The wintry white outside Salt Lake City Hall turned decidedly green inside on Tuesday as the City Council held a fact-finding forum on environmental efforts to improve sustainability in Utah's capital.
Slimming cars from streets, boosting bike lanes and building trails, cleansing water, cleaning air, recycling and maximizing efficiencies with utilities all were discussed.
Mayor Ralph Becker suggested the city is going back to the future, noting early settlers remained self-sufficient for decades. And he said his 7-month-old Office of Sustainability is working "not just exceptionally hard, but exceptionally well" to push that goal.
Council Chairman Carlton Christensen called it unfortunate that sustainability can be a divisive topic, especially since he considers it "good common horse sense."
Highlights from the city's growing "green" list:
» Reach an "aggressive" 50 percent recycling diversion rate by 2015.
» Reduce 20 percent of carbon emissions by 2020.
» Add recycling bins in public squares and parks, plus curbside glass recycling, in the coming year.
» Consider adding brown can for yard waste part of regular garbage service.
» Plug three gaps in city's Jordan River Parkway trail
» Launch reusable bag program on Earth Day.
» Host bike summit this spring.
Other suggestions were floated. Councilman Luke Garrott insisted the city must plan ambitiously if it wants to become a "bikers paradise."
"We have the wealth of these really wide streets," he said. "We don't always need two car lanes."
Councilman Van Turner suggested the city use a west-side grant to help clean the gunky air that too often settles in the Jordan River valley.
Becker pointed to a joint effort with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon to promote air-quality initiatives that will ramp up this summer. And he telegraphed a budget move to require all future landfill funding go toward sustainability measures.
Community councils are joining the cause, vowing to push green practices in the neighborhoods.
The city also hopes to save more open space. Besides targeting the federal stimulus to restore the Jordan River corridor and Emigration Creek, officials note $3.6 million still is available from the voter-approved 2003 open-space bond.
Now that the near-$800 billion stimulus bill is signed, President Barack Obama is inviting a small group of mayors to Washington on Friday to discuss municipal needs for the money.
Mayor Ralph Becker wasted no time to adjust his schedule to make the trip -- which will be his latest in a string of Beltway visits.
"I'm encouraged that the Obama administration is soliciting mayors to participate ... in formulating what to do," Becker told the City Council on Tuesday.
He also said he is more excited about this meeting since the dozen or so mayors may broach specifics such as funding two priorities Becker mentioned: the Jordan River trail and North Temple viaduct.
"We're not talking about bridges to nowhere," the mayor said, invoking the Alaskan project lampooned during the presidential campaign as a symbol of pork.
Derek P. Jensen
