On Tuesday, residents of Midway passed a $5 million open space bond.
With a 54% to 45% vote Midway residents agreed to a $5 million open space bond. Pure Midway board member Kate Noble says that the conservation group is ecstatic about the news.
“We are elated about the outcome.” Noble said, “When we started Pure Midway a couple of years ago, one of our primary goals was to get an open space bond passed. We were told that it would be a real uphill battle, and this is such a huge victory for Midway. It’s going to be a turning point in our history, Midway is growing so quickly and it’s a critical preserving what we have left. I wanted to thank Pure Midway’s incredible volunteer board who’s endured some serious mudslinging and just persevered through everything. I wanted to thank our supporters they’ve pulled out all the stops when we’ve needed help and our families who’ve filled in for us when we’ve been at all these evening meetings and going door to door and helping us be focused on this goal. We wanted to thank the Open Space Committee and Midway for providing so much crucial information.”
1,399 Midway residents voted for the bond with 1,162 voting against. Noble says the $5 million bond will be used to leverage other available funds to preserve open space in Midway.
“That money can be matched by grants and donations and foundations.” Noble explained, “We’re hoping to leverage that into a pretty significant purchase of conservation easement or development rights. We know that some land owners have approached the mayor who have been interested in preserving their lands. This opens the door now for people who want to preserve their land to come forward and say you know I’d love to preserve maybe 20 acres but develop the rest. Or I’d love to preserve 50 acres and not develop the rest or not develop any of it. It just gives land owners options and that was our goal all along. So that if a land owner doesn’t want to develop or only wants to develop part of their land they can get paid for not developing another part of their land. So it’s just another tool in their toolbox and we’re really excited about this option for landowners in Midway and in the county.”
Wasatch County residents also voted in favor of a $10 million open space bond for the entire county and voted down a county council decision that redrew boundary lines in the Central and Southern planning areas. Noble says that if you’d like more information on what they plan to do with the bond you can visit PureMidway.org
