Utah News

Local officials in Utah have issued permits for hundreds of thousands of new, non-apartment units in the past 30 years.

The Salt Lake Tribune analyzed a database maintained by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and the Ivory-Boyer Real Estate Center containing permits issued by location, date, construction type and building type going back to 1994.

Here’s a summary of three major trends:

1. Salt Lake and Utah counties top the list

About 46% of all the new permits have been issued in the two largest Wasatch Front counties, with 23.84% in Salt Lake County and 23.74% in Utah County.

Washington County was third with 12.98% of permits, followed by Davis and Weber Counties with 11.91% and 6.08% respectively.

The state’s 24 other counties — mostly Cache and Tooele — accounted for a combined 21.44%, though there’s no data for Daggett County since 2011.

2. A big boom in a smaller city

Though Washington County doesn’t have the most permits when compared to other counties, its largest municipality, St. George, was the single town to receive the most permits in Utah.

Between 1994 and September 2024, officials issued 25,280 permits for 28,152 units in duplexes, single-family detached homes, condos and townhomes, according to the Ivory-Boyer Construction Database.

That’s about 8,000 more than the next-highest city, South Jordan.

A builder in the area credited that to southern Utah’s weather.

3. The suburbs are growing

Most of the construction in the state has been in the suburbs of the major metropolitan areas of Salt Lake City and Provo-Orem. Besides the state’s biggest southern city, the most permits in the past three decades have been near those population hubs.

Leading cities include South Jordan, Lehi, Washington, Herriman, Saratoga Springs and West Valley City.

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for Redfin, said that’s common because the suburbs are where there’s land available.

It’s harder to get infill buildings approved in places like Salt Lake City that are mostly developed, she said, and “easier to come in and build cookie cutter on a big plot of land.”

Use the searchable database below to see the total number of permits from 1994 to last September and by year for the past decade.

Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

The Baylor Bears (14-3) will try to build on a three-game win streak when they host the No. 23 Utah Utes (13-3) at 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at Foster Pavilion. The matchup airs on ESPN+.

Catch tons of live women’s college basketball, plus original programming, with ESPN+ or the Disney Bundle.

In its previous game, Baylor beat Arizona State, 78-59, away. Its leading performers were Sarah Andrews (16 PTS, 45.45 FG%, 4-6 from 3PT) and Aliyah Matharu (14 PTS, 60 FG%, 2-3 from 3PT). In its previous game, Utah defeated Houston 69-42 at home, with Maye Toure (22 PTS, 12 REB, 66.67 FG%) and Gianna Kneepkens (15 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST, 46.15 FG%, 3-6 from 3PT) leading the way.

How to Watch Baylor vs. Utah

Watch live women’s college basketball games from all over the country, plus ESPN originals and more NCAA hoops content on ESPN+.

Baylor vs. Utah Statistics and Rankings

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Baylor Leaders

• Darianna Littlepage-Buggs: 14.3 PTS, 10.3 REB, 1.2 STL, 52.2 FG%, 23.8 3PT% (5-for-21)
• Andrews: 12.2 PTS, 5.3 AST, 1.4 STL, 37.5 FG%, 37.3 3PT% (44-for-118)
• Jada Walker: 12.1 PTS, 5.5 AST, 1.4 STL, 45.6 FG%, 45.2 3PT% (14-for-31)
• Aaronette Vonleh: 13.7 PTS, 59.6 FG%, 33.3 3PT% (2-for-6)
• Yaya Felder: 11.7 PTS, 1.2 STL, 49.6 FG%, 42.2 3PT% (27-for-64)

Utah Leaders

• Kneepkens: 16.9 PTS, 1.1 STL, 49.4 FG%, 44.0 3PT% (44-for-100)
• Toure: 13.8 PTS, 1.2 BLK, 47.8 FG%, 36.1 3PT% (13-for-36)
• Ines Vieira: 6.3 PTS, 5.6 AST, 1.8 STL, 41.9 FG%, 27.8 3PT% (10-for-36)
• Reese Ross: 8.9 PTS, 1.2 STL, 56.2 FG%, 39.1 3PT% (9-for-23)
• Kennady McQueen: 11.2 PTS, 50.4 FG%, 42.9 3PT% (33-for-77)

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Twenty years ago today, I watched TV coverage of a probe descending toward the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn, while outside my home in Utah snow dusted a rocky mountain outcrop I’d nicknamed Titan — both after the moon and a painting of it.

When the probe — named Huygens, for the 17th century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens who discovered that world — transmitted its first pictures, the painted moonscape clashed with the real one. The artwork, from the 1940s, was shown to be utterly wrong.

Chesley Bonestell’s “Saturn as Seen From Titan,” appeared with other planetary scenes in Life magazine, showing what were then considered to be astronomically accurate views of the solar system for the first time. An architectural illustrator and Hollywood matte painter, Bonestell would make a career of space art. His work inspired the very scientists whose research would render many of his paintings factually obsolete.

The Titan illustration is his most famous space scene. In it, Saturn hangs over windswept snow and brown cliffs and outcroppings. The crags frame a glowing Saturn, floating huge, rings nearly edge-on, like a giant’s belt-buckle. Part of the planet is shadowed, blending into the cobalt-turquoise sky. The whole of it is weirdly grand.

What the Huygens probe revealed — a hazy, frigid, dusky-orange world — and what the ethereal painting promised could not be more different.

The first color view of Titan’s surface, which was returned on Jan. 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency Huygens probe, following processing to add reflection spectra data.

(NASA)

Released from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, the Huygens probe descended by parachute for some 2.5 hours before surviving its landing. The European Space Agency craft remains humans’ farthest footfall, some 750 million miles away from Earth.

With a thick nitrogen-methane atmosphere, Titan’s sky is choked with organic compounds, dust and aerosols. This is a world of hydrocarbon seas and vistas of sand and icy rocks. The cold — minus-274 degrees Farenheit — is perhaps the only commonality with Bonestell’s view. (The real Titan may not be as romantic as Bonestell’s, but it is promising: In three years NASA’s Dragonfly mission will send a helicopter to explore Titan’s habitability for life.)

The Huygens-Bonestell discrepancy wasn’t the first time that our visions of the solar system were upended by data. Space exploration is, after all, a form of “ground-truthing.”

When spacecraft first reached Mars in the 1960s, the notion of canals built by Martians had to be discarded, though later images would show clear evidence of surface water. The sci-fi jungles of Venus pictured in pulp magazines? Probes showed instead a dense atmosphere and hellish-hot surface. Our own moon’s mountains, long portrayed as sharp and alpine, are instead muscular and rounded.

Yet our obsolete visions retain value.

In 1944, Bonestell’s illustration offered a compelling answer to the question, “Why explore space?” And even now, knowing it’s far from accurate, the painting’s faint path of light leads us between the cliffs and toward Saturn with this message: If we stay only where we are, then knowledge does too, in or near the frigid lavender of shadows.

Bonestell’s informed-but-imagined solar system evokes the sublime, the sense of being small then empowered in the face of the grand. The scientists who built the Huygens probe that made Titan real were, in their way, doing the same. Both endeavors are examples of the rigors of curiosity born from awe.

This is not, as critics of space exploration suggest, a form of belittling or ignoring our terrestrial challenges. Quite the opposite. The sublime strengthens our bonds with the cosmos and all it signifies: beauty and dread, imagination and fact, the thrill of discovery and fear of the unknown. Painted or transmitted, other worlds can fire the imagination and at the same time underline the value of the one we inhabit. That mountain outcrop I still think of as Titan reminds me of the painting, the probe, space “out there” and the space I occupy right here on Earth.

Christopher Cokinos is the author of “Still as Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon from Antiquity to Tomorrow.” He lives in northern Utah.

Utah lawmakers are just days away from commencing the annual legislative session on Capitol Hill — and education is again slated to be a defining element of this year’s iteration.

But veteran school teacher Chelsie Acosta said legislators would be well served to also spend a day or two in a public school classroom.

“I would welcome any legislator to just come and spend a day in a (Salt Lake City) west side school and see the language issues, the trauma issues and the poverty issues,” said Acosta, a teacher at Glendale Middle School.

“Those are issues that are not being talked about enough.”

Acosta and fellow members of the Utah Education Association (UEA) gathered for a Monday afternoon press conference to announce its 2025 legislative priorities, share findings from its latest pre-legislative survey and discuss the challenges facing many of the state’s K-12 educators.

The UEA is the state’s major teaching union, representing approximately 18,000 public educators. The union recently surveyed 1,400 teachers to garner their members’ highest concerns and priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

“The results are clear,” said UEA President Renée Pinkney. “Educators are calling on lawmakers to prioritize funding for long-term staffing solutions; reduce stress and burnout and provide behavioral health resources.”

UEA’s pre-legislative survey: Key findings

During the press conference, Pinkney stood with several fellow educators and highlighted key findings and priorities gleaned from the UEA’s pre-legislative survey:

• Oppose private religious vouchers. Nearly all respondents — 93% — oppose private religious vouchers which, according to Pinkney, “divert essential resources from public schools.”

• Smaller class sizes “to ensure that every student receives the attention they deserve.”

• Provide 3% on the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) above the required inflation adjustment and enrollment growth.

• Increased professional paid hours for licensed educators — and continued funding for Future Educators pilot programs to support student teaching experiences.

• Support for the Healthy School Meals initiative enabling more families to access no-cost meals.

• Establish a sustainable long-term revenue source for K-12 public education.

• Increased resources for school safety and student well-being — including counselors, social workers and school psychologists.

“Together with lawmakers and fellow advocates, we can create policies that enhance student achievement, support public educators and provide the resources necessary for every child to thrive,” said Pinkney.

Making meaningful investments in Utah’s public schools, she added, will “ensure a brighter future for our students.”

UEA’s decades-old opposition to vouchers continues

When asked to elaborate more on the survey’s broad opposition to private religious school vouchers, Pinkney noted that the UEA has opposed vouchers for decades.

“We know that vouchers harm students,” she said. “Any time you are siphoning off funds from public education, you are harming students in public schools.”

There are variable costs that decrease when a student withdraws from public school and, say, attends a private school. But the fixed costs — including maintenance and utility fees — remain, said Pinkney.

“It’s very disingenuous to say that you can have a voucher program simultaneously running at the same time that you’re funding public education, because we know that our students in public schools have needs that aren’t being met — and we are protectors of the promise of public education.”

Stress and burnout inside the teaching ranks

When asked Monday about the UEA’s calls for the Utah Legislature to prioritize reducing stress and burnout in the teaching ranks, several teachers participating in the press conference shared their experiences.

Colette Memmott, a teacher at West Jordan’s Sunset Ridge Middle School, spoke out about the stress caused by large class sizes.

“We have an abundance of extra things we have to do based on what kind of kids are in our class. It’s exhausting to grade all the work and to remediate the students that need to be remediated and to give extensions to students that need it.”

Pinkney added that the hours many public teachers are working “are way beyond contract hours.”

Janet Sanders, a teacher at Herriman’s Mountain Ridge High School, said many of her fellow teachers are also burdened by increased student behavior issues in the classroom.

Additionally, said Sanders, many teachers feel they need to be overly careful about what they say during their classroom instruction.

“I think there’s a feeling among teachers that there’s an anti-public ed sentiment out there,” she said. “There’s a movement towards privatization. We just feel threatened — and we feel for our students because we know that they will not be well served.”

The Utah Legislature’s 2025 general session starts in eight days, and the Utah House Republicans say they plan on changing the way the state’s colleges and universities deliver education.

House Republican leadership announced their policy priorities for the 2025 session, which starts Jan. 21, at a press conference Monday.

“Caucus members have been working on these issues all year long,” House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said. “These priorities are a reflection of the thoughts and feedback that we have heard all across the state.”

Their priorities were in five main areas: education, affordability, infrastructure, safe communities and accountable government.

How the House majority will prioritize education this year

“Education is critical, even crucial, for improving lives and developing a skilled workforce and fostering innovation,” Rep. Candice B. Pierucci, R-Herriman, said.

The House Majority Caucus plans to focus on investing in career and technical education programs, reducing burdens for student teachers and parents and expanding individualized learning opportunities.

The goals for higher education include maximizing the value of education, streamlining and aligning degree programs with Utah’s workforce needs and increasing investments in technical education.

Schultz said they want to bring higher education “back to the basics” by focusing on providing educations that will give students strong opportunities in the workforce. This includes promoting degrees and certificates that will provide opportunities for economic success.

“It’s not fair or right to tell a student to come to one of our institutions and get a degree in a program that we know does not lead to a workforce outcome for them, does not give them a broad range of experience,” Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, said.

The representatives are also working on expanding the Utah Fits All Scholarship program which helped 10,000 families last year. There were 27,000 families who applied to receive the scholarship.

“In terms of funding we’ll see on the budget, of course, we’d love to see more money for customized learning for families and our students, but we’re looking at this year’s budget,” Peterson said.

How Utah plans to embrace nuclear power

In line with what Gov. Spencer Cox has said, Utah lawmakers say they want to increase energy production in the state.

“We have to plan where we’re going to get our power from, how we’re going to keep the lights on, a plan that must include future technologies such as nuclear as we move forward,” said Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise.

As part of the House GOP focus on infrastructure, Schultz said there have been many conversations about nuclear power, “we want more of it.”

The lawmakers said expanding nuclear power output will help keep Utah’s energy costs among the lowest in the country.

The state government has worked with the Idaho National Lab and funded the San Rafael Center, looking at ways to utilize nuclear power.

There are other focuses to help improve infrastructure, like making sure the state isn’t limited by gridlock and that there is enough water for everything the state requires, from agriculture to the Great Salt Lake.

Potential changes coming to Utah’s elections

The House will be looking into the recent audit on Utah’s elections to see what concerns should be addressed, Schultz said, adding there are no firm plans on changes yet.

These potential changes to Utah’s elections processes are a part of the group’s focus on increasing government accountability.

Schultz also spoke about the debate on who should be running the state’s elections.

“I think that’s a fair debate to have. I personally have concerns with — again, it’s not specific to any title, any person holding this title — but the perception out there to have the lieutenant governor in charge of their own elections, I would like to see a way and move away from that,” Schultz said.

There will also be an effort to bring more transparency to Utah elections and to address the other major concerns found in the audit such as management of the state’s voter rolls.

Schultz said this is the second audit in a row that has highlighted concerns with voter rolls.

Utah House Republicans plan to focus on illegal immigration

House Republicans said they will also focus on preserving the safety of Utah’s communities amid an increase in challenges like gang violence and fentanyl trafficking.

Part of this focus will include “cracking down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the Beehive state,” said Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield.

Lisonbee emphasized that this is not about making Utah a threatening place for immigrants but rather holding people accountable for committing crimes in the state.

“Whether they’re from Colorado, from Utah or from South America, it doesn’t matter. If you’re here and you’re committing crimes, you will be held accountable,” Lisonbee said. “That is the message that we are sending this year with our legal immigration package.”

This will include focusing on dealing with problems of human and drug trafficking from cartels and other groups.

The House Majority Caucus plans to lower taxes to help increase affordability

House Republicans say they’re also focused on making Utah more affordable.

“Utah tops almost every list of successful states, no matter the metric, we’re No. 1 in private sector job growth, for entrepreneurship, for upward mobility and more,” said Peterson.

Part of this priority is a focus on lowering taxes, but it is currently unclear how big these tax cuts could be or what they will ultimately look like.

Other policies they say they’ll pursue include increasing affordable home ownership, strengthening business friendly policies and protecting taxpayer dollars.