Module 3 - Urbanization and Sustainable Growth

Jerry Gouvet, a general contractor and pool builder, talks about his experience in building houses and pools. He mentions that building pools can actually save water compared to maintaining grass areas. He also discusses the importance of finding a balance in urban areas, providing housing options for different age groups, and the need for amenities like grocery stores and schools. Jerry mentions the issue of urban sprawl in certain cities and the need for protected areas such as parks. He emphasizes the importance of water conservation and environmentally friendly yards. Finally, he talks about the economic benefits of construction and its impact on the overall economy. I am here with my dad. Go ahead and introduce yourself, dad, and let's talk a bit. I'm Jerry Gouvet, general contractor, pool builder. And how did you get started building houses and pools? I originally started as a roofing contractor, and I moved to Utah and started building one house at a time, a spec home. And then over the years, we wanted a swimming pool in our backyard here, and I became a pool builder. And would you say you build those pools in more urban areas or cities or suburbs? Urban suburbs. More of the entry-level pool owner's style. In what ways, would you say, building pools, you keep it environmentally friendly? Well, actually, it saves water. Studies have shown that a pool, say, if it's 1,000 square feet of surface area, say the average pool would be 25,000 gallons. But if there was grass, that same grass area, 1,000 square feet, would use 25,000 gallons a year to water it. And then, the pool only loses maybe 2,000 to 3,000 from evaporation and splashing. And so the next year, you're only losing 2,000 or 3,000 gallons instead of 25 feet. So instead of using 50,000 gallons of water to save this grass, you'd only use 2,000 to 3,000 gallons a year on average. So it does save water, and... Better for the environment? Yeah. It doesn't lose as much water for drought conditions. So in this week's module, we're talking about urban sprawl. And being a contract builder, what is your outlook on urban sprawl? It talks about how the cities are just better when it comes to resources and using resources, whether it's walking to work or being able to walk and get your groceries. As a builder who mainly builds houses, what do you think of this? Well, I think you need a balance in the community, because some of the biggest problems in more of the wealthier areas is lack of senior citizen housing. As they downsize, they're looking for single-level houses to live in, and kind of a... So they could be near where they grew up, they lived, they'd like to stay in the same community for being familiar with other families. But also, communities also need entry-level housing or apartments and entry-level housing as families expand and become a little bit more financially able to buy a bigger house. But then you also need grocery stores, schools, definitely, churches, and also other businesses. Because some cities, all they do is have houses and apartments, but no businesses for yearly tax revenue to help finance the city that they need from businesses. As far as where you build, do you see a problem within any certain cities around Utah Valley? Yeah, I'd say vineyards, a typical one, you drive through vineyards. Already, the brand new schools aren't big enough for all the kids there, the families. And I don't see any grocery stores, I don't see a library, or it's very small, the library. They can't keep up, it's growing so fast. The roads, they're busy. And what about protecting our environment? Like, do we have spaces that are regulated where we can't build? For instance, behind our house, hopefully that will stay, we can't build. Are there certain areas that are protected? That's the good part, I think, about modern-day growth in these communities, is they do set aside areas for parks and space and recs for kids to go to, for families to access and utilize. And so I think the planning, in that sense, is really good. That's a positive on the sprawl. In what ways can we be more environmentally friendly, just within society, within our new developed thing happening? The biggest one is water usage. That's the first thing on all these communities is water. Like, have an environmentally friendly yard. Like, Salt Lake and Utah counties have a thing, or maybe it's the state of Utah, where they want you to get rid of your strip in your front yard, that three-, four-foot strip that has grass in it, and put, like, low-flow sprinklers in their drip system for plants. And so you're not using all the water to grow grass there in the park strip. And the state's encouraging that. They're also encouraging some areas to get rid of your lawn and go to use your more friendly, environmentally friendly, less water yards. Water's a big issue everywhere. I guess my next question would be, what's something, as well, that is doing a good job of? Something that we should keep continuing or keep focusing on our environment? Boy, good question. I'm just balancing the communities between young families all the way up to elderly families, senior citizens. Just trying to find a balance, because each has something to offer to their community. Do you think we're growing towards that? Because most of the developing areas I see are just kind of all the same houses, same three-story. They all kind of look alike. Yeah, it's hard because the builders and developers need to make money or nobody's going to do it. So I don't know what the answer is yet, if the government can offer discounts to developers to build less houses. But it's all a matter of economics and people need to make money. I mean, it provides jobs. Not just building homes provide jobs, but you got the suppliers, the material suppliers. And when the economy's going well, it also transfers into discretionary income. People have money. They buy pools. They buy cars. They buy TVs. They go on vacation. So it trickles down to everyone when it's doing well economy-wise. Well, thank you for your time. And that concludes our podcast.