Connection to Nature

The natural beauty of St. George is a vital asset to the city and its residents. With a fantastic climate and an extensive trail network, it is easy to enjoy the magnificent scenery St. George has to offer.

These natural treasures constitute an essential component to the quality of life in St. George and impart a generational responsibility for their stewardship. They should be protected and preserved with the following strategies:

Protect scenic vistas

Define priority views within the city and create policies to support and preserve associated view corridors

- Locate important view corridors

- Identify strategies and tools to assess the impact of development on the viewshed

- Institute policy to ensure future development respects these views

Enhance access to trails, parks, recreation, and open space

Enhance, expand, and integrate the trail network into the urban fabric (link to Accessible City)

Encourage new developments to identify and designate sensitive or unique land features as park areas in the future

- Balance designation of special landscape features as open space with standards for usable outdoor space

- Coordinate park and open space with Neighborhood Areas and Complete Neighborhood Requirements (link to Lifestyle)

- Standardize designation criteria to ensure parks have a variety of landscapes, and features, with limited grass at specific sports fields and active use areas

- Conduct an assessment of all park and open space areas owned and managed by the City

- Update policy to enable smaller parks in revitalization or redevelopment areas

Connect parks and trail systems, and provide support to complete the trail network through new developments as they occur (link to Accessible City)

Preserve sensitive lands, including steep slopes, ridgelines or sensitive bluff plateaus, habitat, and flood plains within St. George

Expand the scope of the Hillside Ordinance and the Hillside Committee to include additional sensitive lands

Identify areas that pose substantial risks or hazards and should be considered to be placed in a public land trust to support the health and safety of the community and provide tax incentives for the property owners

- St. George should prioritize flood, landslide, and rockslide prone areas for open space or public land trust integration

- Consider opportunities for development right transfer from sensitive lands to other priority areas

Expand policies for new development to mitigate impacts to sensitive habitats and land

- Integrate landscape and water use policies into the City Ordinance for landslide prone areas

- Integrate riparian area policies for river beds, washes, and other flood-prone areas

Ensure the City’s expectations are clear and predictable for developers and land-owners by providing clear policies

Protect clean air and water

Support water conservation efforts to enable access to water and minimize air pollution from dust (link to Responsible Growth)

Promote clean energy opportunities (link to Responsible Growth)

Integrate appropriate stormwater strategies into City Ordinances to support watershed health, recognizing the acidic nature of the ground in and around St. George