Utah may be getting two new cities.
The proposal to annex the Ogden Valley into Weber County, which has been debated since 2022, will go before voters in a referendum on Nov. 5, potentially resolving the long-standing issue once and for all.
“I wasn’t surprised,” said Nick Dahlkamp, one of the movement’s leaders, noting the relatively short time it took advocates to gather the required signatures on petitions calling for a vote on the issue.
At the same time, residents of the small Utah County community of Spring Lake, between Payson and Santaquin, will also vote on whether to become a city. As in the Ogden Valley, development pressure, increased growth and a desire to have more say in how the expansion unfolds played a role in the push to incorporate. “(We’d) like to have more direct involvement in that process,” said Jason Knapp, who is helping lead the Spring Lake effort.
The Ogden Valley incorporation advocates were notified earlier this week by the Utah lieutenant governor’s office, which processes incorporation requests, that they had collected enough petition signatures to get the incorporation question on the ballot. The contingent seeking incorporation was given permission to begin the petition process in early June and filed signatures with the state about a month later, on July 3.
The Ogden Valley is facing growth pressure from more and more development, and incorporation advocates believe that becoming a city with a mayor and city council would give local residents a more direct say in how growth proceeds. As it stands now, the three Weber County commissioners are the elected officials who oversee the zone, along with the rest of the county’s unincorporated expanses.
The proposed new city in Weber County is oriented east of Ogden, across the Wasatch Front mountain range in a growing area that includes Pineview Reservoir and three ski resorts. It includes the Eden, Liberty and Wolf Creek areas, as well as the main lodge of Nordic Valley ski resort and the area of a proposed Nordic Valley ski village. It would be home to an estimated 7,583 residents by 2023 and cover 63.3 square miles, which would make it geographically more than twice the size of Ogden, which covers 27.5 square miles, according to a report on the incorporation plans contracted by the state.
Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, Weber County’s other two ski areas, fall outside the proposed city limits.
An anti-incorporation group, Keep Our Valley Free, has emerged, but representatives from the group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Their website, however, delves into some of the issues and concerns of incorporation skeptics, including taxes.
“For residents concerned about their financial well-being, the decision to remain unincorporated or to pursue incorporation is fraught with financial considerations. The lower municipal tax rates in unincorporated areas serve as a financial benefit to citizens,” their website states.
Additionally, as a city, region leaders could face pressure to attract more businesses to expand the tax base and keep pace with the city’s spending, warns the Keep Our Valley Free website. “By choosing to remain a nonincorporated organization, we are freed from the potential downsides of excessive corporate growth,” it says.
The study, which the state commissioned, standard when incorporation proposals are floated, found that if created, the location would have a sufficient tax base to cover the city’s expenses. However, a parallel study paid for by Keep Our Valley Free and conducted by the Utah Foundation warned that stagnant or lower-than-expected population growth could be problematic. “Without continued growth, this newly incorporated city would be at risk of underfunding its expenses and, as a result, would have to cut services, raise taxes or increase fees,” it said.
Dahlkamp anticipates pop-up events and additional information sessions about the proposal on Nov. 5 and expressed optimism that incorporation proponents will prevail despite the opposition. “I think we’re in pretty good shape,” he said.
‘A lot of support’
Knapp said Spring Lake residents have been debating incorporation for decades, but the November vote will be the first time the issue has been brought to the ballot box. The goal of incorporation advocates, he said, is to maintain local control as growth creeps further south into Utah County.
“I think there’s a lot of support for the incorporation of Spring Lake,” he said. The community, characterized by homes and farmland, covers only about 2 square miles and is home to about 600 people.
The study the state commissioned for the Spring Lake proposal also concluded that the site would have the required annual budget surplus if it became a city. Boosters filed signed petitions last May to get the incorporation question on the ballot, and the Utah lieutenant governor’s office determined on July 15 that they had met the requirements.
