OGDEN — The proposal calling for incorporation of western Weber County into a new city may have failed.

But that doesn’t mean the area’s future development falls off the radar screen as an issue. To the contrary, Weber County commissioners on Tuesday hired Landmark Design, a planning firm, to help update the general plan governing development in the area.

With the defeat of the incorporation question last November, Proposition 18, county officials want to update the document that sets development parameters for the area, focus of increasing growth as people migrate to the more open areas west of the crowded Interstate 15 corridor. “It’s just time to update it,” said Commissioner Scott Jenkins.

Commissioners had discussed such action before last November’s vote. Development has become a heated topic in western Weber County, with some worried about the loss of the area’s country feel as more and more subdivisions take shape. In 2018, county planning officials held a series of public meetings in western Weber County to get feedback from the public and their thoughts on how the area should grow and evolve.

When the incorporation question emerged, though, officials put the talk on hold. Had the measure passed, development policy would have fallen to the officials subsequently elected to lead the new locale. Now with Proposition 18’s defeat, commissioners and county planners are returning to the topic.

Landmark Design, to be paid $69,910, will meet with county officials and those living in the area, probably via virtual gatherings, drawing up a plan by February 2022. Aside from unincorporated western Weber County, the planning document will cover the increasingly crowded Uintah Highlands area around South Ogden and Uintah, also unincorporated.

Charlie Ewert, principal planner for the Weber County Planning Division, said the general plan covering western Weber County dates to 2003 while the plan covering the Uintah Highlands area goes back to 1970. There’s been a lot of change over the years, and Jenkins said the general plan needs to be updated to reflect more recent developments, like the addition of schools and a sewer line.

The planning document is “too outdated. Plus, there’s too many things happening out there,” Jenkins said.

Aside from setting parameters on what sort of development should occur where, the document also helps guide road and infrastructure development. Whatever the case, sorting the interests of the farmers, developers, homeowners and others tied to unincorporated Weber County, particularly the county’s western expanse, can be a delicate task given their differing outlooks. The aim of county officials, as Jenkins puts it, will be reaching some sort of middle ground.

“That’s our goal and responsibility, try to balance development,” he said.

Ewert said the prior information-gathering meetings in western Weber County on the development questions have been “invaluable” in gauging sentiment in the area. That information will contribute to Landmark Design’s efforts.