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.

Recap! City Council 6.9.2020

I ain't gonna lie, this is a long one!! Lots of good info and things to be aware of, especially during reports. 

It was so great to be back in council again and see everyone face to face. I think all of us have gained a greater appreciation about the ability to gather! Thank you for those who made public comment and for all you who participated online. We had 11 public comments (one email) for this meeting.

•Coronavirus update from Mayor Jo: Davis County has had an increase in cases but our rate is 2.6%. They like to see that stay below 3%. 2 of our active cases have recovered, leaving 2 active cases left.

•We had two public hearings regarding the budget; one was to amend the FY 2019-2020 budget and the other was to review the FY 2020-2021 budget.

•Proposed changes to this FY budget: Some of the changes that we needed to make adjustments for was increased revenue due to an increase in developing. Part of those revenues will be used to put lights in new subdivision (paid for by the developer). There was also adjustments to salaries and other operations and maintenance items. You can see these changes in the packet.

•Development Agreement with Riverside RV Park: The council asked many questions about this agreement. There was a discussion on the TUF contributions. The agreement allows the developer to adjust how many long-term (any stay longer than 30 days) and short-term sites (any stay less than 29 days). The council questioned on how that report would be given to the city and when. It was determined that the developer’s software would provide the information needed. Each of these stays will contribute to our city’s TUF fund based on a ERU calculation. The disputed 4 acres that reside in Weber County will not be developed until the boundary issue is resolved. In the event the boundary cannot be resolved, those 4 acres will remain open space for this RV Park. A motion was made with amendments to the original contract regarding the reporting features and the contract to be indefinitely rather than 10 years. Resolution passed 4-1.

•Site Plan Approval for Riverside RV Park: A few more items were discussed concerning the site plan. The motion passed 5-0.

•Approval for Conditional Use Permit (CUP): Council questioned what recourse the city would have if the RV Park is out of compliance with their rules. City manager Dave Larsen said that it would fall to code enforcement and the ordinances of our city through proper processes. Resolution passed 4-1.

•Street Light Project: Developments that are 2 years or newer are now able to have their streetlights installed. The council approved a bid by Big Bear Electric.

•Uintah/South Weber border discussion: There has been a discussion with Uintah regarding our border no longer falling to the river but running alongside I84. This would then veer to the north at the RV park and Cottonwood Drive and then back up to I84 again. It was questioned why Uintah would not take the section of the RV Park and Cottonwood Drive and was answered that they didn’t want too. Council suggested a compromise that we keep the border as suggested, but we find a way to cost share the maintenance of Cottonwood Drive as it is a road they highly use. The discussion with Uintah will continue and come back to the council for final approval.

•New Business: A consideration was brought up about the possibility of a new city hall as we are out of date and space is becoming problematic. This is a very long process and could take use but it was decided the Admin and Finance Department would start looking into beginning that discussion. A public comment addressed concerns about the budget of the fire department, the public safety will take on that discussion and look into it.

•New Reports: Mayor Jo reached out to Mark Larsen to ensure the corner piece off of the frontage road where it turns into 8200 E needs to be maintained by the HOA. She also reported some interesting stats from the WFRC. In the past 3 months: fuel tax is down 14%, E-commerce is up 40%, telecommunting is up 40%, public transportation is down 70%, bicycle and open space use is up 100%, freeway volumes are down 40%, travel time by auto is down 15%, air emissions are down 38%.

•Councilman Halverson: Planning Commission met and discussed Morty’s carwash off 2700 E. They recommended the CUP and the site plans to the council. This will be coming up to the council soon. There has been lots of public comment on this development.

•Councilwoman Alberts: Public Relations met and discussed the audio and video of quality for city hall. Bids are currently out and will come before council soon. Happy to report that Country Fair Days committee had decided to move forward with Country Fair Days! Yay! It will be a modified scheduled but they have a lot of great ideas and fun activities. Our town hall meeting on Fiber will be held July 7th.

•Councilman Soderquist: Admin and Finance committee met twice to discuss salary ranges that were discussed in the budget hearing. He also met with both gravel pits. They are doing many things to help mitigate the dust. One day last week they were unable to do those mitigation processes due to high winds. They usually start the mitigation process around 9 or 10 am when they wind dies down.

•Councilmember Petty: Parks and Rec committee met with train club; they are planning to do their June train rides with some type of modification in place. The wetland restoration is expected to be completed by July 1st. Dave added in that the developers that did the do the dumping have been contacted with the hope they will help with the cleanup and save money for the city.

•Councilman Winsor reported on the townhall meeting will be a Fiber panel discussion. He and Councilman Halverson and residents that have been invited to attend will discuss the options and then take questions from the public. Mosquito abatement is still working on killing some bug with a long name that is responsible for West Nile. We do not currently have any West Nile cases in Davis County.

Holy Moley! Still with me? I know that was a lot! If you made it to this point you deserve a treat!

June 9th Meeting: Public Hearing, RV Park, Discussion on Uintah Border

Hello Friends!

Tuesday has a lot on the agenda that is of interest to many citizens.  So I did a live video on it to catch you all up.  Watch below.

See the Agenda Here.

Participate in public by going here.

Stay Safe South Weber!