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TURNING THE CRYSTAL BALL ON GROWTH

Using numerical data to predict the future is an art form practiced by many to forecast weather, sports scores, planetary movement and financial markets. And now, a new report produced by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments attempts to foretell the future of growth in Colorado Springs.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the study predicts that by 2035, the wealthiest people in the Pikes Peak Area will have moved north while the poorer will settle in the south, and that the whole city will expand outward into the prairie. The populations of El Paso and Teller counties will balloon to nearly 1 million people, an increase of 66 percent, while the number of jobs will double.
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IDAHO GO-GO JUICE

It’s pretty clear by now that energy produced from sources other than fossil fuels isn’t just for liberal wonks and science geeks anymore. Wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels — these are a smattering of the energy sources we’ll be working with for years to come to wean ourselves off of petroleum and coal, sources that get us into climate, environmental and political trouble.

Western states have taken the burgeoning interest in alternative energy to sell themselves economically and politically to the rest of the country, and the world. Even Idaho, still a darling to conservatism and tradition, has jumped on the alternatively fueled bandwagon to play a role. [more]

BOULDER BUILD UP

Last year, Pitkin County commissioners capped house sizes at 15,000 square feet in the Colorado county, and now some folks in Boulder County are suggesting the county commission there impose a similar restriction.

The Boulder Daily Camera reports today that the average size of homes in the Colorado county nearly doubled between 2002 and 2006. In 2002, the average home was 3,627 square feet, and by last year the average size of a home was up to 6,290 square feet. Those statistics show the Colorado county is slightly ahead of the national trend, where home sizes were an average of 2,095 square feet in 1995 , and are now 2,459 square feet.

The White Hawk Ranch, a large subdivision where lots often sell for a million dollars, has about 50 mega-sized homes, and that development is the one that has Boulder County officials starting to discuss capping the size of homes.

Michele Krezek, manager of special projects for the Boulder County Land Use Department, said limiting the size of homes should take a back seat to other planning concepts, such as building new homes out of environmentally friendly materials or building sustainable homes that use little energy.

And there is some indication that folks are stepping away from larger homes in favor of homes built with top-notch materials.

Apparently. Tim Blixseth, who is building a the much-touted “world’s largest spec home" – which is both large (53,000-square-feet) and built with top-notch materials, at Montana’s Yellowstone Club, has decided to embrace both the "bigger" and "better" trends.

BEEHIVE STATE

Mining coal – pro and con. Check. Nuclear waste. Check. Wrangling with the federal government. Check. Dispute over off-road vehicle access on public lands. Check.

Utah shares a lot with other Western states: abundant natural beauty, bustling cities and a sizzling hot economy. The state is also dealing with the same soup of public policy issues with which most Western states are dealing.

The proposal to build a coal mine near Bryce Canyon in southern Utah has drawn mixed comments at a series of public meetings on the project. Alton Coal Development LLC’s Coal Hollow Project would surface-mine 2 million tons of coal annually from about 3,600 acres of federal land plus 400 acres of private land in Kane County.

At a public hearing on the project last Thursday in Panguitch, one of the small towns along Highway 89—the route the semi-loads of coal would take from the coal mine to Interstate 15—the handful of residents who showed up to hear about the project weren’t daunted by the prospect of those trucks – one every 10 minutes or so – rumbling through their town.
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MONEY MATTERS

President Bush’s proposed 2008 federal budget is out, and it’s already being picked to pieces. What critics have found is a big hunk of military spending, plus a handful of other interesting morsels.

This budget is significant for the president because it is his last; though he’ll craft a 2009 budget, it won’t be his to implement. It’s also significant because it’s the first he‘s presented to a Congress that’s not controlled by his party. So, it’s his chance to chisel a lasting mark — it’s a legacy budget, you might say. [more]

TIMBER TRANSITIONS

The timber industry has been under numerous economic and environmental strains in the last few decades, and companies are forced to adapt or die. Perhaps no company has adapted more than Plum Creek Timber Co. Chronicling that adaptation, the Missoulian offers an excellent four-part series detailing the company’s move from being simply timber-based to expanding into the real estate and development industries.

The series by Michael Jamison and Tyler Christensen begins with a look at what Plum Creek is doing and those effects on the company as well as on communities surrounding the company’s land holdings, with a focus on western Montana. [more]

SEE HOW THEY RUN

Just two days after the REAL Salt Lake Soccer stadium deal was declared dead, really dead, Utah officials have found a spark of life, a pulse, even.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corron said although he really wanted the franchise, he could not justify using $30 million in taxpayer money to build the stadium.

That was Monday. On Wednesday, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state lawmakers resuscitated the deal. [more]

FROM COMMUTER RAILS TO COMMUTER TRAILS

Salt Lake City’s new Downtown Transportation Master Plan focuses on the movement of people downtown, but puts an emphasis on non-vehicle-based modes of transportation. Besides traffic, the plan addresses bicycle flow, off-street bicycle parking, light and commuter rail transit and pedestrian networks — all leading toward a goal of creating a more easily traveled downtown.

One of the plans outlined in the document, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, is a 24-mile trail created from an old, abandoned rail line. The Denver & Rio Grande Western trail could connect Weber County's West Haven on the north to Davis County's West Bountiful on the south and eventually tie into Salt Lake County's Jordan Parkway via the Legacy Parkway trail. The trail would allow people to bicycle across two county lines instead of always driving to work. [more]

GROWTH TRENDS

Infill development--a mixed bag of retail and residential spaces--has been touted as just what downtown areas in Salt Lake City, Denver and Boise needed to re-energize those areas. And the street-level retail space with upper level condos and townhouses have done just that.

Another planning trend is a master-planned community--a stand-alone development--that offers the amenities of small town living, i.e. retail spaces within walking distance of a mix of single-family homes and townhouses, nearby open space and some that even include affordable housing.

Two separate developments, one near Vail and another near Denver, offer other angles on crafting growth.

The Rocky Mountain News reports that a developer wants to plunk an urban, mixed-use development down in the middle of suburbia. Keith Simon says his Commonwealth Heights in RidgeGate, about two miles southwest of the Park Meadows mall, will look a lot like Larimer Square with narrow, tree-lined streets, alleys, retail, apartments, condos and townhouses. But the development will also have single-family homes, an element usually found in suburbia. [more]

EDUCATION ECONOMICS

As logging on federal lands diminishes in the West, many states are wondering what is going to fund the mechanism that helps their counties pay for rural schools. For decades, rural counties received payments from the federal government in lieu of taxes those counties couldn’t collect on federal land within their borders. Those payments primarily came from timber and other revenue-producing resources on those federal lands, but as logging continues to decline, the counties’ share of revenue also grows smaller.

Legislative fixes are in place to make up that difference, including the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, also known as the Craig-Wyden bill, after its sponsors, Republican Sen. Larry Craig from Idaho and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden. This bill creates a stable payment structure for county road and school districts, and according to the Associated Press, paid out $385 million for schools and roads to rural counties last year. But it expires this year. [more]

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