Craig Whiting – 2023 Candidate Information

Questions and Answers

Why are you running for city council and what motivated you to get involved in local government?

Eagle Mountain is currently creating a transient community where many people move out of the city as soon as their economic opportunity affords them. We need to change this dynamic RIGHT NOW. When I interview my northern Utah County buyers and ask them where they want to purchase, Eagle Mountain is almost always their last choice. That’s why I’m running: we need to create a city where Eagle Mountain is the FIRST CHOICE. The fastest way we’ll achieve this vision of a strong, stable community, with stable schools, and citizens that live here for decades, is if Eagle Mountain makes a conscious effort to compete on its primary competitive advantage: LAND. Eagle Mountain has the opportunity to produce many quality subdivisions of large lot sizes, keeping it rural and distinctive in the Wasatch Front, making it a unique and conscious choice for buyers. Data points support this vision, and I’ll put my energy in helping bring this vision to pass.

What relevant experience or skills do you bring to the role of city council member?

I bring extensive real estate expertise both through experience (500+ transactions closed, including several development/subdivision experience) and education (master’s degree in real estate development with a certificate in urban planning). I know EXACTLY why people move, and what causes them to choose a given neighborhood or city, and I will employ this knowledge to bring about a vision of vaulting Eagle Mountain to become buyer’s first choice of places to live. I’ve engaged in thousands of negotiations during my career, which experience will help maximize results for the citizens of Eagle Mountain, especially when it comes to working with developers. I own multiple businesses and understand the essence of frugality for financial prosperity.

What do you see as the most pressing issues facing our city, and how do you plan to address them?

Eagle Mountain is failing in its land use decisions by not understanding the role it could otherwise serve in northern Utah County. Northern Utah County will perform at its finest when high density is stacked next to the employment centers in Lehi & Pleasant Grove, where citizens could then bike or walk to work, while places like Eagle Mountain are preserved for rural, larger lot subdivisions. Utilizing this simple principle will decrease congestion on our highways, reduce pollution, while increasing the affordability of housing by placing the housing products where they best fit. If Eagle Mountain helped create a larger supply of large lots, the price on those large lots would come down. Eagle Mountain will never compete with Lehi in terms of providing short commute times to high paying employers. However, Lehi CANNOT compete with Eagle Mountain should Eagle Mountain commit to providing plentiful large lot subdivisions. The people that choose Eagle Mountain as their FIRST choice generally do so when they can buy a larger lot than what they’d get in competing cities. Lot size has a DIRECT correlation to how transient a community is. When Eagle Mountain creates a significant number of tiny lots, far away from employment centers, it then congests the roads & creates unneeded pollution, and creates a transient population base that does NOT want to live in Eagle Mountain and will move was soon as their economic situation improves. If you want STABLE communities, STABLE schools, LESS CONGESTED roads, and LESS POLLUTION, we need to proactively decide now that Eagle Mountain needs larger lots and less dense subdivisions. What kind of city should we make? A city like Bluffdale with large lots and a very stable community? Or a city with small lots like other cities that I’ll respectfully not name?

How do you plan to engage and involve the community in decision-making processes?

Ideally, more citizens would attend city council meetings and voice their opinions. I’ve attended multiple meetings when I felt my voice provided a unique perspective the city council needed to hear. My personality is such that I enjoy hearing others’ opinions, and I’d welcome direct contact from citizens who have opinions on various subjects. Our city will be stronger if we share our ideas with one another.

What is your stance on fiscal responsibility and budget management? How do you plan to balance the city’s financial needs with the expectations of residents?

I own multiple businesses and appreciate the need to operate frugally in order to create financial stability & success. We need to think carefully about “wants” versus “needs.” Yes, definitely supply money for the “needs.” We need a clean city with strong infrastructure. When it comes to “wants”, require rigorous scrutiny & debate before deciding. I support keeping taxes as low as possible. I also don’t want accolades for spending other people’s money – there’s no prize for that. I was at Neptune Park the other day and noticed a monument detailing the name of each city council member that brought the park to be. However, the monument got the names wrong: the monument should have had the name of each taxpayer that paid to create the park.

What is your position on sustainable and environmentally-friendly initiatives, such as renewable energy, waste management, or green spaces?

I support xeriscape principles and requiring builders to implement energy saving building techniques. The city needs to plan thoughtfully for green spaces, trails, the wildlife corridor, etc., to help set our city apart from neighboring cities. Eagle Mountain is currently not helping the pollution situation in the Wasatch Front since it’s creating small lot subdivisions full of commuters that travel to Lehi, Pleasant Grove, or Salt Lake County. Eagle Mountain will better preserve the environment by creating larger lot subdivisions until such time more employers move to Eagle Mountain.

How do you plan to address affordable housing challenges in our city? Are there specific policies or initiatives you would advocate for?

Eagle Mountain already provides the most affordable housing in all of northern Utah County. A better question is this: what is Lehi doing to help with affordable housing? We need to stick affordable housing next to employment centers, not out in distant communities where that citizen will then move out as soon as the economic situation improves. If Eagle Mountain focuses on affordable housing, we’ll create a transient community that doesn’t really want to be here. Factually, we already have a large population base that will move to neighboring cities, shortening their commute times, as soon as their economic situation improves. Eagle Mountain is already the “best bang for the buck” in all of northern Utah County, and it’s time that Eagle Mountain focus more on creating stable communities with medium & larger lot sizes. Let Lehi, American Fork, and Pleasant Grove stack up higher density that’s more affordable. It makes much more sense.

What is your stance on economic development and attracting businesses to our city? How do you plan to promote local entrepreneurship and job growth?

If you want to bring local entrepreneurship to the city, focus on creating neighborhoods that attract entrepreneurs. History has proven this: decades ago when the Old Mill office subdivision (in Cottonwood Heights on the border of Holladay) was made, critics scoffed at it because of its distance from the CBD (Central Business District, meaning downtown SLC), thinking its distance would dampen lease rates. It turns out this office subdivision is VERY successful. Why? Because many entrepreneurs & business owners lived in nearby Holladay. Business owners like short commute times, just like employees enjoy short commute times, and the business owners decided to setup shop in Old Mill. The critical key is this: the entrepreneurs lived nearby BEFORE the Old Mill office subdivision was created. It’s not like the office subdivision popped up and then entrepreneurs moved nearby. So we need to attract entrepreneurs. We do that by creating enough distinct quality subdivisions that will attract business owners who will subsequently feel enticed to move their businesses to Eagle Mountain. Also, since we have thousands of acres of undeveloped land, we can use that asset to attract businesses that need lots of land to operate. We need to use our competitive advantage to its greatest measure.

How do you prioritize public safety and community well-being? What ideas or strategies do you have for enhancing public safety and building stronger neighborhoods?

The key to this question: “building stronger neighborhoods.” We accomplish this by understanding its opposite: what creates weak neighborhoods. Let me give some examples of “weak” neighborhoods where people want to move FROM instead of TO: when cars congest the streets because driveways are too short and garages are too small; when the city allowed inferior building materials that “dress down” a neighborhood; when neighborhoods experience high turnover due to long commute times; when cities create postage stamp lot sizes that only make the landowner, developer, & Santa Claus happy (because he can jump from rooftop to rooftop), but which small lot sizes emotionally strangle kids who don’t have room to run, play, experience, have animals, etc. We need kids spending time OUTSIDE instead of IN THEIR BEDROOMS on electronics. But what choice do they have when the city continually approves postage stamp lot sizes? Community well-being will improve through a conscious effort to promote larger lot sizes with more animal rights.

How do you plan to collaborate and work with other council members and community stakeholders to achieve your goals?

Human dignity is number one. We need to discuss ideas while not disparaging character, acknowledging that disagreement doesn’t mean dislike for a person. The motto I created for my brokerage is this: LOVE, SERVE, CONNECT. We employ that motto as we work with one another inside the brokerage, and externally as we work with clients. When other city councilors and stake holders truly understand you genuinely care for them as individuals, it becomes easier to understand each other’s viewpoints and achieve goals.

Can you provide examples of situations where you have successfully built consensus or resolved conflicts in a diverse and potentially divided community?

You can’t close a real estate transaction without bringing divergent sides together, and I’ve closed over 500 transaction in my career, including several technical, difficult land deals that took months & sometimes years to close. I also served on the CC&R rewrite committee for Cedar Pass Ranch. We had to bring divergent views successfully together, and although the process isn’t done, we’ve received feedback from key players that appears to show we’ve created enough consensus to pass.

What is your vision for our city in the next five to ten years? How do you plan to involve residents in shaping that vision?

The vision: make Eagle Mountain the FIRST place buyers want to live, not the last place. We do that by providing a distinct experience they can’t get ANYWHERE else in the Wasatch Front. We can compete better than other cities on these factors: lot size, wildlife preservation, open space, animal rights, mountain bike trails, ATV trails, trail connectivity, etc. We need to focus more on those things and less on being like Saratoga & Lehi.