It’s been 14 months since Ifo Pili started at his position as city manager for West Valley City. When he first learned of the job while serving as city manager for almost four years in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he said he “saw the potential for economic development and growth in West Valley. It’s such a dynamic city, and it checked all the boxes of a place I could call home.”

He feels that excitement even more now. 

“In my first year, I did a lot more listening and observing than talking,” he said. “I’ve learned about the city and where we came from and why we’re here. I’ve been impressed with how well the city has been doing and is doing, along with the progress we’ve made. We’ve been on a very good trajectory and my goal is to be sure that continues as we move forward.”

Pili says he’s been impressed with “the staff we have in place, a very tenured staff that works well with our elected officials. Our mayors over the last decade have been working hard on the projects to improve our downtown and programming with regards to public safety. From an economic development standpoint, I am pleased that we have so many solid businesses and tenants in our
industrial park.”

He also knows the challenges that West Valley City faces regarding development, with an increasingly smaller amount of land left for residential. That’s why he and fellow city leaders are about to embark on creating a comprehensive plan to guide the city for the next 20 years.

“Whether we like it or not, we should be going vertical now, and that changes the skyline of the city,” he said. “We’ve got some major decisions to make, and we’re going to be proposing a very comprehensive plan which we’ll update with our new July budget. It’s going to be about a year and half worth of charettes and town hall meetings and steering committees, getting the whole public involved in creating a document that can guide us forward.”

He said an RFP (request for proposal) will be ready to go for the new fiscal year starting in July to find a consulting firm to help WVC through the process of
creating the plan.

“There are a lot of ideas from different residents, and I want to hear those voices,” he said. “As a city manager, I’m not an elected official. I’m not the voice of the people. But I have opinions like any other resident. We want to consolidate thoughts and ideas and find out how best to deal with residential density, building heights, single family homes and multi-family residences. How do we best balance those? Where does it make the most sense to
build them?”

West Valley has the Maverik Center and the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheater, great entertainment venues, along with Centennial Park and a fitness center. He adds that the city doesn’t have a splash pad which is something he’d like to see.

“The city is 45 years old, and we’re looking ahead towards our celebration when we turn 50,” he said. “We’re a city of 150,000 and want to continue improving our infrastructure. We have great growth in our industrial park and the city is praised for our proximity to the airport and our freeway access. These are all virtues that West Valley City has to offer new businesses who want to relocate here, along with our workforce.”

Pili said there are 45,000 jobs in the city today, and more continue to be added.

“This is a very exciting time for West Valley City,” he said. “I feel very blessed to be here at this time. I don’t know how many other cities can match up to us, but I’m guessing not too many. People are coming to West Valley City to work, to play, and most of all to live and raise their families. I want in my role to help continue that, to really try to improve and make our city the best it can be.” λ