City seeks small-area master plan for city center; grant decision expected next month

Planning staff Alika told the combined South Ogden City Council and Planning Commission on Feb. 18 that the city has applied for a Wasatch Front Regional grant to produce a small-area master plan for the city center, including a potential public gathering space. "The whole point of tonight is to go over, chapter 7 of the general plan, which is the implementation chapter, which has the catalytic objects or action items," Alika said, and staff expected to hear whether the grant was awarded in about a month.

Commissioners debated the scope of the proposed plan. Some members urged focusing narrowly on the city-center gathering place to avoid spreading staff capacity too thin, while others recommended the master plan also consider neighborhood centers and streetscapes so future grant applications and implementation would be targeted and specific. A commissioner advised that successful grants at regional workshops tended to be precise: "The people that were successful had pretty specific, like, ideas for their community," a commissioner said.

The group asked staff to prepare a prioritized set of near-term actions that could be used in grant applications and to circulate the consultant's scoring and prioritization so the commission can confirm or update the list. Staff said the small-area master plan could advance detailed design topics such as scale, massing and streetscape recommendations, and that the commission would be well-positioned to provide feedback to any consultant contracted under the grant.

The next procedural step members agreed on was that staff would email the prioritization list and create a simple survey/Google form so commissioners and council members can re-rank or confirm the top items before the next meeting.