Saying the White House is in builder mode, Rep. Burgess Owens discussed future plans for Utah’s transportation infrastructure with federal, state and local leaders Friday morning at the South Jordan FrontRunner station.

Although the state has an extensive network of buses and trains — and plans for trams — Utah uses the least amount of federal money of any state in their transportation projects, South Jordan Mayor Dawn Ramsey said as she welcomed Owens and Federal Transportation Administrator Marc Molinaro as they arrived by FrontRunner.

“We’ve worked hard to be efficient here in Utah — to use money very wisely,” she said.

Ward MacCarragher, an American Public Transportation Association official, similarly praised the state’s infrastructure for its positive effect on Utah’s economy. “For every dollar invested in public transit, more than $5 in economic return is generated,” he said.

How is Utah’s infrastructure changing under President Trump?

As Owens began his remarks, he said, “We’re in a very, very special window where we have a builder as a president and we have a House and Senate that are America first.”

Molinaro, the current administrator of the Federal Transit Administration and a longtime friend of Owens, also praised President Donald Trump’s Cabinet for their attention to the country’s transportation infrastructure.

Molinaro said the Trump administration’s move to eliminate social cost of carbon tools has removed roadblocks and made planning infrastructure more efficient. The social cost of carbon is an estimate, typically expressed in dollars, of the economic damages associated with emitting one additional ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Eliminating social cost of carbon “ensures we’re trying to distribute dollars equitably,” Molinaro said. “We don’t want just the big, major cities to be the only ones that get to compete for some of the largest dollars we want growing and emerging cities, villages and hamlets around the country to be able to compete for those dollars.”

Without the added social cost of carbon playing into infrastructure financing, states can move faster on delayed projects, and transportation is judged more on mobility and economic value.

How will the FrontRunner grow in the near future?

Ben Huot, the director of planning and investment at Utah’s Department of Transportation, said the current FrontRunner project “is one of the most significant investments in transportation in Utah history.”

The FrontRunner’s track, which currently runs from Provo to Ogden, has a single track system along 74% of its route. UDOT is planning on adding double track segments and providing additional cars to increase the train’s frequency.

Huot added that the FrontRunner’s ridership grew by about 10% in 2024.

And while Owens didn’t divulge any details, he said he has a map in his office that shows what Utah’s transportation infrastructure “is going to look like in 2050.”

Molinaro added that he hopes the House of Representatives’ transportation committee “learns a few lessons from the Utah way” of doing transportation infrastructure.

Utah Utes (9-13, 1-8 Big 12) at Kansas Jayhawks (17-5, 7-2 Big 12)

Lawrence, Kansas; Saturday, 2:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Utah takes on No. 11 Kansas after Don McHenry scored 23 points in Utah’s 71-63 loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils.

The Jayhawks are 9-1 in home games. Kansas ranks fifth in college basketball with 28.1 defensive rebounds per game led by Flory Bidunga averaging 6.2.

The Utes have gone 1-8 against Big 12 opponents. Utah is 6-11 against opponents over .500.

Kansas is shooting 47.8% from the field this season, 0.5 percentage points higher than the 47.3% Utah allows to opponents. Utah averages 11.1 more points per game (78.8) than Kansas gives up (67.7).

The Jayhawks and Utes square off Saturday for the first time in Big 12 play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Melvin Council Jr. is averaging 13.8 points and five assists for the Jayhawks. Darryn Peterson is averaging 17.6 points over the last 10 games.

Terrence Brown is averaging 21.4 points, four assists and 1.6 steals for the Utes. McHenry is averaging 16.9 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Jayhawks: 8-2, averaging 82.3 points, 36.0 rebounds, 15.4 assists, 6.1 steals and 5.5 blocks per game while shooting 50.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.7 points per game.

Utes: 1-9, averaging 74.4 points, 29.6 rebounds, 12.7 assists, 5.5 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 43.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 83.6 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted last month showed that housing affordability is the No. 1 issue Utah voters want the Utah Legislature to address during the current session.

So, what are state lawmakers doing about the affordability of housing?

The state’s objectives for housing are outlined in the Utah Housing Strategic Plan which was developed through the collaborative efforts of the Governor’s Office, the Legislature and other stakeholders.

Steve Waldrip, the governor’s senior adviser for housing strategy and innovation shared that traditionally, government has only been involved in low income and subsidized housing, which involved using public resources to “the least fortunate among us.”

Waldrip said there has been a shift, because now housing prices have increased to the point where the traditional working class can no longer afford a home.

“What we’re facing is having to look at strategies to create affordability for what we didn’t used to have to worry about, which is teachers and firefighters. They can’t afford to buy a home, and that’s a change,” Waldrip said.

Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, agreed Utah is currently in a housing crisis.

The goals and ideas outlined in the plan are guiding the major moves in housing policy that are being made this legislative session.

What is the Utah Housing Strategic Plan?

Last year, the Legislature passed HB37, which directed the governor’s office to make a strategic plan to help solve the housing crisis in the state.

Waldrip said state leaders didn’t want the plan to just come from the governor’s office, or have different groups all make separate plans.

“We tried to do an integrated collaborative process, bringing as many people to the table as we could,” he said. The group worked together to analyze and investigate how the housing problem can be dealt with, he said.

Cameron Diehl, the executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, said his organization was involved in the creation of the plan and gave feedback on the final product. The league represents over 1,400 mayors and city council members and 250 cities and towns across the state.

“It’s been a very collaborative process, it doesn’t mean that we agree with everything in the plan, but it’s been a very collaborative process, and really one of the core principles in the state housing plan is collaboration with all stakeholders,” Diehl said.

The aim of the strategic plan is to “ensure that every resident in Utah has access to safe, affordable and stable housing options.”

The plan has three main goals:

1. Improve housing availability, affordability and stability.
2. Foster community well-being and quality of life.
3. Seek consensus and evidence-based policy and housing support solutions.

The plan outlines over 50 tactics that can help improve the housing situation in the state.

Diehl said that his group is fully supportive of some of the tactics while others give them pause.

“Anytime you have a list of 50 tactics you’re going to like some more than others,” he said.

One of the other objectives of the plan is to achieve the governor’s goal of building 35,000 starter homes by 2028.

The housing affordability issue in Utah

“I believe that if you’re a kid born in Utah, you’re raised here in Utah, you’re educated in Utah, you work hard, you should have the opportunity to afford a starter home,” said Rep. Calvin Roberts, R-Draper, in an interview with the Deseret News.

He added that the younger generations are increasingly getting priced out of the housing market.

The representative shared that over the last 40 years the median home price has risen 5.2% each year, but the median wage has only risen about 3.2% a year.

“You get this massive gap between where home prices are today and where the median wage is,” Roberts said.

Waldrip said the standard used to be that the median home price was three times the median wage. Over the last about eight years, Utah peaked at about 6.2 times the median wage for the median home price. Currently the state is now at about 5.5.

“So we’ve essentially doubled the cost of the median home,” Waldrip said.

Multiple lawmakers and stakeholders emphasized that there is a supply and demand issue; there are just not enough homes available to meet the need in Utah. Because of the demand, the value of the existing homes has gone up.

Waldrip said Utah is currently attracting a lot of growth from outside of the state, making it so people raised in Utah have a harder time buying a home here.

He did acknowledge that the growth is a positive and Utah can continue to grow and “stay great.”

“The goal is always to increase the supply as we’ve been growing fast,” said Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, during Thursday’s Senate media availability.

The state government wants to get more people out of renting apartments and into owning homes.

“Our society is built on property ownership and the ability for people to be able to purchase property, create generational wealth, create stability and have that opportunity of what we call the American dream, and that’s what we see slipping away generationally,” Waldrip said.

Lawmakers are implementing the plan through infrastructure investment

One of the biggest housing bills of the session is HB492 which was numbered on Wednesday. Sponsored by Roberts, the bill would help build infrastructure that would unlock thousands of planned houses around the state and allow them to be built.

“So what we’re trying to do is find ways to unlock the building that is ready to occur. We have lots of paper parcels that are ready to build on, but they don’t have the infrastructure they need, so no building is happening,” said Gov. Spencer Cox in an interview with the Deseret News at the start of the session.

This includes regional infrastructure such as sewer lift stations, water treatment facilities, water tanks and big regional roads.

HB492 would allow the state to partner with cities and help invest in the big capacity regional infrastructure, “to support the growth that cities have already planned.”

It would create the State Housing Infrastructure Partnership Fund, which is a revolving loan fund meant to finance these infrastructure projects that support new housing. The funding would come from money that already exists within the state government.

According to numbers from the Utah League of Cities and Towns, eight Utah cities have identified a total of 109,074 entitled units in late 2025, with 12% ready for building and 88% that require infrastructure improvements. Those eight cities are Herriman, West Jordan, South Jordan, Riverton, Bluffdale, Lehi, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain.

Waldrip was told by the mayor of Washington City that there are 2,852 planned lots that are waiting to be built in the city.

“The cities are on board with the state coming in and helping fund these things, because they’re not planning anything, it’s just getting the funds in. That’s that partnership model,” Diehl said.

This infrastructure investment plan is one of the key tactics in the strategic housing plan.

The governor said he thinks this “will have a greater effect than just about anything else that we can do right now.”

Bringing all housing policy together under one roof

Sponsored by Roberts, HB68, would not create any new policy but would rather reorganize and centralize how housing policy is handled by the state.

While presenting to the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee on Wednesday, Roberts said: “When I first started as a legislator, I wanted to get involved in housing policy, but it’s a challenge, because right now, over 40 housing policies are scattered across at least four different executive agencies.”

He added that this makes it difficult for both legislators and other Utahns because if someone has questions about housing it’s not clear who they should go and talk to.

HB68 would create the Division of Housing and Community Development, which would sit within the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. The division would have a director who is confirmed by the Senate.

Waldrip said the bill will “create more streamlined accountability in the governor’s office, in the executive branch, we can then report back to the legislature and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we’re doing. Here’s why we’re doing it.’”

He said it will allow the division to share what they’ve done with their appropriations and what their goals and needs are.

Roberts said this bill will essentially accomplish two things:

1. Legislators who pass housing policy bill will have someone they can hold accountable who has to report back to the lawmakers.
2. This will bring more efficiency and will remove redundancies involved in the housing policy process.

Other things lawmakers are doing

Rep. Stephen Whyte, R-Mapleton, has introduced a resolution, HCR6, to officially recognize the strategic housing plan.

Waldrip said the point of the resolution is to “make sure that we have the legislature and the governor’s office walking in lockstep on this path.”

One of the key tactics of the plan is to see how and where government land can be used for housing.

“We have a lot of government land in Utah and so we’re starting with the lowest hanging fruit of government land, which are parcels that are scattered within our communities,” Waldrip said.

He added that the Utah Department of Transportation has made 15 parcels available for starter homes. The goal is also to make a list of surplus property that will help provide ownership opportunities at a lower cost.

“We have land, let’s make use of land that’s already served by infrastructure,” Waldrip said.

Adams has made a funding request this session for $10 million to go toward the first time homebuyers programs.

The program “allows $20,000 to be used for a person’s down payment, closing costs or to buy down the rate,” the senator said.

He added that program has helped 3,000 families get into their first home.