Kay Christofferson on Lehi Roots & Public Service | Roots & Branches

Utah State Rep. Kay Christofferson shares his lifelong Lehi story—from pioneer descendant to civil engineer to legislator—on growth, transportation, water, power, and preserving community in one of Utah’s fastest-growing cities.

Kay Christofferson on Lehi Roots & Public Service | Roots & Branches

Utah State Rep. Kay Christofferson shares his lifelong Lehi story—from pioneer descendant to civil engineer to legislator—on growth, transportation, water, power, and preserving community in one of Utah’s fastest-growing cities.

Kay Christofferson on Lehi Roots, Public Service, and Guiding Utah's Growth

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Who Is Kay Christofferson, and Why Does His Story Matter?

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Key Stories from the Interview

Descended from Lehi Pioneer David Evans

A Childhood of Open Fields and Unlocked Doors

32 Years in Construction and Engineering

Turning the 2008 Recession into a Family Project

The Last-Minute Campaign That Launched a Legislative Career

Securing $60 Million for Corridor Preservation

Service at Covington Assisted Living

Historical Insights About Lehi

Community and Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics

Photo Opportunities for Historical Archive

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Kay Christofferson Lehi Utah Interview - Roots & Branches of Lehi Podcast

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A multigenerational Lehi native, Utah State Representative Kay Christofferson shares his journey from the old Lehi Hospital to the State Capitol—preserving pioneer heritage while shaping transportation, infrastructure, and the future of a booming Utah County.

Work Hard Mortgage helps families achieve the dream of homeownership in Lehi and across Utah.

In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , host Ryan Harding sits down with Utah State Representative Kay Christofferson , a lifelong Lehi resident whose family roots stretch back to the city's earliest pioneer days. Born in the old Lehi Hospital and raised across from Lehi Elementary, Kay grew up in a small farming town where kids rode bikes to Saratoga Springs, neighbors left their doors unlocked, and the Round Up Rodeo brought the entire community together. His story is a rare bridge between Lehi's rural past and its high-growth present—a living chronicle of how a close-knit, 8,000-person farming community became one of the fastest-growing cities along the Wasatch Front.

Kay's interview matters because it captures the perspective of someone who has lived every chapter of Lehi's modern history. After a 32-year career in civil engineering and construction, he unexpectedly entered public service following the 2008 recession, winning election to the Utah House of Representatives in 2012. Today he chairs the House Transportation Committee and serves on committees overseeing public utilities, energy, technology, and federalism. His legislative work has secured tens of millions in corridor preservation funding, and his engineering background gives him a uniquely practical voice on growth, infrastructure, and government efficiency.

For anyone interested in Lehi, Utah history , pioneer heritage , Utah transportation planning , local government , Lehi growth and development , or how small-town values translate into state-level leadership, this interview offers indispensable context. Whether you remember Geneva Steel, rodeo days at the old grounds, or the first subdivisions pushing toward Eagle Mountain, Kay Christofferson's memories and insights illuminate where Lehi has been—and where it must go to manage its next phase of growth.

Prefer to listen? This episode is also available on <a href="https: <a href="https:

Kay Christofferson

Utah State Representative; former civil engineer and construction executive; lifelong Lehi resident; branch president at Covington Assisted Living

1950s–2020s, covering small-town Lehi, the Geneva Steel era, the 2008 recession, and modern growth

Ryan Harding

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Kay opens the interview by pointing to the statue of David Evans at Lehi City Center and identifying him as his great-great-grandfather. On his mother's side, the Evans line connects directly to one of Lehi's earliest leaders. On his father's side, the Christoffersons trace back to his great-grandfather. This multigenerational lineage gives Kay a perspective few modern residents share: he was born in the old Lehi Hospital, raised across from Lehi Elementary, and has witnessed the city's transformation from a single-stake farming community to a booming suburban center.

Kay describes growing up in a Lehi of roughly 8,000 people, where farms and open space dominated the landscape, kids rode bikes to Saratoga Springs to catch frogs, and neighbors rarely locked their doors. The rodeo grounds were a gathering place where families paid at the gate rather than buying tickets in advance. He remembers watching rodeo animals arrive days before the celebration, climbing the fences, and imagining himself riding the bulls—memories that capture the small-town trust and freedom that defined midcentury Lehi.

After graduating from BYU with a degree in civil engineering, Kay joined Geneva Rock Products, part of the Clyde Companies. He worked on civil construction projects across Utah—roads, utilities, sand and gravel supply, concrete and asphalt, and even the light rail build for the 2002 Winter Olympics. His career gave him firsthand experience with the infrastructure that supports growth, a background he later brought directly to the legislature as chair of the House Transportation Committee.

When the 2008 recession hit, construction stalled and development stopped. After 32 years with the company, Kay accepted an early retirement package. Rather than sit idle, he used the funds to buy homes at the bottom of the market and put his four school-age sons to work renovating them. What began as a practical necessity became a unexpected family project and a blessing that kept them productive during a difficult economic period.

A neighbor encouraged Kay to run for the Utah House during a redistricting year. The district had split into three, creating an open seat. Despite having no campaign experience, Kay filed the same afternoon he was approached—on a Tuesday, with filing closing that Friday. He barely survived the Republican caucus convention, having entered the race late against an opponent who had already been campaigning. But by the primary, the numbers flipped, and he won the general election in 2012, beginning his service in January 2013.

Frustrated that transportation planning had not kept pace with growth, Kay used his position to secure major funding for corridor preservation. About three years ago, he obtained $60 million for a revolving fund used to purchase land for future roads before development makes it prohibitively expensive. The following year, he added $20 million in ongoing annual funding. The goal is to prevent the costly and disruptive process of buying million-dollar homes and relocating businesses after corridors have already been built out.

Kay serves as branch president at Covington Assisted Living in Lehi, ministering to residents including the host's grandfather, Maurice "Mo" Cook. The role keeps him grounded in the everyday needs of elderly community members and offers a different angle on service—one rooted in personal attention rather than legislative process. It also reinforces his belief that involvement at every level, from a neighborhood to the State Capitol, strengthens the fabric of community.

Kay Christofferson's memories offer a detailed oral history of Lehi's transformation from rural town to modern city. Here are the key historical insights from the interview:

Beyond the specific stories, Kay's interview reflects enduring values that have shaped Lehi across generations:

This episode connects to the broader Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Explore these related topics to deepen your understanding of Lehi's history and community:

To enhance this community profile, consider adding these visual elements to the historical record:

Ryan Harding: Welcome to Roots and Branches of Lehi, the podcast where we get to know the faces, stories, and lives that make up our community. I'm Ryan Harding, and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live alongside. Growing up in a small town, I learned that connections go beyond blood. They're built through shared experiences, friendships, and the moments we celebrate together. Each week, we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their unique story, their passions, and what they love most about living here. So whether you've been here for years or just arrived, join us as we deepen our roots and reach out to our branches one story at a time.

Ryan Harding: Welcome Kay Christofferson to Roots and Branches of Lehi. Excited to have you here on the podcast where we get to know you a little bit better and hear your story and stuff. So thanks for coming on. Appreciate you.

Kay Christofferson: Thank you. We appreciate you inviting me and glad to share some stories in that.

Ryan Harding: Hey, this will be fun. So, let's start with, you know, this is a podcast about Lehi, you know, and the connection to Lehi. Tell us about your connection to Lehi. Where did you grow up here? You transplanted in. Tell me about that, I guess.

Kay Christofferson: Well, you know that statue of David Evans that's in the Lehi City Center. He's my great-great-grandfather. And on the other side, that's my mother's side. And on my father's side, we've got the Christoffersons that go back to my great-grandfather. And so, and I was born in the Lehi Hospital. That's no longer there. I've been here all my life. So, you've been here generations.

Ryan Harding: And tell me what you did for work and stuff like that, I guess, for that period of time.

Kay Christofferson: So, I graduated in civil engineering from BYU. And I got a job while I was still in school with Geneva Rock Products. As part of the Clyde Companies. And when I graduated, they hired me full-time. And then so I didn't do a lot of design work, but I worked with civil engineers and others to do civil construction type projects. Roads and utilities and worked on the light rail project for the Olympics and just a lot of site work, sand and gravel supply, concrete asphalt supply and construction. So.

Ryan Harding: Tell me. So, I guess going back to Lehi part, any favorite memories? I mean, what was life like growing up in for a large part a small town, right? For probably most of your life, I guess.

Kay Christofferson: Yeah, I was. It's I don't know. I think when I graduated from high school, there may have been about 8,000 people then. So most of my growing up life was you know we go to school. I lived across the street from the Lehi Elementary School. So we'd go over there a lot and play games and we'd ride our bikes all over. We'd ride to Saratoga Springs or out to the Westvilles and catch frogs and so it was, you know, left their doors unlocked and it was just really nice. And we could spend time outside a lot. We had there were a lot of farms. We had a big yard and a garden and so, it was pretty peaceful. A lot of open space, a lot of cows and horses and farms.

Ryan Harding: And did your dad do for work? He worked at Geneva Steel Plant.

Kay Christofferson: He did too. So yeah, that that really helped Utah Valley a lot to have that steel plant. And a lot of people, you know, I mean, it it created some pollution and things like that that people were concerned about, but for a lot of years, it really helped the economy of Utah County. It was a tough living, but it paid better than a lot of jobs.

Ryan Harding: Any favorite memories growing up here? You know, as far as anything that stand out and kind of a side question is things have changed, too. How have you dealt with that?

Kay Christofferson: Well, it seemed like you knew everybody and you know people in the in the Lehi celebration, they would all come to the rodeo and we didn't have to wait in line for tickets or get them ahead of time. We just pay for them at the door and then we'd all show up at the parade and everybody knew everybody it seemed like. And one of my favorite memories is when they'd bring the animals into the rodeo a few days ahead, all of us kids would ride our bikes down and walk around and climb on the gate on the fences and imagine ourselves riding one of those bulls. So, but it was a tight community, you know, at the time. We had one stake in Lehi, one stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And not that many wards. I think when I was born, they just created the seventh ward, which I was a member of. So again, small very I mean very small place.

Ryan Harding: You've seen a lot of growth then over the last so many years, right?

Kay Christofferson: Yeah. And I remember, all the kids from Cedar Fort and Saratoga Springs came out to Lehi to go to school and other activities, you know, a lot of shopping and that wasn't a big deal. And it was a straight shot out there and sure there was hardly anybody in between us and Cedar Fort. And then I think it was around 1985ish, you know, there were some thoughts of developing out to the ranches. And Eagle Mountain and anyway, it started growing fast then. And so that area grew really fast and and and then Lehi was still growing fast at the same time and it was a little more convenient because it's closer to the freeway. So, a lot of people tried to stay here. But I've seen property gobbled up and prices go higher. It's a different dynamic.

Ryan Harding: It is a different dynamic which there's I guess problems with growth but there's also benefits that come with growth too and stuff like that. You mentioned your career in civil engineering and stuff like that. Did you were you a part of some of that growth as far as some of the things that took place as far as building? I mean you mentioned like light rail and stuff. Kind of speak to that for a little bit.

Kay Christofferson: So the construction industry just boomed in that time because of the growth and people liked being here because the labor force was good. There were a lot we had a lot of educational, you know, universities and colleges and and so it was a good workforce and people liked being here. The people were honest and hardworking and so it a lot of people liked coming here. So there were a lot of businesses that moved in, a lot of subdivisions and a lot of opportunities to build roads and site work for buildings.

Ryan Harding: I feel like now that I'm in the legislature and looking at things from I'm on the chair of the House Transportation Committee. And looking at it from that perspective, I feel like our growth has gone so fast that it's hard to stay ahead of transportation needs and and and some of the other infrastructure that needs to sustain that kind of growth.

Ryan Harding: What made you transition from engineering into politics? What and when did that take place?

Kay Christofferson: Yeah. So I was with Geneva Rock for a lot of years which I said is part of the Clyde companies and then they bought another company H Davis Construction. I went to run that for them. And then we formed Sunrock which is now they just changed the name to Suncor. But the company was growing but then in 2008 in the downturn construction really got hurt then because people just couldn't, their homes were being foreclosed on and nobody was developing and the growth just stopped. And so about end of 2010, the company just said, "Hey, we're going to offer early retirement packages for those who are executives." And I'd been there 32 years. So I thought, "Well, I'm going to" and it freed up some money. So I went took that money and bought some homes at the bottom. And I have five sons and four of them were still in school and needing work. So we worked on those, gave them some summer work and work after school. So it was good. I really enjoyed that.

Kay Christofferson: And then about a year after I'd done that, someone came to me and said, "Look, there's a spot there. There's redistricting. There's a spot opened up my district split into three districts." And so there was an opening for a legislative district for the House of Representatives that one person was running and somebody came to me and says, "We need someone else to run in this spot as well. We need another choice." And I said, "Well, I've got the time. I don't really know much about campaigning." I said, "If you can help me understand that a little bit, you know, I have an interest in the issues and I felt like I could be interested in working in that area." So, I went down that afternoon and filed and the filing that was a Tuesday, the filing ended on Friday. And so I was in the campaign and a few weeks later was the caucus convention for the Republican party. I barely made it through that because it was big learning curve. My opponent had been campaigning for quite a while. So I made it through that and then during the primary our numbers just flipped and so I won that. So that was in 2012. And so I started as a representative in January of 2013.

Ryan Harding: You mentioned not good at campaigning, that different side of it, but maybe that's actually what appealed to voters about you was the fact that you're not a quote-unquote politician. You have that technical background and of engineering and different things like that. How has that served you? You've worked in the industry. You have that business background.

Kay Christofferson: Yeah. And then it helps to have real world experience. And the legislature is a part-time legislature. It feels like a full-time job sometimes, but we have a 45-day session. And then interim every month where we go and and talk and then there's other things but really I'll bet I spend 60% of my time doing legislative work. But because it's a part-time legislature you're getting people that's not just political science majors or attorneys, you're getting people who understand all aspects of the issues that we deal with. I mean like I don't know a lot about insurance or real estate but there are people in the legislature that do and there are not too many engineers in the legislature. But it helps to have that background and credibility. That's one reason why I'm in the transportation committee and the public utilities, energy and technology is because my background in civil engineering and construction and so I understand some of those issues. And so it helps to have people from all walks of life that understand those things. And come together and really help guide legislation. And if there's a problem one year, the next year we come back and say, "Uh, that didn't work so well. We've got to adjust it or tweak it or whatever and we'll change it."

Ryan Harding: How long have you served? You mentioned two committees. You know, House Transportation and House what was it?

Kay Christofferson: Energy, public utilities, energy and technology. And I also serve on the retirement and independent entities committee and the transportation infrastructure appropriations subcommittee. And then on the federalism commission.

Ryan Harding: Very involved actually. Is that abnormal?

Kay Christofferson: Most representatives serve in two standing committees and one appropriation subcommittee. Sometimes three standing committees. But the federalism commission's a little bit of an external committee right now. It's doing more and more and people don't understand federalism too much but what it is is basically saying it's drawing the line between the federal government and the states. And it's saying we have three branches of government and we have the judiciary, the legislative and the executive. They all compete for power. And that's what keeps balance of power. But there's also the states and the federal government that keeps that balance. And that's federalism. So, there aren't too many things that happen now that we don't have overreach from the federal government in the state's business because it's easy to have an executive order or to have some federal agency say you need to do it this way. It's harder for states to say, uh, that's not your constitutional jurisdiction. We're going to push back. And sometimes it takes 50 states getting together. That's harder than just one person in the executive branch. So, our goal is to kind of say we're going to educate people on the jurisdictional roles and we're going to push back as much as we can in areas that we feel like there's been overreach and that helps to, you know, the founders say you need to jealously guard your jurisdiction or your area and that's on purpose. Because that keeps a balance. That keeps one branch from overreaching and taking control, which is good. We want the separation of powers. That's what makes a good government. But the other committees are great. That's where the real work is done in the committees. You can spend more time, you can get more depth. And people are on the committees that understand those areas. That's a place too where the public have input. They can come to the committee meetings. They can talk to the committee and ask questions or give their opinion. And on the house floor we don't get that opportunity to have public input. So the committee work is really important and most of the work is done there. By the time it passes the house, usually it either passes the house after it's gone through the committee but not always because somebody some people have different opinions that they debate and they bring up and there may be things that are brought up that the committee wasn't aware of.

Ryan Harding: You've been on those committees for a little while. Anything you're most proud of as far as any kind of accomplishments or things that you've seen or been a part of?

Kay Christofferson: Well, I mentioned growth in our area and one of the things I've been disappointed in is that we haven't looked ahead far enough to say, you know, we know this area is growing. We need to preserve the corridor for a freeway or collector roads or whatever to connect the cities to get through. For example, in Lehi, we've got the East-West area that comes from clear from Cedar Fort over to American Fork, ties into the freeway there, and they really haven't looked ahead to say what are we going to do to manage the future growth. And so, one of the things I've done is I've gotten quite a few allocations or appropriations for money that is specifically for corridor preservation. So, about three years ago, I got $60 million that goes into that. It's a revolving fund. So, when the road's built, money comes back in. And then I got $20 million a year ongoing last year. And so that'll be money that they can go purchase land and preserve it. So that, you know, if houses and buildings, businesses are built on those areas that we designate for roads, if we didn't have that designation, then it costs so much more money for us to go in and buy a house for a million dollars, take it down. And it's disruptive and it's hard for neighborhoods plus businesses. It's expensive and it's a lot better to plan upfront, get the land while it's available. So, that's one thing that's I've been happy about. But I think I've done quite a bit of work in working with the state to streamline the state to become more efficient. When I was campaigning, people would come to me and say, "Why don't we look at cutting costs instead of raising taxes?" And I just said, "Yeah, you're right. We need to look at doing things more efficiently." And so I've worked quite a bit with the state agencies to say, "You need to understand your cost and then you can control your cost." And so I've run legislation to have them keep track of their costs. I've run some legislation about those who are supervisors in the agencies. They should be at will. They should be accountable and if things aren't going right, we should be able to replace them. So it's not just time in the seat, but it's performance. And so I made some provisions for pay for performance. And so I'm continuing to try to streamline government that way.

Ryan Harding: Good. It's always good to be more efficient. I mean, it uh that's always an area that we need to work on. And I've been involved in cutting some taxes. I've ran some legislation where we cut income taxes a couple of times. And I've got some legislation this time where I want to limit the growth of property taxes. The idea is, if a government entity has the money, they're going to spend it. So, sometimes pulling back and say we're just going to say no, then it forces them to prioritize those things that are most important.

Ryan Harding: You know, I know sometimes we want I always say, federally I'm a conservative locally. I'm more of a liberal in the sense that like, hey, I want better schools. I want better parks. I want better stuff locally, but federally, I don't want, don't take my money. I think with like with parks and roads and different things like that, sometimes schools, we need to spend the money to make those better. But you bring up good points where we need to make sure we're not just wasting it and just putting so much money into those things. And then you have to say, what is the role of government?

Kay Christofferson: So really the number one role is to protect our rights. And then besides that the government sometimes says okay we're going to do projects or provide services that individuals can't for themselves like build a road or water systems things like that. And and so government will get together and say we'll do that and schools is a constitutional requirement to provide education. So those are all constitutional. One of the things that I've seen in the government that they've done is gotten more and more into welfare issues and that and there's really most people they don't need the government to take care of themselves. I mean they can take care of themselves. So the government takes money from you and invests it and then gives part of it back to you or whatever. And that's really not a government role. I think and we've seen that because that's been expanded into Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and all those things. And they're good. But I would have been better off if I'd have kept that money in social security and invested myself. I've been way better and as an individual I can pay for insurance and take care of my medical needs. And maybe for those who are incapable maybe there's a role that we can have there. But we've expanded it so much that now we've got couples who are married couples who are healthy that don't have kids are getting Medicaid and all that is going into that area that makes people more dependent. And we're trying to build infrastructure and things like that that replace infrastructure that's been around for years. And we can't do it anymore because all that money that used to go to that is going to these social programs. So, it's going to catch up to us, I think.

Ryan Harding: How do you think Utah does on that? Obviously we're a very conservative state. How do you think we do as far as in those areas?

Kay Christofferson: Well, in Pew Research, I think it was in Rich States Poor States, a magazine or book that they put out every year, they say who has the best economic outlook. And Utah has been the top since they started that, which I think I can't I think it's about 17 years ago. That they started that. And so, we're doing really well. I should have brought the list of all the things that the different groups rank Utah number one, two, or three in a lot of areas. So, we're doing really good. We got to be careful because we're falling into some of the traps of some of our neighbors that are not doing so good. But for the most part, I mean, I'm really glad to be in Utah. Not some of the other states. So, I think we're pretty well positioned, but one thing I'm concerned about is the initiative process. We elected not as a legislature to expand Medicaid. Because it was going to cost a bunch of money. We're going to have to cut out some other essential things and bite into transportation and education. And we said we don't want to do it. We can do it without it. And the initiative came up and of course initiatives, you know, it sounds good. People don't take a lot of time to read them and they'll say, "Oh, this sounds good. We'll do it." But they don't it's not debated on. It's not amended like regular bills are. And so sometimes we get people who agree to things that they don't really understand the full ramifications of what they're signing. But we just have to be careful with that process.

Ryan Harding: Going back to transportation and stuff like that. So, obviously that's a big issue for the city council, the mayor, different things like that. They only have so much control. How is that progressing? You mentioned the money that's set aside for that corridor. I know they're talking about maybe building a freeway on the north part of the lake. Any status update on any of those things?

Kay Christofferson: I mean it takes some coordination to get a lot of cities and the Mountainland Association of Governments who coordinates with cities and the counties and UDOT. It takes a lot for them to coordinate. And as the chair of the transportation committee I thought here's an opportunity that I can work with them and get them together at least to start talking and say how can we solve this problem especially the east-west. And where do we go from there? When we we still have areas of growth and when we're at buildout, where are we gonna go? By I think it's 2060 or 65, we should double our population. That's a lot of people. And how are we going to do that? And a lot of people say, well, we'll do transit. And that's a piece of the puzzle, but that's not going to solve the problem. So, what I did is I just said, "Let's just have a meeting with Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Lehi, and American Fork. And Utah County. Let's get with MAG, which is Mountainland Association of Governments. And then UDOT, the Department of Transportation, and let's just have a meeting and say these are the needs." And we had each of the cities and each of the organizations talk about what they thought needed to happen. Then we met for an hour and a half. That was probably eight months ago. Then we kind of decided on a plan and started looking at things. Then we met again about two months ago with the same group and we said, "Okay, where are we at? What's happening?" And so there's a couple of studies going on that UDOT is spearheading and MAG is helping with to say we need to know what the options are, what possible cost of those options are. If we're going to go into the lake, the Northshore or Mid Lake, what's it going to take? What's down below there? What kind of structures are we going to have to pay for? And so right now they're getting some engineering companies together to put together proposals. They'll select from those proposals to find someone that will do that study and it'll probably take a year to do that study. Then we can say, "Okay, we're going to pick one of these options." And it could be kind of expensive because Pioneer Crossing is maxed out. They're going to do some intermediate steps to have flexible lanes. But that's not going to do the job. And we're going to probably need to do stuff on Main Street, on Pioneer Crossing, on Pony Express, which is 1700 South. And maybe one of the lake options to handle all the traffic. So we're saying not just one solution. It may be many solutions, but we're going to come up with a plan and then we'll have to figure out a way to fund it. UDOT's going to put that on their list and try to prioritize it. MAG is going to have to be involved there a little bit because they're coordinating with the cities and the county and it's a pretty big job when you get to that point because there's no clear corridor and we may have to take out homes and businesses. Which obviously we don't want to if we don't have to, but we also need to solve the problem. Plus, I-15 is getting crowded, so we don't want to push everything onto I-15. We're going to have to look at Geneva Road and Redwood Road and Mountain View corridor and maybe take some of Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs down around the south to either the Mid Lake crossing or further south. I don't know if that will work further south, but a mid lake crossing makes some sense. Building a freeway cross. And so, how like when you know, so I've heard some of these ideas for years. When does any of this actually, boots on the ground, when can we expect that kind of stuff? Well, so an investigation, some of this plan or this research will take probably a year. Or more. Then you've got to figure out a rough plan and what the cost would be. Then you've got to say, okay, where we, it might take five years just to fund it. And then it takes a year to design it and up to three years maybe to do the construction. So, and some of this could be done in phases. So, we may be able to do some earlier than that, but I'm thinking a lot of this maybe 10 years away. Really? Yeah. Which is hard because there's problems now. We should be building that now. We should be building that now. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Which I guess and it could accelerate depending on if it becomes such a big problem that we say we've just got to transfer some funds here to get this done. So it could be 5 years if it needed be. But if nothing but if that doesn't happen, 10 years is more likely is what you're saying. So yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's hard. Everybody wants things done now. We live in a fast and we're still growing fast. And in fact actually you could argue we're going slower right now because of interest rates and stuff like that. But if those do come down now, we're going to start growing probably a lot more because I think there's a lot of people that want to buy homes that just can't right now.

Ryan Harding: Another situation, too, is water. We've got to be careful with water. There's not a lot of water and, you know, as a subdivision comes in, we actually use less water than the farmland that was there before. But as we expand into Sage Brush area, we've got to have water. But the other complication is, Utah is owned by the federal, two-thirds of Utah is owned by the federal government. So, it's federally controlled. And that limits us a lot. And Senator Lee had some legislation to say, BLM land, Bureau of Land Management land that's close to cities can be accessible to expand the growth. Then our prices of land aren't so expensive. We talk about cost of housing. That's the biggest cost right there is land. And then all of the restrictions and regulations that we have on gravel pits that supply concrete and asphalt and restrictions on lumber mills and harvesting lumber in the forest, that's really catching up to us. We're not only having catastrophic fires but we've got so we waste that resource in fires where we could have been using that. And I think there's a plan to open up some more of these roads that have been shut down recently and that will help to provide some fire breaks and things like that but lumber is really expensive and that's one of the big costs of housing. So, those decisions catch up to us eventually.

Ryan Harding: They do. They do. And do you see some of that changing? I know with Doug Bergam, he was my home state, North Dakota, he was the governor there and now he's over the interior, Department of Interior. Do you see some of those things changing? From what I understand, they're working on trying to open up. I mean, he feels kind of the same way you do, like, hey, we're wasting our resources. We have all these resources that we need to use. Have you seen anything on your level with any of that?

Kay Christofferson on Lehi Roots & Public Service | Roots & Branches