Response: property owner meetings and selection

This morning
Originally uploaded by Andreas Reinhold

In answer to my questions, "how are property owners being selected?" and "how will they be contacted and interviewed?" I received the following:

There are about 7-8 families that have large land holdings and also control most of the agricultural protection areas. These ag. lands raised the most (but certainly not all) of the controversy in unincorporated Weber County. Our approach was to begin meeting (in person) with these families to better understand their concerns and see if there are options that they support. Obviously, depending on their options there would be other people that we would need to coordinate with. The Open House format was not the most productive format to work out options so we anticipate some combination of smaller meetings with either individual property owners or groups of property owners as well as an open house to make sure we provide have a chance to include everyone. Late summer and early fall has turned out to be a bad time to meet with people involved in farming, so we are hoping to work at a pace that is convenient to those affected. The ultimate goal of the project is long term corridor preservation, so there is no urgency on our part other than to respect and work with people like you who may have opinions and ideas but also want answers to build a life around.

Amy Steinbrech from Wilkinson Ferrari is heading up much of the public coordination efforts. Amy is replacing Bethany Matsumori (who is having a baby) so she may not be fully up to speed yet but you are welcome to call Amy (or Bethany for the next few weeks) to get better answers from them. At this point we have not ”scripted” a detailed meeting plan and hope to cater it to the concerns that we hear when we begin meeting with the large agricultural interests.