I often complain about the increased population in our valley, so I was pleased a couple of weeks ago when I glanced at an headline that said something like, “... concerned about the population growth ...” But when I unfolded the paper I was disappointed to read that the concern was about sage grouse population, not human population of our valley.
As I watch our open spaces disappear, and fill up with high-density housing, I sure wish someone with influence would sometime soon say, “Enough, enough already.” Instead, I read in the paper recently about how leaders in our state have submitted a bid to get Amazon to locate its second headquarters in our state, which would add up to 50,000 new jobs. With our present 3 percent unemployment rate, that means there would have to be an increase of about 50,000 workers and their families if we get the bid. Where will they live?
Also in the paper there was an article about the 7.7-acre Applewood Park, a community of manufactured homes in Midvale where lower income and older people have lived for years, who own or are in the process of buying their homes, but rent the land the homes are on for about $400 a month. For about four years the residents have been fighting losing their homes to developers who would like to build an apartment complex on that 7.7-acre plot.
In the Salt Lake Valley there are many mobile home communities that I suspect are being targeted for more high-density housing. Now the question is where the older and low income families will go to live when the land they are renting is sold to developers for apartment complexes. A one-bedroom apartment in these new apartment complexes costs about $900 a month.
I doubt that Amazon would consider locating in one of our rural communities. Enough already.
Fred Ash, Sandy