American Dream

UTAH, Salt Lake City - Paul Mero, president of the Sutherland Institute, said he is not opposed to planning, but he is opposed to aggressive planning (advocated by Envision Utah) that adds bureaucratic delays and costs to developers that are eventually passed to homebuyers. "Government regulation is being used to plan communities as opposed to the marketplace," Mero said. "If government would just provide oversight for health and safety matters and then let the marketplace handle the distribution of our communities and how they are laid out and set up, I think Utah would continue to be a marvelous place to live. But the more we try to appease environmentalism, all in the name of being 'smart,' I think we are headed down a track where Utah is not going to be the unique, livable place that it is today."