Recap! City Council 9.15.2020

You can watch this meeting below, or find the minutes to review this meeting here.   See more information on any of the agenda items in the packet, here. 

You can watch the meeting below!

•Davis County Sheriff's Office Presentation: Sargent Pope reported all the work done in South Weber from December of 2019 to September 2020.  Included in his presentation was all their recorded hours, the most common calls and a review of eventful calls.  This presentation showed how much work is doing done by DSCO and I encourage everyone to take a moment to listen to it.  A personal note here was my sadness to see such an increase in calls involving mental health and suicide in our own cute little town.  We have seen a huge increase in those needing and seeking help.  Please make sure to check in on your loved ones.  2020 has been a difficult year for a lot of people.  

•The Cottonwood Drive Waterline replacement agreement with Uintah was approved unanimously as well as the declaration of surplas property.  The budget amendments were mostly from additional CARES Act funds the city has received and distributed.  

The council had a few discussions under new business:

•Mixed Use:  In light of the recent presentation on the Stephen's property, the council felt it was necessary to give more details concerning the concept of mixed use.  The council was unanimous in feeling neither of those areas should have a residential component.  In order to better streamline the process and better direction for prospective developers, staff, planning commission and city council, the council will let the Planning Commission know.  

•Census Results: South Weber City has great Census results, but encourage any who have not yet done their census to do so.  The city will be sending out notifications to remind citizens.

•Cleanup Efforts:  The community was commended with their clean up efforts from the storm.  From a public property stance, the Posse Grounds were hit very hard.  UDOT came and helped the city clean up the Posse Grounds and trees down on Cottonwood Drive area.  If anyone needs additional help, please let us know.  The council was concerned for Lisa Poll's bench.  There was some parts of the wood that were warped slightly, but otherwise it was okay.  Also if you have any garbage cans that are not yours, the city can help them get to the right person.  A question was raised about declaring a state of emergency helping community members, the answer is that it does not help private citizens.  It was determined to not declare a state of emergency but after getting more information, on Wednesday Mayor Jo declared a local emergency.  This will allow funds that could be reimbursable on damages incurred on city property (sprinkler lines, fencing, tree removal).  

•CERT program: Given the storm and the ability for a community program (and the fact there is still 4 months left to 2020!) it was brought up where the CERT program is at.  Chief Tolman and Dave have talked with a few people they are working with to get 5 captains.  

Reports:

•Mayor Jo: Wasatch Integrated Waste has begun transferring their waste to Tooele County.  They continue to increase their daily tonnage and are hoping to transfer all residential waste by January of 2021.   Regarding their new recycling plant, they encourage those who have recycling cans to continue as recycled material is cleaner and easier to sort.   They are working on other recycling programs in the area too.  Council members are encouraged to take a tour of the recycling plant.  

•Council member Halverson: reported the Planning Commission meeting included a presentation on the Stephens property as mentioned above.  The Lofts property also had a continuation of the special meeting for Wednesday the 16th.  New packet and revised plans are on the city's website.  The Planning Commission was ready to recommend the general plan to the city council, but due to new legislation they are required by law to first have a public hearing and then make a recommendation.  This will take place on their October 8th meeting.

•Council member Soderquist: The meeting with Stake Parson's concerning funds that they donate to the city for recreation purposes went well.  They would like to include their name in more places as a donor for our programs and ammenities.

•Council member Petty: Parks & Rec committee meeting met and looked closer into the look and feel of the final plans for Canyon Meadows - more info coming soon.  The Youth City Council has extended their time for application to September 21st.  Application is still online - one error on the application was that attendance and citizenship is not required.  We had some members of the community already reach out to help in some great ideas and we hope anyone 14-18 will consider applying!

•City Manager Dave Larsen: Roger Worthen, previous city manager for South Weber and now city manager in Riverdale passed away from Leukemia on Sunday morning.  It was unexpected and quick.  Information on the funeral and viewing as well as a place to donate to the family are available online.  He was commended for being a wonderful man and will be missed.   

-The meeting scheduled for September 22nd has been been changed to September 29th.  Among other things on the agenda will be the Conditional Use Permit for the Soccer Complex.  Another item is the Cottonwood Waterline bids (we received 10 bids) came back much higher than what was estimated and budgeted for.  Additionally, work at the dog park has been underway.  We are hopeful we can do a grand opening in the spring of 2021.  Unfortunately, many of the trees surrounding the trail around the park fell during the storm.  

-And finally, we have received word that we have a court date for the Cobblestone Resort hearing - October 26th.  

Recap! Joint City Council & Planning Commission Meeting (General Plan discussion)

Once again, a huge thanks to Jeff Judkins for coming and doing a live stream of this meeting.  I know that being away for hours at a time every week is a sacrifice to your family - make sure to send out a thank you to him for doing so!

Tonight's meeting was a long one with lots to discuss.  You can hear the audio of it here and here and see the packet here.  The packet will include the maps we were looking at during the discussion as well and an updated section of the commentary of the general plan about the parks and rec that was also discussed can be found here.  

Lots of discussion happened at this meeting.  The minutes will be up probably next week and I would encourage all to look at it or check out the audio to get the full details of everything.

Up first was digging right into our new mixed use overlay.  There was a question about why do an overlay over a zone.  The answer to that was that an overlay allows for denial, a zone does not.  The developer will be bound to anything within the overlay which is mostly based on form-based code.  (Form-based code is more of using specific and determined styles, exteriors, heights etc. for a developer to design around to create the desired look of a development -- think Park City)).  

The overlay can only be applied to Commercial Highway zones that are over 5 acres of land -- and will only be applied through a rezone request to the PC and CC.  This limits the amount of this overlay to really take place in two parcels in our community - the property off South Weber Drive near Highmark and the property at the corner of 475 E and Old Fort Road.   Included in the code are specific setbacks and heights of buildings, outdoor signage, percentage of open space, landscaping requirements among other things.  Also included in the code was the requirement of a development agreement. 

Most of the concerns the discussion surrounded was the "no limit on the number of dwelling units' in a single building" and the height restrictions on buildings.   The restrictions on height depend on how far the unit sits from a public right of way (street or sidewalk).  The further away from the ROW, the higher the building could be, with a max of 50'.  Since these two properties are very different, there was a discussion on what could work on one property would not work as well on another. 

After much deliberation, it was decided that a committee of 2 Planning Commission officials as well as 2 city council members would meet with staff to reword the code to better satisfy our concerns.  Rob Osborne and Taylor Walton from the PC and myself and Wayne Winsor from the council were chosen to work with staff.  

The next item was to discuss the General Plan which started with reviewing all the maps included with the general plan.  Included in the packet are the new ideas for the roads north of SWD that was formally South Bench Drive as well as the 1900 connection to Layton.  Other maps that had some discussion was the sensitive lands map which formally included the OU's from contamination from HAFB.   After a discussion of why it was a removed and the question of if it was needed, staff was directed to include the OU's on the sensitive lands map.  

The last item of business was concerning the new section of our Parks and Rec on the text of the general plan.  It removed the requirement that was a suggestion from the Nat'l Parks & Rec Association that for every 1,000 people 25 acres of recreational lands was set aside, 10 of which would be developed parks.  The new text focuses on not creating more and new parks, but on maintaining current parks.  The concern that we aren't financially able to update and add to current parks was discussed.  The cons to this would be that we would not set aside another large developable park in our general plan (although retentions basins will continue to be required and could be used for park space) but the pros would be that it allows us to update and add to our current parks and will overall cost the city less to maintain.

Just a reminder that this draft of the general plan will go back out to the public for further review and most likely another survey.  After that feedback is given, the council and planning commission will again review it and make changes if necessary.

Phew!  As I said, there was so much to this meeting and a lot of deliberation.  Being a recap, it contains just the bare minimum of information and if you would like to better understand the situation I would suggest listening to the audio.  I hope that this is helpful for everyone!

Thanks again for all you staying involved and informed!!

#getinvolved #stayinvolved