The “Doing Our Part Mayor’s Panel,” held at Dixie Applied Technical College last week, brought together mayors and council members from Washington County to address the pressing issue of attainable housing. Mayor Rosenberg joined Mayors Kress Staheli of Washington, Michele Randall of St. George, Barbara Bruno of Springdale, and Chris Hart of Ivins for a discussion followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Mayor Staheli concluded the meeting with a series of actionable calls:
To City Officials: Be a good partner to builders and developers. Be open, flexible, and forward-thinking
To Builders and Developers: Build more homes like you grew up in, or your parents grew up in. Lead out with common sense, down to earth models targeted toward first-time home buyers
To State Officials: Continue to look for creative solutions you can control and enact at the state level, while respecting local governments and land use and planning. Assist with transfer of federal lands to municipalities for housing where possible
All agree that it will take collaboration of the entire community to pave the way to attainable housing.