The final draft of the City of Page 2040 General Plan, future land use map and vision statement will be published on Sept. 5, after which the public will have 60 days to review the documents and submit comments and suggestions for revision.

The documents will be published on the Page 2040 General Plan website (www.page2040generalplan.com), and hard copies will also be available at Page Public Library and City Hall. 

At a public meeting at City Hall on Aug. 10, Terri Hogan from Matrix Design Group – the company tasked with writing the draft and final version – gave a presentation on the general plan and where they were with the process.

It was the third community meeting since the drafting process began in January. In April, Matrix held a series of kickoff meetings with the community and the General Plan Steering Committee, as well as workshops with Page City Council. This was followed in June by a town hall community meeting and another steering committee meeting.

Hogan said they were about two-thirds of the way through the 12-month process, which is expected to end in December.

“At this point we have created draft elements, draft chapters, and we are about ready to go into what the statute calls the 60-day review, where the public will have 60 days to take a look at that documents,” she said.

“Then we’ll go through the legislative process of presenting to the Planning and Zoning Commission as a recommending body to the City Council, and then the City Council will have a chance to adopt that plan as the community’s vision.”

Hogan said the general plan is a long-range visionary comprehensive document that describes a community’s goals and objectives, and expresses a community’s overarching vision.

“It’s the community’s vision of what the city will be like within a long-range time frame, in this case by 2040,” she said.

In the case of Page, the general plan addresses land use, circulation of transportation, economic development, housing, public facilities and services, water resources, and open space, parks and recreation.

The vision statement, meanwhile, describes a desired future condition and articulates the shared aspirations of the community.

Different aspect of Page’s draft vision statement were derived from meetings with city department heads, city managers and the General Plan Steering Committee, as well as focus group meetings with tourism and retail groups. 

City Planning and Zoning Director Zach Montgomery read the draft version of the vision statement aloud at the Aug. 10 meeting, which is as follows: “The City of Page shines as an ecotourism destination and gateway to the world-renowned Grand Circle of National Parks. Page is a welcoming and family-friendly community that prioritizes education, respects cultural diversity, and preserves the scenic environment. This vibrant and active city is fiscally responsible and provides a diverse economy that offers housing, health care, and employment opportunities as well as entertainment, dining, and recreational choices for residents and tourists of any age.”

Montgomery stressed that the vision statement is not meant to describe the current state of Page, but rather “is what we want to read at the end of the visioning horizon, which is 2040.”

“We want to be able to read that and say, ‘You know what? That’s all true.’ The goals and objectives of the plan that I’m required to update and stay on top of every year are going to get us to this vision,” he said, adding that there was still time to make adjustments to the statement during the 60-day review period. 

At the Aug. 10 meeting, Hogan also presented the draft future land use map (FLUM). While Page’s municipal area is 39 square miles, 22 square miles of that (56%) is federally designated land. The FLUM focuses on the 17 square miles (just over 10,000 acres) outside of the federally designated area.

The map for 2040 calls for 3% of the municipal area to consist of rural residential areas with densities up to one dwelling unit per acre; 10-11% to be suburban-type neighborhood residential areas with one to six dwelling units per acre; 2% to be multi-family residential areas; and just under 1% to be airport residential with large-plot airport hangar homes.

According to the map, about 5% of the municipal area will be designated business commerce and downtown for commercial uses such as retail and restaurants. There will also be flexible mixed-use corridors open to commercial, educational, entertainment, residential and other uses. 

The industrial portion will make up a little under 3% and the airport another 2%. Open space and public recreational areas will account for 10% of the municipal area, while a little over 4% is designated as “undevelopable” outcroppings and escarpment areas.

Hogan said the undevelopable areas are places “that the city wanted to show or the community wanted to show that are so beautiful we want to keep them. We love them, they’re beautiful, they make up part of our identity and we want to show them that they’re not going to be cut into, that they’re undevelopable.”

Hogan said the next step in the process will be publishing the draft versions of the 2040 General Plan, future land use map and vision statement on Sept. 5 for the 60-day review period, which will end on Nov. 4.

“You’ll be able to make comments either through the city offices, on the web page, any numerous ways you can make comments on that 60-day draft,” she said.

After the review period is over, necessary revisions will be made to the documents, which will then be taken to the City Planning Commission for recommendation to the City Council. The final version will go to the council on Dec. 14 for adoption through resolution.

“There’s still plenty of time to give input. We have final draft plans, but they are drafts,” Hogan said. “So please visit the web page, please take brochures, fill out comment cards and comment on the draft.”