Sunday, December 11, 2005

Another reason not to live in Eagle Mountain

In addition to the "subtle" racism amongst some neighborhoods and the not-so kidnapped mayor, there's the problem of transportation. Sadly, Eagle Mountain does not have the road infrastructure to support the growth. Sadly, the state owns most of the roads and the state transportation commission said "gee that's too bad but you created the problem so deal with it." One way to solve the problem would be to quit granting building permits. But, sadly, "[the city founders] took on debt for infrastructure and the payment schedule requires growth to pay that money back. It is not realistic to stop growth now after the debt has been incurred."

So Eagle Mountain needs more roads, the state won't build them and the city has to keep granting building permits. Sounds like it will get worse before it gets better.

And another thing, when you (well, when I) think of Eagle Mountain I think of right-wing survivalist compounds and Bo Gritz. So its odd that such a right-wing city would embrace debt and look to non-local government to solve it's problems. Nice work.

2 comments:

Jon Barclay said...

While Eagle Mountain does have some problems our city is really a wonderful place to live in. The problem listed in your post is CRITICAL. But it does not only effect Eagle Mountain. It also permeates Saratoga Springs, Lehi, and all of North Utah County.

The cities and State need to work together to solve our transportation problems.

http://eaglemountainnews.blogspot.com/2005/12/we-need-help-with-transportation.html

Anonymous said...

I am just as hard on EM as the next guy, but the reason for the debt has nothing to do with being conservative, right-wing, or LDS. It has everything to do with the fact that that was the only way to make the city possible. The normal utility companies- Qwest, Questar, PG&E, etc. had no interest in providing services to the area on their dime. They insisted that the city build the infrastructure. The only way to do anything like that was to bond for it. The only way to get money was to show that there would be income/revenues.