Grand County advisory board frames general-plan economy chapter around visitor economy, housing and resiliency

The Grand County Economic Opportunity Advisory Board spent its special workshop refining a draft update to the county's general-plan chapter on the economy, focusing on how to turn the Trails/Veil to Tomorrow strategic study into an actionable, measurable framework.

Chris Wilson, a member of the advisory board, told attendees the draft frames the chapter in three parts: the visitor economy, fundamentals such as housing and workforce, and support for local businesses and tourism-adjacent industries. He said the meeting was intended as a workshop, not a decision-making session, and invited board members to contribute wording and specific policy ideas.

The board repeatedly returned to housing and workforce gaps as the fundamental constraint. Melody McCandless, Grand County Commissioner, said housing is the base of other changes and singled it out as the community's highest priority. Corey Shurtleff, community development director for the City of Moab, urged the board to use land-use incentives and policy tools to create a more sustainable, year-round community so local businesses can staff jobs reliably.

Several board members recommended the plan include a resilience objective: prepare for seasonality and downturns, protect essential services and reduce infrastructure stress. Randy Martin urged use of local metrics, noting the county's high share of short-term rentals and hotel rooms as context for any recommendations; he said those figures should inform policies on staffing needs, service demands and visitor management.

Participants discussed a four-part alternative frame — strengthen, develop, diversify and evolve — that would split the economy chapter into fundamentals, visitor-economy development, tourism-adjacent business support and forward-looking opportunities. Supporters said the structure helps translate the strategic study into measurable actions; others warned about word choices and unintended consequences (for example, "optimize" could be read as simply maximizing visitation).

Speakers also recommended explicit policy language tying product development (trails, OHV management, signage) to marketing so visitor experiences are maintained rather than relying solely on promotional spending. Corey Shurtleff pointed to the Trailmix approach as a model for coordinating land managers, user groups and local businesses.

Board members volunteered to draft paragraphs for specific subtopics and proposed a public dashboard of monthly metrics to provide a shared set of facts for residents and officials. Chris and Ben Alter (assistant economic development director) said staff would compile the board's notes and return draft language for future review and for later recommendation to the county commission.

The workshop closed without votes; next steps identified were to collect volunteered writing contributions, develop measurable metrics (including a proposed monthly dashboard) and refine policy prescriptions before forwarding the chapter to the commission.