Segment: Why I voted the way I did - The Stephens Property

This past week the council voted on a parcel that has had a lot of intereston from to public on the agenda; a rezone request from Agriculture to Commercial Highway. Want the short version? Skip to the bottom. 🙂

A public hearing on this parcel to hear from the public was done at the planning commission level in June. There were no comments about this item and the PC recommended unanimously to the council for approval. This also passed the council unanimously. You can watch this agenda item unfold for both the planning commission and city council on our YouTube channel. I will link them below.

Alright, let’s dive in. As I stated this passed the council with a favorable vote, which of course means I voted yes. Here’s why:

•this property received an overwhelming support during the general plan feedback to be commercial Highway. The developer has approached the council and planning commission numerous times in the past, each time with a High density residential component. Each of these presentations failed because of the desires of the community to not have more HDH developments and mixed use. The developer decided to come back and ask for exactly what we were projecting it to be, commercial highway. This is in line with the general plan and also in line with the feedback of the general plan survey. I know because I had just read all 4,500 comments again just a few months earlier.

•Another item of note was the uses within our CH zone. During the survey of the general plan, we realized a lot of the uses we allowed did not conform to the desires of the residents. Thus the code committee immediately got to work and revamped all the uses. The general plan feedback was highly considered and utilized while updating to better align with what the citizens would like by way of commercial. When we were finished, the uses went before the Planning Commission for a public hearing to get further from the public with how we did. The planning commission recommended the updated uses to the city council who passed the ordinance change unanimously. Why does this matter? Because at the time we were allowing a lot of uses we soon realized the public did not want; truck stops, RV parks and such. Better aligning our code with the desires of the community meant that we would attract only what we want and would not have our hands tied to accept something we didn’t want. As a member of the code committee, I felt we worked hard to use the feedback from the citizens to shape our new uses. The public feedback we did receive mostly included to remove a truck stop to which we had already done.

•Some caveats:

This did not come forward with a concept plan as the developer is hoping the zoning being CH will allow for more committtment. Having come to the table in the past and unable to proceed forward created a loss of confidence from potential buyers. Because of this, the developer does not have a presentation at this time, but will be allowed the uses within the zone and will be required to meet all the standards of the zone.

•This area is set to be master planned. In a previous meeting I stated that I wanted to have a code for master planning completed so that when these properties come to us (those that have hatch marks on the general plan) we can have greater control with what comes to that area and other upgrades or things they need to do to create a uniform and complete feel. While this idea was not denied, it also did not receive a lot of support. The code committee has been overwhelmed at many other projects that also need to be addressed ASAP and the priority of developing a code for master planning has been moved to work on other very needed items. However, codifying a master plan arrangement still remains a high priority for me and I will work hard to make sure it is given the attention it needs as soon as we are feasibly able.

•Too long/didn’t read (TLDR): In summary, I voted yes to this rezone because I felt it followed the general plan and because we had updated our uses to better align with the vision of the citizens. The public was given the ability and time to review this revisions and were updated just in time before this development came before us (phew!). Because of this, I favored this rezone request, but still believe more work is needed within our code to guarantee the best development for this property.

Planning Commission meeting

City Council meeting

Recap! May city council meetings

 How is it the end of May already?  Time sure is flying.  I think May is when South Weber is the absolute prettiest.  Love this cute, little city of ours!

Below is the recap for the meetings of May 11th and May 25th as well as a special hearing that took place on May 16th.  For May 11th, you can find the packet here, May 18th's agenda is here and May 25th's meeting is here, here and here.  You can also watch these meetings on the city's YouTube channel here.  It is worth noting that the May 18th meeting was not streamed to YouTube, but the recording of the meeting is available to listen to here. 

Alright, let's dive in!

 

•RV PARK AGREEMENT AMENDMENT: The owner of the future RV Park requested changes to his landscaping plan to save on water.  These changes include using a more drought resistance grass, fewer shrubs and plants and other minor changes to the type of gravel rock and bark.  You can see his proposal in the packet linked below.  The council all agreed to the changes of grass and other minor changes, but the vote was split 3-2 in favor of a 15% reduction of plants and shrubs.  The motion passed to have the agreement modified.  

 

•2021-2022 TENATIVE BUDGET: The tentative budget was passed unanimously by the council.  The public will 3 weeks to review the budget before the next public hearing to pass the budget.  This is expected to happen the June 8^th meeting.  I would recommend everyone looking over.  Pages 5-11 are particularly informative, but if you are short on time or attention J pages 13-16 have a simplified breakdown of what changes will be taking place, where funds have been distributed and for what purposes.

 

•ELECTIONS: There are three seats up for re-election, 2 council member positions and the mayor position.  The time to file for candidacy begins June 1-4 and the 7^th at city hall. 

 

•LOFTS AT DEER RUN: The final approval for the Lofts development came before the council on May 25^th.  The council reviewed the recommendation from the planning commission both the preliminary approval that took place in December of 2020 and the final approval which took place last month.  Two commissioners were present and gave comment about the final approval because it was a 2-2 split vote and therefore no recommendation was given to help give the council perspective.   After asking questions and reviewing the plans, the council passed the motion unanimously.  

 

•COBBLESTONE SHORT TERM RENTAL HEARING: The council had the unique responsibility to act as the appeal authority in response to staff denying a business license for Cobblestone Resort, a short-term rental within the city limits.  This was set up much like a court where the council listened to both the arguments both for and against overturning this decision from their legal attorneys.  The council unanimously agreed to uphold the city’s decision to deny the business license.  Cobblestone Resort is also appealing the judicial court case regarding their need of a business license – that process will be ongoing.  

 

•CITY CODE CHANGES: The council reviewed code changes to the CH zone as well as updated definitions.  The code committee, comprising of the mayor, city manager, 2 planning commissioners and 2 city council members, made these changes which updated the specific uses that will be able to come to the commercial highway zones and beefing up the definitions to better align with the city’s desires for development following the feedback of the general plan survey results.  The was recommended to the council from the planning commission.  The council passed this motion unanimously.

 

•CANYON MEADOWS PARK WEST: Due to the rising costs of material, the plan for Canyon Meadows Park has had to be altered to fit within the budget, but still lacked the needed funds to complete a portion of the project.  It was requested of the council to allow a transfer of $182,194 which will be earmarked to pay back into impact fees to allow the project to start moving forward.  While 4 pickleball courts were budgeted, the Pickleball Community has successfully raised enough money to put in 4 more pickle ball courts for a total of 8.  After a lengthy discussion, the council passed this motion unanimously.

 

•REPORTS: Mayor Jo relayed the new digital screen for the city’s sign has been a huge update for staff as far as looks and functionality.   She also reported she met with our new Region 1 director for UDOT and discussed the I84/89 corridor, the box culvert, and the potential of future bike lanes on SWD.   She also said the LPC met and discussed the ARPA funds from the federal government.    

•Councilman Halverson stated the RAB met and OU16 will have a new ROD, new technology and better ways to test all types of contamination.

•Councilwoman Alberts reported the PR committee is working on ensuring all data has been successfully migrated from the old website to the new website, but it is slow progress.    

•Councilman Soderquist relayed the Admin and Finance committee continue to work through the budget and finalizing all the details.  He also reported our sales tax revenue for this quarter hit a new all-time high, which is good.  

•Councilwoman Petty reported they will meet with the contractor for Canyon Meadows and to get started on the work for Canyon Meadows West. 

•Councilman Winsor reported all 52 streetlights city owned streetlights now have power (after giving the rep for Rocky Mountain Power at the ULCT conference a run for his money J).  He requested information on an annual water report from staff and reported the Municipal Utility committee is working on bringing forth all high-speed internet options for citizens and council to review. He also reported the mosquito abatement is hiring for drivers if anyone is interested (at least 17 years old preferred).  Code committee is finishing up new code for internal ADU’s and moving on to cleaning up our conditional use code. 

•City Manager David Larsen reported the dog park grand opening will sadly need to be postponed due to issues with the grass not taking to root well.  He also reported information on use of the ARP funds from the feds will be presented to the council at the June 8^th meeting.  

And that’s a wrap!  You deserve a candy bar and a drink for reading this all!  

Recap! City Council 10.27.2020

City Council Recap! 10.27.2020

 

I apologize for this getting out so late – this week has been a long year! :D

 

•Youth City Council November Project:  Members of the YCC came to introduce their gratitude challenge project for the month of November.  They will be asking the community to share their gratitude on social media and at city hall.  Everyone item of gratitude will represent a light bulb.  The city will then decorate the trees at city hall to show a visual representation of all the gratitude of South Weber.  The YCC has invited both high mark and SW elementary to participate and are excited to share something back with the community!

 

•Property Acquisition by Ron & Karen Anderson:  The Andersons live on adjacent to Canyon Meadows Park.  Their property line is unique due to the layout of the subdivision and they are requesting to buy approximately 18.29 sq ft.  This is property they have been taking care of though it is owned by the city.  They wish to better line their property up with adjacent neighbors.  

 

•Consent Agenda: There was a discussion about a concern on the language of the conditional use permit for the Soccer Complex.  Staff explained that because the owner of the soccer complex was going to look into the cost of fencing and bring back their response to the response as well as any other items.  The minutes do no reflect the final CUP and that concern will be corrected and addressed. 

•Final Plat for South Weber Drive Commercial Subdivision amendment:  4.2 acres have been subdivided into commercial.  The first amendment was split to create Alpha Coffee.  They are requesting to split again and create a 3^rd lot to put in a commercial unit for salon suites.  This was recommended by the planning commission.  

 

•General Plan: YAY!  Can you believe it!?  The council discussed a few things left on the general plan, including some changes that were recently recommended by the planning commission. 

This discussion takes place about minute on the video below.  To help simplify, I will just cover some of the talking points:

-There was a discussion about the trails, specifically the canal trail.  It was brought to attention that according to the survey, some of the trails had less than 50% of interest.  There were concerns regarding the trails and property owners who do not want a trail in their back yard and/or property.  While any trails would need property owner approval, there was still some hesitancy amongst some members of the council.  It was discussed that leaving it on the GP would allow us add money into our impact fees as well as achieve grants, where leaving it off would not.  Inevitably, 3 of the councilmembers were in favor of leaving the trail on the GP with 2 opposing, thus the canal trail will stay as planned.   It is perceived the probability of this trail will not be happening any time soon. 

-In regards to the narrative, it was expressed that the “story” behind what happened with this general plan needs to be notated and remembered.  It was proposed to add into the narrative a section regarding a connection to Layton and the reason why it was added and the reason why it was removed.   The council was agreeable to adding additional information to the narrative.  See below for more information regarding this section.  It was also requested to put the dates of the public record so anyone in the future can find the public record of the survey results and feedback.  

-Commercial south of carwash:  A change made by the planning commission was to change this area from commercial highway to high density housing.  The council whether or not to keep this commercial highway or residential.  Two main thoughts here were whether we wanted to lose more commercial area and how to create a transition from commercial to residential.  It was advocated, due to public comments and feedback of nearby neighbors, to change the density from R7/multi-family to a single-family patio zone.  After some deliberation, the final decision was to leave it commercial highway to 7800 South with the option of adding a single-family patio home as a transition.  It was also expressed that the buffers for this particular property regarding commercial will need to be addressed and considered.

 

-Some other minor verbiage and dates were also requested to be changed.  The changes will be done by staff and presented to the council at our next meeting.  

Reports:          

Mayor Jo: The Weber and Davis Commissioners met and approved a resolution to adjust the county border along 2 properties, one is the disputed 4 acres for the RV park and the other is a small section on the east side of the city adjacent to where Uintah has commercial property.  The cities will be meeting separately to discuss those borders at a later time.   Hill Air Force Base has a link on their website and social media for feedback on their interactive maps.  Interestingly enough, it was determined because of the depth of South Weber, the sound from the jets was not as impactful.  If you disagree – you are welcome to provide feedback. ;-)  Code enforcement officer Chris Tremea met with Doug at the Riverside development about the dumpsters and weeds 

 

Councilmember Halverson: The CERT program captains have been chosen and assigned by Chief Tolman and is underway with many citizens coming on board to help.  The county wide  paramedic services are proposing and interlocal agreement for transition from county wide paramedic services to municipalities providing those services.  Discussions regarding this over the next 6 months will be taking place. 

 

Councilmember Petty: Asked for the citizens to support the Youth City Council regarding their gratitude challenge.  The parks and rec committee has met to work on the master plan for Canyon Meadows Park. They have also been reviewing the park code and making adjustments to it.  Both of these will be coming to the council soon. 

 

Councilmember Winsor: The Municipal Utility Committee met to discuss fiber and other high- speed internet options, they will be having a presentation by Utopia soon.  The City Code Committee also met and started going through some of the hot topic items and start the process of making changes.  

City Manager David Larsen.  The hearing for the short term rental Cobblestone Creek was scheduled to happen this week but the other side requested to have it delayed.  A new hearing date is set for November 16^th.  

**Since this recap is so much later, included in the packet is the new addition to the narrative regarding a connection to Layton.  Since this is a hot topic, I will add a picture of it here.  If you have thoughts or comments on anything here or in the general plan, please make sure to let us know.**. 

Recap! City Council 8.25.2020

City Council Recap! 8.25.2020

 

•Covid Report:  South Weber has a total of 35 cases, with one active case – we remain the lowest number in the county.  The hospital capacity is down to 46%, transmission rate is .78, Davis County is .77.  There appears to be a stabilizing trend right now.   Davis County is monitoring the sewer system to track cases.  

 

•The city introduced to new Public Works employees, Jacob Anderson and Jared Clark. 

 

•The city also honored the Country Fair Days committee Holly Williams, Tani Lynch and Victoria Christensen and commended them on an amazing job well done for Country Fair Days!

•Harvest Park Phase 3 final approval:  The council had some questions regarding the water table and basement and a land drain.  While it was stated in the planning commission meeting that there will not be a land drain place in now, but will be later if needed, it was determined that was false and phase 3 does have a land drain included.  There was a lengthy discussion on the dog park.  The council expressed frustrations that the dog park is not yet finished and it has been a year later.  After some discussion, it was decided the development agreement will be amended to show the dog park, including the fencing, the path, sod and sprinkling system will be completed by November 1^st.  This passed unanamiously.  

 

•The budget needed to be amended for a few items, one of which was $50,000 from CARES act to put in touchless features in all city owned buildings and parks.  This also passed unanimously.  

Reports:

•Mayor Jo reported that they had their final meeting with Horrock’s for their feasibility study.  The city paid $3,500 for this study to take place while Wasatch Front paid the remaining $46,500.  This study included a recommended alignment, 2 trailheads at each end and parking lots.  This is for the trail head that will be extending east from the Cottonwood Drive trailhead, following the river to Highway 89.  

 

•Councilmember Winsor asked about when the new upgrades for the city’s online streaming will be ready. All parts have been ordered and most of them are have arrived.  As soon as everything is available installation will be started.

•Councilmember Alberts asked about Fiber options and if any further discussion has taken place since the Town Hall Meeting back in July.  It was reported that the utlitities committee had spoken with Utopia regarding pricing.  It was also mentioned that during last week’s legisislation, $25 million was set aside for cities in central and northern Utah to use for high speed internet ability.  Staff will look into it and see if it is something we can utilize.

 

•Councilmember Petty announced that the Youth City Council application is now online.  We are very excited to get started on this an encourage any youth 14 or older to apply!

 

•Councilman Halverson announced that plans for the waterline for Cottonwood drive will be finished by the end of year and the East Bench Job Corp project is underway.  The city will be looking into maintaining the streetlights from Rocky Mountain power until we are able to purchase our own.  

•Councilman Winsor announced the Code Committee met and reviewed chapter 2 of title 10 and will be amending the roles and responsibilities of all those who work within land use.  

•Staff announced we should be receiving our second allotement of the CARES act fund next week, $250,000.  The rec center will be offering pickleball clinics soon to any youth interested.  

Recap! City Council 7.22.2020

City Council Recap! 7.21.2020

You can watch the full video of this council meeting here or by watching below.

I'm trying to simplify these recaps to make the shorter and easier to digest. If you have any specific questions about a topic, feel free to ask in the comments!

One of the most popular items on the agenda last night was that for Morty's Car Wash. This is for the property just south of Maverik. This came before the council in 4 different action items, a rezone from commercial highway to commercial, final plat approval for the subdivision, final site and improvement approval for the carwash building and a conditional use permit. As this was a lot to discuss, the council opted to be able to discuss all the items at the beginning and take action after the discussion. The council spent roughly 3 hours discussing many different aspects of the carwash in full. The first 3 items passed unanimously. The Conditional Use Permit was altered from what was recommended from the Planning Commission. I feel like I have a lot to say here but I am also feel like I should just keep it simple. The below restrictions came about as a way to be able to protect homes near the car wash from noise and sound. It is the car wash's responsibility to make sure their business runs within these parameters. Below is the new Conditional Use Permit:

• Operation hours will be from 6am from 10pm (modified from 5am-11pm) for automatic bays and vacuums, 24/7 for self serve bays.
• No more than 3 automatic bays and 4 self serve bays.
  Review of conditional use permit by the city council with recommendation of the planning commission within 6 months from the date of opening
• Performance specifications: During the quiet hours, 95% of the time sound tests shall not be 5db above ambient sound, not to exceed 55 db, at the property line. During business hours, 95% of the time, from 6 am to 10 pm, sound tests shall not be 10db above the ambient sound, not to exceed 70 db, at the property line. All these measurements will be done on 3 sections of the southern property and take an average.
• Ambient light not exceed more than 30 feet from the building.
• The south entrance be maintained as an ingress and egress.
• The Condition Use Permit passed 3-2. 2 members of the council voted against this on the basis of the 24/7 hours.
  
  

A public hearing took place to amend the budget to allow for more funds to be used as CARES act funds. This includes an upgrade to the audio and visual for live streaming at city hall. The council also passed the bid to Webb designs for this upgrade. In short, new mics, speakers, audio system, multiple camera angels and other needed upgrades to live streaming are coming soon. Yay!

Other items discussed were a gurney purchase for the fire department (using CARES act funds), paramedic servicing license (a future process in the works) and changes to our code for nuisance calls for pets due to changes at the state level.

Reports included an update on the wetlands restoration project, instructions to look into a timeline for the dog park, mosquito abatement information and some information about the Country Fair Days parade.

Town Hall Meeting: Fiber. 7/7/2020

We held our first town hall meeting on July 7th to discuss fiber.  You can watch the meeting by clicking here or by watching below.  

This town hall was dedicated to finding more information about resources available for high speed internet options available for the city.  The municipal utility committee, comprising of Mayor Jo, Councilman Winsor and Councilman Halverson attended.  Councilman Winsor led the discussion and invited 2 residents that are knowledgeable and interested in these options to share their viewpoints.  Questions were taken from citizens watching live and submitted before the meeting.   I thought its as a very great discussion and gave us many things as a city to consider while looking into further options.  Hope you find this helpful!

Recap! City Council 6.16.202

This meeting's agenda only had 2 items on it, which gave the council some time to dig in a little deeper on it.  I thought it was a great meeting and very informative!

You can watch the meeting here, or by clicking below.  You can see the packet and agenda here. 

•Covid 19 update: Mayor Jo reported that the hospital rate for Davis County has gone down slightly to 73%.  We want this number to below 90%.  Rates for unemployment for Davis County have also decreased.  Travel cases of Covid are down, but work related cases are up.  Of those that have been tested for the antibodies, only 2% have shown immunity.

•We had 2 comments from the public that took place at city hall.

The council took some time to respond to the comments.  Councilman Wayne Winsor addressed some questions about the fire department numbers and relayed some information he was able to obtain since last week's meeting:  In the last 18 months, the SW Fire Department had responded to 450-460 calls, 25 were outside of our jurisdiction.  17 calls were from other municipalities responding for help to South Weber, all were for fire but 3.  Mutual aid agreements for fire response with other cities does not bring in revenue, but any ambulance care we do charge for those services.   South Weber has a full time fire department; that means our FD is staffed 24/7, however we do not have full time employees.  Normal rotation is to have 2 people at the station at all times, which equates to an average hourly wage of approximately $23.17.  There are times there are more people there for training purposes.

•Certified Tax Rate: The council approved to adopt the Certified Tax Rate. Adopting this rate means we will not be having a tax increase.  We are expected to bring in the same amount of taxes as we did in the 2019 year, plus some for new growth.  There was a comment made by Councilman Winsor to take notice how much the inflation has caused the rate to adjust already.  He cautioned against waiting another 30 years to catch back up to the rate (the longer we wait, the higher the percentage of the increase will be to catch back up to the rate).  You can learn more about how this work here if you feel so inclined.  :-)

•Adopt FY 2021 budget and consolidated fee schedule:  I took some time to go over some of the highlights of the budget and answer questions that have been raised.
•In this years budget there was an increase in garbage fees and sewer fees.  The city will be absorbing both those costs and not passing it on to citizens.
•The city is able to keep up to 25% in our general fund as a savings account (rainy day fund).  The city works to keep it close to that range.
•The budget indicates a $900,000 to upgrade a sewer trunk line.  This is due to an indication from our Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) done in 2014 that a line would need to be updated to remain sufficient.  The CFP will be done again as soon as the General Plan is adopted and updated to reflect growth.  However, since the discussion on sewer updates that happened last year, we have been metering our sewer to better determine capacity. It is possible that we can remain sufficient without upgrading this sewer line.  In the even that we are at capacity as is, this line will not be upgraded.  However, the $900,000 will need to stay in the sewer fund and can not be transferred back into the general fund as it was acquired through impact fees.  
•The budget indicated $327,000 will be transferred to the capital projects plan to reimburse from monies received for SBD.  Staff will get the information on how much money we have received thus far to reimburse for SBD, and the amounts that is still to be collected.
• The question was raised from public comment why the city is having to buy property for a new Public Works building and why the amount of $700,000.  The answer was that the current facilities and location of the public works buildings are out of code.  We are unable to do proper clean up and have room for needed storage as well as a new public works building on that lot.  The goal is to find a property that has adequate space, is not in the back yard of residents, and we would not need to build a road too.  It is hoped that we will not need to use the full amount set aside.  If we are able to do so for less, those funds will go back into the budget.
•I also requested that the $35,000 budgeted new auto/lift, auto/load gurney for the Fire Department have a freeze put in place until the Public Safety Committee is able to address the questions that have come up.  That committee will meet next week and will have more information at the next council meeting.

New Business:

•Councilmember Winsor requested that quarterly department reports in public meetings and the information that is shared be brought back to the table.  It was the decided the PR committee will decide how to engage those types of conversations again.

•The open house schematics were brought up.  Based on the newest guidelines, we are able to meet as long as social distancing (now called physical distancing) is maintained and property sanitization is maintained.  Some members of the Planning Commission did not feel comfortable coming to the meeting, however the council was comfortable being there.  The open house will take place at the Family Activity Center on June 24th and 25th.

Reports:
•Mayor Jo reported they met with the new contracted lawyers for land and property use and felt optimistic about them representing the city.

•Councilman Halverson reported the Planning Commission reviewed a presentation for the Stephen's property.  He also added the PC hopes to review and amend city codes starting next month.  If there are codes you would like to see reviewed, please reach out to the Planning Commission.

•Dave Larsen reported the wetlands restoration is underway and large piles of dirt will be accumulating on the west end of Canyon Meadows park.  He has not been able to make contact with those who took some part of responsibility in dumping the fill dirt there yet.  He will continue to work on it.

And that's a wrap! I hope you will all make sure to take a moment and participate in the general plan survey!

General Plan Survey Walkthrough!

Hello Everyone!

The time has come for the participation in the next general plan survey!  You can find out how to participate by clicking here or going to the city's website.  You are able to provide feedback from June 15th to June 30th.   There will be an open house held at the Family Activity Center on June 24th and 25th.  Details about this meeting are forthcoming.  

If you participated in the last general plan survey - I think I have good news for you!  Because the plan has been condensed and simplified, the survey has also been simplified.  However, I am still here to help walk you through it.  Feel free to share the link with anyone who you think it could help.

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!

Recap! City Council 5.12.2020

You can view this meeting via zoom through the city's YouTube channel or by watching below!

As you can see from our agenda there wasn't a lot to discuss and so this meeting was short and sweet.

•Coronavirus update:  Davis County will be implementing random household testing.  Each member of chosen households will be given two tests, a blood test to check for antibodies and a the PCR test (swab into the nostril).  It will help define how many cases and how many asymptotic cases we may have missed.  There will be roughly 8,000 test conducted in two communities.  The health department for Davis County does not anticipate a move to yellow by Friday but is hopeful it will happen by the end of the month.   Numbers for Davis County continue to look very good, we have no active cases in South Weber.

•Tentative Budget: Staff has been working with the tentative budget for the last 4 months.  A public hearing will be held June 9, 2020 to formally adopt the budget for fiscal year 2020-2021.  The tentative budget can be found in the packet.  There were a coupe of clarifications asked by the council, specifically towards a power lift gurney for the paramedic vehicle and future streetlights for existing neighborhoods (currently new neighborhoods will have the streetlights installed at the developer's expense - the city is moving from Rocky Mountain Power to South Weber owning and maintaining the lights).   Installation of lights for the new developments should be coming forth to the council towards the end of this month. 

As far as the public hearing we will have some sort of hearing ready to accommodate for it depending on what happens with restrictions due to Covid-19.  We are also awaiting further suggestions from the state for legal opinions and our options.  

Reports

Jo: Uintah City approached us about our shared boundary.  Uintah approached South Weber City about a piece of property on the east end of the city that is part of the Uintah Business Park but lies on South Weber's side.  Dave, Barry and Jo all met with representatives from Uinta and decided that a committee from both cities will meet together to discuss what should be done.  The reps from SW council will be Blair Halverson and the Planning Commission Chair Rob Osborne.  Wasatch Integrated Waste should have their sorting station to separate out green waste, plastic, paper ect. up an running by August.  It will start with 50% capacity in the beginning and will go to full capacity next year. 

Councilman Halverson:  Public Safety Committee continues to meet weekly.  The CERT program continues to move forwarded spearheaded by citizen Brandyn Bodily and Chief Tolman.   The bid for painting the curb for 2700 E has been created and is getting ready for quotes.

Councilwoman Alberts: Our first town-hall meeting is scheduled for July 7th of this year.  Accommodations for this will also depend on restrictions for Covid-19, more information coming soon.  Councilwoman Petty will be starting our Councilmember Corner in the newsletter for July with each council member taking a month for the rest of the year.  

Councilwoman Petty:  The Parks and Rec committee met and had several discussions.  Among these items was reviewing the rules for the dog park as well as new rules for all of our parks (will come before the council as a discussion later).  Our updates to our city parks are underway with tentative plans to begin work on Cherry Farms this August.  She praised the council's choice to open the parks for families in the city.  She has received a lot of good feedback from mothers who have really appreciated having this asset available to them. 

Dave - City Manager:  He mentioned that Brandon Jones will no longer be attending all the city council meetings unless he is needed.  

And that's a wrap everyone!  Hope you guys are all doing well and good.

Recap! City Council 4.28.2020

Man oh man do I wish this was our last zoom meeting.  I guess we just still don't know!  This one was a little bit of fun though.  We did a zoom background contest to spice things up a little bit, and the results were pretty hilarious in my opinion.  Take a gander and see who you think won!

Below is the agenda.  

 

You can watch the live streaming to Youtube below, or by clicking here.  

Alright, let's dive in:

•Covid-19 updates:  Mayor Jo related that Governor Herbert will likely be moving our state from a red zone to an orange zone starting May 1st.  More details will be forthcoming.  She also related that there has only been 1 confirmed Covid case from South Weber.  There was at one time 2, though the second turned out to be a false positive.  

•General Plan Timeline:  As discussed in early April, the general plan open houses were postponed due to Covid-19.  The council decided to plan for open houses to resume starting in late May.  While we won't know what measures will need to be in place at that time, it will be determined that some sort of adjustments will likely take place to maintain social distancing.  The council also received all the feedback from the survey participants and found their perspectives very helpful and changes are likely to be further made to the survey based off their suggestions.  

•Dog Park:  The retention basin for Harvest Park (near the Posse grounds) will be utilized as a dog park.  The 4 acre basin will be fully fenced and have a walking trail along the outside of it.  The council reviewed the rules and parking.  The Parks and Rec committee will continue to work on adjustments or changes as needed.  The park is planned to be opened sometime in late July or early August.

•No on-street parking on 2700 East: This discussion came before the council after being reviewed by the public safety committee - which was reviewing concerns of on street parking after a 'park-n-protest' was held in early September of 2019.  The committee decided to redstripe both sides of 2700 E from South Weber Drive to Deer Run as soon as possible.  The committee also determined there were other streets that needed to be looked into, specifically South Weber Drive in front of Highmark, Cottonwood Drive, and Canyon Meadows among others.  The council decided some changes in the city code will regarding parking to be changed, no longer allowing trailers/dumpsters and other large vehicles to be parked on the side of the street for longer than 24 hours (down from the original 48 hours).  The committee will be meeting shortly to further discuss the increase of parking on Cottonwood Drive due to the trailhead nearby.

•Davis County Sheriff's Office:  The contract that was signed with DCSO had the ability to renew for 2 more years at the same contracted rate as the previous year and original contract amount.  The council approved this renewal.  

New Business:

•Fellow resident Diana Hyer would like to add some cheer to the residents at Peterson Farms Assisted Living.   Diana is organizing a drive by wave to help ease the loneliness due to isolation measure resulting from Covid-19.  Come and wave hello and give encouragement.  Meet at Canyon Meadows Park at 1 pm.  Decorate the passenger side of your door and prepare to share some cheer!

Council Reports:

Mayor Jo:  She has recently met with Curtis and Dave regarding the Rec Center and plans that will be in place once they are given more direction.  More details will be forthcoming.

Councilwoman Alberts:  The Country Fair Days committee met.  The organizers are moving forward with what they can but have decided that they need clarification on whether large event gatherings will take place by June 1st.  They felt any time after that date would not give them enough time to get everything prepared and vendors and money raised.   In the event that we will not able to do large gatherings, fireworks will likely proceed with proper distancing measures in place.  However, anything else would likely be cancelled though they will continue to look into what they can.

Councilman Winsor: The Municipality Committee will be meeting soon to review the contract with Job Corp on the pipeline replacement.   He will be reporting details of that contract to the council when he has them. 

And that's a wrap my peeps!  Just a reminder the council will not meet again until May 12th at which time we may or may not be able to meet at City Hall.  Regardless of where we meet, live streaming will continue.  

Recap! City Council Meeting 3.31.2020

Here is the agenda for this meeting:

Once again, this meeting was held remotely for each council member through Zoom and live streamed to Youtube.  You can watch the whole meeting by clicking here, or watch it below.  

Because of the quarantine, all public comments were received via email prior to the meeting.  I want to thank you all for your involvement.  We received by my count over 30 emails from concerned citizens.  I appreciate every one of you for taking the time to do so!

Highlights:

•Ambulance and Power Gurney Purchase for Fire Department: Chief Tolman reported that the ambulance we have is 20 years old and it shows.  There have been times that the ambulance was in the shop being repaired and they had to have someone else cover their calls during that time.  Quotes for replacement ambulances came in at about $110,000-$180,000.  However, they were able to find a used one that is 5 years old for $15,000 from Roy City.  The city has a vehicle replacement program with a capital projects plan where money is set aside each year for these purchases.  The council felt the price was good and approved this purchase.  The power gurney and its benefits and costs were discussed.  The council felt that at this time it is best to hold off on this purchase.

•General Plan Timeline: Due to the Coronavirus and the quarantine in place, a discussion took place about how to move forward with feedback for the general plan.  Initially, April was discussed to be a time for citizens to review the second draft.  This included open houses and a survey.  However, due to restrictions on gathering, things needed to be reworked.  The council had a lengthy discussion about moving forward and how.  In the end it was decided to essential put a pause button on the general plan.  We will spend the month of April working on the survey which includes a selection of randomized citizens reviewing the ease, user ability and general understanding of the survey.  This is to take place for 2 weeks in April.  The council will review the results of the feedback of the survey the last week of April at which time we are hopeful we will have further direction of the quarantine and how to move forward.

•Budget Workshop for Fiscal Year 2020-2021: We are currently underway on all our budget for next fiscal year.  A discussion that took place in the Admin and Finance committee about the future revenue of property tax.  There are essentially three different options.  The council chose to make no changes to the current property tax for this fiscal budget.  The discussion will take place again at a later date when the public can convene and weigh in.  If you are interested in learning more about these tax options, I did a video on it you can view here.  

•Procurement Policy: The Admin and Finance committee has been working on a procurement policy for our city for over a year and it was finally ready for council's review.  You can read more about this, and the policy itself in the packet.  The council made an adjustments to the authorizations amount for the department heads and city manager.  This will go back to the committee for revision and come before the council at a later date for final approval.

New Business:

•A discussion about the latest ruling on the TUF fee and the wording that was change to include that a transportation utility fee is a fee and not a tax will be coming back to the council at the next meeting.

•We had discussion about conducting nonessential business during the quarantine.  Deciding what is essential and nonessential can be hard to define.  It was decided that the mayor will set the agenda and if the council found that some items needed to be discussed at a later date, as what had happened in tonight's meeting, was a good balance.

•Preparation for future impacts on sales tax revenue.  In light of all that is going on with the economy due to Coronavirus, staff is looking at preparing for a decrease in sales tax revenue.  More information will be coming forth on the 14th.

•A question on the discussion of Fiber was brought up.  The municipality committee has not made any further steps at this time.  A extensive discussion needs to be had.  There are many choices that will need to be made that will have potential impact on every resident.  It will also come up at a later date when the public can be more involved.

Reports:

•The Public Safety Committee will be meeting with the Fire Department to discuss emergency preparation for Covid-19 and other emergencies.

•There are plans underway to have updates to the bathrooms at Cherry Farms.

•The Davis County Landfill will be closing to residents this Friday.  Regular curbside pickup will continue.  As of now, the Spring Cleanup is still underway but could change.

•Our grant submission application for placing sidewalks on South Weber Drive was approved and the city should be expecting a $300,000 reimbursement from the state coming soon.


And that's a wrap my friends!  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out!

#getinvolved #stayinvolved

Live Video: Upcoming Agenda Item Regarding Property Tax

While this meeting was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this will still be something to discuss for the future of the city at a later time.  I hope that this is informative and helpful to you to better understand the way we should structure the property tax for our city.  

#getinvolved #stayinvolved 

News Worthy Moments

This latest election did something that political experts said would never happen.

A write in candidate not only got voted in, but received the top votes!  And people are noticing.  In fact, we've been in the news quite a bit since our humble beginnings.  

The first major event residents put together was the Park-n-Protest.  Concerns about a new development called The Lofts at Deer Run brought this forward.  This development of 74 units on under 3 acres of ground had only one parking spot per unit.  Residents, realizing this meant that additional cars would defer to parking on 2700 E, had concerns.  South Weber residents have proven they don't sit idly by.  And so we didn't just complain about our concerns.  We demonstrated it.  

The goal was to put 74 cars on the road to show the dangers that would come with on-street parking on 2700 E.  It was very clear even just a handful of cars was a cause for concern.  The road is narrow and the line of site is limited.   But we didn't just put 74 cars on the street.  We put over 130!

Channel 2 News heard about our event.  You can read their news story here, or watch it below:




Residents Paul Sturm and Corinne Johnson pose for a photograph with the Standard Examiner.  News of the Lofts Development came about when Paul noticed some people and activity on the lot and asked what was happening.  What started as 2 concerned citizens turned into a Facebook group of more than 1,000 followers and the formation of a non-profit organization called The South Weber Preservation & Conservation Advocates (SWPCA).

The Standard Examiner also came out to show our story.  You can read their story here.

But it didn't stop there.  A petition went around and received over 1,000 signatures from people who have concerns about the Lofts Project.  In addition to that, because of what was demonstrated at the Park-n-Protest, we were able to meet with the city's public safety committee to address parking concerns.  We were able to talk about 2700 E as well as other areas in the city where on-street parking could become a safety hazard.  It was decided that a recommendation to red stripe the curb on 2700 E and other areas of the city will be done in order to keep our residents and streets safe.  You can read more about that on this blog post here. 

The next big event residents wanted to put on, sponsored by the SWPCA, was to inform citizens about a proposed road called South Bench Drive.  South Bench Drive was confusing for many people, and it was hard to understand it fully.  And so a virtual viewing tour was put together and held at our Family Activity Center.  We had over 150 people attend, many of which had never heard about this road.  The goal here was simply to inform the residents so they could get their comments, concerns and questions back to our city officials.   You can view the South Bench Drive Virtual Tour, including drone footage of our beautiful city and interviews with residents, below.  

Our next big win was when we got final numbers in for the survey results.  In the past it was considered wonderful if the city received 25 comments, this time, we got 489!

The city officials were listening - it was hard to ignore!  Changes were happening as more and more residents got involved.  Our meetings were full, sometimes needing to be changed to other locations in order to fit us all.  Our city officials were getting more emails than they were able to keep up with at times (but they did keep up with them!).  Conversations and discussions were taking place, questions were being answered and concerns were being addressed. 

 Election time got its own set of attention.   The standard examiner, learning of my write-in candidacy and that my mother was also running for office in her city (with the same concerns about over development) decided to do a story about us.   You can read more about that story here.

Election Night was a bit crazy when the Davis County Auditor and Clerk's website went down during the final countdown.  That paired with other websites recording different numbers, many South Weberites were left sitting on the edge of their seat wondering what happened.  In the morning it was determined to be a close race.  KUTV seeing the success a write-in candidate had, and that there were still votes to be counted came and did a story.




Thursday we all waited while the final ballots were counted.  Finally about 3:00 pm, results were posted.  Not only did a write-in candidate get elected, I took first place! 

#SWmorethan1000!

There was much celebration this day!! My phone was immediately blowing up with messages from people who I have worked side by side with over the last few months.  We studied the topics, we read the minutes and listened to the audio.  We asked questions, we attended every single meeting and had many additional meetings in between.  We walked the streets of South Weber to make sure every household knew what was going on and helped get them informed.   It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.  We worked so hard.  And life has taught me that sometimes hard work doesn't pay off the way you hope it will.  But this time it did.  One person summarized it perfectly, "I knew it would feel good, but I didn't realize it would feel this good!"

The governor's office heard about my win.  I was asked by State Senator Todd Weiler to have an interview on 860 AM talk radio.  You can hear that interview below.  



Right off the bat he says 

"Let me tell you I kind of am a nerd on Utah politics.  I don't think this has ever happened before.  In fact, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable, if you would've called me a couple months ago and said I'm thinking of running a write-in campaign what would your advice to me be, I would've said 'don't do it. You will lose.  Write-in candidates always lose."   

I don't write this post to boast about what happened.  I write it because if you look at everything I posted above, we were against unsurmountable odds.  'There is nothing that can be done' and 'it will never work' was something we heard a lot.  But we kept working and we kept trying.  We have been told that we would never make a difference.  Well, we did.  And we will keep making that difference.  

South Weber - please understand that as much thanks as I give to you (which is an infinite amount) I give you that much plea to keep at it.  Don't get complacent, don't get comfortable.  

Get Involved,  Stay Involved. 

I love you South Weber! You are my people!