U.S. Interior Secretary Lauds Planning Effort in Washington County
None by KCPW
(KCPW News) During a visit to Utah last week, U.S. Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne said he is pleased with approach Utah Senator Bob Bennett and Congressman Jim Matheson are taking on a controversial growth plan for Washington County. Kempthorne praised their public, collaborative process.Bennett and Matheson vow the public discussion on their proposal will continue. But Lin Alder of Citizens for Dixie's Future worries that one portion of the bill, which calls for the sale of more than 20,000 public acres, sidesteps the public. His group is calling for extensive public hearings and impact studies before the land is sold.
Secretary Kempthorne says he is open to selling public lands, but not if the sole purpose is to raise money for deficit reduction - as has previously been proposed.
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1. Damien said:
This is part of a scheme to rob the Southern Utah taxpayers out of half a billion dollars (IF the project comes in on budget)to build the absurd Lake Powell pipeline to enrich a few developers and ruin quality of life for those already here by encouraging unlimited California Crackerbox style sprawl in the middle of a desert where no one should be building with Colorado River water already overallocated. We don't need more 4500 home cheesy "Tuscan Villa" developments and French Country strip malls ringing Zion, especially not at the tax rate that is going to be the inevitable result to pay for this pipeline.
Tax and spend baloney, as long as their own wallets are lined they have no problem shaking down the taxpayers!
2. Darrell Knuffke said:
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne lauds the Bennett-Mathesen Washington County proposal's "public and collaborative process." That's akin to calling what's happening in Iraq right now "nation building." The Washington County bill is a land grab, pure and simple, and one cooked up in a backroom without a hint of public sunshine or input from the public whose land will be sacrificed for unbridled growth.