Recap! Joint City Council/Planning Comission - General Plan

Well, well, well....what do you know? I think we finished reviewing the second draft of the general plan!  We all deserve cookies I think.

•This meeting was shorter in nature as there was just a few final points to go over.   There was some discussion about the population numbers and buildable acreage that is left.   More information will be forwarded to staff to double check those numbers.  There was a few other questions and clarifications.

•Planning Commissioner Rob Osborne expressed his hesitancy to approve the general plan when the new R7 zone (our high density zone which was recently changed from 13-7) needs additional work.  It was determined that the planning commission will work on that zone on the 12th.  

•Mixed use was also discussed.  The mixed use committee (comprising of myself, Councilman Winsor, and Planning Commissioners Walton and Osborne) have had several meetings and will need additional ones.  This committee has tried to think of everything we need to consider before putting something out that will align with the vision the citizens of South Weber.  This is no small feat.  However, when it is defined, it will come before the Commission and the Council before final approval and the public will be able to make further comment on it.  It is also worth noting that the way the mixed use is being drafted will be an overlay and not a zone.  This means that the developer will need to request to be able to utilize the overlay and it will need to be approved by the council - a developer will not simply be entitled to it like it would if it were a zone (the case for the Lofts). 

**Important Upcoming Dates**

•Staff will be sending out a timeline soon for the next survey to go to the public.  There was some great suggestions during the last survey that we will be utilizing.   One of those will be a "beta-testing" from citizens on the survey before it goes out to the public to ensure it works correctly and is easily understandable.  We will also have another 2 days of open houses - tentatively set for April 7th and 8th.  It was determined this survey doesn't need to be quite as long of a time period as the first which was 6 weeks.  Council felt closer to 3 weeks would be reasonable.  The goal is to have the R7 zone completed as well as a definition for Mixed Use before the public finishes their opportunity for public comment so that they can review that new information.   I will keep everyone posted for when this information is available and I am certain all council members will be available to answer or help in any way.  

Please let me know if you have any questions!  A HUGE thanks to Jeffrey Judkins who is providing live video of the proceedings.  I know so many of you are joining in there as well as reviewing the audio and the minutes.  Keep at it!  Your involvement matters!

#getinvolved #stayinvolved 

Recap! City Council 2.1.2020

Tonights meeting was a great one.  We had lots of public involvement and public comment.  I appreciate everyone who took the time to come out and to those who gave their public comments.  I know it is not easy, but I appreciate the time and effort and I'm sure the rest of the council would agree.

•We had 19 public comments tonight surrounding many different things but a lot centered on the parks  priority list, the shared water line with Uintah and upcoming development plans that will be coming before the Planning Commission this Thursday.  

•RV Park: It was initially on the agenda to discuss the RV park and development but the developer requested for it to be tabled.

•Cottonwood Drive Waterline:  Just some quick background on this.  This is a line that is needed to be upgraded because it is currently under sufficient fire flow.  Uintah is also in need of upgrading their line as well, so staff started looking into a cost shared agreement with Uintah a few months back to upgrade to one line that will facilitate both cities.  However, some additional information has come forward regarding the county line.  On Feb 3rd, the Weber County Commissioners met with some members of both cities as well as Davis County Commissioners to discuss the boundary line.  While the line was initially following the river, there has been so much movement there it is hard to define.  Both Davis County and Weber County Commissioners agreed rather than have the boundary fall on a moving target like the river, they would like it to be a fixed line: I-84.   They directed their staff to go forward with getting that ready to be approved at the next level.  This could take some time.  However, just because the county is crossing its boundaries, doesn't mean that our city boundaries will follow as well.  Uintah and South Weber are both able to decide want we want to do with our own boundaries.   This will affect 8 residencies living in South Weber.  Staff has reached to them and a neighborhood meeting will be commencing next week to discuss with them their desires/concerns and answer questions.  Because of this concern, the agreement for the waterline was tabled until more clarity between our borders is received.  

•Parks Priority List: Councilwoman Petty sounded this discussion off with explaining some of the background to what brought about this list.  The Parks and Rec committee has 7 members.  2 council members, Quin Soderquist (Blair Halverson before this year) and Angie, 2 Planning Commissioner Wes Johnson, Department Heads for Public Works and Recreation, Mayor Jo and our city manager all attend.  Angie explained why some things that were high on the priority of the survey did not make it to the priority list and why others did instead.  Bathrooms for parks were not listed on the priority list because there are grants available for them, which they intend to pursue starting later this week.  Dave broke down the amounts of impact fees and when they will "expire."   $26,500 will expire at the end of June of 2020, $19,991 in June of 2021, $132,000 in June of 2022 and $217,000 in June of 2023.  If the impact fees expire, we will need to return them to the developer.  There was added discussion on why the parks committee chose what they did and some other questions posed by council members.  A vote was called to approve the priority list which passed 4-1 with Councilmember Winsor being the nay vote.

•New Business: There is a new policy on reading emails for public comment.  Moving forward, the council will no longer read aloud emails requesting to be read during a meeting.  If you are unable to attend a meeting but would like to have your comment a part of public record, you can have someone else read it for you (each of you getting a turn for your 3 minute comment), or if you would rather, you may ask the council to submit it for public record.  A copy of your email will go into the minutes as part of public record.  If you need to use this approach please make sure to send it to every council member so they can be aware of your comment.   This is a bit of a shameless plug here but please know your public comment matters and is important.  Even if it is not read aloud in the meeting, having it a part of public record is vital and important for a myriad of reasons. 

•Reports: Mayor Jo reported on several bills on the legislative floor right now that may have an impact/interest for our city to be aware of.   Council Member Soderquist requested to discuss the change of the agenda for this week's planning commission meeting.  What was initially slated as 5 separate public hearings (see more about that here), was changed to one public hearing.  Staff's intention of this change was to better facilitate public comment for residents.  Public hearings must strictly only be for the item being discussed at that time.  In an effort to save from someone commenting on the wrong one at the wrong time, and to prevent someone having to stand multiple times for each individual item staff felt it would be easier to make it one hearing for each item.  However, each item will be discussed and action taken on that item will be done individually with the Planning Commission.

I think that's everything.  If you have any questions please let me know! The audio should be available in a couple of days and the minutes will be available later in the month.  Have a good night South Weberites!