Rural Planning

While rural communities have many attributes that could attract new businesses and industries such as lower cost of land, a hard working labor force, available water and clean air sheds etc., they are often overlooked due to the additional cost of capital investment and infrastructure needed to relocate or expand in rural Utah. The GRPB recognizes an urgent statewide need to equalize population growth and job opportunities across the state. For this reason the GRPB recommends the creation of a new

post-performance “Rural Economic Development Tax Increment Finance” (REDTIF) incentive, an expansion of the existing High Cost Infrastructure Tax Credit (HCITC), or a policy modification of the existing EDTIF program which would include incentives and employment level requirements that are more accessible for the expansion of existing rural businesses or relocation of businesses to rural areas of the state. The GRPB further recommends that a Rural Advisory Committee made up of GRPB members, and rural GOED board members be created to participate in the review of rural tax incentive applications.

Tourism and outdoor recreation are a significant part of many rural economies, but success in these industries has also brought challenges such as lack of affordable housing, overcrowding of National Parks, and stress on existing infrastructure including roads, emergency response capacity, health care etc. Moab City’s Main Street is an example of a city which is actively working with UDOT to resolve congestion caused by both tourists and semi-trailers on Main Street but is unable to access TRT taxes to help resolve this. Numerous rural communities are unable to provide adequate affordable housing for the number of tourism employees during a portion of the year. This seasonal housing issue has a domino effect on other full time resident housing availability. The GRPB recommends that an additional

percentage of Transient Room Tax (TRT) funds be made available to counties of the 3rd to 6th class as well as flexibility in spending for needed infrastructure to address the demands created by robust tourism visitation.

The GRPB commends the rural counties for their excellent response to Governor Herbert’s challenge announced during the 2017 “Utah Rural Summit” held in Cedar City to develop a Strategic Economic Development Plan. Many of the counties used the strategic planning process to expand partnerships with cities and towns, K-12 and higher education, business and government. Challenges such as lack of affordable housing, workforce development and economic diversification were identified within the Plans, as were each county’s unique opportunities for growth. State departments eagerly responded to numerous requests for support from counties for specific elements identified in their Strategic Plans. The GRPB recognizes however that many of the opportunities identified in the rural Strategic Plans will not be realized without significant financial support. For this reason, the GRPB recommends that the

legislature create or expand an existing business expansion and retention grant program for rural communities to directly promote the growth of existing small business, economic diversification, job creation, and the development of strategic plans or implementation of economic development goals identified in current strategic economic development plans.

The GRPB further recommends that the Office of Rural Development in collaboration with other state, federal and private sector partners continues to create awareness of the many available