Bountiful City’s 2025 Municipal Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, giving voters the opportunity to elect a new Mayor and two new City Council members.
Here at The Bountiful Forum, we spoke with all the candidates for both the mayoral and city council races to get more information on their positions and ideas so that you, as a Bountiful resident, can make a more informed decision about who to vote for.
Questions and answers were exchanged with this candidate via text. Here is a summary of our conversation with city council candidate Carla Barker.
Who is Carla Barker?
Born and raised in Utah, Carla Barker moved around the state, but has now called Bountiful home for the past 19 years. She values equality, hard work, and compassion, and enjoys reading, writing, drawing, painting, spending time in nature, and learning. She finds fulfillment in giving back to her community and thinks a term on the city council would be both challenging and rewarding.
Barker earned an English degree from Weber State University with an emphasis in Anthropology and Art. Her career includes work with community organizations such as Your Community Connection, the Utah Food Bank, Work for Food, the Utah Blind School, and community adult reading programs. In the business world, she has served as a stockbroker, retirement specialist, and small business manager.
Barker’s priorities if elected to the city council would be building an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming Bountiful; promoting community-centered policies that uplift residents; fighting for universal healthcare; ensuring an economy that benefits all; and protecting democracy from special-interest influence.
Economic Development and Growth
In her responses, Barker emphasized the importance of attracting businesses that meet the needs of Bountiful residents while supporting local economic growth. She said the city should focus on bringing in specialized retail and community services, addressing the challenge posed by proximity to larger cities like Salt Lake City, where many residents currently shop for specific goods and services.
Barker wants to prioritize Main Street and downtown vitality by encouraging redevelopment and creating a more walkable, vibrant environment. This includes improving streetscapes with better lighting, landscaping, pedestrian crossings, and public art installations. She supports converting outdated properties, streamlining business processes, and forming strategic partnerships with regional organizations and Davis County to reinforce local commerce.
Her approach would target low-impact, specialized businesses. “It would be beneficial to attract low-impact, specialized retail, and community-type services, such as bookstores,” she wrote. “This approach adds diverse retail options without disrupting the city’s character.”
Barker noted that supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs returns a higher proportion of revenue to the community compared to chain stores. She would promote Bountiful’s local advantages, including a skilled workforce and small-town feel, to attract new entrepreneurs and growing businesses. Additionally, her plans include connecting businesses with resources by partnering with organizations such as the Davis County Economic Development Department, the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), and the Utah Small Business Development Center.
Housing and Land Use
When it comes to the issue of housing in Bountiful, Barker emphasized the need for responsible growth that balances development with the preservation of open spaces. She supports redeveloping residential, commercial, and recreational areas with mixed-use spaces in neighborhoods. And neighborhoods that include affordable and economic housing for low-income families and the unsheltered are a central part of her vision.
Barker also wants to improve the city’s general plan by making sure that land use policies remain community-focused and sustainable. This would include improving the city’s mixed-use development plan to integrate residential, commercial, and recreational areas “to create walkable, vibrant corridors and add high-density residential units alongside existing offices.”
For Barker, open space preservation is also a key priority. She advocates using the Future Land Use Map to guide development while protecting green areas, ensuring that open spaces remain a permanent part of the community even as the city grows.
Barker wants an emphasis on safe and economic housing, including policy reforms to increase housing diversity, partnerships with regional agencies to support low-income families and the unsheltered, improved access to housing resources and grants, expansion of low-income housing such as Springwood Apartments, and collaboration with nonprofits and developers to create mixed-income neighborhoods.
Community Organizations, Parks & Recreation
Barker cares a lot about the community and has a lot of ideas on how to foster connection and well-being.
She believes that well-maintained parks, recreational facilities, and senior centers are essential to enhancing community connectivity and promoting overall well-being. Her ideas for improving community organizations, parks, and recreation focus on creating opportunities that support artistic expression, social interaction, mental health, and physical activity. These ideas include plans to facilitate accessible community art projects such as mural painting, workshops, and public installations to encourage creativity, self-expression, and social engagement. Regular social support gatherings, events, and clubs would provide residents with safe spaces to connect, reduce isolation, and build meaningful relationships.
Barker would also want mental health initiatives to be expanded by partnering with professionals to provide workshops, support groups, and counseling services within community centers and recreational facilities. Another of her aims would be to promote active lifestyles by offering a variety of fitness classes, walking clubs, sports leagues, and organized events for residents of all ages.
Through these efforts, Barker envisions Bountiful as a community that “can leverage parks and recreation facilities to create a vibrant and supportive environment that fosters social connection, mental and physical well-being, and a strong sense of community.”
How/Where to Vote
For more information on how/where to vote, you can visit Bountiful City’s website here, or Davis County’s website here.
