Development Services Director
Active transportation may sometimes be about improving our environment, one's health, or just about bettering one’s immediate community, and then again it may be about all three. I caught up with Bill Peperone at Provo City Hall, in his second floor office, smartly garnished with a well-worn lacrosse stick and large windows overlooking the downtown district with snow capped Maple Mountain beckoning in the background.
Bill Peperone may be an example of what one person can do to maximize their impact on a healthier, more vibrant downtown Provo.
In 2017 Bill “moved from a 4,500 sq. ft. house in the north/east corner of Orem into a 600 sq. ft. apartment,” a space nearly one tenth the size of the aforementioned, a residence located at Liberty Center on Provo’s 300 block of East Center Street. But why? Bill is Provo City’s Director of Development Services, and previously he was employed by Salt Lake City where he discovered that the “Department of Planning Head lived a block away from the office” at the City and County Building. “I was very jealous of him, that whole lifestyle seemed attractive,” Bill freely admits to me, and “I was riding the UTA Express Commuter to work every day” from Orem. This was before the introduction of FrontRunner and a trip into Salt Lake City was a tedious and time intensive journey.
At the time, Salt Lake City offered employees who were commuting a “free pass on any UTA transportation service,” making Bill’s daily trips to work on the Express Commuter a little less painful, but still not close in comparison to the short one block commute to the office of the Department Head. When in 2010 Bill began working for Provo City, things became easier with his commute from Orem. “I used to bike to work twice a week, half an hour to get to City Hall and 45 minutes back,” because of the hills. Then, six years ago, Bill’s aspiration of having that commute to the office of one block was finally realized when a vacancy happened to come up at Liberty Center in the downtown district.
This move meant more to him than just an easier commute, as Bill tells me that his reasons were “first environmental, and second to be able to walk to work [even though he owns a car]”. Bill explains that he’s found, “the best city planners are environmentally concerned.”
He normally uses his car “only on the weekends. I have a twenty-two-year-old daughter who is seeing the benefits of my lifestyle, seeing me not drive every day. We walk over to have dinner, we walk over to play catch [lacrosse], to the Rec Center, to Smith’s.” And biking up the Provo Canyon to Vivian Park, when he’s not playing lacrosse, is always a favorite activity.
In 2019 Bill Peperone was appointed Director of Development Services, a demanding position involving the management of fifty people and everything that’s being built in Provo first running through his office. The City is actively trying to improve biking facilities to make active transportation safer, and “200 E was a great improvement,” Bill further mentions. “So many distracted drivers in the last few years.” As for walking, “almost every week there’s some article about walking, just getting out and walking (for health).” I agree.
