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EDEN, Weber County — Proponents of incorporating part of the Ogden Valley can be an outspoken bunch.
They've held numerous meetings to promote the effort and mustered enough signatures in about a month to get the question on the November ballot.
Laura Warburton, though, has been banging the drum against turning a broad zone in the Eden, Liberty and Wolf Creek areas and an expanse east of Huntsville into a new city. It can be lonely, she said, as many foes seem fearful of speaking out against the proposal lest they risk the wrath, she maintains, of the seemingly more vocal and organized pro-incorporation contingent. Incorporation boosters "have been brutal on anyone who pushes back. It's tough to watch and even tougher to deal with," Warburton charged.
Nonetheless, she doesn't think incorporation of the zone east of Ogden across the Wasatch Front in eastern Weber County is a foregone conclusion. "I think most of the people are undecided at this point. I think there's definitely a chance of it failing," said Warburton, who lives in an unincorporated area outside Huntsville, within the boundaries of the proposed new city.
Through it all, she campaigns against incorporation in the Ogden Valley on her own via a website she created, keepourvalleyfree.com, and a companion Facebook page. The pro-incorporation contingent rallies its troops via its own website, ogdenvalleyinc.org, and a Facebook page as well.
Moreover, spurred by the fierce incorporation debate in the Ogden Valley, Warburton has gotten involved in pushing for change to the state guidelines governing incorporation. She was one of several people to testify on the issue at a June 19 hearing of the Utah Legislature's Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, noting her reservations with the incorporation process as currently configured. The committee, which is studying the matter, voted that day to open a bill file with an eye to possibly crafting legislation to alter incorporation guidelines during the 2025 legislative session.
As for the Ogden Valley incorporation drive, the specter of increased taxes if the zone becomes a city is Warburton's big worry. She's not so sure a feasibility study into the question, which said tax hikes wouldn't be necessary, has it completely right. New city staffers, road maintenance, construction of city administration buildings, if needed, she says, would create upward pressure on taxes to raise the necessary money.
Proponents' key argument in favor of incorporation is that it would give locals more control as development pressure mounts in the growing area, home to three ski resorts, a reservoir that's a popular draw and many weekend and vacation homes. With a new city would come a locally elected mayor and city council to lead the locale, now, as an unincorporated swath, governed by the three-member Weber County Commission. In a post on her website on the issue, though, Warburton warned that many get into politics "with good intentions but can stray from their promises."
Likewise, she argues that having a city government wouldn't necessarily create the sort of controls on development that incorporation boosters seem to seek, noting, among other things, state laws that dictate land use. "The claim that incorporation would give us 'control' over growth is an illusion. We must recognize the realities of existing regulations rather than buy into surface-level arguments that sound good but don't hold up under scrutiny," Warburton wrote.
She also senses a measure of hypocrisy among incorporation proponents leery of increased development, specifically those who are relatively new to the Ogden Valley. "Many of the people that are for incorporation and anti-me have only been here for a couple years and they live in these new homes and now they want to shut that gate. It is a typical response that I've seen in the last 20 years — people move here, now they want to shut the gate and that's what's happening," Warburton said.
If the incorporation proposal passes in November, the wheels would start moving toward creation of a new governing body and elections to pick leaders to manage the locale.
