Utah Ordinance Survey

Cedar City, Utah encourages developers to build parks at the corners of subdivisions to connect neighborhoods.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports when Shaunna Burbidge was teaching planning and health at Brigham Young University, she undertook a survey of Utah cities to determine how many were promoting such healthy activities as walking and biking through their city planning and ordinances.

Assisting her were 25 BYU undergraduate geography students who analyzed the zoning codes, master plans and ordinances of 81 Utah cities (5,000 pop. and above). They students looked to see if cities had ordinances that required:

1. Sidewalks, bike lanes, greenways and recreational facilities for new, redeveloped and mixed-use communities.

2. New commercial buildings to encourage physical activity and bicycle and pedestrian commuter traffic.

3. Recreational shared-use paths that combine biking and walking.

Burbidge's preliminary analysis found most Utah cities covered half these ordinances; that most commonly required sidewalks, with many also requiring bike lanes.

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