The April 25, Kanab City Council meeting opened with some ear-catching report topics, including confirmation that the Kanab City Police Department is laying out the space for their new headquarters, and an in-person report from the recently appointed Director of Recreation, Sterling Glover. The council also received a report from the Kane County Youth Coalition to open the public comment period for the evening.
The first half of the meeting was dedicated to straightforward zoning items, each with their own opportunities for the public to comment - while there were a good number of them relative to a usual city council agenda requiring much of the meeting’s time, most of them didn’t receive any public comments or were commented on by only one or two directly related parties. Specific details, including zone maps, can be found in the meeting’s agenda packet on the Public Notice website.
The council updated city ordinance allowing specific members of city staff to issue renewals of construction permits within a certain period of time after such a permit expires - this also allows an additional check on whether a developer is complying with current building codes, including codes that have been updated since the developer initially received their permit. As Council Member Arlon Chamberlain put it, “This way we won’t just leave the developers hanging out to dry … we’ll actually let them continue projects.” The following item was along similar lines, allowing city zoning administrators some leeway in when and how they inspect lodgings in order to provide business licenses for places like hotels and short-term residences, as well as amending some language allowing for more broad application of city ordinance rather than specifically fire safety.
The City is in negotiations with the Kane County School District for some of the costs regarding the development of the new school site. The agenda item regarding these negotiations was informative, with no immediate action taken at this meeting, aside from assigning council members to be at an upcoming meeting discussing the costs. Per Council Member Scott Colson, “I think it’s appropriate now to engage the school board on how we’re going to do all this, with the costs involved, as well as the county potentially … I think it’s important we affirm that commitment with some planning.”
The next agenda item was a discussion on a potential impact fee waiver for the county Water Conservancy District and the parts of their department that serve the public interest. The staff recommended an analysis of the impact fees involved as funded by the Water Conservancy District, to get expert opinions on how much impact some of these facilities and locations have on city infrastructure. No official motion was made, as the council simply came to a consensus that staff could bring a proposal to the Water Conservancy Board, to confirm if that board wished to fund the analysis that could lower their impact fees.
The final agenda items served the transition between the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years for the city council budget. According to City Manager Kyler Ludwig, “We don’t have any fights here … general fund revenues are about 91 percent of what we were anticipating for the year, which is great. Expenditures are within 83 percent of the budget, which may require a budget amendment to take place.”
With the new fiscal year coming into effect, some issues - such as property taxation rate - will come under review, and will have mandated public hearings. The public is encouraged to observe the state public notice website, as well as local news sources and bulletin sites for announcements of times and dates for these hearings.
