Logan Simpson is working with the City of Bozeman, Montana and its residents, visitors, students, and second homeowners to update the city’s comprehensive plan. The plan will guide the growth and development of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the country over the next twenty years. Bozeman’s population has doubled in size since 1990 and expected to grow by nearly 30,000 people during the planning horizon. A high rate of development, changing economic conditions with growth of technology and other non-typical employment, and economic maturation of nearby satellite communities, make it necessary to update the plan.

Logan Simpson was selected to narrow the focus of the current plan to be more tightly focused on issues of land use, community resilience, community expansion, and related policies. Logan Simpson is leading the community outreach, goal and objective development, future land use map modeling and alternative scenarios.

Key issues identified by the community during initial outreach include growth management, neighborhood identity, mixed-use nodes, a multimodal transportation system, and the preservation and expansion of the parks, trails, and open space system. These issues will help shape the goals, objectives, and ultimately, the comprehensive plan that guides Bozeman’s future. View the final document.

After leading the economic portion of Mountain Accord (an effort to create alternative modes to connect Salt Lake Valley to the mountains), Logan Simpson began working with Salt Lake County on the Wasatch Canyons General Plan update, last updated in 1989. This process defines a vision of how the Wasatch Canyons (Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, Mill Creek, and Parley’s and their associated mountain communities) should look into the future in regard to how the greater community will access them, how millions of people each year will play in them, how to balance the need for private property uses and environmental preservation, and how management of the landscape will evolve to preserve the canyons for future generation to love and experience it for years to come. Protecting the intangible qualities that collectively encompass the canyons and celebrating the area’s natural significance have been essential to this effort. Resiliency is a major part of the planning process, as the Wasatch Canyons have a high fire risk due to an unhealthy forest and the effects of climate change. Tools, such as expanded snowmaking capacity to extend snowpack, reducing fuel load, and utilizing community fire plans, are being incorporated to meet resiliency goals. The process includes a robust public participation and stakeholder engagement process, a map commenting tool, and consideration, confirmation, and inclusion of information from relevant agency documents and prior planning efforts. Logan Simpson is also completing planning efforts in the surrounding area, such as the creation of the first general plan for the City of Millcreek, the Salt Lake City Watershed Management Plan update, and the Sandy City Watershed Management Plan update.

The Wasatch Canyons General Plan won the 2020 Comprehensive Plan High Achievement Award from the Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association. Read the plan here.