OGDEN —  Ken Richey learned a lot in his first term on the Ogden City Council.

Among those lessons — as shown by projects like the WonderBlock and changing the culture at the airport — things don’t always happen at warp speed.

“A lot of these projects that we work on with the council, they’re years-long projects,” he said. “It’s not something that we can quickly move on. As these things come together, that sets the tone for the future.”

Now running for reelection, Richey said he’s looking at the challenges of the next few years and beyond.

“We’re going to be moving towards the 2034 Olympics, so there’s a lot of things that need to happen in advance of the Olympics to make sure we can be ready to host the world at our doorstep here,” he said. “I’m part of a committee that’s already meeting to discuss what we can do.”

He said another key development of the next few years will be the WonderBlock finally coming online and how it will impact plans to enhance downtown Ogden.

“In the next five years, we should start to see those spaces beginning to fill up,” he said. “Ogden’s so unique because we have this Historic 25th Street and the Union Station that is jus the crown jewel of our downtown. We want to try and enhance that and build that and the WonderBlock is designed to be that placemaking location where people can come, you can live there, you can work there in retail or commercial. We’re hoping to have a grocery in that space, a hotel — all of these things come together to create this vibrant downtown that will just continue to grow and build.”

Richey said housing is also going to be an important focus in the coming years.

“It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen with housing and costs,” he said. “There’s so many macro-economic factors in play on there, but we have seen a significant increase in the number of units coming online.”

Looking at Ogden-Hinckley Airport and its progress in the past couple of years, Richey said he’d be open to seeing additional commercial airline growth at the airport.

“I think that with the terminal expansion … that’s basically almost done, there’s a massive amount of opportunity for flights out of Ogden,” he said. “I personally have taken the opportunity to fly to California out of Ogden and it was incredible to have a 12:05 flight, show up at 11:50 and basically just walk onto the airplane. Simple and easy. And flying back to Ogden, walking off the plane, it was just such a neat experience for me, and I do think there’s an opportunity for us to expand flights.”

He said there’s potential to match one of its contemporaries in the region: Provo Airport.

“Ideally, I would like to see that,” he said. “It may be hard to see it getting there as quickly. They took a jump. I think we have the right people in place to get us to that place. Our airport manager has been phenomenal. He’s just been such a great addition to the city. I think there is commitment on the council to see that improvement try and take place.”

Richey said the City Council remains committed to making sure there’s growth and improvement in other sectors of the airport.

“It’s not just the commercial — it’s all aspects and trying to make sure we can mix them all together and blend it in and hit all of the needs,” he said.