Recap! City Council 3.9.21

Here is the recap for city council meeting for March 9th of 2021!  You can watch the entire meeting by clicking below. If you need more information, be sure to check out the packet and the minutes.

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•YCC Logo: The YCC has created a logo for the Youth City Council. To date, the YCC has never had their own independent logo and felt they needed to be able to stand out and decipher themselves apart. They created their own logo and brought it forth to the council for approval, which passed unanimously.

•Poll Property Proposal: I have gotten a lot of questions, texts and phone calls on this property so I want to take a little more time with this. I will also attach a picture of the proposal below. This proposal came before the planning commission late last year and the council last month and is coming back again after further feedback. They are proposing approximately 15,000 sq ft of commercial space fronting South Weber Drive with 100 townhomes in the back/south part of the property – removing the apartments that were previously presented and lowering the units from 172 to 100. They are presenting three phases with both residential and commercial. This property requires a development agreement because it is cross hatched on the general plan, which indicates the property must be master planned -meaning the whole property must be developed in one uniformed piece rather than in pieces to ensure uniformity. Because there is no code or ordinances, the council is to create a development agreement that will address many items usually within a zone such as density allowed, percentage of commercial and others. Staff will work with the council to create a development agreement which will then move to the planning commission to review for a recommendation. The council in this instance has the ability to legislate what this area will look like with regards to many items that are typically within the zone. The council deliberated at length regarding the amount of commercial and specifically residential that should be allowed. The council had difficulty as roughly 2 acres of the parcel are not developable due to the slope and deliberated if acreage on undevelopable land should be included in the density calculation. After much deliberation, 3 council members agreed to allowing 100% of the parcel being included to calculate for an R7 zone (75 units). Two council members felt that only the portion that is residential should be included in the calculation of R7 and the percentage of residential needed to be addressed. Councilwoman Alberts requested that the development agreement be worked on without developers present and with staff only for all future meetings. The development agreement will be tied to the concept plan. The next steps in this process is for the committee members (Councilwoman Petty and Councilman Halverson) to work with staff to create a development agreement that includes among other things; the amount of allowed residential, the amount of property allowed to calculate residential, the amount of commercial and other standards. Once that step is completed, it will come to the council for review and vote. If the development agreement passes, the process will then begin again in Planning Commission for a recommendation, using the development agreement and concept plan as a reference point. Staff is currently working on when the most appropriate time for public hearings would be. At this time, it is anticipated one will happen when/if the development agreement comes for a vote before the council and then again at the planning commission preliminary plan. I will keep you all posted of course. 

 •Paramedic Interlocal Agreement: This agreement has been in the workings for a couple of years now and was finally able to be signed by all communities in Davis County. This will transfer the paramedic license from the county to South Weber City. This agreement will mean a truth in taxation will happen at the city level August of 2021, but it *will not* mean an increase of taxes for our citizens. It will allow the funds that currently go to the county for paramedic services to come to the city instead. Ken Letham with Davis County praised the work of all the communities involved and everyone is looking forward to an easy transition. The city will also be actively working to receive grants to help us with this process. 

 •RV Park Development Agreement Amendment: The owner of the RV park came before the council requesting to amend the original development agreement on 2 fronts. One was regarding the cable wire fencing we required of the park along I-84. UDOT informed the owner that the cable wire would not be required. The owner is requesting to instead install an 8’ solid concrete wall in its place. The owner also requested changes to the landscaping plan of the park to make it more water efficient and to save money on water as they are hooked up to culinary only. The council disagreed with the changes as it would lower the quality of the park when so much grass is replaced with gravel. The council was in agreement of the solid wall. 

•Digital Sign Update: The public safety committee was tasked to review the safety and measure of the city’s digital sign on the east side of town. The city has the ability to use CARES funds to replace the screen in the sign but the committee determined there was not enough time to use CARES funds to move the sign. The committee recommended that the city utilize the CARES funds to replace the screen which can be removed if the sign is to be moved. The public safety committee will continue to review the options available regarding moving the sign and the details and bring back to the council their findings. The committee also recommended dropping the speed limit in the area of Highmark to the Interstate to 35 mph as speeding and the amount of traffic has become concerning. The council agreed the best option was to have UDOT perform a speed study on the road and report their findings for the council to take direction from. 

New Business: 

Staff will be actively working to ensure all applicable items that passed the legislature will be addressed and accommodated and any changes or processes that need to be changed will be done. 

Reports:

•Mayor Jo:  Councilwomen Petty and Alberts were able to attend a meeting with the Wasatch Regional Front Council in regard to removing the connection to Layton from the WFRC map. The process will be to submit an amendment to the WFRC. The letter signed by the council was also sent to the representatives of the WFRC regarding this removal. 

Councilwoman Petty: Reported that the Parks and Rec requested funds from the budget to be allocated for maintenance of trails. They also met with WFRC regarding the trailhead on Cottonwood Drive. WFRC was optimistic about widening the shoulder of the road and creating a parking lot for the traffic of the trail. 

Councilmen Soderquist: Met with the gravel pits and reported they donated $80,000 this year in funds to the rec programs as part of their agreement with the city. All committees budget proposals are being reviewed as well as moving sales tax revenues to certain budgets that currently do not get any. 

Councilman Winsor: The code committee is forwarding definitions on to the Planning Commission which will begin to review them in smaller bites. The committee is in the process of making plans for the future regarding getting information to the public.