Director of Regional Development
Salt Lake County
Bio:
Dina Blaes is the Director of Regional Development at Salt Lake County, responsible for leading the County's efforts in Planning, Transportation, Housing, Community Development, Canyons Management, Sustainability and Economic Development. She came to Regional Development after serving as Associate Deputy Mayor of Finance and Administration under Salt Lake County’s CFO.
Prior to joining the County, Dina spent more than a decade as a consultant providing comprehensive urban planning and historic real property-related services to clients in the Intermountain West. She studied Architecture and Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design and holds a BA from Columbia University in Art & Architectural History. She also received a master’s degree in City & Metropolitan Planning from the University of Utah. She was the Chair of the Utah Board of State History, serves on the Great Salt Lake Advisory Council and represents the SLCo Mayor on the Jordan River Commission and the Wasatch Front Regional Growth Commission.
Dina was born and raised in Salt Lake City and currently lives in Millcreek City.
Title: The Importance of GSL Shoreline Protection in Water and Land Use Planning
Abstract: In Salt Lake County’s West General Plan (adopted May 2022), the term “Great Salt Lake Shoreline Heritage Area” was introduced. The area accounts for nearly 34,000 acres of the general plan study area and when the plan was adopted, most landowners and land managers in the area opposed commercial development in favor of maintaining habitat conservation, ranching, and agricultural uses into the future. Farmers and ranchers who work in the area described the relationship between the existing land uses as symbiotic. The West General Plan calls for future land uses to remain as bird refuges, habitat conservation, waterfowl habitat, and agriculture by employing a variety of conservation tools, including fee simple acquisition, conservation development agreements, purchase or transfer of development rights, grazing or agricultural servitudes, and conservation easements. Development pressures in the GSL Shoreline Heritage Area are increasing. Can a coalition of interested parties affect the course of events?