The General Plan, developed with resident input, exists as a guide for how the Town would like to move forward. Every municipality and county in Utah has a General Plan. As Mayor, I would propose a review of the General Plan adopted in 2022. As a Town, with input from the Town’s residents, we should either affirm the 2022 General Plan or amend it, and then, in either case, follow the General Plan.
For seven years, prior to moving to Leeds, I served on a regional high school Board of Education that operated two high schools that serviced three municipalities’ students in New Jersey. Each municipality had its own kindergarten through 8th grade school district, its own municipal government (with its own police department) and its own volunteer fire department and ambulance corps. With all of these stand-alone entities, it is not surprising that New Jersey has historically ranked as having one of the highest property tax rates in the country. There were many opportunities to work together among these various entities to reduce collective costs, without giving up autonomy, that had been passed up. As a member of that Board of Education I encouraged working together across the communities we served and we were able to recognize cost savings without reducing services.
The opportunity to work together across communities and benefit all exists here in Southwest Utah as well. As Leeds Mayor from 2014 through 2021 I sought out some of those opportunities. Over the next four years as Leeds Mayor I would look to expand those pursuits. Each of our communities has a General Plan, meant to reflect the desires of the community. We should all be guided by those General Plans. With very little exception, those General Plans are not in opposition to each other. We should not let concern about what a neighboring community might do, cause us to deviate from our own plans. We should communicate with our neighboring communities, perhaps oftentimes finding that our concerns regarding a particular outcome are baseless. We should also coordinate with our neighboring communities in addressing infrastructure maintenance (an example being the surface treating of roads), where working together could result in meaningful cost savings to us all.
Wayne Peterson For Leeds Mayor 