Campaign Phone
801-709-1269
1) Build more housing! By fixing Provo’s restrictive and often baffling zoning, especially in student neighborhoods, we can reduce housing costs for all renters and prevent students from being pushed into family neighborhoods.
2) Improve transit and parking near BYU and downtown. Provo is short on parking, and access to transit is limited. Addressing both will be key to supporting healthy residential and business environments in the city’s core.
Again, build more!
Since 2002, the City Council has prohibited upzoning and redevelopment in student neighborhoods south and west of campus. I support lifting those restrictions, expanding Provo’s housing supply, and driving down rents across the city.
Provo still has plenty of empty lots; unused land that isn’t intentionally preserved as open space. By encouraging smart, mixed-use infill development, we can maintain the city’s character while expanding access to housing and jobs.
This will require thoughtful infrastructure investment and collaboration with private and public partners.
Provo’s rental economy is deeply tied to UVU and Orem. By working with Orem and UTA to expand both student housing and access to it, we can reduce housing and transit costs for ALL of Provo’s residents.
A sustainable future begins with a strong foundation for economic growth. Provo’s tax base has suffered as commercial development moves outside city limits.
By supporting walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly, and car-accessible commercial zones (and enabling more people to live near where they work or study) we can build a resilient, prosperous city.
Campaign Phone
3852199804
My first priority is to complete the complete rewrite of our antiquated zoning code. I was able to persuade the rest of the council that this is necessary. Our old code was from the 1970s and is incredibly convoluted and onerous. We appropriated money for the rewrite, and the new code will come to us after legal finishes its review. Using council legislative tools to simplify zoning is the most direct way we can address housing affordability.
My second priority is to create policy and visioning goals for our redevelopment agency and economic growth. For too long our RDA was only reactive. We just hired new RDA and economic development directors, so we are poised to make substantial, forward-thinking changes spur good growth.
I'm already encouraging more outreach about our down payment assistance programs. I also advocate for additional higher density housing along our urban core near public transportation and to the south and west of campus. After all, housing prices are subject to supply and demand, and with our low vacancy rate, the only way to lessen the demand on the market (and so lower the price) is the increase the supply. I also keep fighting for more affordable options, like smaller residential units, decreased set backs or lot sizes, and, where appropriate, lower parking requirements. All of those things, which are set by city code, have a huge effect on the cost of housing.
I am connected with the Agriculture Commission and take seriously what our farmers tell me about preserving their farms and water. I also support conservation easements so that property owners may choose to preserve the nature of their land while getting the compensation they need to survive. I also support the protections we've set up for our foothills and critical hillsides. And last, but not least, I am constantly advocating with everyone who has influence on the state level to protect the state mental hospital campus from being sold to developers.
I have open lines of communication with our county commissioners and state legislators. I go to the meetings hosted by UTA and have developed a good working relationship with our local liaison. And attending conferences like ULCT are really helpful for connecting with elected officials in other communities. I've formed some really good relationships this way. I started having regular lunch meetings with a councilmember from another city after I got elected, and it has been so helpful.
Our city needs to support more economic development. This means encouraging underutilized properties to be redeveloped and reconsidering overly restrictive laws we have put in place (like the law to allow brew pubs that technically made it impossible for anyone to open a brew pub here). I've been working with staff and legal on a boarded building ordinance that we can bring for council consideration after we get an update for how the new tool of daily civil fines for zoning violations has affected nuisances, zoning enforcement, and use of neglected properties in our city.
