A History of Davis County

Planning for the future-2

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 389 Church in Layton serves members of the evangelical tradition in northern Davis County The 1960s and 1970s brought a number of additional Christian churches to Davis County to minister to relatively small congrega­tions. By the 1990s the religious landscape reflected a well-established religious diversity in Davis County. Southern Davis County congre­gations included the Abundant Life Assembly of God Church in North Salt Lake, Jehovah's Witnesses in Bountiful, the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Centerville, the Kaysville Bible Church, Kaysville Church of Christ, Kaysville Assembly of God Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Fruit Heights, and Pilgrim's Christian Fellowship in Bountiful. In Clearfield were found the Wasatch Church of Christ, Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, AMIGO International Assembly of God Church, and the Clearfield Community Church. Layton churches include the Church of the Nazarene, Cavalry Chapel Christian Fellowship, First Assembly of God Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus' People Ministries Church, and the Liberty Christian Church. The growing number of Davis County Asian residents brought new religious organizations outside the Christian religion to the county. The first Japanese Buddhist church was built in Syracuse in 1925 to serve farm workers and sharecroppers who had been gather­ing in the area since 1917. It was merged with the Ogden Buddhist Church in 1979. Late in the century, the Wat Dhmmagunaram Thai Buddhist Temple was established to serve eighty families in the Layton area.91 As the twentieth century drew to a close, the Bahai faith was functioning in Clearfield, Layton, Bountiful, and Farmington. Economic Growth in a Suburban County During the first decades after World War II, Utah's economy expanded on a solid base that had been strengthened by wartime spending. Residents of Davis County enjoyed a new era of prosper­ity that created a standard of living and personal incomes much higher than in the Depression and war years. Much of this growth related to the continuing presence of defense installations and related businesses. Commercial agriculture's role steadily declined during the 390 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY second half of the century, while local businesses thrived and a strong service sector emerged as a major economic contributor.92 Davis County's location between an economically healthy Salt Lake County and a promotion-conscious Weber County had at least two impacts. First, its location reinforced Davis County's role as a suburban, bedroom community Second, its proximity to the two urban centers created opportunities for businesses that could bene­fit from being close to the larger centers. Prosperity sustained a growth economy and prodded consumers to spend. The U8d beet-processing factory in Layton churned out sugar to meet the surging postwar demand. Cudahy packaged beef to satisfy a generation that had endured years on limited meat rations. The Woods Cross can­nery found in the county's expanding population new mouths ready to taste Davis County's high-quality fruits and vegetables. Between 1950 and 1963, more than 80 percent of the non-farm jobs created in Utah were located in the five Wasatch Front counties, where defense-related jobs had burgeoned during the war. In the late 1960s, nearly half of Utah's direct defense employment was concen­trated in the Ogden metropolitan area (Weber and north Davis coun­ties). Around 25 percent was located in the Salt Lake metropolitan area (Salt Lake and south Davis Counties), while the remaining jobs were about equally divided between Tooele and Box Elder Counties. Per capita income in Utah, only 80 percent of the national average in 1940, exceeded that average a few years later. The war had revitalized a dormant economy and gave the state a head start on a postwar era of prosperity. Davis County benefited significantly because of the defense installations. Salt Lake and Box Elder Counties had larger numbers of workers in defense-related private industries, but the Weber-north Davis area consistently led in government employment. The later decades of the century saw these trends continue. Hill Air Force Base remained Davis County's largest employer. Agricultural employment declined. Manufacturing remained small but stable. Retail trade expanded rapidly to serve a population that seemed intent on fostering rapid growth. New jobs were created in the service sector. As the century ended, Davis County was part of a healthy Utah economy centered on the Wasatch Front. By one econ­omist's measurement, the Salt Lake-Davis-Weber metropolitan area PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 391 Employment related to defense installations and industries remained a strong influence in Davis County. The radomes atop Francis Peak above Kaysville were operated by the 229th Radar Squadron at Hill Air Force Base. (Utah State Historical Society) ranked sixth highest among 313 regions evaluated over a quarter-century County planners echoed glowing state forecasts that the economy would remain healthy Local chambers of commerce and businessmen anticipated a steady future of profits and jobs, with only a slight moderating after nearly a decade of rapid growth.93 At the end of the Second World War, the dominant influence in Davis County's economy was the defense depots. Fifty years later, this influence continued. In addition, Davis County increasingly had become part of a thriving national and state economy. County resi­dents found themselves working for and buying merchandise from branches of national stores. Large clothing, hardware, computer, and department stores invaded suburban markets wherever they found a new regional mall. Similarly, fast-food and restaurant franchises planted themselves in these same commercial gathering places and clustered around freeway off-ramps. 392 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY County planners in 1970 anticipated that most shopping needs in the county would be met through a combination of local stores and the larger shopping centers in Salt Lake and Ogden. "One large Regional Shopping Center might be able to survive now in Davis County," it was concluded, "and possibly another by 1990."94 These forecasts anticipated malls at interstate interchanges in Layton and Farmington. Davis County's first enclosed mall was the Five Points Mall, built in the late 1950s on a sixteen-acre site on the outskirts of Bountiful. Unlike the later and larger regional malls, Five Points brought together mostly local specialty stores. The clustered businesses did well for many years. Eventually, competition from national stores in the Wasatch Front's growing number of regional malls eroded the mail's customer base. In 1998, with half of its retail space vacant, the aging mall was purchased by a Las Vegas firm. The new owners promised physical upgrades, aggressive marketing, a grocery store, a possible theater, plus the addition of a sports mall to serve Bountiful's aging population.95 The anticipated regional mall in Layton, built by an out-of-state developer, was opened in 1980. The 700,000-square-foot complex imitated the successful formula of the major Salt Lake County malls. Layton Hills Mall was anchored by ZCMI and Mervyn's department stores, and later added a J. C. Penney store. It took some time for Layton Hills to build a clientele that could ensure profits for its approximately ninety retailers. During the recession of the mid- 1980s, business growth at the mall stalled. Concerned that Davis County could support at most one regional mall, developers who had taken options on land near Farmington's Burke Lane off-ramp released those options. Layton Hills Mall and the surrounding clus­ters of movie houses, restaurants, and national retail outlets benefited from the burgeoning population growth in Layton and surrounding areas. By 1998 Layton City was listing the mall as the its largest prop­erty taxpayer, with a valuation of $38 million. Sales taxes furnished additional income to the city96 During the last decades of the twentieth century, businessmen in the county's largest cities developed successful new commercial cen­ters outside the traditional downtown Main Street shopping areas. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 393 Commuters and shoppers driving Highway 91 through Bountiful in the 1950s were attracted by Slim Olson's competitive prices and rapid service at the "World's Largest Station." (Utah State Historical Society) These developments challenged old buying patterns by introducing nationally known anchor stores along with regional supermarkets with grocery, drug, and banking services. Typically these clusters appeared near freeway interchanges to make them accessible to cus­tomers outside the host city One projected commercial center on the Bountiful-Centerville boundary failed to expand beyond its first ten­ant, J.C. Penney, because it lacked such access. In the south county area, where undeveloped land rapidly was becoming scarce, commercial clusters appeared just outside Bountiful City's western boundary in Woods Cross. The Gateway Crossing development near the 500 South interchange attracted such national retailers as T.J. Maxx, Barnes and Noble, and ShopKo,in addition to a theater, bank, and restaurant. Bountiful City itself had no remaining options. Planners estimated in 1998 that with more than 95 percent of the city's land under development for commercial and residential use, the remaining vacant land would be gone by 2005.97 Centerville still had large stretches of open land available near its Parrish Lane interchange. One site attracted national marketers including Home Depot, Target, and Land Rover to form a new Centerville Market Place. New fast-food restaurants joined others already in the area and other franchised national stores were expected to fill remaining space. When the Centerville Redevelopment Agency 394 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY decided in 1998 to open a twelve-acre city-owned ballpark for devel­opment as a $20 million commercial center, some residents chal­lenged the decision. Development prevailed on that site after officials promised new neighborhood parks in the city's four quadrants.98 The three central Davis communities found themselves well served by major shopping centers at both ends of the county and beyond. Land-poor Farmington rejected options to follow the Bountiful-Woods Cross model of tucking commercial development along collector roads leading to 1-15. Instead, officials allowed a commercial center to develop two miles north of the downtown area at the intersection of U.S. Highway 89 and Shepard Lane. Accessible from Kaysville and Centerville, the development offered a K-Mart, Smith's Food and Drug, small businesses, and professional offices.99 Kaysville's business and civic leaders chose to support a healthy Main Street commercial zone that had a stable customer base. The city deferred to the Layton regional mall and concentrated on improving its 200 North and Main Street offerings to appeal to the local market. The new cities in north Davis County likewise had little choice but to follow this local option. Sunset had no land left for major development, and, except for Clearfield, the other cities lacked direct freeway access. All of these communities boosted their sales-tax rev­enues and served local shoppers by encouraging neighborhood devel­opments. The major coup for most of them was to entice a major grocery store into the area. Syracuse residents were delighted in 1997 when Smith's Food and Drug selected a site west of the Freeport Center, and Clearfield residents welcomed Winegar's Supermarket to a plot designated years earlier for commercial development.100 An indicator of Davis County's urbanization was the increased number and variety of businesses that developed in the county in the 1940s, 1950s, and beyond. Besides the military installations estab­lished in the northern part of the county during the 1940s, the south­western lowlands welcomed the oil refining industry, which also was a product of wartime needs. Phillips Petroleum, Standard Oil of California, and Western States Oil Company set up refineries during the 1940s. The number of businesses in the county jumped from fewer than 200 in 1940 to nearly 500 ten years later. Most of these represented an expansion in the number of businesses offering prod- PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 395 ucts and services already available in the county. Exceptions were the automobile stores, repair shops, and service stations. By 1970 there were 800 businesses operating in t h e county1 0 1 A q u a r t e r - c e n t u ry later, businesses would number more than 10,000. One way to profile these businesses is by measuring jobs created in various non-farm industries. The nature of employment in Davis County changed significantly between 1975 and 1995. According to a report from the Utah Department of Employment Security: In 1975, more than half of the positions in Davis County were in government. By 1995, the percentage dropped to 25 percent. The percentage of trade jobs jumped from 15.8 percent in 1975 to 26 percent in 1995 and the percentage of service positions increased from 8 percent in 1975 to almost 20 percent in 1995. . . . The con­struction industry increased its share of jobs in Davis County from 5.0 percent of total employment in 1975 to 7.0 percent in 1995. Finance/Insurance/Real Estate also has shown a noticeable increase in its portion of jobs in the county, growing from 1.5 percent in 1975 to 4.0 percent in 1995. Transportation/Communications/ Utilities/Manufacturing has remained virtually unchanged [at 3.2 percent].102 It is apparent from this report that the dramatic drop in govern­ment employment has been replaced by an equally notable increase in jobs in the trade (mostly retail) and service sectors. New housing accounted for an important part of the new jobs in construction and real estate. The shift toward private-sector employment resulted in part f r om a decline in defense spending, b u t Davis C o u n t y was less impacted by this general t r e n d t h a n were most other such areas in Utah because of the continued presence of Hill Air Force Base. With a r o u n d 20,000 employees in 1990, t h e base r e m a i n e d the largest employer in Utah. Because of missile construction and maintenance, federal defense employment in Utah has not decreased to the p o s t - W o r l d War II levels n o r to the 18,000-level after the Korean War. Federal outlays in Davis County in 1980 totaled $512 million, with 80 percent of this for defense, and the second largest amount ($39 million) for health and h u m a n services. Only Salt Lake County 396 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY received more federal money in Utah. Weber County's share was 20 percent less than Davis County's.103 In the civilian arena, service industries in Davis County were numerous and varied. An increased reliance on trained professionals for personal services spawned a burgeoning increase in such busi­nesses. These ranged from attorneys to wedding-reception centers, and included various types of health, business and financial, auto­motive repair, legal, social, and educational services. Hotels, motion picture theaters, amusements, and museums were other categories counted among the service industry by statisticians.104 During the final decade of the century a mixed-use concept of business parks appeared in some of Davis County's urban centers, introducing a new way to locate businesses. Popular with residential neighbors and adaptable to parcels of varied sizes, the business parks brought jobs and services to cities seeking opportunities for residents and tax dollars to pay for city services. They won higher acceptance among citizens than earlier efforts to attract heavy industry to the west Davis borderlands. North Salt Lake welcomed business parks as alternatives to the city's trucking companies, oil refineries, and dis­tribution centers. The potential of a West Davis Highway through the commercial zone complicated planning, but competitive land prices and proximity to transportation hubs and Salt Lake City attracted many businesses to the new industrial and business parks.105 Centerville and Kaysville also created business parks west of 1-15 in areas deemed unsuited to residential development. Beginning in the 1960s, Centerville encouraged industrial development in the area but attracted very little interest. In 1996 the city rezoned 300 acres as a business park and left a smaller parcel near Syro Steel for future heavy industry. Kaysville City created its 200 North business park in 1993. When only four businesses had located on the site in as many years, the city increased its promotional efforts.106 Among the businesses that flourished in Davis County were sev­eral that expanded to markets beyond the county. The furniture store started in Syracuse by Rufus C. Willey was noted in an earlier chapter. As an indication of its size as an interstate merchandizer, an 860,000- square-foot warehouse built in Salt Lake County in 1997 ranked as the largest in the United States. Kaysville's Clover Club Foods was PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 397 another early enterprise that quickly expanded its market to a multi-state area. It then was acquired for a time by Borden's Foods before returning to local ownership. The home-grown Smith's Food and Drug expanded from the Wasatch Front into five other states and built up a chain of 152 stores (forty-one of them in Utah). Smith's was bought out in 1998 by Portland-based Fred Meyer. Soon after this merger, even larger Kroger Company acquired Fred Meyer, and with it Smith's.107 Davis County's first high-tech giant was Iomega Corporation, a maker of computer-storage peripherals. The firm's local manufacturing plant was located in the Freeport Center. It has other locations in the United States and Asia to manufacture and market its products. One of Davis County's healthiest industries in the years since the 1950s was building construction. Fueled by growth, it became an important economic influence in modern Davis County. Dormancy of the local construction industry during World War II was caused in part by the Great Depression and by wartime building restrictions. In the 1930s, no money was available for new construction. During the war, building materials were funneled toward the war effort. Existing businesses did very well because of exploding populations in the north end of the county, but new buildings had to await the end of the war. Both business buildings and new homes were possible during the prosperous 1950s and 1960s. When temporary government housing was dismantled, federal employees sought new housing. Local devel­opers opened subdivisions to meet that need and expanded busi­nesses to serve the growing population. The pace of building during those decades was rather steady, closely following trends for the expanding Wasatch Front. Growth in both housing and business con­struction surged during the early 1970s, slowed later in the decade, and picked up again after the recession of the early 1980s. The pace during the 1990s almost matched the peak period of housing con­struction in the 1970s, when 17,113 new homes were built.108 As building tracts in the greater Bountiful area became harder to find, suburbanization moved to the hillsides and spread northward into Centerville and Farmington. Expansion in north Davis moved west- 398 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY ward from the transportation corridor into the flatland farm fields and eastward into the foothills along the Mountain Road. As previously noted, the expansion of homes and businesses in Davis County was at the expense of the agricultural land that had led Davis County to be known as the "Garden Spot of Utah." Market gar­dens had furnished garden produce and fruit that was marketed in nearby urban areas. Sugar beets, vegetables, and orchard crops kept processing plants and canneries in business. Dairy and livestock operations also c o n t r i b u t e d to commercial agricultural in Davis County. But local agriculture could not thrive under the increasing pressures of urbanization.109 When corporate agriculture turned to larger producers for fruits and vegetables, Davis County's canneries closed, and with t h em went most local commercial gardeners and many of the orchardists. Those who remained sold mostly to the fresh-produce market. Family farms became prime candidates for development when the last generation that tilled the soil died off, their children already employed in other kinds of work. Meat-packing plants closed because larger and newer facilities served the bigger producers. Davis County, once one of Utah's leading beef producers, became a minor player as cattlemen moved their operations elsewhere. Suburban dwellers and Herefords were not always compatible neighbors, and the problems that devel­oped usually prompted the ranchers to leave.110 The highways that developed to facilitate travel opened a new avenue for employment to Davis C o u n t y residents. Along with a heavy load of commercial and recreational traffic, the roads served a steady clientele of suburban commuters. In the 1960s, more workers from Salt Lake a n d Weber Counties commuted to jobs in Davis County than did Davis workers to those counties. A large share came from Weber County to the defense installations in n o r t h Davis. Over the next twenty years, t h e a t t r a c t i o n of s u b u r b a n living in Davis County and the increase of high-paying jobs in Salt Lake County reversed the pattern. In 1990 nearly 37,000 Davis County residents commuted elsewhere to work, while only 22,000 workers commuted into Davis County. Those who both lived and worked in the county numbered around 44,000. Another study in 1980 looked at where workers lived and PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 399 Clearfield's Main Street (lower left) merges with northbound Highway 91 (State Street) in 1940. Within a few years these roads were serving Weber County workers commuting to Hill Air Force Base and the Naval Supply Depot. (Utah State Historical Society) worked. The study found that 95 percent of Salt Lake County work­ers and 90 percent of Utah County's work force were employed within their county of residence. Defense jobs in Davis County attracted 19 percent of Weber County's workers, while 72 percent found jobs in their home county and another 5 percent traveled to Salt Lake. Residents of Davis County were attracted to employment opportunities in both directions: 56 percent of the county's workers worked within the county, 31 percent commuted to Salt Lake County, and 12 percent went to Weber County. These figures emphasize the importance of transportation to Davis County and why most resi­dents supported the improvement of existing highways and con­struction of the West Davis Highway.111 The decision to leave Davis County for employment paid finan­cial dividends for most workers. Outbound commuters earned an 400 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY average of $6,000 a year more for comparable work than in-county workers. Davis County's suburban status within a major metropoli­tan area created a level of prosperity greater would have been possible had it maintained an agricultural economy. Overall per-capita earn­ings in Davis County ranked fourth in the state in 1996, after Summit, Salt Lake, and Weber Counties. The county had maintained similar rankings consistently during the previous quarter-century.112 Three Davis County cities-Fruit Heights, Farmington, and Centerville-ranked among the top ten Utah cities in a 1992 list of the largest median household incomes. Not surprisingly, Davis County claimed the smallest percentage of poor in the state, and five of its cities were in the bottom ten in the poverty ranking.113 Issues in County Government One of the distinctive features in Davis County politics has been the tradition of nominating and electing county commission candi­dates as representatives of three specific regions. The first members appointed in 1852 to what was known as the county court fit this prescription only generally. Probate Judge Joseph Holbrook, who chaired the first court, lived in Bountiful. His associates were select­men Truman Leonard of Farmington and Daniel Carter of Bountiful. The idea of three districts for the south, central, and north regions was formalized when, during their first term in office, these men cre­ated three voting precincts. The North Canyon Precinct served the Bountiful area, the Farmington Precinct included Centerville, Farmington, and what later became Fruit Heights, and the North Precinct represented Kaysville and the largely unsettled region north to the county boundary. At statehood, the precinct system was offi­cially abolished, but its practice continued as an unwritten "gentle­men's agreement." The political parties nominated candidates for specific regions, even though voters were technically electing them "at large." As the northern towns grew in size, the central "district" was defined as Farmington, Kaysville, and Layton, with the other two districts lying north and south of that cluster.114 From time to time, candidates have challenged this unwritten understanding; however, its supporters have successfully defended the practice by arguing that local citizens want to be represented by some- PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 401 one who knows them and understands local needs. For example, in 1965, the county Republican central committee was faced with rec­ommending candidates to fill a Republican vacancy on the commis­sion. The two sitting county commissioners, Glen W. Flint of Clinton and Stanley M. Smoot of Centerville, both Republicans, defended the tradition as necessary to prevent residents of the county from being "taxed without representation." The central committee considered six­teen applicants for the job, all but one of them from the central area. The vacated slot had been held by Wayne M. Winegar of Layton. A Clearfield candidate challenged the geographical practice, then with­drew his candidacy when the commission appointed him to chair a committee to study the traditional gentlemen's agreement. With the question tabled, the party selected six candidates from the central region. Three of them were Kaysville residents, the others were from Farmington, west Layton, and east Layton. Smoot and Flint picked Richard S. Evans, a west Layton farmer.115 Because the agreement is not a written rule, Wendell N. Zaugg, a Clearfield Republican, was able to win a two-year seat on the com­mission in 1976 even though the north end was already represented by Glen W Flint of West Point. Two years later, Zaugg was challenged in a rare primary contest for a four-year commission seat. Centerville Republican Ernest Eberhard, Jr., restored the commission's geo­graphical balance and went on to win in November over his Democratic opponent. More recently, north-end commissioner Gayle Stevenson was challenged in 1992 and again in 1996 by Bountiful candidates who ignored the gentlemen's agreement but failed to con­vince voters to support them. Political observers did not agree on whether the electoral tradition would survive its next challenge.116 The first twenty years after the end of the Second World War marked a dramatic increase in the number and kinds of services pro­vided by state and local governments. At the same time, there was a proliferation of services offered by special agencies, some of them completely independent of traditional government entities. The Census of Governments in 1967 listed sixteen municipalities in Davis County, plus the county government, the school board, and ten spe­cial districts. All but one of these agencies had taxing authority117 Many of the new functions of county government were added in 402 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY The Davis County Memorial Courthouse was built in 1931-32 as an expan­sion and major renovation of the 1890 building. Two major additions since then have expanded the building southward to create office space for new county agencies. (Utah State Historical Society) the 1960s and 1970s because of financial incentives established by the federal government over the previous years. Davis County was part of a broader movement and followed only slightly behind the national trend in creating new service functions. To the traditional elected offices of commissioner, sheriff, assessor, attorney, clerk, and judge were added numerous agencies offering health and social ser­vices. All of these fell under the general oversight of the county com­missioners, and some of them were attached to existing agencies with similar responsibilities. Among the new agencies were Job Services, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Employment and Training, Human Services (a state agency), Housing Authority and the Council on Aging. The county also presently oversees senior citizen centers in Bountiful, Clearfield, and Kaysville. The professionalization of county administration added the departments of administrative services, data processing, purchasing, human resources, and personnel. In PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 403 addition, the county provided economic development, animal con­trol, building inspection, and public works services. Not to be out­done by competing development agencies in the Ogden and Salt Lake metropolitan areas, the Davis County Economic Development Office netted 18 percent of the new companies with fifty or more employees coming into Utah during the early 1990s. The task was accomplished with the help of federal community-development block grants.118 The Public Works/Flood Control Department was a carryover from the Civilian Conservation Corps work of the 1930s. It expanded during the 1970s to coordinate local flood-prevention efforts. The agency played a key role after the devastating floods of 1983 in secur­ing funding through a bond issue to build catch basins and culverts. More recently, the office has consulted on wetlands issues.119 Prior to 1970, community needs had brought about a limited expansion of the role of county government. Among the early county agencies were the offices of Public Health and Public Welfare. Davis County created the first countywide health department in the state of Utah in 1923. A local physician traditionally serves as director, with a sanitation officer and public health nurses assisting. School pro­grams and basic guidance for the needy are the core of the depart­ments' offerings.120 The county welfare agency, organized in 1936, assigns case workers to help families provide for their basic needs. Planning was one of the most far-reaching of the early depart­ments. Coordinated planning began in 1918 when a county Farm Bureau was organized. W. D. Criddle was its first president. The group considered the common needs of the agricultural community and worked with government to solve related problems. In succeed­ing years other interest groups emerged, until it became necessary to create a single umbrella organization. Thus, in 1936, the Davis County Planning Commission came into being. A year later, a county commissioner became chair of this sixty-four-member group and it was renamed the Davis County Planning Board. Its interests initially remained strongly agricultural, with projects such as flood control and noxious weed eradication. The board offered guidelines for improving home health practices, family finances, and vocational training. Small subcommittees handled these and other projects, including crop and dairy herd improvement and accident prevention. 404 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY Every county agency and major interest group in the county was rep­resented on this comprehensive coordinating council. The focus of planning in Davis County changed radically because of the influx of new people and defense industries during World War II. By 1946 the Davis County Planning and Zoning Commission's work included preparation of a master road plan, con­sideration of recreational areas, use of public lands, population stud­ies, and a subdivision study. These were the major topics considered by planning commissions of the last half of the twentieth century. The large group that had coordinated agricultural efforts no longer met the needs of a county moving toward urbanization, and it was time for a new format.121 In response to rapid growth, the county organized a seven-member planning commission in 1948, with Keith Barnes as chair. Around this same time, all towns and cities in Davis County except Fruit Heights and West Point organized local planning commissions. The cities developed local master plans and regularly updated them as circumstances changed. Planners at all levels were involved in zon­ing issues, including the projected location of roads and streets. They reviewed subdivision plans, ensured compliance with building codes, and issued building permits. From the outset, almost one-fourth of the local planning commissioners were women. At the county level, however, men dominated the work for some time.122 In succeeding years, the Davis County Planning Commission adapted to changing circumstances. It became involved in promot­ing economic development in an effort to create a more diversified economy less dependent on Hill Air Force Base. As subdivisions expanded onto the foothills in the 1970s, the commission created a Hillside Development Control Model that was subsequently adopted by most other Utah counties. The office hired professionally trained planners in the 1980s and offered their services to the cities. Tourism and the county fair were added to the planning commission's port­folio in the 1990s.123 In the late 1960s, the county became part of a regional planning effort. In response to federal encouragement and with two-thirds of its operating budget funded by Congress, Davis, Weber, and Salt Lake Counties recognized the need for a forum to discuss shared problems PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 405 of urbanization. They organized the Wasatch Front Regional Council in March 1969 and were joined by Morgan and Tooele Counties three years later. Issues of regional concern were fed to the council by a county Council of Government (COG) in each participating county. The membership of each local COG included elected officials from city and county governments and sometimes from the school dis­tricts. Air pollution, transportation, water supply, housing, recre­ational open space, the Great Salt Lake, and land-use topics were among those discussed by the regional council through standing committees in five critical areas of interest. In the sense that the council established guiding principles and goals for the region, it functioned as a multicounty planning body124 For many years, cities in Davis County had been providing parks for their citizens. The county developed its first public park in the early 1960s, with the featured attraction an eighteen-hole golf course. To make it more accessible to all residents, the 213-acre Davis County Memorial Park was located at the county's midpoint, on the Mountain Road near Fruit Heights. The idea of a single park won out over an alternative option-separate parks in the two ends of the county, as planners decided that too many issues already divided the county The park's first phase, a picnic area, opened during the sum­mer of 1963. A playground and day-camp facilities were available for use the following year along with the first nine holes of the golf course. The park facilities subsequently included a golf clubhouse, tennis courts, ball diamonds, and an amphitheater.125 The development of a county fair got off to a slow start in Davis County. The Davis County Fair Association sponsored its first exhi­bition in 1906 at Lagoon, but it was not until 1924 that another county fair was held. In the interim, residents showed their produce and livestock at the state fair or at multicounty fairs. The fair subse­quently became a regular offering in a location at Davis High School. Initial planning for the Davis Memorial Park anticipated relocation of the county fair to the park. When those plans proved unworkable, the Davis County Commission signed an eight-year contract to use the old racetrack at Lagoon. Lagoon and the county built new bleach­ers for the rodeo, the resort got an exclusive option for rides and con­cessions, and in 1966 the Davis County Fair found a temporary home 406 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY The burial of Enoch Barton in 1918. (The Community of Syracuse) there, with displays continuing at the high school. In the late 1990s, the county developed its own fairgrounds near the new Justice Center in west Farmington, centered around an arena for rodeos.126 Trails to the Future Theyear after Utahns celebrated the centennial of statehood, the people of Davis County observed another anniversary In the fall of 1847, Perrigrine Sessions and a few companions had herded some livestock from the pioneer encampment at City Creek north past the hot springs. They wintered the stock on the lush grasses along the lakeshore and became the first Mormon settlers in future Davis County. The 150th anniversary of that event was noted mostly in the Bountiful area, where Sessions is revered as the founding father. In 1997 Farmington noted the sesquicentennial of the arrival of herder Hector C. Haight as well. Other anniversaries were noted by Centerville and Kaysville the following year. For residents with ancestral roots planted deep in the soils of these old communities, the anniversaries were meaningful. In some ways, the celebrations marked the end of another generation. The first Mormon settlers were being buried in the decade that Utah achieved statehood. The entrepreneurs of the new era of progress were disappearing when Utahns celebrated the hundredth anniver­sary of Brigham Young's arrival. The generation that came of age during the Depression and Second World War was filling the obitu­ary columns at Utah's statehood centennial in 1996. The rural Utah they had known was gone; and the suburban communities of their PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 407 children were now transitioning into a carpet of homes and busi­nesses. Brigham Young's anticipation of wall-to-wall cities for Davis County was coming to pass. German-born emigrant Heinrich Lienhard had not imagined such a populated place as he rode his horse along the bottomlands near Farmington Bay on a hot August day in 1846. Following a well-traveled route used by generations of Native Americans, Lienhard was part of a wagon company headed to California. Impressed by the scenic beauty of the landscape, certain that the rich, black soil would produce a munificent harvest, and lifted in spirits by the warm sunny air and shimmering lake, Lienhard was charmed. "The whole day long I felt like singing and whistling," he reflected in his report of the journey; "had there been a single fam­ily of white men to be found living here, I believe that I would have remained. Oh, how unfortunate that this beautiful country was uninhabited!"127 Lienhard might have started the settlement process himself had his traveling companions agreed; however, California seemed more enticing to the group, with its promise of certain prosperity. Some 150 years later, this beautiful country was densely inhabited, even, according to some, overpopulated. The "splendid plane" of rich soil that Lienhard had observed stretching downward from the mountain to the lake no longer offered the potential of becoming a productive garden spot. Instead, it served as a platform for homes and churches, schools, businesses, and connecting streets and highways. Mormon settlement of Davis County began the summer after Lienhard's party passed through the region with his wagon party. Over the century and a half since then, public discourse has moved from the pioneers' eagerness over agricultural opportunities to lively discussions about rationing space and providing for the needs of yet another generation. The issues imbedded in these continuing discus­sions include population growth and associated housing and trans­portation needs; economic development and the creation of work opportunities for the county's varied population; and a desire to pre­serve the quality of life that has attracted and retained a people who like living in the friendly communities of Davis County. Conscious of their heritage and optimistic about their ability to achieve their 408 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY goals, Davis County's citizens have set out on a familiar venture, fol­lowing well-understood ways while charting new paths as they plan for the future. ENDNOTES 1. Richard White, "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 514, 538-39, 542. Also see Gerald D. Nash, The American West in the Twentieth Century: A Short History of an Urban Oasis (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973). 2. Population figures used in this chapter are from Allan Kent Powell, ed., Utah History Encyclopedia, 432-38. Demographic analysis is based on these figures or drawn from other sources cited below. A useful analytic overview is Kimberley A. Bartel, Davis County: A Demographic and Economic Profile (Salt Lake City: Utah Department of Employment Security, 1996), cited below as Davis County Profile. Much of the informa­tion in this publication is updated regularly on the department's web page, <http://udesb.state.ut.us/lmi>. The growth claim is from the Salt Lake Tribune, 1 December 1963. 3. Davis County Clipper, 6 August 1977. 4. Deseret News, Davis Edition, 23 February 1997, Bl; Metropolitan Utah Demographic Atlas 1991-1992: Salt Lake City, Ogden, Provo, Orem, and Surrounding Areas (Salt Lake City: Economic Development Corporation, 1991), "Population-Demographics." 5. Davis County Profile, 7-10. 6. Kent Day, "The Impact of Hill Air Force Base," in Dan Carlsruh and Eve Carlsruh, eds., Layton, Utah: Historic Viewpoints, 395; James L. Clayton, "An Unhallowed Gathering: The Impact of Defense Spending on Utah's Population Growth, 1940-1964," Utah Historical Quarterly 34 (Summer 1966): 240-41. 7. Weekly Reflex, 19 June 1958. 8. Commissioners Glen W. Flint, Stanley M. Smoot, and Richard S. Evans to South Davis County Citizens, July 22, 1966, letter in preface to South Davis County Today and Tomorrow: A Final Report of the Davis County Citizen Planning County. . . for the South Davis County Master Plan (Salt Lake City: Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1966), vi. 9. Davis County Master Plan: A Guide for Growth, 1970 to 1990, for the County and Its 16 Incorporated Cities and Towns, prepared by C. Clay Allred & Associates and the Davis County Planning Office (n.p.: n.p, 1970), VIII- 1-2. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 409 10. South Davis County Today and Tomorrow, passim; Deseret News, 24 April, 11 June 1968, 20 April 1971; Davis County Clipper, 14 June 1968; Davis County Master Plan (1970), 1-12-14, II-l. 11. See previous note. 12. Davis County Master Plan (1970), facing page IV-1. 13. See U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Population, 1960, Report for Utah. 14. The Impact of Urbanization in Davis County, Utah, Bulletin 369 (Logan: Utah State Agricultural College, Agricultural Experiment Station, 1954), 4-5. 15. Ibid., 20-21. 16. Deseret News, 8 October 1963. 17. Deseret News, 9, 11, 18 October 1963. 18. Davis County Master Plan (1970), ix. 19. Davis County Clipper, 12 April 1968, 25 April 1969. 20. Deseret News, 31 December 1958, A8. 21. For the western pattern, see White, A New History of the American West, 542. 22. White, A New History of the American West, 548; Deseret News, 18 December 1991, Al. 23. Deseret News, 19 June 1964; [Clayton Holt], The Community of Syracuse, 1820 to 1995: Our Heritage, 344. 24. Davis County Clipper, 11 April 1952; Deseret News, 25 September 1957, B10. 25. Deseret News, 20 January 1958, A8, 15 August 1958, B12. 26. Deseret News, 27 May 1958, 21 May 1964; Salt Lake Tribune, 6 July 1958, C l l . 27. Deseret News, 5 September 1957, A7, 16 January 1958, Al, 27 May 1958; Salt Lake Tribune, 17 lanuary 1958. 28. Deseret News, 7, 10 February, 1 August 1963, Bl, Davis County Clipper, 17 lanuary 1969; Salt Lake Tribune, 24 May 1971, 24. 29. Davis County Clipper, 4 February 1977. 30. Deseret News, 22 April 1991, Al. 31. Salt Lake Tribune, 12 March 1951, 25 March 1953. 32. Deseret News, 26 January 1977, E3. 33. Davis County Clipper, 27 December 1996, A2. 34. Deseret News, 20 January 1994, Bl, 24 August 1995, B2. 35. Deseret News, 22 August 1997. 410 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY 36. Deseret News, 10 May 1991, B8, 26 September 1991, Bl, 26 February 1992, Bl. 37. Deseret News, 17 January 1995. 38. Deseret News, 7 December 1995, Bl, B8, 8 July 1996, Bl; Davis County Clipper, 12 December 1995; Ogden Standard-Examiner, 17 December 1996. 39. Deseret News, 3 March 1992, Bl. 40. Deseret News, 17 January 1998, Bl, 7 February 1995. 41. Davis County Clipper, 1 December 1998; Deseret News, 23 September 1996, Bl. 42. Deseret News, 22 October 1998, Bl, 14 July 1998, A8, 2 December 1998, A12; Salt Lake Tribune, 25 April 1999, C9. 43. Deseret News, 1 July, 22 October 1998. 44. Davis County Master Plan, I-10. 45. Arlene H. Eakle, Adelia Baird, and Georgia Weber, Woods Cross: Patterns and Profiles of a City, map on page 3. 46. Deseret News, 6 May 1977, A21, 29 May 1996, Bl, 12 November 1996, Bl, 14 November 1996, B4. 47. James A. Wood, "Construction Cycles in Utah," Utah Economic and Business Review 55 (November-December 1995), 2; Davis County Profile, 11-12; Davis County Clipper, 24 March 1998, A3. 48. Davis County Profile, 11-12. 49. Deseret News, 3 March 1997, B5. 50. Davis County Profile, 12. 51. Salt Lake Tribune, 16 April 1995, Bl; Deseret News, 24 May 1999. 52. Deseret News, 10 March 1999, B3, 30 January 1998, B6. 53. Deseret News, 2 September 1997, 20 October 1998. 54. Deseret News, 22 April 1995. 55. Davis County Clipper, 25 July 1995; Deseret News, 14 August 1997. 56. Davis County Clipper, 27 March 1998, A3. 57. Holt, Community of Syracuse, 344. 58. Deseret News, 19 June 1998; 8, 20 March 1999; Davis County Clipper, 19 March 1999, A5; Salt Lake Tribune, 1 September 1998, Al, A6. 59. Deseret News, 4 September 1998, 29 January 1999; Salt Lake Tribune, 11 September 1998, Al. 60. Davis County Clipper, 12 March 1999. 61. Deseret News, 18 November 1963, 8A, 17 September 1970, A16; "School Enrollment Projections in Utah 1991-2000," Research Briefs, No. 90-20 (Salt Lake City: Utah Foundation, 1990). PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 411 62. Davis County Profile, 11. 63. For examples of district construction budgets see Deseret News, 30 April 1957, 24 September 1958, 6A, 6 February 1963, 10A, 2 July 1963, 18A; Salt Lake Tribune, 1 December 1963. 64. Leslie T. Foy, The City Bountiful: Utah's Second Settlement, from Pioneers to Present, 209; Holt, Community of Syracuse, 394; LaRue Hugoe and Edith Deppe, West Bountiful: A Pictorial History, 1848-1988, 140. 65. Eakle, Baird, and Weber, Woods Cross, 51-52; Deseret News, 18 July 1972. 66. Deseret News, 9 June 1969, 20A; Holt, Community of Syracuse, 392. 67. Davis County: Land of Peace, Beauty, and a Quality Life (Farmington: Davis School District, 1994), 7, 11, 33, 47, 59; Hugoe and Deppe, West Bountiful, 139-40; Carol Ivins Collett, Kaysville-Our Town, 62. 68. The schools are listed in town profiles in Davis County: Land of Peace. 69. "Year Round Schools in Utah," Research Report, No. 459 (Salt Lake City: Utah Foundation, 1985); Deseret News, 12 September 1996, Bl. 70. Deseret News, 4 October 1968, D4, 9 June 1969, A20. 71. Deseret News, 8 January, 27 March (editorial), 2, 10 April, 25 May 1963; Salt Lake Tribune, 9 lanuary, 5 March, 2 April 1963. 72. John E. Christensen, "The Impact of World War II," in Richard Poll et al., Utah's History, 512. 73. Deseret News, 11 November 1963, Bl, 9 January 1969, C6; Davis County Clipper, 22 February 1969; Davis County Master Plan (1970), II-l. 74. Deseret News, 4 April 1979, Dl. 75. Deseret News, 5 August 1998. 76. Deseret News, 21 lanuary 1992, A10. 77. Carmen Daines Fredrickson, The Impact of Women Leaders of Davis County on a Changing Order (Logan: Utah State University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1959), 24; Deseret News, 16 June 1962, 11 July 1977; Salt Lake Tribune, 28 July 1963, B7. 78. Deseret News, 21 January 1992; 29 April 1999, Bl. 79. Collett, Kaysville-Our Town, 186; Deseret News, 21 lanuary 1992, 8 November 1996. 80. Deseret News, 24 September, 25 October 1979, 14 January 1980; Davis County Clipper, 10, 24 October 1979. 81. Collett, Kaysville-Our Town, 186; Deseret News, 6 November 1964, A12. 412 HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY 82. Deseret News, 7 April 1997, B3; Davis County Clipper, 19 November 1996, A3, 11 April 1997, Al. 83. Collett, Kaysville-Our Town, 146-47. 84. Davis County Clipper, 22 November 1996. 85. Deseret News, 22 lanuary 1997, B3; Davis County Clipper, 22 November 1996. 86. Impact of Urbanization, 13; Foy, City Bountiful, 270. 87. Doneta McGonigle Gatherum, "Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church," in Carlsruh and Carlsruh, Layton, Utah, 197-200; Foy, City Bountiful, 270. 88. Foy, City Bountiful, 271-72; Deseret News, 6 May 1995. 89. Davis County Clipper, 24 March 1995; Deseret News, 1 April 1995, Dl. 90. Deseret News, 6 May 1995; Davis County Clipper, 15 April 1997, 4 September 1998; Foy, City Bountiful, 270-71. 91. Davis County Clipper, 31 December 1996, C6; Deseret News, 21 June 1992, Al. 92. Collett, Kaysville-Our Town, 171. 93. Deseret News, 26 March 1997, A3; Davis County Clipper, 12 November 1998. 94. Davis County Master Plan (1970) III-9. 95. Davis County Clipper, 29 December 1998, 12 March 1999; Deseret News, 12 August 1998. 96. Deseret News, 3 January 1997, B4, 1 January 1998. 97. Davis County Clipper, 11 August 1992, Bl, 17 November 1998. 98. Deseret News, 7 August 1997, 11 May 1998, Bl, 2 February 1999, Bl, 20 April 1999, Bl; Davis County Clipper, 19 lanuary, 2 February 1999. 99. Deseret News, 14 January 1997, Bl. 100. Deseret News, 29 January 1997. 101. Impact of Urbanization, 13; Davis County Master Plan, II-6. 102. Davis County Profile, 21. 103. Jan Crispin-Little and James A. Wood, "Utah's Adjustment to Declining Defense Budgets," Utah Economic and Business Review 50 (November-December 1990): 1-11; "Federal Expenditures in Utah, 1980," Research Briefs, 81-9 (Salt Lake City: Utah Foundation, 1981). 104. Davis County Profile, 20. 105. Deseret News, 17 July 1996, B7, 29 January 1998, A17, 24 March 1999, B3. 106. Deseret News, 7 October 1996. 107. Deseret News, 29 July 1997, 19 October 1998, Al. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE 413 108. Day, "The Impact of Hill Air Force Base," 401-2; Wood, "Construction Cycles in Utah," 1-10. 109. Davis County Master Plan, 11-4. 110. Deseret News, 1 July 1997, B9. 111. Davis County Profile, 56; "Employment and Income-Labor Force Participation," in Metropolitan Utah Demographic Atlas, 1991-1992. 112. Davis County Profile, 56; "Personal Income in Utah Counties, 1996," Utah Economic and Business Review 58 (March-April 1998): 2; "Personal Income in Utah Counties, 1979," Utah Economic and Business Review 41 (April-May 1981): 3; "Personal Income in Utah, 1975," Research Briefs, No. 76-9 (Salt Lake City: Utah Foundation, 1976). 113. Deseret News, 11 July 1992, B3. 114. Davis County, County Court Minutes, 14 lune 1852; Davis County Argus (Farmington), 29 November 1904; Davis County Clipper, 23 November 1900. 115. Deseret News, 11 December 1964, Bl; 15 December 1964, A14; 19 December 1964, B5; 4 January 1965, B2; 6 January 1965, A8; 15 January 1965, Bl. 116. Deseret News, 12 October 1998. 117. Davis County Master Plan (1970), 1-1. 118. Deseret News, 2 May 1991. 119. Sid Smith, County Director of Public Works, interview with Cory W. Leonard, 18 August 1993, Kaysville, Utah. 120. Fredrickson, Impact of Women Leaders, 22. 121. Information provided to the author by Wilf Sommerkorn, Acting Director of the Davis County Planning Commission, from the commission minute books. 122. Fredrickson, Impact of Women Leaders, 23. 123. Wilf Sommerkorn, interview with Cory W. Leonard, 21 May 1993, Davis County Courthouse, Farmington. 124. Wasatch Front Regional Council, Utah, First Annual Report, (n.p., 1972), 1-7. 125. Davis County Clipper, 25-29 November 1968; Deseret News, 19 July 1963, 10A. 126. Davis County Clipper, 13 August 1996; Reflex, 18 March, 20 May 1965; Deseret News, 19 September 1964, 18 March, 7 April, 18, 21 May 1965. 127. J. Roderic Korns and Dale L. Morgan, eds., West from Fort Bridger: The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails Across Utah, 1846-1850, 2nd. ed., revised and updated by Will Bagley and Harold Schindler (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1994), 144.