The Times-Independent

Election: Housing crisis ‘clearly the most urgent’ issue facing Moab



The Moab I know and love is a community that takes care of each other — where people pull together with mutual respect despite individual differences.

Bill Winfield

People are now feeling disconnected from City Hall, and one another. Our diverse community, which has always been our greatest strength, is fracturing. I have no doubt that we are still capable of achieving great things as a community. What is missing is effective leadership that unites us.

As a true, independent candidate who has built a broad coalition of community support from the ground up — among optimistic and enthusiastic progressives, conservatives, and moderates — I believe I’m the best positioned candidate to unite residents, ensuring we work together to solve the critical issues we face.

I’m not a politician or party candidate who’s been selected to further the interests of the politically-connected few. For that I make no apology. For too long, despite many promises, younger people, working families and other under-represented groups have gone unheard at City Hall. My priority is to give these community members a stronger voice. Because our residents can’t afford four more years of taking a backseat to entrenched party politics that has under-delivered on the critical issues we face.

Of these, solving the housing crisis is clearly the most urgent. This issue has been kicked down the road for too long. As the builder of the Valley View subdivision — built in coordination with the Housing Authority of Southern Utah — I am the only candidate who has delivered on their promise of affordable housing for all residents, with decades of experience unmatched.

If Moab’s to rapidly expand housing supply, we need to be creative and flexible in our approach. We need to revisit all ordinances and codes to ensure that short-, medium- and longer-term housing can be rapidly scaled to ensure that all residents have a safe place to call home. To deliver on this, the immediate appointment of a director of Housing is imperative.

Although I mention housing often, it is central to our success as a city. The inequity of unaffordable housing is unfairly pushing younger people and working families out of our community. Too many residents are living in vans with no access to facilities, unstable temporary accommodation, and substandard housing. Small local businesses and essential service agencies are struggling to attract and retain employees. Our town is losing the very character that makes it unique.

Many yearn for a return to the days when Moab was a small, quiet town, with barely a care in the world, but that’s not where we find ourselves now. So all future plans for Moab must be realistic about our future and accepting of our place in the world.

The fact is, Utah and the four states that surround us are among the fastest growing in the U.S. So we have a choice as a community: resist that reality and become an increasingly exclusive resort and retirement community for those with the deepest pockets, or accept it and grow in an environmentally sustainable, affordable way, building a local community that better balances tourism, including noise and other impacts, and provides real opportunities for young people and families to build a life.

It is my opinion that our local government has become too divisive and left too many behind. This needs to change. To ensure change, we must vote for change, not more of the same.

Vote for the better. Vote for change. Vote independent. Vote Bill Winfield as your No. 1 choice for mayor of Moab.

Bill Winfield is a candidate for mayor.