White says activation of downtown and other city services is key
Jared Lloyd, Standard-Examiner
Ogden City councilwoman Marcia White talks to the editorial board at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of two stories following a Standard-Examiner editorial board interview with Ogden City Council At Large Seat A Council member Marcia White on a broad range of topics, including making a vibrant downtown, the dichotomy between the City Council and city administration and other issues. White is currently running for reelection in the upcoming municipal election. In fairness to other candidates, White was only asked about issues that are currently or previously have been in front of the full council and not about her campaign or reelection goals.
OGDEN — There’s one word on the mind of Ogden City Council member and current chairperson Marcia White.
Activation.
As downtown Ogden looks to bring in more people, White feels a change of culture is very much needed.
“One of the bigger problems that we have in downtown is that our downtown pretty much shuts down after five,” White said. “We have a downtown that’s largely services that are considered ‘banker hours’ — 8-5 — so when you have a downtown that isn’t activated with retail and more restaurants, I think that’s hard as well.”
She said ongoing developments are key to helping activate this space.
“That’s why the WonderBlock’s so important, to try to get more people down there,” she said. “People are very upset about the apartment that’s going in on 25th Street, that it’s three stories high and, ‘It’s not going to be this, it’s not going to be that.’ I’m like, ‘It’s going to be 30 more people that are going to go down and want to spend money in your downtown.'”
White added another cornerstone of downtown Ogden could use activation in the coming years.
“We need to figure out how to activate Union Station,” she said. “I work for Wasatch Front Regional Council — I’m a regional economic development planner there — and I’m listening to what some other folks are doing around the Rio Grande Plan and they’re very strong, communicating talking points and they are hammering those talking points pretty regularly. Here we have a plot of ground that we are ready to rock and roll on, we’re ready to move dirt on, so I think Union Station’s going to be a heavy lift. It’s going to be a heavy lift because museums don’t make money, but yet we want a huge museum there.”
She said working with the Utah Transit Authority, the Utah Department of Transportation and other partners is critical in bringing the nearby FrontRunner station into Union Station at some point, but it’s a delicate balance to try and bring the entity to life while not raising the price for taxpayers.
“Union Station is the anchor to our city,” she said. “It’s an iconic anchor. … We’ve got a lot of bonding already out there. We’ve got a lot of finances we’re trying to pay off, so trying to figure out how to do that in a thoughtful, financial way is going to be an issue.”
But White feels there’s a need to activate more than just entities downtown, focusing on the Ogden-Hinckley Airport.
“In a given year, it loses between half a million and a million dollars,” she said. “I think we’re getting better at that.”
She said she doesn’t imagine it quite becoming like other regional airports but feels there is potential.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to be a Provo Airport,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a St. George Airport. But I do think we’ll have commercial flights out of there. I think it’s going to be a great hub for the spillover to what’s happening at Hill (Air Force Base) and the businesses that can come in there. … I think it could be an easy hub for small cargo stuff.”
She said there are good signs that the city’s efforts with the airport are paying off.
“For the first time, we are not battling the general aviation folks,” she said. “We are working together with them.”
