Planning Commission Listened to Opposition on Up-zoning Wetlands, Will SLC?
We had a win last week when we spoke out at the SLC Planning Commission hearing on upzoning 80 acres of wetlands for industrial development and the Planning Commission voted NOT to recommend the up-zoning to the City Council.
We still need the Salt Lake City Council to accept the recommendation NOT to upzone.
If you live in SLC, please reach out to your council person and express your support of the Commission’s recommendation.
I told the Commission:
The proposed up-zoning would worsen our air quality in four different ways. One, more industrialization of any type brings more use of fossil fuels. Two, it also brings with it more water consumption which will siphon more water from the Great Salt Lake. Three, wetlands and open space will be sacrificed that are right now acting as pollution sponges, absorbing it from the atmosphere. Studies have shown a direct correlation between the amount of wetlands and local air quality. Four, this development will trigger a cascade of further development nearby and in the same area. The impact will go far beyond 80 acres.
Air pollution kills people. It triggers heart attacks, strokes, lung diseases of every kind, and cancer of every type, all of which are the leading causes of death. Several thousand Utahns die every year because of our air pollution. It’s shortening the life of everyone in this room, whether you realize it or not.
It harms unborn babies, limits fetal blood flow, causing miscarriages, still births, birth defects, and every poor pregnancy complication there is, just like smoking does. It even causes things you haven’t thought of, like type II diabetes.
It causes billions of dollars of economic loss, and is likely the number one reason people leave the state.
You could rationalize the upzoning, saying it’s only 80 acres, that isn’t going to have a huge impact. And then you say that over and over again on every single proposal, and it becomes death by a thousand cuts. Yes, in order to have air that doesn’t kill us all slowly and for some of us quickly, you have to start saying no to people want to keep making money no matter what.
Consider this, your children’s future isn’t jeopardized by not having enough tax revenue, but it is jeopardized by the air pollution the planning department, the legislature, and the Governor, are turning a blind eye to now, and long into the future.