Survey Comments - Define Rural

These are VERBATIM comments submitted be survey participants:

3. Please define "rural" in respect to growth in Wasatch County.
Property used for livestock or crops.
Generally Farms and ranches intermixed with low density housing. With recognition that some very limited areas will need to be set aside for affordable housing.
open space
the areas surrounding provo River that has not been developed but is now in horse farms and meadows. Use the hillsides and East of Heber for development but keep the areas between Heber and Midway green.
low housing density, large open spaces
Robust agriculture thrives on a siginficant portion of the county's inhabited land. Large tracks of open, virgin, untouched forest and brush land where wild life florishes.
Agricultural land interspersed with residentual. Limited (be careful of the big box business) although I enjoy shopping at them, "rural" is the opposite of their nature.
Wasatch County has already defined it----it is one home per acre in a subdivision and one for every five acres outside of a subdivision. Does the public keep having to remind you in the face of the barrage of developer pressure?
you can see and smell the cows
small town feel. Knowing that big stores, some services will not be available. Slow growth, open spaces, animal rights on some property. Lack of big developments. Government that assists us in keeping the small town feel, a government that does not feel like they need to provide all the services of a big city. Keeps costs in check.
Wasatch County up to 5-7 years ago
Definable communities with open space seperating them so they don't all run together. A community where their is a sense of belonging and knowing your neighbors.
Even if hard to define, we know it when we see it - and where we are going is not rural!
Use a formula of present developable acreage in the county divided by the present population = persons per acre, and do not allow future development to increase this factor and to only allow new developments to sustain growth to a predetermined build out date.
Homes that have more than 5 acres or farming area for either food or animals
Open Fields, such as a farming comunity, along with areas that might have small 5 acre homesteads.
We need to keep the open field/space feeling. Keep some breathing room, and recreation and horse property.
Designated open space that the taxpayers have to bond for to purchase from the farmers. Keep North Fields WETLANDS regardless of a new septic system being approved. Cluster lots to allow open space. No one wants to water and maintain a 1 acre lot that's not horse property.
To many fields disappearing into subdivisions. I can't go four wheeling anywhere we used to just a few short years ago.
Open space in neighborhoods and in areas throughout the community. Clustering is probab;y a good idea.
People in rural areas live on farms and in other isolated houses
Rural is being able to sit on your back porch with an unobstructed view of the country-side be it mountains or fields instead of an ocean of homes. Rural is not being able to see what your neighbors are having for dinner. I have been there and done that.
Many open fields, many containing animals
Out side of the city limits, usually with a small farm, cows, chickens, etc.
slow responsible growth based on needs and not on money. Rural is open spaces, homes on large lots. People with animals. Small businesses. views from the hillsides and views of the hillsides that are open and uncluttered.
Websters defines "rural" as "sparsely settled or agricultural country". To apply that to planning and zoning regularions in the County, some portion of space, i.e., 35%, 40%, perhaps even 50%, within the County needs to be reserved or designated as "sparsely populated agricultural" space. A portion of this "rural" space could, and should, be the hills sides, but a major portion should also be the flatlands, that could feasibly be considered agricultural.
more open space in developments- not so condensed
rural to me means open space used for agriculture and animals such as horse pastures. It can mean large 5 acre lots or if smaller, open space for parks, etc.
Rural in respect to growth in Wasatch County appears to include building construction on any site in the county that has a willing seller and a willing buyer.
Rural=pasture land or farming land with a home or two on a minimum of 5 acre parcels.
Maintain the horse/pasture land as you enter from the North. This really sets up a "rural" feel for the valley.
a country lifestyle (this includes open space, right to have animals/livestock, room for large gardens or farmland). Wife says "wildlife habitat" should be included here; husband disagrees; he feels open space covers "wildlife."
No stop lights anywhere but main, no shopping on 12th S. east of Heber, or on Center East of Heber. At least half of the existing farms east and west of 40 remain in agrucultural use or open space.
Lots of pasture land, open fields. Few ammenities such as sidewalks and Wal-Mart.
rural signifies property not immediately bordering a major housing development
Rural is a small town or small farming community.
Rural was when it was farm land. We are no longer rural in the sense of agricultrural dependency but rather gentlemen farmers or back yard farmers. Our land is used to house families and recreational animals tho ride on trails rather than pl;ow the fields. Times have changed and we are that change.
There no longer is "rural" in the unincorporation areas of Wasatch County.
Wasatch county is rural in the sense that the streets do not have side walks and the road ways are narrower than Salt Lake. We are rural in the fact that people own horses and cows and you can hear a rooster crow. We are rural that we know the difference between a rooster and a hen.
For a metropolitan dweller Wasatch County is frightening and way too far removed from civilization. It is all in the eye of the beholder. We are rural because we board our own animals.
Rural means you can't see or smell what your neighbor is having for dinner
Being rural means you are from a small school and have to go to town to get a bigger selection of goods and services.
Houses on farms or ranches. Not PUDs.
My definition of rural is the way this town was before Lynn Adams sold us down the river.
There is no rural any more. Not the same place I grew up in.
Homes with 5 + acres.
Where farmland, houses, and animals coexist. Not where farm land gets filled in with huge homes with big driveways.
Rural is going to no more at the rate of growth Im seeing. Small town businesses that are unique to our area. Specialty shops, we dont need big box stores!
where ther are no subdivisions, and there are at least 5 acre lots for each house.
Farmland/ space in between homes / livestock
Rural to me means that there is more land in agriculture than in residential areas and that people are more concerned about their natural resources than shopping and eating out and driving fast.
open space,large building lots,trees,streams,
WE all ahave to know and understand we are growing planing is MOST inportant and staying wirh the plan after it is made we can not have a plan with out a vision and we did that in 2001 and then it was changed. So lets all get on the some page.
To maintain its rural character, Wasatch County MUST preserve the open spaces between municipalities. This includes both the North and South Fields as well as the traditional agricultural activities connected to them. This must be based on something more tangible than a "gentelman's agreement." If we value the rural character of the valley, we must do what we can to preserve it. If growth is inevitable, we should not assume that well-managed growth comes along with it automatically. I'd rather end up looking like Jackson Hole (managed growth)than Park City (overdeveloped); or Ogden Valley (still essentially rural) rather than Star Valley (haphazard planning).
We need to keep the wetlands and some open spaces, that is why many of live here and/or have choosen to move here.
"rural" should mean larger parcels, and less density
Open space--Farm land and ect..
can't see neighbors or hear traffic
You can see wife next door taking a shower
the sound of crowing roosters in the morning
Have balance between endless, cluttered subdivisions and pastures, agriculture and openess.
Rural means agriculture and open space are apparent