District 5 Council Member Don Hickman

Putting First Things First
​By District 5 Council Member Don Hickman - 11 April 2026

On Monday, April 6, the five City Council members started tackling their most important job.  We began to review and discuss the proposed Ogden Valley General Plan, Ogden Valley Zoning Map, and several draft land use ordinances forwarded to us by our Planning Commission.

I want to recognize and thank the Planning Commission’s seven citizen volunteers.  Theirs is not an easy task.  The City Council enacted a city-wide, 180-day building and development Moratorium on January 3, 2026.  The Planning Commission must create the first draft Ogden Valley City General Plan, Zoning Map, zoning ordinances and related land use ordinances, and forward them to City Council for consideration.  These steps are necessary for us to get out of the Moratorium.

As the city’s legislative body, the five City Council members “are the deciders” of these future “laws of the land.”  We five have the final say on resident’s property rights throughout the Valley. 

Naturally conservative and focused on property rights, I asked, as we began to review the Planning Commission’s recommendations on April 6th: “What Problems are We Trying to Solve?” 

My baseline is that the Weber County land use codes and 2016 General Plan, as edited by the Transition Team #3 Land Use Committee, were fundamentally sound, with some important exceptions, and we should focus on getting “good enough” in place soonest to close out the Moratorium.

Specifically, I will be asking these questions about the land use documents as we discuss and debate in City Council:

• What do we need to do right now to get out of the Moratorium and enable our citizens to exercise their property rights?  Focus on that fundamental issue and don’t get distracted.
• What known, important problems did the Planning Commission seek to correct?
  • What changes were proposed to address the known problems?
  • Do those changes mitigate the problem, and/or cause additional problems?
  • Were other changes made, and if so, why?  What is their effect?
  • The corollary to the above is, if it ain’t broken, why fix it right now?
  • Do these changes significantly change the landowners’ property rights v-a-v what they had under Weber County Code?
  • Do the zoning changes cause a significant upzoning or downzoning of a property?  What is the risk of a “taking” lawsuit by a property owner?
• Are other legislative remedies more appropriate to mitigate known problems?  EG, council resolutions, ordinances or municipal code changes versus land use codes.  If so, should those be used?
• Has the City Attorney reviewed the draft in its entirety and within the context of our Municipal Code and other Land Use Ordinances to ensure the entirety of our laws are consistent, coherent, complimentary and no “loop holes” or major legal risks exist?

The Planning Commission and City Council will have ample time in the future to tackle fundamental questions and make changes to our land use codes.  As reported previously in the Ogden Valley News, we were awarded a $175,000 grant by the Wasatch Front Regional Council to update our General Plan, Zoning map and Ordinances, as well as create our Transportation Master Plan, with an eye towards 2034 and the Olympic Winter Games.  Coupled with a $25,000 match by the City, I will be managing that contract.  While $200,000 seems like a lot of money, it’s not and we will carefully focus the work on our most pressing needs starting later this summer.  Those needs should include land use related “problems” that could not yet be addressed in these first few months by the Planning Commission and City Council.