At a luncheon meeting of the Cache Valley Chamber of Commerce on Mar. 15, County Executive David N. Zook announced his plans for a Housing Crisis Task Force.
CACHE COUNTY – Like the weather, everybody talks about the insane price of housing here in Cache Valley, but nobody does anything about it.
Right?
At a lunch meeting with members of the Cache Valley Chamber of Commerce on Mar. 15, Cache County Executive David N. Zook said that he’s going to try to actually do something about the valley’s housing crisis by organizing an expert task force.
“I’ve asked a number of people already – and I’m going to ask a few more – to serve on this task force, ” Zook explained. “I’m going to ask them to take 60 days to study this issue and then come back with recommendations about what we should be doing to address the housing crisis.”
To illustrate the depth of Cache Valley’s housing affordability problem, Zook cited Census statistics that Cache County added more than 20,000 people since the last Census. But more than 17,500 of those people were the result of internal growth.
“That means that 86 percent of that growth was our own kids,” the county executive emphasized.
“I know that we all like to blame ‘the darn Californians’ for taking over, but it’s really us,” Zook confirmed. “We have a lot of kids here.
“I know that because I’m raising seven of my own. So I’m part of the problem.”
Another startling statistic that Zook cited was that the average Cache County home, which cost $228,271 in 2017, now costs $430,879.
“I saw another stat recently,” he added, “that said that you have to be making around a $100,000 a year to afford a house in Cache Valley.
“But wages have certainly not grown that fast since 2017 … So we have a housing crisis here and now.”
Zook freely admitted to worrying whether his kids and those of his neighbors will ever be able to afford to own their homes given the current runaway prices for housing.
Despite a sometimes rocky relationship with members of the Cache County Council, Zook indicated that he intends to continue his proactive approach to addressing what he views as community concerns. In addition to the housing crisis, he listed those concerns as including suicide prevention, homelessness, public safety and social service issues.
In January, Zook was one of four county elected officials denied a 7 percent pay raise by the county council for nebulous reasons. In February, a short-fuse attempt by Zook and state Rep. Dan Johnson (R-Logan) to obtain federal funding for a local resource center drew fire from council members. Also in February, council member Gina Worthen publicly accused Zook of violating sections of the county code to hire a lobbying firm, only to have that accusation refuted by County Attorney John Luthy.
“We know that we have a problem (with affordable housing),” Zook told the chamber luncheon crowd. “I suspect that solutions to it are going to be a lot more complex than anyone thought in the first place.”
The county executive suggested that implementing any mitigation strategies recommended by the still-to-be-formed task force may involve enacting state legislation, city ordinances, education initiatives, etc.
“But I’m looking forward to their recommendations and fresh ideas about how we can win this fight,” he concluded.
Zook was appointed as county executive in January of 2021, after winning a GOP special election. He will run unopposed for re-election in November of 2022.