Happy Thursday, Eagle Mountain. Colten here.

Lot’s to cover today, so let’s jump straight into it.

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Eagle Mountain is updating its long-term plan for building and paying for its roads. The Planning Commission gave the update a positive recommendation to send to the City Council.

To understand how our road system got to where it is today, it's worth a quick look at some data. Eagle Mountain has grown from 250 people at its founding in 1996 to just over 74,500 today. Mountainland Association of Governments, the regional planning agency, expects the city to reach roughly 184,000 people by 2060.

Guess how much it's going to cost to keep up with that growth? Building out the road network by 2035 comes to $1.52 billion. That's a lot of money. And that's just the next decade, by 2050, the total nearly doubles to $2.65 billion.

Without getting too much into the weeds, here's a look at some of the specific things in the plan:

This is just a glance at what's in a very long, very detailed plan. Would you be interested in me doing a full deep dive into it, breaking down exactly what's planned and what it means for you? If enough of you say yes, I'll write it.

The full recording of the Planning Commission meeting is available for anyone who wants to learn more.

Tonight, the City Council is holding a special meeting just to talk about how Eagle Mountain's roads will connect to neighboring cities. It's at 6 PM at City Council Chambers. City Manager Ben Reeves opens the meeting, followed by two confirmed topics:

If time allows, four more items are on the list: widening Pony Express Parkway to seven lanes between Lake Mountain Corridor and Mountain View Corridor, a new connection between Inverness Lane and Talus Ridge Drive, Wild Blossom Boulevard, and the east alignment of Wagstaff Way.

One of those, Wild Blossom Boulevard, runs directly through a large planned development called Talon's Cove, sitting right at the Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs border. Site plans for the area show it anchored by the existing Walmart, with dozens of acres set aside for things like a possible high school or university satellite campus, medical offices, an auto sales complex, and general community commercial space. It's still early and labeled as a draft, but it gives a real sense of what this corner of the city could look like in the coming years, and why the road connecting to it matters.

Since this meeting happens late today, I don't have outcomes yet. I'll follow up once I know what was actually discussed and decided.

As a friendly reminder: Eagle Mountain expects to receive about $466,979 in federal money in 2026 through a program called CDBG, short for Community Development Block Grant. It's federal funding cities receive every year to spend on things like housing and infrastructure. You can submit comments on how the city plans to spend it through August 4. That same day, the city council also holds a formal hearing on it as part of its regular 7 PM meeting.

As another friendly reminder: State law requires a public hearing before a city can raise property taxes above what it collected the year before. That hearing, called Truth-in-Taxation, is August 6 at 6 PM, with a virtual option available. If you want context first, my interview with Mayor Jared Gray, Councilmember Zachory Huish, and Councilmember Craig Whiting is on YouTube and Apple Podcasts, and the full breakdown of the increase is in my July 3 deep dive.

I've gotten to know Kat Ashby over the last several weeks, and she's genuinely one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I've met while putting this newsletter together.

If you've been wondering what's actually happening with home values in Eagle Mountain, she's been writing about exactly that. She's a Principal Broker who specializes in new construction and corporate relocation, both relevant given how much of Eagle Mountain is still being built, and she publishes her own research on local topics like HOA structures in newer developments and where home prices are actually heading, using real closed-sale data rather than guesswork. You can read more on her blog.

If you're thinking about selling, she offers a free home valuation, a real, data-backed number rather than a generic online estimate, with an explanation of how she got there. You can request one through her free home valuation page.

Free summer lunches run every weekday through August 7: 10:30–11:30 AM at Nolen Park and 12:30–1:30 PM at Cory B. Wride Memorial Park. More info.

Thursday, July 30

Friday, July 31

Saturday, August 1

Monday, August 3

Eagle Mountain's 2026 Bingo Card is still live for residents who want to take part.

Starting Monday, August 17, a new microtransit service called UTA On Demand launches in Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Lehi, and American Fork. It works like Uber or Lyft, but connects directly to UTA's bus and train network, for a $2.50 fare with free transfers to bus, TRAX, and FrontRunner within two hours. Riders request a trip through the UTA app.

Provo Fire Captain Spencer Long, his wife Katrina, and three of their sons, Reid, Thayne, and Gage, died on Friday, July 17, when a flash flood caught them while they were hiking and canyoneering near Sunglow Campground in Wayne County, according to KSL. Katrina co-founded Summit Medical Spa, which has a location here in Eagle Mountain, and her kindness and commitment to others touched a lot of people in our community.

Their daughter, Lydia, is the family's sole survivor. She wasn't with them at the campground when the flood happened. A funeral for the family was held Wednesday, July 29, at the UCCU Center in Orem, drawing firefighters from across the state who came to pay their respects, per Deseret News.

If you'd like to help support Lydia during this incredibly difficult time, a GoFundMe has been set up for her.

That’s it for today.

See you around,

— Colten

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