Skip to main content

Cottonwood Heights Receives Business-Friendly Award ommunity Members Encouraged to Say Boo to the Flu

Oct 27, 2016 03:09PM ● By Kelly Cannon

Cottonwood Heights was one of five cities to receive the Business-Friendly Award. (Cottonwood Heights)

By Kelly Cannon | [email protected] 


Cottonwood  Heights

The Salt Lake Chamber, Gov. Gary Herbert and the Utah League of Cities and Towns honored Cottonwood Heights with the 2016 Utah Governor’s Business-Friendly Community Award. The city was given the award for its efforts to reduce the number of regulations viewed as burdensome by locals and strengthen Utah’s pro-business climate. 

Cottonwood Heights found out about the award Sept. 15. According to Peri Kinder, the business development and licensing director for Cottonwood Heights, in order to receive the award, the city first had to do a survey with all the businesses in the area, as well as people who come in for permits. 

“We went through all those surveys and asked what we could do to be better, what they’d like us to do to make the process a little bit more streamlined and what we could do to make their experiences better working with us,” Kinder said. “We took all those surveys and put them into a report and presented it to the city council.”

Kinder said the main things people wanted were to be able to do payments online for renewal of licenses and to pay building permit fees. The city is looking into implementing the online payment system at the beginning of next year.  “We took what they said and we really want to make a difference with businesses. We want to be as helpful as possible,” Kinder said.

Another item that was drawn from the survey is trying to respond to calls and emails quickly. 

“We already have a 24-hour policy where we respond within 24 hours and we just want to reaffirm that,” Kinder said. “We really want to respond to everybody by the end of the day to make sure their questions are answered, just being really open and available to people who need our help.”

The other part of the survey was to gauge the community’s view on things the city has already implemented to create a business-friendly area. 

“We do lunches. We do expos. We do fairs. We just did Bites in the Heights,” Kinder said. “We really try to bring attention to our local businesses and give them a chance to promote themselves and promote what they do.” 

Kinder said the city was very honored to receive the award. 

“We’ve worked really hard over the last year to make some changes in the city, in our processes and procedures,” Kinder said. “It was great to be acknowledged for that.”

Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore said, in response to the award, the city values the business community in Cottonwood Heights and the recognition was evidence of the city’s efforts to limit regulations of business and make Cottonwood Heights a desirable place for businesses. 

“Our business community is vibrant and one of the key reasons our citizen love living here,” Cullimore said. “Many are able to work close to home and all are able to benefit from the goods and services offered by the businesses operating in Cottonwood Heights.”

Other cities who have received this award include Clearfield, Lindon, South Jordan and Park City. Gov. Gary Herbert applauded the cities, saying conscientious examinations of business regulations will always lead to increased opportunities for Utahns. 

“Our state shines when businesses can thrive, innovate and improve Utah’s quality of life,” Herbert said. “I applaud the communities that have undertaken this effort and hope that others will follow their lead.”

To learn more about the Governor’s Business-Friendly Community Award, visit cottonwoodheights.utah.gov.