidence indicates that he has no intention of letting go of the rest. The only question is what sacrifices he will next ask the city to make on its behalf.

Dan Schroeder is conservation chair of the Ogden Sierra Club and serves on Ogden City's advisory committees on trails and the streetcar proposal.

Notes

This commentary was recently submitted to the Standard-Examiner. The editor agreed to publish it before the upcoming primary election only if Mayor Godfrey would write a companion column on a similar subject to run alongside. Godfrey declined to write such a column.

1. This conversation occurred on the sidewalk outside the Weber County Commission chambers on the evening of April 2, 2007, after a meeting of the Weber Area Council of Governments (WACOG) at which the main agenda item was priorities for spending the proposed 1/4 cent transportation sales tax that will be on the ballot on November 6. I had hoped that the mayor and I could at least agree on two points: that a higher proportion of the sales tax should be spent on transit rather than roads, and that the vote should be postponed until after we have a better idea of what transit projects Ogden wants.

2. This announcement was reported in the Standard-Examiner on 8 July 2007.

3. The history summarized in this paragraph is explained and documented more fully here.

4. Godfrey made these statements in a speech to the Ogden City Council on 13 April 2006. In particular, he stated that if Ogden doesn't move forward with the gondola project or something similar, "we're relegating the next generation to this downward spiral we've been in."

5. Among the skeptics was the Ogden Sierra Club, which posted this page in late April, 2006.

6. The July 8 article quotes Godfrey saying that he "came to the conclusion that we need all the existing area for the golf course."

7. As the map above shows, the Malan Religious Foundation owns 36 acres of land adjacent to Peterson's. However, at least half of this land is also too steep to develop.

8. I emailed Mayor Godfrey, on behalf of the Sierra Club, with this question on July 9, July 11, and July 17. My past experience has been that he has always been prompt in responding to emails. In this case, though, he did not respond at all to the first or third email. His response to the second (dated July 12) stated in full, "I'm drafting an editorial that will answer your question." No such editorial has appeared. Also, Mayor Godfrey has not responded to the candidate questionnaire that the Sierra Club sent on August 8, which asks a question about sale of city-owned open space. News reports have stated that Godfrey does not intend to sell the city's property adjacent to the golf course, but these reports have never included an unambiguous direct quote from Godfrey to this effect.

9. In March, the WSU Trustees voted unanimously to incorporate the foothill property into the university's future expansion plans. Several weeks later the Utah Board of Regents directed the university not to sell its land for residential development.

10. This presentation took place on 16 April 2007. An audio recording and transcript of the presentation are posted here.

11. The recommendation was the result of the Ogden Transit Corridor Study conducted by Ogden City, the Utah Transit Authority, and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, who hired consultants Michael Baker Jr., Inc. The study's recommendations were presented at a meeting on June 23, 2005. See the Smart Growth Ogden web site for a summary of the study as well as copies of the presentation slides and final report.

12. The Portland streetcar's route was determined in 1997, and it began operating in July 2001. A study completed in January 2006 (posted here) concluded that between 1997 and 2005, over $2.28 billion was invested in new development within two blocks of the streetcar alignment. Within this distance the intensity of development has increased very dramatically since 1997; farther than three blocks from the streetcar there has been little change in the intensity of development.

13. In a letter to the city dated 6 December 2005, the heads of UTA and WFRC stated that "Neither the travel demand nor the financial resources can support two competing investments in the corridor."