Governor Mike Leavitt
Cedar City, Utah

Brigham Young encountered nothing but sun-baked desert and the shore of a strange lake when he led the pioneer settlers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, but he saw much more. A city of commerce and culture that might one day become a crossroads of the American West.

A few years later as governor of the Utah Territory, he walked from Santa Clara through the fields of what is now St. George and again looked beyond the emptiness and into the future. There would be a city with spires and homes, he predicted, and people by the thousands.

Brigham Young had envisioned Salt Lake City and St. George. He had correctly calculated the passage of time. And most importantly, he understood the power of time deployed well.

That is the challenge that faces each generation, and now it is our turn. Our tomorrows are going to pass as quickly as our yesterdays did. The future awaits us today.

Utah's celebration of the sesquicentennial is ending. One hundred fifty years ago, the pioneers came into an empty valley. By the time of the centennial celebration in 1947, there was a monument to their arrival at the mouth of Emigration Canyon. But as Utahns who attended those festivities recollect, you had to travel a dusty street across the foothills to get there. The homes, shopping centers, churches, schools and research parks of Foothill Boulevard were yet to come.

Those kinds of memories become more profound when viewed in context with the passage of time. In the same 50-year span between the centennial and sesquicentennial, the world has changed, too. Fifty years ago, Japan had an economy smaller than present-day Ethiopia, but is an industrial power today. The Berlin Wall came down. Space shuttles went up. The Soviet Union dissolved, but computers linked nations. We have fax machines, debit cards, cellular phones and digital televisions. In the lives of some, the Internet has eliminated any need for a postage stamp.

Salt Lake City has its skyline; St. George its spires. The next 50 years of changes are upon us, and they will come at an even faster rate.

The four largest counties of Utah are urban centers with big-city growth issues requiring a specific set of initiatives that will be forthcoming. What I am announcing today is a blueprint for the 25 other counties 162 cities and towns outside the Wasatch Front. A game plan for rural Utah.

I come to this as a son of rural Utah, who was born in Cedar City, grew up on a ranch in Loa and struggled mightily, at the age of 12, to understand why a relative could possibly want to buy up a few acres in a far-off wasteland to the south and west of us named Mesquite. It was my father's hometown and so he knew the answer. "Mike, there's water here. There's a major highway that runs through here. It's warm. You've got gambling and a Mormon temple 38 miles away. That's a combination that some day people are going to want."

We all know what has happened. Mesquite, Nevada, is on its way to becoming the next Palm Springs. But what about our own sleepy towns. Kanab and Kamas, Tropic and Tremonton, Monticello and Manila?

When I am able to get away to Wayne County for rest and regrounding, I can still get up in the morning and walk down the road and see the same scene I saw as a kid hauling hay. There is constancy to rural Utah and a cultural and historical connection to the urban areas of the state. What may have been considered disadvantages in the past will rapidly, in the next century become advantages. The reason is clear:

Rural Utah has what people want – a combination of safety and security and sense of community and, through technology, the ability to conduct business in Hong Kong. Simultaneously.

Communities are like plants. Different plants prosper in different conditions and bloom at different times. No one can predict the future. But because of the unique combination of safety, security, sense of community and the ability to conduct business in Hong Kong, the 21st century will be the time that rural Utah blossoms.

There are global, social and economic trends shaping the emergence of the rural West, which are beyond the control of local and state leaders. The key then is to position those communities through planning, promotion and partnerships to make certain that the lives of rural Utahns converge economically and socially with where the world is headed.

How do we do that? It ultimately is up to each community. But today I present the state's general framework for the economic development of rural Utah in the 21st Century. It begins with two announcements and 10 guiding principles.

To consolidate and coordinate administration efforts in rural Utah, a Governor's Rural Office will be opened and with it a Governor's Rural Partnership, based in Cedar City. The office will be headed by Wes Curtis and accorded senior staff/cabinet status. The partnership will consist of the governor's office, Southern Utah University's Center for Rural Life, Utah State University Extension Service, the Utah Rural Development Council and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

The prime undertaking of the new rural office will be the 21st Century Communities program, the vehicle by which the administration's rural initiatives will be channeled.

Underlying both initiatives are 10 principles which will guide our advance into the future.

• More people. Population growth in rural Utah has exceeded that of urban Utah for the last six years 3.2 percent per year, compared to 2.3 percent since 1990. Leading the way are Washington County at 6.4%; Grand, 5.3%; Summit, 5.3%; Beaver, 4.2%, Iron, 4.1%; and Sanpete, 4.1%.
  
  
• Find new ways of earning a living. Agriculture and industry are mature. Global economics, competing uses of land and environmental pressures have made it difficult for employment in those areas to keep pace with population growth. Agriculture and industry will remain the foundation, but the impact of both will not remain proportionate.
  
  
• Technology will change the way we live. In 1997, there is no place on the globe that is unreachable by the Internet. From a cell phone and laptop, Henrieville can contact – and do business – with Hong Kong.
  
  
• Rural Utah's greatest assets will be people, setting and heritage. A sense of safety and community are premium in the world, drawing newcomers in droves. Increasing numbers of them will have imported incomes – they will live here but be paid from somewhere else. That trend will create service economies and infrastructure development by necessity. Communities should not expect 100-employee firms to spring up in their midst, but many small businesses of 46 workers will.
  
  
• A generation of planners. Local planning by counties and communities has risen markedly in recent years, and it is a positive trend. Planning is the privilege and responsibility of local communities, and they do it best.
  
  
• Political and sociological differences. Newcomers drawn to rural Utah by the setting, safety and sense of community will have mindsets, beliefs and lifestyles that may differ markedly from those they join, creating tension. The ability to act civilly and manage political and sociological differences is critical for preserving quality of life.
  
  
• Focus state and local government efforts. The Governor's Rural Office and Rural Partnership will bring together some 100 organizations that have handled economic development in rural Utah but lacked the resources of money and staff to form critical mass. Consolidation and coordination will bring focus.
  
  
• Communities of the 21st Century. The objective of economic resettlement will be to develop rural Utah into a network of communities that blend small-town quality with global sophistication.
  
  
• Defining rural Utah and measuring success. Rural Utah consists of hundreds of vastly different communities. Some remain much the way they have for years. Others, like St. George and Washington County, are no longer rural in the way they were before. Successful economic resettlement will be achieved one community at a time and measured one community at a time.
  
  
• Local leadership determines the outcome. Every economic development success in rural Utah over the past 25 years has come as a result of local leaders stepping up, defining what they want their community to be, and making it happen.

State government has provided the framework for 21st century positioning, and it also will channel resources, advice and financial incentives. What it cannot do is conduct planning for a community, guarantee success or define quality. The latter point was driven home recently by a rural county commissioner. While discussing a project the state could do in partnership, I used the phrase, "This could change the county in a significant way." The commissioner liked the proposal but didn't care much for the choice of words. He said, "You don't get it. We don't want it to change." Point taken. It is not the governor's or state's job to define what a community thinks of as quality.

What the state will do, through the 21st Century Community program, is serve as a mentor, providing technical assistance and coaching; as a partner that builds state parks occasionally and issues CIB loans, grants, mineral lease funds and tax incentives; a coordinator in areas such as telemedicine and long-distance learning; a policy setter and planning agency; an employer, where appropriate; and a defender that will stand up for rural Utah against forces that might threaten it.

Goals of the 21st Century Communities program are to prepare rural Utah for unprecedented population and visitor growth, to create new jobs and reduce unemployment, diversify rural economies and protect quality of life.

Each community will decide the extent of participation. But the 21st Century Community program will lay out areas of achievement and qualities that the rural partnership office and board will develop with local leaders, councils of government and those whose lives will be impacted. The state will assist at each step as the achievements are realized and will be there with recognition when goals are attained.

It will unfold like this: A community decides it wants to participate. Its representatives come to the rural partnership center and an inventory is done – assets identified; steps outlined. A determination is made about what progress is needed and what resources the state can provide. Need help with planning? The state could award a grant. Telecommunications troubles? Perhaps we can help with your provider. Energy and natural gas? Maybe there is a program the state could put together to bring it about. Through the center, the state will help identify areas of achievement, and when cities and towns have reached a certain level of attainment, the state will come with signs and acknowledgment that tell the world that this is a community ready to greet the 21st century.

Areas of achievement will fall within four broad categories: community planning; physical infrastructure; community services; and economic development. Planning likely will include fixtures such as a comprehensive five-year plan encompassing zoning, capital improvements and affordable housing. It could include an economic development plan coordinated with other areas around the region and cooperative agreements between cities and counties to ensure notification if one begins to plan in a way that affects the other.

In the area of physical infrastructure, components would include a water and sewer plan adequate to meet future demands; a transportation master plan that is ongoing and coordinated with all stakeholders, and sufficient access, efficient use and progressive conservation of energy.

Community service achievements would involve access to primary health care, to a full degree college and applied technology training, and adequate police, fire and emergency planning. Of obvious and vital importance will be technology. A community of the 21st century will have 21st century telecommunications.

The future of rural Utah has never been brighter. And as we look into the next 150 years since Brigham Young led the settlement of Utah, let it also inspire us to think about the past and think about the future. Let us remember their foresight and let us emulate it. Let us not just admire the generations of preparation, but let us be a generation of preparation. And let it be said not just that Utah is still the right place. Let it be said that as a result of our service, Utah is a better place.

New settlers are coming for our setting, safety and sense of community and Hong Kong is calling.