Mayor Mark Johnson on Leadership, Growth, and the Future of Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches of Lehi

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Mayor Mark Johnson on Leadership, Growth, and the Future of Lehi, Utah | Roots & Branches of Lehi

Mayor Mark Johnson on Leadership, Growth, and the Future of Lehi, Utah

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Who Is Mayor Mark Johnson, and Why Does His Story Matter?

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Episode Overview

Guest Name

Role in Lehi

Time Periods Discussed

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Primary Topics Discussed

Resource for Listeners

Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

Choosing Lehi as Home

Perseverance in Local Leadership

The Unlikely Mayoral Victory

The Neighborly Side of Politics

Lehi: The Economic Engine of Utah

Family Park Controversy

From Local Ordinance to State Law

Public-Private Cooperation

Historical Insights About Lehi

Community and Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics

Photo Opportunities for Historical Archive

Full Transcript

Mayor Mark Johnson Lehi Utah Interview - Roots & Branches of Lehi Podcast

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An in-depth conversation with Lehi's Mayor about his unexpected journey into public service, the city's transformation into Utah's economic engine, and the challenges of preserving small-town values amid rapid growth.

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In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , host Ryan Harding sits down with Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson to talk about leadership, growth, infrastructure, and what makes Lehi, Utah such a remarkable place to live. Although Mark did not grow up in Lehi, he chose to build his life here in the early 1990s, and over the years he became deeply invested in the city's future through engineering, planning, city council service, and eventually the mayor's office. His story offers a valuable look at how civic leadership often grows out of practical experience, community relationships, and a sincere desire to make a city better.

This conversation matters because it captures Lehi at a pivotal moment in its history. Mayor Johnson reflects on the city's transformation from a smaller, more rural community with open space, horses, and dirt-road memories into one of Utah's strongest economic engines. Along the way, he discusses transportation challenges, business growth, parks, housing, fiber internet, local traditions like Roundup, and the ongoing effort to preserve Lehi's community feel while managing rapid development.

For anyone interested in Lehi, Utah history , city growth , local government , community traditions , or the future of Silicon Slopes , this interview offers both historical perspective and practical insight. Whether you're a longtime resident who remembers camping by Dry Creek or a newcomer trying to understand the dynamics of one of America's fastest-growing cities, Mayor Johnson's perspective provides essential context for understanding where Lehi has been and where it's headed.

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

Mark Johnson

Mayor of Lehi; design and engineering professional; former Planning Commission chair and City Council member

1990s, early 2000s, 2010s, 2020s, with references to Lehi's earlier small-town character

Ryan Harding

Mark Johnson explains how he and his wife chose to move to Lehi in the early 1990s because of his long-standing affection for the city, showing that Lehi became home by choice as much as by history. Despite growing up in North County and buying his first house in American Fork, he was drawn to Lehi because of friends and family connections, eventually building a home in 2003 that he says they "don't want to move" from.

He recounts running for city council twice and losing both times, only to later be appointed to the Planning Commission and eventually win broad public support, illustrating perseverance in local leadership. After being appointed to fill a vacancy, he went on to receive more votes than anyone had ever received in Lehi City Council history.

Mark shares the surprising story of how he entered the mayor's race reluctantly, finished behind in the primary, then made a dramatic comeback to win the general election. Down 11 points in the primary, he achieved an 18-point swing to win by 7 points—something nearly unheard of in local politics. He credits soul-searching after the primary and "creative techniques" to get his message out.

He describes a lunch with former competing candidates and former mayors, showing a more neighborly and collaborative side of local politics than many people expect. He regularly meets with former mayors Ken Greenwood, Bert Wilson, and Ron Smith at Chuck-A-Rama, noting that despite different policies, "we all have the same goal."

He tells the story of learning at a statewide conference that Lehi was described as the "economic engine of the state of Utah," highlighting how important the city has become in Utah's economy. When economist Natalie Gochnour removed Lehi from Utah's calculations during a presentation, the state's financial strength significantly decreased, demonstrating Lehi's outsized economic impact.

Mark walks through the controversy around Family Park, explaining why fencing, staffing, and security mattered for an all-abilities park and how misinformation spread on social media complicated public understanding. He details the practical reasons for single-entry design and the unfortunate reality of vandalism that required protective measures.

One of the most memorable stories is how Lehi helped push anti-vaping policy forward by passing a local ordinance, gathering broad state legislative support, and influencing action beyond the city. After the state failed for seven years due to tobacco lobbyists, Lehi and Cedar Hills passed local ordinances that eventually became state law and gained national attention.

He also shares practical examples of city problem-solving, such as a contractor donating dirt and grading work to help prepare future park land, showing how public-private cooperation can benefit the whole community. This arrangement saved the city significant money while solving a contractor's need for dirt disposal.

This interview offers valuable perspective on Lehi's evolution from a small rural community to a major economic center. Here are key historical insights from Mayor Johnson's perspective:

Throughout the interview, several broader themes emerge that reflect the values and challenges facing Lehi as it grows while trying to maintain its character:

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.

Welcome Mayor Mark Johnson here with me today, and I'm excited to have him on this podcast, Roots and Branches of Lehi. So Mark, tell me a little bit about yourself. Did you grow up in Lehi?

Mayor Mark Johnson: Sure, I'd be happy to. First off, thank you for having me Ryan. I actually grew up in North County, graduated in Pleasant Grove. Bought my first house in American Fork, and then my wife and I decided that we wanted to live in Lehi because growing up, I spent a lot of time in Lehi, had friends over here, had family over here, and I actually really liked Lehi. We found a lot in a new subdivision, built a house there in 2003, and we have just lived here since and loved it. Don't want to move.

Ryan: Have you always wanted to go into public service, be a mayor?

Mayor Johnson: No, actually it was probably the farthest thing from my mind. I had never really entertained it. I've been in the engineering field for my whole career. Worked in engineering departments through college, it helped me get through there, and then I graduated with a design degree, not an engineering degree, but I ended up working in the engineering field in design, and that's what I've done my whole career. I had an opportunity to work for an engineering consultant that had a lot of municipalities for clients and ended up learning a lot about municipalities and how they operate, what works, what doesn't work. I did the standards and specifications for a number of cities, and so I started understanding how cities worked. I looked at Lehi and there were a lot of things I liked about Lehi, but there were some things going on here that I thought ought to be done a little bit differently.

Ryan: Did you go straight from nothing to Mayor?

Mayor Johnson: That's an interesting story. I actually proposed some changes in Lehi in regards to transportation. I was big on some traffic calming techniques that could be utilized in the city and were not, and so I proposed those as part of a campaign. I decided to just run for city council. I actually ran twice in two subsequent elections, lost both times. I decided okay, I've had enough of that, I'm just not going to do that anymore. But I did get a lot of attention, and back then that was in the early 2000s, and it was hard to get elected in Lehi unless you were from Lehi. But I got enough attention that they put me on the Planning Commission. I soon became the chair of the Planning Commission, had an opportunity to enact some of my philosophies, and people agreed with me that those changes had to occur. Then a vacancy came up on the city council. I was encouraged to put my name in on that, I did, they ended up appointing me, and I went from getting hardly any votes in the city of Lehi to getting the most votes anybody had ever received in Lehi.

I served on the Lehi City Council for 12 and a half years, and then I actually left. I had enough after three over three terms, and I'm like, I'm done, I have a life to live. I was off with no political interest for two years because I had started my own business and was enjoying that. I was encouraged very strongly by some people in town to run for mayor. Didn't want to do that either, because the mayor at the time was a friend of mine. But they pushed really hard, and I said somebody's got to have their name in there, and I threw my name in with I think there were like 13 other people that had shown an interest in running for mayor. I didn't want to finish second. I wanted to finish either first or third or further. So either I'd win or didn't, and I ended up in the position I didn't want to—I finished second. I was down 11 points in the primary election, but ended up winning the general election by seven points. So I made an 18-point swing, which is pretty much unheard of in local politics.

Ryan: What do you attribute that to?

Mayor Johnson: Just after the primary election I had some soul searching to do and I had decided I just—if I'm going to do it I'm just going to do everything I can to win this. So I just worked at it really hard. I used any creative techniques I could to get the information out there why I felt I could be a good mayor. I think it caught a lot of people by surprise.

Ryan: It sounds like there's a lot of influential people that kind of took you to that spot, right? You were done.

Mayor Johnson: Yeah, so a couple of those were my competitors earlier. Johnny Barnes and Steve Hook, who I think the world of, we become very good friends. Those were some of the people I ran against initially. But back then when we ran elections here in Lehi, it was more of a friendly atmosphere. You got to know your opponents and you didn't really criticize them, you just talked about what you thought you could do differently. Those were the two who knew I just wasn't interested in running again, and they had both won in the two earlier elections that I lost. They said no, you need to run. And I did, and they encouraged me and they talked to other people about me, and that worked very much in my favor.

That's the side of politics we don't often see. We only see the angriness. But it sounds like your competitors were the ones actually supporting you to run again.

Yeah, that's how it was. I've made a lot of very good friends in the process. Even those that are my opponents in the past, I've become very good friends with. A couple of our city council members right now were those who also ran against me on the council one year, and I supported them strongly in their next opportunities to run. It was like that with my last opponent—I've gotten to know him very well, and we communicate from time to time. That's the way it should be.

Ryan: Do you think that just comes from a 'we all want Lehi to be better' mentality?

Mayor Johnson: Well, I think we all just want it to be better. We're not all going to agree, of course. As an example, last week I actually had lunch with three former mayors: Ken Greenwood, Bert Wilson, and Ron Smith. We all got together and went over to Chuck-A-Rama and had a great lunch together and talked about Lehi. Our policies were all a bit different, but we all have the same goal.

Ryan: Anything surprising people might not know about you outside of your role as Mayor?

Mayor Johnson: I don't know if anything would catch anybody by surprise. I've gotten to know a lot of people in town, so I think that means they've gotten to know me. I like to remain pretty active in the community. I like to do a lot of bike riding whenever I can. Working hard is not uncommon for me. I like to spend time at my business and at the city. I'm generally somewhere between 45 and 60 hours a week between my personal business and the city. I was taught to work hard. I don't know what else I'd do with my life if I wasn't working.

Ryan: A mayor isn't necessarily a full-time job?

Mayor Johnson: It's a part-time job. People ask me what I do for the city, and often my response is 'I'm the part-time help.' But in reality, of course, it's a lot more than a part-time job. I spend far more time at the city than I do at my personal business. It's stressful at times, but in the long run it's all enjoyable.

Ryan: Do you think being an engineer really helped you?

Mayor Johnson: As I mentioned before, I actually have a design degree, not an engineering degree, but it allows me to do a lot of engineering design. That's what I've done for close to 45 years now. I've dealt with a lot of land planning issues, road design, system design, utility design, and some structural mixed in that as well. I've got a few patents out there on some of the things I've put together. It's also been very helpful because I understand a lot of things from the technical aspect that mayors have to deal with. There were a few things from the financial aspect when I became mayor that I had to learn, at least get a better understanding of. But as far as construction and projects, capital facilities, how utilities work in town, where our water comes from, what happens to our sewer—those are things I had a really good understanding of, and so that was very helpful.

I remember when Ken Greenwood became mayor, he asked me to go to lunch with him one day. We sat down, and he told me, 'Mark, there's more to this being mayor than I ever imagined. It's a lot harder. I'm going to college all over again.' The reason he'd asked me to lunch is because there were certain things going on that he knew I understood that he didn't understand, and so he just wanted to pick my brain a little bit.

Ryan: What do you personally like about Lehi?

Mayor Johnson: Lehi is just a wonderful place to be. In reality, it is. We're very fortunate. There's many things in this city that has made my job fairly easy. A lot of people don't know this—we went to a conference once, a power conference where Lehi City was receiving some awards because of some things they had done in our power system. We were invited to this conference, and we went. We were asked if we wanted to stay for lunch. We took a table way in the back because I thought we need to leave right after this. Natalie Gochnour got up to speak—she was a keynote speaker during lunch. She talked about the state of Utah and all its financial strengths nationwide. She gets to the end of her presentation and she goes, 'Who here is from Lehi?' Jason Walker, my city administrator, and Joel Lees, the power director—we all look at each other and raise our hands. She says, 'I want to give the same presentation but I'm going to pull Lehi out of the calculations.' Utah was still strong, but it wasn't obviously as strong. She goes, 'You guys need to understand that Lehi City is the economic engine of the state of Utah.' That statement completely caught us off guard. I realized probably more so at that time than any other that we're pretty fortunate here in Lehi.

Ryan: Is that because of the tax base from businesses?

Mayor Johnson: It's a lot of that. We're very fortunate because of the businesses that have come in here. Silicon Slopes has treated us very well. Micron when they came in kicked off something that a lot of people probably didn't anticipate. We were told that when Micron established here, they knew that they were going to see a series of other large businesses that were going to also establish here. Adobe came, Microsoft was here, there were a number of businesses that just started locating here in Lehi. Then it builds us up to the events of last year where Texas Instruments purchased the Micron plant—saved that facility. It was an $11.6 billion investment in the state of Utah. Nothing has been like that ever in the state of Utah before. Those are very good paying jobs. We have a AAA rating—we've attained that goal since I've been mayor. Which means for normal people, the cost to borrow money is much cheaper for us. We will literally save millions of dollars just by increasing that rate.

Ryan: Any local traditions you've loved participating in?

Mayor Johnson: We always start off with Roundup. Roundup is a great celebration. We all love the parade. The miniature float parade is just so unique—I don't know of anybody in the state that does that. The Roundup Rodeo has been so successful we've extended that to a 4-day rodeo now. The tickets always sell out. We've had scalpers go after those tickets. We were selling tickets for $15 and scalpers were picking them up and going for around $175 a seat. It's a pretty popular event. The concerts that Mel Babcock puts together for the summer concerts in the park and for the Roundup concert—we just had the Bacon Brothers here. That was a fantastic event for Lehi City.

Ryan: Where does the money for parks come from?

Mayor Johnson: We have this park tax which passed recently that has been very beneficial. When you look at the new Family Park facility, that's a $17 million project. We had put aside $10 million for that, but $7 million will come from the Future Park tax. For a long time we were land poor to build parks. Now we have three large areas that are regional parks right now. We're watching Family Park expand. Miller Roads Park is going to come in with new baseball fields and pickleball courts. That was a park that once we purchased the land, we found out a large portion of it was in the flood plain. We had to raise it all to be able to build on it. We've got all that work being done for free right now—we have a contractor that needed a place to put all his dirt, and he came to the city and said 'I will dump all my dirt here, I'll grade it, I'll prep it all for that Future Park if you'll just let me dump my dirt there.'

Ryan: What does a typical day look like for you as mayor?

Mayor Johnson: I don't think there is a typical day. Every day is a little bit different. Sometimes I'll have city meetings in the morning, sometimes I'll have work-related meetings in the morning. I will usually go into my regular office first, take care of business there. I can do a lot of city business there, respond to all my emails. Then I'll run down to the city, take care of any signings I need to do. A lot of people don't realize how many signings you have to do. As the executive of the city, you end up signing your name a lot. I remember one day I went in the office to do signings and I had about 80 different documents to sign. There's a number of city meetings that I do, but there's also some state-related meetings with MAG—the Mountainland Association of Governments. I'm on the UTA Advisory Board. I'm on the Utah Valley University College of Health and Public Service Board. It's not just a city job, it's actually an outside job.

Ryan: What are some of the harder parts of the job?

Mayor Johnson: There's two things. First, in the position that I hold and the council holds, we have to make some decisions sometimes that are just unpopular. That's not fun. You want to make everybody's life better. But the Constitution gets in the way of that sometimes. You'll have disagreements across boundaries, and generally anytime you have that, you have to first consider property rights. The other thing that is really difficult is social media makes our job pretty difficult sometimes. There's often some misinformation that goes out there. It gets legs, and when you try to correct that with the truth, sometimes it's not only difficult, sometimes it's just impossible. A lot of people, they don't care about the truth, they care about emotions.

Ryan: Any advice on social media?