“Input from the community is a critical piece of the planning process,” County Commissioner Gage Froerer said. He asks the public to read the draft general plan for western Weber County to get up to speed, available at westernweberfutures.org along with much more information on the process. The draft plan is 167 pages.

Monday’s hearing, sponsored by Weber County Commissioners, starts at 6 p.m. and will be held at the Weber Center, 2380 Washington Blvd. in Ogden. Commissioners intend only to receive input, waiting at least until the Aug. 16 county commission meeting before taking formal action.

Written comments can be submitted via the westernweberfutures.org website. For additional information, the public may contact Charlie Ewert, principal planner in the Weber County Planning Division, at 801-399-8763.

Growth in unincorporated western Weber County can be a touchy subject. Many of the last wide-open swaths of land in the county are there, ripe for potential conversion into housing as the population grows. But many who live in the area have clamored against growth, worried it will spoil the historically agrarian and rural nature of the zone.

The new general plan, focus of debate dating at least to 2018, aims to update the development scheme in the growing area. The existing document was finalized in 2003.

Ewert said the draft document, developed over the last year, aims to better define the development process. Among many other things, it divides the county in areas where different sized housing lots may be developed. It also identifies park and agriculture areas and what would be natural open space.

Furthermore, it identifies six “walkable village” areas located roughly along the 12th Street corridor heading west and the Union Pacific rail line that parallels that road section to the south. Higher-density housing and commercial development would be located in the villages.

Those villages are significant, Ewert said, because they would theoretically help generate more sales and property tax revenue because of the denser development, helping supplement water, road and other infrastructure development in more sparsely populated areas.

The Western Weber Planning Commission, an advisory body to county commissioners, held a hearing on July 19, ultimately recommending approval of the draft plan. Eight people spoke at that hearing, four expressing support, one lobbying for change allowing for more development and three with general questions, Ewert said.

The draft plan also outlines planning guidelines for the unincorporated Uinta Heights area.