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Emery County planning commission recommends BioWest to update general and resource-management plan
Summary
After reviewing four proposals, the Emery County Planning Commission voted to recommend BioWest to lead a combined general-plan and resource-management update and to forward that recommendation to the county commissioners; commissioners also discussed funding from CIB and PLIPCO.
The Emery County Planning Commission voted in November 2024 to recommend BioWest to lead an update of the county’s general plan and the attached resource-management plan, after reviewing four proposals and debating trade-offs between price and federal-lands experience.
Chair Gary Arrington opened discussion of four proposals received in response to the county’s RFP and reiterated that the resource-management portion has to include state-required elements added in recent years. Staff recited the bids: BioWest at $35,000, Sunrise Engineering at about $85,000, Hansen Planning Group at $48,000 and SC Group at $46,500. Commissioners said they wanted the plan to balance legal clarity, local values and the ability to press federal agencies using county policy language.
Nicole Nilsson of the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLIPCO) told the panel she was “here to help” with the resource-management portion and said PLIPCO can provide technical guidance and limited funding for the county’s effort. Nilsson said PLIPCO initially offered roughly $6,000 and indicated it could increase that support to about $10,000 to help cover resource-plan work.
Commissioners discussed whether to prioritize the lowest bid or a firm with federal-lands expertise. Several members said BioWest’s follow-up and lower price were attractive; others pointed to Hansen’s recent local work and SC Group’s public-lands experience. After discussion the commission approved a motion, as amended, to recommend BioWest and to designate Hansen as the second choice; the recommendation will be presented for final approval by the county commission.
The panel also discussed how the updated plan could include stronger, specific language about solar development on federal lands, protection of grazing animal-unit-months (AUMs) and the county’s stance on additional wilderness designations; several speakers said such wording would strengthen the county’s ability to press federal agencies during environmental reviews.
Votes at a glance: the commission approved Oct. 9 minutes earlier in the meeting (unanimous); moved to start a UDOT grant application to help rewrite ordinances (unanimous); approved the Winder–Snyder minor subdivision (unanimous); recommended a conditional-use permit for blasting at a Horn Shadow solar site (unanimous); and recommended BioWest for the general/resource plan (unanimous as amended). The commission stated the final decision on selecting BioWest rests with the county commissioners at their next meeting.
