THE IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

by

Henry Stoddard

A Senior Honors Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The University of Utah

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Honors Degree in Bachelor of Science

In

City and Metropolitan Planning

Approved:

Stephen Goldsmith Stacy Harwood Thesis Faculty Supervisor Chair, Department of City and Metropolitan Planning

Keith Bartholomew Sylvia D. Torti, PhD Honors Faculty Advisor Dean, Honors College

May 2019 Copyright © 2019

All Rights Reserved

ABSTRACT

City and Metropolitan Planning as a discipline is largely focused on the development and

problem solving of dense urban living areas. This is largely due to the fact that urban

areas contain the most people, therefore they require careful planning in order to function

properly. It makes sense. But there is a side of planning that has rarely received

widespread recognition until recently, and that is rural planning. Rural areas encompass

often small communities, large amounts of open space, and diverse and rich cultural

histories. But with that said, rural areas most often do not receive the same amount of

attention from the planning community as more dense urban areas do, and because of

this, rural areas are often left with little to no help in solving issues that have the potential

to irreparably affect them. In this thesis I hope to demonstrate why rural planning is

important by discussing the problems faced by rural areas, citing the specific example of

Escalante, Utah, some solutions to these problems, in the form of preventative and

attentive planning, as well as an example of a rural community that has been forever

effected by poor planning choices. Ultimately, the goal will be to prove that all types of

people and place deserve effective planning that is representative of the modern age,

including rural places and communities.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ii

INTRODUCTION 1

GENERAL PROBLEMS IN RURAL AREAS 5

ESCALANTE, UTAH 14

EFFECTIVE RURAL PLANNING 21

EXCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT 26

THE IMPORTANCE OF RURAL AREAS 30

REFERENCES 32

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INTRODUCTION

City and Metropolitan Planning is quite possibly one of the most important fields of study

in the modern day. It takes into account efficient construction of places to live and

interact in, incorporating elements of architecture and the social sciences, the

preservation of history, with the goal of preserving and fostering place identity, and

addresses the underlying problems of the economy, population health, environmental

protection, and overall urban system functionality. Planning is so much more than just

designing cities. It is designing how the people in those cities will interact, how they will

feel when they are there, how they will get around, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately,

when one hears the term City and Metropolitan Planning it is almost exclusively paired

with an image of towering skyscrapers or a large scale transportation project of some sort.

This image of planning is not necessarily incorrect, nor is it not well deserved, but it is

not entirely accurate either.

Since the beginning of the human race, there has been a constant, overpowering

lust to do, build, and achieve more. As society developed alongside our intellect, so did

technology, philosophy, and the arts, resulting in the people and places that we see today.

It was only natural that the human race would end up living in close quarters, not only for

efficiency’s sake but for increased collaborative effort as well. Over time there has been a

consistent development of the technologies we use because of this, and as a result,

consistent growth in the number and size of highly dense urban areas.

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Rather than for strict collaboration, the increase in density and the sheer number

of urban areas is largely in an effort to ease living conditions. When there are more

people living in closer proximity to one another there are more opportunities for food

production and sale, attainment of water, and many other basic needs. On a more

contemporary front, this style of the urban area provides more than just the basic

amenities that drove the initial creation. An urban lifestyle is very attractive: propinquity

to amenities like food, water and shelter, no need for a car, more social interaction

opportunities, and more opportunities to live in a green-friendly environment that

supports things like public transit and high-density low volume housing opportunities that

cut down on pollution and support green technologies. (Yingli, 2006).

In order to manage all of these developments, and make sure that cities can be the

best they can be, it would make sense that planners would be a necessary part of the

process, and more often than not their influence has lead to both the success and major

downfall of many metropolitan areas. But equally as important, it would make sense that

because of the constant growth of the urban area ideal, a large majority of planning would

be focused on where the growth is, the urban areas. But even though this makes sense, it

leads to an interesting question, what happens in the areas that are not considered urban?

Because believe it or not, even though an urban lifestyle might appeal to many people, it

disenchants an equally as high number of others.

Even though society is in a swing towards urban area living throughout history,

there are still those who do not entirely buy into the benefits of living in a denser urban

area and prefer a rural lifestyle that has its own benefits.

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In this break from the urban living swing of society is where one can find the

discrepancy of the stereotypical image of planning. In a rural context there are different

problems to be dealt with, different mindsets to take into consideration, and in general, an

entirely different approach to be taken. In a rural setting, adding a left hand turn lane on a

two lane road may be seen as paramount to the creation of a new 14 lane highway in Los

Angeles. No one is to say that this mentality is right or wrong, but there is no argument

that this style of living is equally as important to every other way of living. Many enjoy a

small town feel that can best be described as country living. This includes the concept of

the good neighbor and a neighborhood where everybody knows everybody and takes care

of one another. And rather than being surrounded by large skyscrapers and light rail

transportation systems, these places are surrounded by generation old farmland, towering

mountains, rushing rivers, and dense forests as far as the eye can see. Rural areas have

increased diversity of built environment and wilderness, creating more opportunities for

recreation, the agricultural industry, and self sustaining living with increased access to

open space.

These areas do not fit into the stereotypical image of a metropolitan area because

they are not one, but just because they do not appear to be orthodox project areas in the

planning world does not mean that they do not require advanced planning solutions. Nor

does it mean that all the advancements in both society and planning as a discipline can’t

be exercised on a more rural scale. (Gallent, 2006).

Rather than be dealing with pollution, large scale overcrowding, and crime, these

areas and residents have to combat limited access to water, lack of diverse and healthy

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food options, lack of secondary amenities, increased rates of depression, an increased

need for independent transportation methods, and a general lack of understanding from

those who wish to develop them. (Niemelä, 1999).

In this thesis I hope to combat the stereotypical image of planning, demonstrating

that rural planning is equally as important as high density urban area planning, and

requires an equal level of skill as well as attention to detail. I will discuss the general

problems found within rural areas from a planning perspective as well as introduce a case

study in Escalante, UT done by myself and a group of University of Utah students titled

the Listening to Escalante Project, delving into specific problems found within this city,

utilizing its history to contextualize its problems as well as provide background for the

sake of historical culture preservation. I will also discuss how many of the general

problems found in these rural areas can be combatted with effective preventative

planning, as well as the importance of a case by case approach in rural planning as

opposed to the use of generalized information that may be applicable in more dense urban

areas. I will then move into a discussion of a location that has experienced a lack of

preventative and attentive planning, Park City, Utah, ultimately ending in an argument for

why rural planning is both equally as important as urban planning, as well as why rural

places are worth preserving and protecting.

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GENERAL PROBLEMS IN RURAL AREAS

Rural areas are similar to urban areas in the fact that they are simply a place where people

live, but the environments and available access to opportunities that more dense urban

areas have are very different. Unlike urban areas, rural areas often have more struggles

with access to fresh and available water sources, access to diverse and healthy food

options, and more often than not, no public transportation to be able to get to the existent

amenities they do have. And these are just problems with access to basic needs that are

required for comfortable survival. There are also problems in housing, including a lack of

available housing options as well as a lack of new development options. In turn, the

absence of many of these opportunities leads to a negative cycle between the housing

market, education, the economy, and job availability that is unique to these more rural

communities. And even though these problems can be similar in dense urban areas, the

constraints creating them are distinct. (Dandekar & Hubbard, 2016).

One of the first problems to address when discussing problems encountered by

rural areas is access to fresh water. Now, this is not to say that all areas classified as rural

have troubles with water access, but many of them do. There are many reasons why this

is a recurring problem, but one of the main ones is because these rural areas do not

receive the same amount of attention that heavily developed areas do.

When an area is going to be developed one of the things they must take into

account is if there is going to be enough water in the area to support the development. If

there is not then the developer, or whoever is running the project, finds a way to get the

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water to the site. This comes in the form of pipelines, changing the course of a river’s

flow path, or drilling wells to access aquifers in the area. The reason that this gets done is

that there is money to be had in the large development of areas and lots of it. The cost of

paying for an alternative water source other than the ones in the area of the project

heavily outweigh the money that the developing party will receive once the project is

completed.

In a rural setting there are development opportunities, but not at the same scale as

a highly dense area. There is not the number of people to be able to support a large scale

production of homes that are either considered affordable or slightly above. Without the

large scale development, that means that rural areas don’t have the monetary power to

utilize off site water allocation like the above mentioned style of projects. Instead, they

must heavily, if not fully rely on water sources that are within a reasonable distance of

their town.

Rural areas are also subject to poor water management. Due to low population

size and large distances from larger local governments that more urban areas contain,

there is a higher rate of township and volunteer management. Unless an area is very

fortunate to have professionals who happen to live in their city and take on these locally

elected or volunteered positions, there are large instances of poor water management and

planning. Generally, cities have water management plans in place that are either in

accordance with state or local laws, but if there is a lack of attention to management on

either of these party’s part, rural management often slips through the cracks. This can

result in improper uses of water, excessive demand when compared to supply, and

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ultimately a severe problem for the rural community, due only to a systematic problem.

And not only are there economic and management problems when it comes to water in

rural areas, but there are also physical ones as well.

Rural areas that are located in less than ideal locations for development, like

deserts, high mountain vistas, and plains, often have to depend on the graces of mother

nature in order to receive an adequate amount of water. Because of the inability to access

or acquire water through third party means due to economic pressures, there is that much

more dependence on the landscape for the providing of an essential resource of every

living thing, water. Desert communities have to contend with the constant threat of their

water sources drying up in the dry seasons and years when there’s not enough rainfall to

refill aquifers, high mountain communities depend largely on the melting of snowpack to

supply their water because it is often too costly to pump water up the mountain to them,

and due to global warming and an ever decreasing amount of snowfall, this can be a

problem. Similarly, plains communities have to battle with long periods of dry seasons

where there is no rainfall then all of a sudden too much to effectively collect and have

readily available. Even though they have the luxury of a flat landscape that has the

potential to deliver cheaper pipeline options, it also eliminates any kind of landscape that

can physically trap storms like the mountains have the ability to. This means that these

communities miss out on large storms that essentially blow on by without delivering any

moisture.

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Not all of these are problems found in every rural community, there are those that

have no trouble with water at all, but these are problems experienced more in rural areas

due to lack of opportunity that dense urban areas have readily available.

The next problem to discuss in the general problems of rural communities is access to

fresh and healthy foods.

Similar to the development of imagery during the discussion of metropolitan

areas, there is a definite image one can conceive at the mention of rural area. The

conjuring up of this idea is often a small main street that is often the main highway that

passes through the town, with a reduced speed limit that is, accompanied by some small

shops of local crafts, maybe a small scale department store, some form of grocery or

mercantile, and a greasy spoon style restaurant that many will swear is the best food they

have ever had. Something that is arguably never thought of when picturing a small town

or rural community area is a large health store. Contrastingly, this style of health store

seems to be an almost demand, if not requirement, in dense urban area development but

is seldom seen in a master plan or fruition of rural city development.

Now this is not an attempt at an argument that it is unfair that rural communities

don’t have a Whole Foods or Sprouts, but it is a reflection of yet another commodity that

has its placement based off of large economical support, and as discussed in the water

section, rural communities often can’t supply a powerhouse economy to justify the

placement this style of food store. Rather than one of these large chains, the only

available type of food store is a small family owned shop, that while possibly having a

small selection of locally sourced or shipped in produce, does not have quite the selection

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of healthy foods as a larger counterpart may have. This results in the available food

options being prepackaged, heavily processed, and not meeting the nutritional

requirements of a healthy individual, which in itself is yet another systematic

disadvantage for rural communities, but this is not entirely the fault of small economy,

there is another part to the problem of fresh and healthy food access, and that has to do

with the transportation of goods and services. (Pothukuchi & Kaufman, 1999).

Unlike large metropolitan areas that have multiple nodes, neighborhoods, and

developments, rural communities are often spread over very large areas of land or are in

small clusters due to resource availability or the physical landscape demanding it so. So

rather than having large transportation systems that link the city to itself and the

surrounding areas in multiple ways and forms, rural communities have to rely on one or

two large transportation routes that go straight through the town. Obviously, there are

small arterial streets off of these roads that handle local traffic, but there is a severe lack

of direct access and closeness to places of distribution.

Now this poses a problem because without the ability to transport food quickly

and efficiently, then there is no way to effectively get fresh foods to these areas. And even

if there was, there is not a large marketable force to support the added transportation cost

that a more urban area would have. Because of this inability of efficiency to take place,

there is no feasible way to take things like fresh produce and other non packaged goods to

these areas, which turns many rural communities into food deserts. So due to the simple

fact that many of the people who live in rural communities just want to escape the hustle

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and bustle of the contemporary urban lifestyle, they have to face inability of access to two

major components of life: food and water.

Besides disadvantages in the areas of basic human survival, rural communities

also face problems in housing diversity and opportunities, education, and job availability.

Housing problems in rural communities is a rather tough subject to fully unpack, but a

simple explanation is that due to a lack of economic opportunity and small community

size, there is often a lack of diversity in housing options and lack of housing in general.

In rural communities, the availability of short and long term rental properties is extremely

low, and this makes it very difficult for those who can’t afford a mortgage payment to be

able to live in these communities, and this is shown by the low number of young families

in rural areas. There are not enough rental options to make it a reality for young families

or individuals to be able to live in a rural community, especially when the previous

problems with food and water are taken into account.

In reality, the lack of housing diversity, and housing, in general, is due to the lack

of people to live in the area, but without sufficient housing being developed, there can be

no large influx of people to support development. Unless there is something so attractive

about the area that causes people to build new homes there independently and at a rapid

rate, bringing more money into the area and strengthening the economy enough to be able

to provide more housing opportunities, then this cyclical relationship between weak

economy, lack of buying power, and lack of buying opportunity just continues, resulting

in no change.

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There are not many people that can have the financial and emotional stability to

be able to move into an area that has so many pressures due to location issues and lack of

large population to be able to change the recurring problems, and this is why things like

apartments and affordable housing projects are not evident in more rural areas. And yes,

there is no argument that this is because of locational issues and other economic

pressures, not solely the fault of poor housing development, but it seems unfair that this

problem continues to rear its ugly head in these communities without much attention

from a large portion of the planning community as well as outside forces that could

contribute some solutions.

Along with the low population base affecting housing, education is also directly

affected. With a lack of affordable housing options for young families, they are unable to

live in these areas, and that creates a very small support base or need for good education.

That means that the few that do live in these places receive poor education due to the

simple fact that there are not enough children to support a larger, and in many cases more

funded, public school system. Accompanied by this lack of population base for a more

sizable school system, a lack of housing can also affect the rate at which teachers can

move into these areas, resulting in a high rate of ineffective and sometimes unavailable

teaching.

Adding to the list of unattractive qualities of many rural areas, poor education

systems deter many from moving to these areas and starting families there, which again,

creates a negative cycle. This cycle being that the negative qualities of rural areas make

people not want to live there, which in turn makes the problems rural areas face worse.

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To add to the already rapidly growing list of problems discussed, job availability is also

on the docket of discussion. Similar to housing and education, job availability is also

largely driven from the smaller population of rural areas as compared to more dense

urban areas. Rural communities often have economies that are based on a few disciplines,

and sometimes the most diversity in the job spectrum can come from government jobs,

and even though many of these jobs can pay very well, the actual number of available

jobs is very low.

A small population means that there are fewer people to support a business, and

unless there are seasonal influxes of people to the area due to outside buying power

through the form of tourism, there are going to be the same small number of individuals

to support the business day in and day out. This is not to say that small business cannot

be effective in rural communities, but it is a statement that the opportunities for attaining

a job are much lower than that of an urban area. And to add to the growing cycle that is

the negative aspects of a rural area, a lack of diverse job opportunity leads to another

unattractive downside of moving to a rural community which perpetuates the low number

of inhabitants which perpetuates the problems found in housing, education, and now job

opportunity.

Essentially, all of the aspects discussed in this section of general problems faced

by rural areas are based on the fact that these areas have lower populations which

inherently breeds the problems found with water attainment and access, fresh and healthy

food access, diverse and numerous housing and job opportunities, and education. But

because these areas are affected by the low population, there is no way to magically fix

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all of these problems without a sudden large influx of people, which while not being a

reality for many areas, is in itself toxic.

It would seem that due to the self perpetuating nature of these problems, there is

no viable fix for them, but before solutions are discussed, these general problems must be

shown and proven to be actual problems in a real world location.

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ESCALANTE, UTAH

Escalante is a small rural city in southern Utah located near the Grand Staircase Escalante

National Monument (GSENM). It has a population of roughly 800 people, and not all of

them are full time residents. This small city has had a lot to deal with over the last 30

years following the dying out of the large industry that once attracted many to the region,

timber, oil, and coal, the implementation of GSENM, and many of the problems

described in the General Problems In Rural Areas section of this thesis. However, through

all this, the residents of this city have persevered, and some have even thrived, but before

a discussion of the problems they face can take place, one must understand why the city

came to be what it is today.

As mentioned, Escalante is located in central Garfield County in southern Utah

and shares its main road with Utah Scenic Byway 12. Although there is some debate

amongst locals to the exact origin of the name of the city, history concludes the city is

named after Sylvester Vélez de Escalante. He led one of the first European expeditions

into southern Utah, and through his well documented journals, one can see the path he

and his fellow explorers took through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico,

and Arizona in the year 1776. However, he is not the only one who lays claim to this

small city.

In 1866, during the Black Hawk War, Captain James Andrus led members of the

Southern Utah militia through the town and the closely neighboring Potato Valley, named

because of the numerous wild potatoes growing there. He was followed closely by

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settlers from Panguitch, Utah who had been sent to the area in search of more fertile land

for crops. Famously, these pioneer settlers ran into members of the John Wesley Powell

expedition, who allegedly gave the first mention to naming the city after Escalante to

honor him, even though the expedition had not exactly traveled through that area himself.

In the mid 1870s, the settlers returned to the valley and the city was staked out into 20

acre lots with the main intention of farmland as well as a small city center, and the first

home was constructed in 1876 by William Alvey. But before all of these famous names

even laid eyes on the country in and around modern day Escalante, the area was inhabited

by numerous first peoples.

The most well documented groups that inhabited the area were the Anasazi and

Fremont. The Anasazi were known to be located in the Southwest section of GSENM and

utilized farming methods through water control devices as well as the creation of pottery.

Both the Anasazi and Fremont established horticulture villages in the upper part of the

Escalante River drainage basin due to the fertile soil and abundance of water. As well as

pottery, the Anasazi were known for their stone masonry, adobe construction, and use of

particular tools, such as axes.

Contrastingly, the Fremont people inhabited the northeast section of GSENM.

They mainly depended on small garden plots and the gathering of roots and berries. The

Fremont are characterized by their plain gray pottery, moccasins, and rock art, and many

of these artifacts can still be found both in GSENM as well as around the city of

Escalante itself.

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To sum it all up, many different groups of extremely hardy and capable people

have come through this valley. Some in the pursuit of adventure, and others with the hope

of finding a better life, but all appreciating the area for its unparalleled beauty and

opportunity. But as mentioned, this rural city is not solely the purveyor of all things good

and plenty, and in fact, it has fallen victim to many of the problems faced by rural

communities in the modern era.

Early on, the primary economic drivers of the city were cattle and sheep ranching,

logging, mining, and dairy farming, but today many of these occupations have

diminished, leaving farming and ranching as the primary industries. In the 1940s large

tracts of land surrounding the city fell under the management of the Federal Government,

and due to the stricter regulations put on these newly labeled public lands, many people

left the city. In fact, according to the 1950 census, nearly 33% of the population left

Escalante due to lack of job opportunities in response to restrictions placed on mining and

logging. As the years drug on, residents continued to leave in search of better job

opportunities, and in the late 1960s, the population was recorded as being only 15 more

individuals than the initial population of the settlement recorded in the 1880 census, with

638 people living in Escalante.

Jumping ahead to 1996, the city saw the creation of the Grand Staircase Escalante

National Monument, and because of this, a large increase in number of tourists in the area

ensued, creating new job opportunities related to the tourist industry, but also putting

more pressure on the grazing rights of the large cattle industry and ending the timber

industry as the city knew it. And the creation of this monument left a bitter taste in the

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mouths of the hardened locals of Escalante, leaving them distrustful of the government

due to the belief that the issues they deal with today have roots in this decision.

Now this is where the problems of modern day Escalante get introduced, but rather than

just discuss these problems from an outsider perspective, basing knowledge off of a text

or a survey done by an office of the State of Utah, I would like to somewhat break the

fourth wall of this thesis and introduce a project done in the area.

Beginning of Spring Semester 2019 I became a part of a nonprofit dubbed, The

Listening to Escalante Project. This was a group made of University of Utah students,

and the main goal of the project was to go to Escalante and do exactly what is found in

the project title, listen. A survey was created, which among many things, asked the

resident of Escalante what they were most concerned about in their city and what worries

they held for the future. At the end of this survey, just over 200 responses were recorded,

leaving us with a very large amount of information that matches up strikingly well with

common problems found in rural communities. And this is not just empirical evidence

either, these problems can be easily seen in the city, and have been seen and talked about

with locals by myself and the entire project team.

At the top of the list for issues that most concern residents of Escalante are

education and school enrollment, followed closely by vacant and abandoned homes,

water, access to fresh and healthy foods, decreasing agricultural production, decreasing

population, and unemployment. Some of the smaller categories of worry included:

development pressure and access to emergency medical services. This is rather

interesting to me because many of the problems residents feel are the most concerning

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line up almost exactly with other research done on commonalities of issues within rural

communities. But as opposed to simply stating they are common, let's take a look at the

specifics.

The main concern of residents in Escalante is in education, and this is because

many don’t believe that the school systems after elementary school are sufficient. Some

blame this on the school itself, but others have identified a more likely reason for the lack

of good test scores. Many believe it is because the schools cannot get any good teachers

to move to the area for an open position. This is not because there are no applicants

though, it is because once a teacher does get a job in the area there is next to no housing

opportunities in the city, leaving those who do accept the teaching position to have to pay

exceedingly more money to be able to buy an entire house or construct their own, or

more commonly commute from a surrounding town. However, this leaves them with long

commutes and a similar experience with housing in those surrounding towns. Similar to

the previous discussion, good education, and in this case, the agreed upon lack of it is

largely due to a force seemingly unrelated, housing opportunity.

This is not to say that there is no available housing in Escalante, but rather there is

a lack of diversity and new development. There are not multitudes of duplexes,

townhomes, condos, and apartments that make many more dense urban areas affordable

to live in, there are just the homes that have been there for what appears to be since the

settlers came, accompanied by modern structures built since. But the honest truth is that

there is neither a large amount of space to construct affordable housing projects nor a

large enough population base to support such an idea. Similarly to teachers, this lack of

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housing opportunity effects all industries within the area. Whether it be tourism,

agriculture, or anything else found to be an occupation in the area, there is little

opportunity for a young family to move into the city and be able to thrive. Escalante is

experiencing the negative cycle of low population affecting development which in turn

feeds the perpetuating low population numbers, and housing, education, and job

opportunity are all affected by this.

Now the next two large categories of concern of residents are in the categories of

water and access to fresh and healthy foods. In terms of water Escalante is already at a

disadvantage, due to the desert climate of southern Utah, but its largest industry, cattle

ranching, requires profound amounts of water. Luckily, the snowpack is able to help

provide some source of water even in the deserts of Utah, but during low snow years,

water availability becomes a concern. And besides having enough water to support the

already established city, there are concerns over having enough water to be able to

support new development in the area, so not only is the low population cycle hurting the

city on this front, but resource access and allocation is as well.

When it comes to access to fresh and healthy foods though, there is one main

culprit, transportation accessibility. Now at first, one may think that this couldn’t be

possible due to the simple fact that the main street is quite literally on a highway, Utah

Scenic Byway 12, but after driving there once it makes sense.

Even though the drive is beautiful and full of spectacular views and interesting

geological formations, it is a somewhat out of the way city, and the only reason many

have for going to it is on their way to GSENM. This fact combined with the distance of

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the city from the nearest large metropolitan areas makes it difficult to transport things like

fresh produce in on a recurring and often basis very difficult. Fortunately, there is a

grocery store in town, but again, there is not the buying power to support a large enough

grocery store that could outweigh the cost of transportation of goods with sales, and

because of this the residents of Escalante are stuck with limited food options unless they

have a particularly green thumb.

After an analysis of this city, one can’t help but feel bad for the residents. Many

who live here are solely wanting to be able to make a living while actually living in a

place and an environment they love. Whether it be for the purposes of agricultural

opportunity, or pure fascination of the landscape, all the people who live in Escalante

have a deep appreciation for it and want to see it succeed, but because of this particular

style of living it makes the problems discussed self perpetuating. One of the main

qualities of a small town is the fact that it is small, and what that directly means is that it

has a smaller population than more dense urban areas, and as has been so vehemently

talked about is that a low population is in many cases the reason for problems in housing,

job opportunities, and education. Keep in mind this is not including issues that can arise

from poor local government management, this is solely from a planning and data analysis

perspective. However, there is something that data can’t show, and that is: even with all

these problems, do the residents want their rural community to change?

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EFFECTIVE RURAL PLANNING

This is a topic that is represented in both Escalante and many other rural communities.

That is, the problem of planners listening to the actual residents of a community because

after all, they are the experts of where they live and what they need. But when this task is

accomplished, and planners do develop a good idea of what the population wants, there is

often a large divide resulting in two main groups. Those who want immediate change,

and those who don’t want any change at all. Each of these beliefs has their own benefits

and downfalls, but generally, the ones who get listened to are the ones who desire

immediate change because they want to progress in the form of development. Quite

often, this results in large scale development that ends up changing the community

forever, disregarding the needs and wants of an area and its people, as well as physically

scarring the landscape. It is a type of money grab by developers that take advantage of

the can do attitude of those in a community who want quick construction because they

believe it will fix all the problems of a town. (Davidson & Wibberley, 2001).

On the other hand, you have those who believe that nothing should ever change

and that everything is perfect no matter how bad the community is suffering from the

previously discussed issues. While this in itself is a harmful way of thinking, it is

reflective of those individuals who find no problem with the issues of water, fresh and

healthy food access, housing, education, and job opportunities. After all, it is reflective of

human nature to not believe in a problem until the actual individual has experienced it

first hand. But even more so, the group of people who believe this can be very dangerous

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for rural communities. This is because if there is absolutely no planning done for the

future of an area, then it falls subject to radical problem solving.

What radical problem solving means is that when an area starts experiencing

problems so severe that it starts negatively impacting all the individuals of the

community, the quickest solution to the problem is taken. This happens as a direct result

of the group of people who never wanted to see any change not being immediately

affected by things like poor educational opportunities and lack of housing options, but

then experiencing some form of slight discomfort that makes them panic. Then they join

the camp of those who would like to see immediate improvements in their community,

resulting in the need for a quick fix, which as discussed, is generally not good for the

community. And that brings us to the topic of this section, effective rural planning.

In metropolitan areas, master plans are a standard in the development process of cities.

Every few years new plans are created in order to maintain order in the expansion and

redevelopment as well as create up to date visions for what is practical in the near future.

With this dedication to maintaining the integrity of the development process urban areas

experience much higher rates of positive expansion in the areas of housing and

transportation. In turn, this creates an increased population which leads to the eradication

of problems with water, access to healthy foods, and other issues faced by rural

communities. (Esparza & Carruthers, 2000).

In some instances, these plans are enforced by some entity, but in others, the

creation of relevant and reflective master plans is a facet of local government’s or local

community’s sovereign decisions. But in rural communities, a general lack of up to date

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master plans plague the landscape which can largely be to blame for the creation and

continuation of community issues. This brings up the first part of effective planning,

which is planning for the future.

I believe one of the most important steps a place can take in establishing a better

development scene or in fixing their area’s issues is in planning for the future. Things like

water availability, proximity to healthy food access, housing diversity, the fostering of

local business, and education opportunities must be taken into account when planning for

the future as well as the present. Even if it is in very small ways, creating a clear path for

the development of a city to follow is crucial in order to tackle these varying issues. And

the statement that rural areas do not have as up to date master plans as more dense areas

is not just a blanket assumption, for, in the case of Escalante, the most recent master plan

was from the late 1980s. One could argue that this is one of the reasons that the town is

facing some of their issues today because the development that has occurred since then

was not thought out with the long term in mind.

With the implementation of a continually changing master plan, a community can

have a better idea of what types of projects would be good for their city, and they can

develop projects on their own that could aid in eliminating issues from their communities

as well as halt the forming of others. However, the success of a rural community cannot

stop at the implementation of a master plan, there has to be more substance.

One of the problems that many rural communities face is having housing opportunities

that are numerous enough to support a new wave of individuals to move. Utilizing the

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practices of housing found in urban areas could have a very beneficial effect on rural

areas, but they must not be copy and pasted.

For instance, a large apartment complex with shops on the first floor that creates a

mixed-use building may work perfectly well in an urban area due to things like proximity

to public transportation and numerous social opportunities, but a rural area does not

necessarily always have these commodities. Instead, the aim should be to develop small

scale mixed-use buildings. This not only creates more affordable housing options but is a

good way to encourage shops that can be somewhat supported by the occupants in the

buildings to come to the area as well. But this option is often overlooked due to the

contemporary nature of the project designs, which again, may work in an urban area

aesthetically, but would be very out of place in a rural setting. Instead, projects of this

nature have to be catered to the area and reflect the history, culture, and style of the

people and buildings that are already there.

If rural communities would implement small scale projects like this, when and

only when the opportunity was there economically, it would act as the tipping point

toward a slew of benefits. (Frank & Hibbard, 2016).

With the creation of affordable and more numerous housing opportunities, new

families and individuals would be encouraged to move in, which in turn would create a

larger population base. The more people that move in, the more money there is to create

more housing, the more opportunities there are for businesses to be supported which

leads to more jobs, allowing for young families to thrive in the area, increasing the

number of kids going to school, hopefully leading to better education systems. Now yes,

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this is awfully presumptuous, but the general idea is that when an effective opportunity is

put into place correctly, it can have an amazing effect on the lives of those in rural

communities and combat the negative cycle that leads to overwhelmingly large,

systematic issues. But as the old saying goes, with great leaps in developmental

opportunities comes great responsibility. (Schindler, 2014).

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EXCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT

In this section, Park City, Utah will be analyzed as an example of a city that began as a

rural area experiencing many of the problems associated with low population numbers

that, over time, took steps to better itself, but ultimately took it too far.

Many are familiar with the booming ski town of Park City, Utah, after all, it is one

of the best ski spots to enjoy the greatest snow on Earth, but what many don’t see are the

planning problems it now faces. However, if you are as fortunate as me, and were able to

grow up there, the problems are quite glaring as well as sad.

One of the most obvious problems to be found in Park City can be observed by

both the longest time resident as well as the one week a year visitor, and that is the traffic.

Park City has long been famous for its free public transportation that has continually been

improved to be able to reach even the furthest subsets of the city. And for those who do

not have direct imagery of the city that I do, what I mean by subsets are the large

subdivisions that have been created on the other sides of mountains to downtown Park

City. These areas actually don’t even share the same post code with main street, but in the

eyes of locals, are still considered Park City. They include Jeremy Ranch, Redstone, Pine

Brook, and Silver Summit, just to name a few, but all that needs to be understood is that

as the crow flies, they are very close to Park City proper, but due to the topography of the

area, which is extremely mountainous, they can sometimes be 15 or more miles apart. So

in the grand scheme of things, the public transportation system of the city does a great job

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servicing the areas beyond the boundaries defined by the name on the sides of the Park

City shuttles.

One may ask, why is there a traffic problem if there is such large public

transportation support? But that is where the discussion of improper and excessive

planning come into play. In the beginning, Park City was a small town mainly known for

its silver mines, and that is what created the initial draw to the city. However, over time

the mines began to shut down and close for good, which left the rural place with very

little attractive qualities of a good place to live, that is until the ski industry was created.

Along with the creation of the early ski resorts, like Snow Park, modern day Deer

Valley, and Park West, modern day Canyons, came a new form of an economy booster,

tourism. Ever since then the rate at which people have moved into Park City has gone

nowhere but up, putting a massive strain on not only the abilities of transportation in the

city but the housing market as well. The design of Park City is very similar to that of any

other rural area, with main arterial streets that share with a highway, and there are only

two ways one can get in and out of the city. Because of the sheer number of people who

now live in the city these roads are inundated with cars during rush hours, creating traffic

jams that span for miles. And typical of a skiing-based economy town, during the ski

season and large events like the Sundance film festival, the town almost comes to a

screeching halt.

In most places, this would not be a problem, but even though Park City shares

population numbers and other characteristics similar to much larger metropolitan areas, it

does not have the road size or effective planning that they often exhibit. There is often

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only one or two ways to get to any particular place in the city, and why large metropolitan

areas are able to handle a large number of people traveling at one time is because of the

multiple route opportunities that exist. This coupled with consistent clusters of all needed

commodities create successful transportation planning in more dense urban areas, but

again, Park City does not have this quality. Amenities are spaced miles apart, and because

there is not a significant amount of preventative planning associated with foot traffic,

there is little to no ability to travel in any other way than a vehicle. So all of these factors

come together to create a much less than ideal transportation around the city, and that is

not the only factor affected by poor future planning.

As discussed earlier, large subdivisions can be found all over the mountainsides in

Park City. When they were first built, many of these properties exceeded the average size

lot, with a majority being over an acre, but as time went on and more and more people

moved to the city, the construction of large homes on large lots began to hurt the city.

Now, instead of having a problem of not being able to construct due to too small of a

buying force, there is a lack of housing for the number of current and potential residents.

In the early years, there was a lack of understanding for how many people would follow

the ski industry, and because of this no large scale, high density, mixed use projects were

ever put into place. Because of this, the city is now having to play a game of catch up

with the growing population, engaging in an intense redevelopment of areas to build high

density low volume structures as well as engage in one of the saddest practices of

creating housing opportunities, doing away with open space.

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Park City is famous for having a large wetlands refuge that almost can’t be missed

as you enter or drive past the city. These wetlands are meant to be protected for the

remainder of the life of humans on this Earth, but due to the pressures put on the housing

market because of poor vision planning, workarounds of the protections on this area have

been taken advantage of. Near the junction of Interstate 80 and the neighborhood of

Silver Creek, a large subdivision is currently being developed. Now as I stated, I grew up

in Park City, and I happen to have grown up in Silver Creek hunting pollywogs out in the

ponds and marshes that used to cover the once protected area that has now been drained

and filled with dirt in order to build yet another mega suburbia to fit the current housing

crisis needs, but this just seems wrong. Because of a city’s lack of planning for the future,

and realizing that the topography of the area very much limits the volume of home

construction, the natural landscape and habitat of once protected lands must be deviously

and surreptitiously developed.

The fact that this took place can’t be blamed on any particular party though. It is

not the fault of the local government, the residents, the visitors, the developers, or any

one person, it is the fault of the entirety of people who have ever had anything to do with

the city. No one could have ever seen that due to the creation of a ski resort, the level of

tourism would skyrocket out of control, causing a massive and continual influx of people

to move to Park City, leading to the intense problems it faces today. But, one could, and

in fact, I argue, that with a little more emphasis put on the importance of a timely and

proper master plan, the distasteful degradation of protected lands in this city may have

never happened. And that brings us to the final section of this thesis.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF RURAL AREAS

So far this thesis has discussed problems faced by rural areas and communities, both in a

general sense as well as in the specific location of Escalante, Utah, how these problems

could be addressed through effective and preventative planning, and what happens when

a rural area faces radical development without the implementation of these planning

practices, specifically analyzing the development of Park City, Utah. But what I have not

yet discussed is why any of this is important. Why, if rural areas and communities are so

plagued by repetitive and continuing problems, ultimately facing failure if development

does not go perfectly, have any importance in the attention of the planning community.

After all, it seems as though if it is not a problem due to low population numbers, it is a

whole new list of problems associated with the influx of large population numbers. But

the answer to why these places are important, why the protection and preservation of

places like Escalante and Park City should be vital to the success of planners is almost

too easy to answer.

Many people argue that what makes a city great is its identity. Ask anyone on the

street to name a city and you will more than likely get the repetitive answers of Seattle,

Washington, San Fransisco, California, New York City, New York, and a few others.

Most people pick these iconic cities because of the culture and history found within them

and the people that reside there. But one thing that seems all to often to get swept under

the rug is that rural areas, just like dense metropolitan ones, have a story to tell.

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Whether it be of the hardy pioneer families and first peoples of Escalante who had

to fight every day to be able to survive the harsh deserts of southern Utah, or the town

that almost didn’t exist when the collapse of silver hit the market, these rural places have

a story. They have a history that can’t be seen as any less important as the history of the

stereotypically iconic cities. These rural areas house some of the stories that are most

important in the development of society, and entirely unique to them, they are not

covered in concrete and asphalt. Yet.

Many rural areas are on the verge of arriving at the tipping point. Either having to

begin implementing short term, self destructive plans that will cause more harm than

good down the road, or are falling victim to a lack future seeking, leaving them

scrambling to find solutions to problems entirely unseen. Yet, even with this travesty

unfolding all across America, and all across the world, there is little to be done about it

when compared to the efforts put into finding solutions for urban areas. Rural areas are

where we as people go to escape, where rates of tourism are highest, because many want

to escape the hustle and bustle of dense urban structuralism, and that in itself is proof

enough to answer why the preservation of rural communities is important, for the sake of

humanity’s connection to open space. But what one must also consider is that without

effective rural planning, we create not only planning problems for future citizens and

planners to deal with, but also destroy the slow easy going lifestyles many of the rural

areas we know and love exhibit. This lackadaisical approach to the importance of these

places is not only a degradation of culture and history, but a lack of responsibility by

society and the planning community as stewards of the environment.

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REFERENCES

Dandekar, H. C., & Hibbard, M. (2016). Rural issues in urban planning: current trends

and reflections. International Planning Studies, 21(3), 225-229. https://doi.org/

10.1080/13563475.2016.1185007

Davidson, J., & Wibberley, G. (2001). Planning and the rural environment. U.S.

Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information, 18.

Retrieved from https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6809766

Esparza, A. X., & Carruthers, J. I. (2000). Land Use Planning and Exurbanization in the

Rural Mountain West: Evidence from Arizona. Planning Education and Research.

https://doi.org/10.1177/073945600128992573

Frank, K. I., & Hibbard, M. (2016). Rural Planning in the Twenty-First Century: Context-

Appropriate Practices in a Connected World. Sage Journals. https://doi.org/

10.1177/0739456X16655599

Gallent, N. (2006). The Rural–Urban fringe: A new priority for planning policy?

Regional Studies Association, 21(3), 383-393. Retrieved from https://

rsa.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02697450601090872?

journalCode=cppr20#.XKERnBNKgyk

Niemelä, J. (1999). Ecology and urban planning. Biodiversity and Conservation, 8(1),

119-131. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008817325994

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Pothukuchi, K., & Kaufman, J. L. (1999). Placing the food system on the urban agenda:

The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning. Agriculture and

Human Values, 16(2), 213-224. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007558805953

Schindler, K. H. (2014, October 27). Top 10 planning practices for making things happen

in rural and small towns. MSU Extension, pp. 1-10. Retrieved from Michigan

State University database.

Yingli, Z. (2006). The Theory and Content of Urban-Rural Planning. CNKI. Retrieved

from http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-CXGH200601007.htm

Name of Candidate: Henry Roscoe Stoddard

Birth date: June 12, 1997

Birth place: Salt Lake City, UT

Address: 275 Old Farm Lane Coalville, UT, 84017