The meeting of the Kanab City Council on Tuesday, March 11, began with staff reports optimistic about the oncoming recreation season.
When the meeting opened to public comment, the only citizen to take the mic was Alan Seilhammer as a representative of the Wreaths Across America program, who thanked the City Council in general and Council Member Chris Heaton in specific for the aid and support provided for the program. Seilhammer called Heaton’s participation at the reading of names in the program “an integral part of the event,” and Mayor Johnson repeated his appreciation of the Wreaths program and their education efforts at local schools.
The first action item on the agenda was a lot joinder on Creekside, turning three lots into two. With no response in the public comment section and a positive recommendation from Planning and Zoning, the motion was made and unanimously approved.
The following item was an application for an amendment of the development agreement with Ventana Resort, potentially amending the requirement for sidewalk as opposed to foot trails in the development agreement. The motion was made and unanimously approved.
The Council then considered an ordinance approving a development agreement with Lumber Plus for some expansion and improvement to their building, with some parking spots located on city easements; the application would essentially allow the business to use city property for parking. The city used a lease model successfully applied to previous similar situations for compensation, and the motion was made and approved unanimously contingent upon legal review.
The following item was a similar agreement, this time with the Kane County DMV facility which had recently been approved for refurbishment on parking and access. The Council approved the request unanimously, allowing Kane County to install parking for the facility on city easement.
The Council then considered an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement with the Kane County School District for shared use of facilities, such as basketball practice in gyms or the city swimming pool. Per Mayor Johnson “This is important, it’s always happened naturally, the city wouldn’t be able to run some of these programs without the school facilities. We’re grateful they’re willing and understand that, we’re grateful the community is able to use the school district facility and we allow them to use ours as well.” The agreement was approved unanimously.
The Council meeting moved into the discussion items not associated with action items, and these discussions would take the majority of the meeting’s time. The first item was a discussion of a public road near the intersection of US89-A and 1100 South, establishing an access point to nearby parcels. “The current options, access to those properties off 89, are not good, and otherwise those properties are landlocked.” Said City Property Inspector and land use administrator Janae Chatterley. After some discussion on what design standards the commercial property the road would access, and the options that were most fair to the property owner, the council agreed to prepare this for an action item on coming agendas.
The following item of discussion, which would take most of the meeting’s time, was the potential contracting services through Kanab Fire Department with the residents of unincorporated areas of Kane County. Said City Manager Kyler Ludwig, “This is a preliminary discussion. The County is setting up an SSD that will take in properties east of Kanab … we just wanted to have a discussion prior to going into negotiations with the county on what the council sees as determining equity with our residents.” Council members Corry and Colson expressed their priority of a fair agreement that would not put an undue burden on citizens of Kanab City paying for fire protection of residents outside of the city, with Corry stating “The citizens of Kanab have been bearing the burden so far,” and Colson stating “I do think they should not be getting fire protection for the exact same price as a Kanab City Resident; I know that’s not a popular opinion.” With the foundation for discussion laid, and some potential avenues for fee assessment established, the council moved on to the last few items on the agenda.
The penultimate item of discussion was the use of high-value commercial real estate along Highway 89 for residential purposes, and whether those residential uses should be curtailed. The council discussed the best application of mixed-use zones to what distance along the highway.
The final item on the agenda open to the public was a consideration of ordinance to regulate approvals of community events, specifically if and how for-profit events should be allowed and how event impact could be mitigated. The council considered the language used by other nearby communities and how it could best be applied to Kanab City, and what language could insulate the city from litigation. Following these discussions, the meeting went into closed session.
