Envision Utah can trace its origins back to a massive recession that shook Utah during the mid-1980s. The state was suffering, and Utahns found their biggest export was their own well-educated children, who were leaving the state to find jobs.

From this crisis, the framework that would become Envision Utah was born. A diverse group of community leaders came together to use its influence to affect economic growth and attract new business to the state. Just a few years later, the situation in the state took a 180-degree turn. Utah was experiencing tremendous growth, and Utahns were beginning to worry about how this growth could affect their high quality of life.

Addressing this growth proved to be a complicated issue. Utahns prefer local autonomy to a “top-down” approach to solving problems. They are, however, eager to collaborate on important issues. In addition, Utahns place families high on their priorities list—they’re willing to do what it takes to ensure their children have a great future.

These factors led to the innovation that would become the foundation for Envision Utah’s work: a bottom-up, nonpartisan, collaborative decision-making process that engages the public to develop and implement a vision for the future.

A kickoff meeting in 1997 formally defined Envision Utah’s initial role: help residents of the 10-county Wasatch Front and Back create a vision for 2020 to effectively deal with adding a million new people while preserving their high quality of life. Almost 20,000 Utahns participated. The resulting vision, The Quality Growth Strategy, has made lasting impacts that we continue to see today (read more about that here).

Envision Utah has no legal authority, so implementation of any vision relies on the voluntary actions of the public and stakeholders. It’s our job to ensure we encourage Utahns to look ahead to solve future challenges and create the communities they want. We do that by following a five-step process in all of our projects.

Step One: Utahns’ Values. Finding out what residents love about living in Utah—and why—is the foundation of the process. A vision must be built on what Utahns want most for their future.

Step Two: Stakeholders. Envision Utah brings in key stakeholders from businesses, government, and the community to lead, empower, create momentum, and explore how growth could occur.

Step Three: Scenarios. With input from key stakeholders, values research, workshops, public surveys, and other public outreach, Envision Utah compiles data, analyzes choices, and creates multiple scenarios for how growth might occur.

Step Four: Public Input. After the scenarios are created, they are presented to the public. Utahns review and compare scenarios, then select the future they want and the strategies to create that future.

Step Five: A Vision. A preferred scenario for the future is created from the public’s choices. That preferred scenario becomes a vision for the future with goals and strategies for implementation.

Over the past few decades Utah has seen rapid growth (the Wasatch Area alone has added a million people!). But because we came together to establish a vision, we’ve been able to maintain a great quality of life. With the Envision Utah process as a framework, we can continue to come together, ask the big questions, and ensure Utah remains a great place to live—now and in the future.