Orem council candidates debate State Street growth, neighborhood protections and city finances

At a candidate forum at the CIRA Center for the Arts in Orem, candidates for Orem City Council debated growth management, State Street zoning, neighborhood protections and city finances in front of a Chamber-hosted audience.

The forum, moderated by Curtis Blair of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce, opened with one-minute statements from each candidate and moved to audience-sourced questions. Incumbent Councilwoman Lynnae Millet and incumbent Councilman David Spencer defended the council’s recent interventions on State Street and presented low-tax stewardship as a priority. Challenger Quinn Mecham, and other challengers, emphasized citizen engagement and neighborhood quality-of-life issues.

“State Street right now, we have a thing in our State Street Mass Fund that we need to beautify State Street,” Councilman David Spencer said, saying the council previously placed a moratorium that removed a plan he said would have allowed “10,000 high density apartments” along State Street. He argued the city’s sales-tax revenue depends on keeping…