Council Report
by Lori Cole
City Department Reports
Ash Creek Special Services District — Matt
On Nov 9th, the contractor for the new sewer treatment plant will present their GMP (Guaranteed Max Price) for the new plant in Confluence Park. Subcontractor bids are opening on Nov 2nd and they are planning to begin the project on November 20th.
Additional information for those not familiar with the new sewer treatment plant project:
3 acres of land in Confluence Park has been set aside for the project but the city will only be using 1 acre of it. The brand-new treatment plant will produce low to no odor, and the treated water that comes out will go into the reservoir for reuse, while the “product” (solids) can go right into the landfill. The plant will operate at about 1 ½ million gals/day for now and can be upgraded to handle up to 3million gals/day in the future when needed.
Hurricane Fire District — Merlin Spendlove
Call volume for the district last month was 469 district-wide and 15 of those calls were in Toquerville (10 medical, 5 other.)
Burn season is still open and citizens need a burn permit.
Reminder: If you have a permit to burn, make sure when you are done that your fire is out. 13 acres burned because a permitted fire was NOT completely out and was rekindled by high winds.
On October 25th, the new emergency room in Hurricane opened and it has been staying busy. The Fire District had 11 transports in 1 day! The ER is open 24/7. If call volume continues at a high rate for the fire district, they will discuss assigning a crew to the Hurricane ER. Merlin added that the Fire District is saving some time by not having to transport everyone to the St. George ER.
Planning Commission — Riker
Riker reported on several conferences he attended and provided a long list of subjects discussed, most importantly, many items that are expected to be discussed in the next legislative session.
Housing Action Coalition Conference in St. George — discussing the current state of Utah housing.
American Planners Assoc— Riker was able to meet with staff from the Utah League of Cities & Towns to discuss the legislative changes that affect Toquerville’s subdivision ordinance and strategies to bring the city into compliance with those changes. Riker also provided a long list of items likely to be on the agenda for the upcoming legislative session:
Prohibiting zoning less than 2 units per acre – this will affect our subdivision ordinance.
Mandating all types of ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) as permitted uses in residential zones.
Mandating duplexes and triplexes as permitted uses in residential zones.
Mandating that “x %” of residential zones include small lots and duplexes.
Placing state caps on minimum lot sizes.
Assigning a minimum base density for every city to plan for in their General Plans.
Definitions for residential setbacks.
Regulations for modular and prefab homes.
Definitions for garage size standards in single-family homes.
Additional infrastructure funding for parking structures and utilities.
Ways to make land use processes faster.
Building on the subdivision changes already passed in 2023.
More housing commercial areas.
State standards for parking stall sizes.
There is a push for modular or prefabricated housing and high-density housing up in SLC and Utah has identified “affordable housing” as a major priority.
The council noted that many (if not all) of the items on the list are what the citizens of Toquerville have said they do NOT want. It may be that there will be exemptions for smaller cities like ours, but there is a major push in northern Utah for mandating high-density housing and reducing new single-family residential communities. It is critical that we all pay close attention to what our representatives are doing and that we hold them accountable if they are not representing the interests of those of us living in southern Utah.
City Manager — Afton
• The annual audit has been completed, it went well, and the auditors will be back to present the findings in person at the December council meeting.
• 41% of the year has elapsed and we’ve only spent 31% of the budget
• Waiting to hear back on the water infrastructure grant. This is for the $4.5 million for the 2 million gallon water tank and pump house for the west side of the city-should hear back in December.
• Westfield Park restroom construction should begin December 1st.
• Parkway – still moving forward and the contractor believes the blasting is done.
• Settlers Junction (RV Park on North end of town) planning to open in December.
• Firelight: Sitework for the water tank beginning next week after their pre-construction meeting.
• Working with the City Attorney on criminalizing our code. The court is in place, and they are working on the top 5 ordinances, which are:
Lighting, Vicious Dogs, Nuisance (including Drugs), Unlicensed Nightly Rentals, and Land Use Violations to include grading without a permit for major construction projects.
• Emergency readiness meeting coming up.
• General Plan – draft available in December for the Public Hearing and Planning Commission.
• Update on the City website – should go live December 1st.
• Still in process of installing new water meters around the city.
Public Forum
Kathy and Ray Bence asked the council to reinstate the public forum at every meeting rather than every other meeting. Public access to government is important. A private conversation with council members does not allow the rest of the city access to the discussion.
Business Items
Updating uniform fee schedule to add a fee for GRAMA requests and some updates/modifications to wording – Passed
Lot Line Adjustment on Pecan Lane – discussion that resulted in further direction provided to applicant.
Solara Project Right-Of-Way application request – Solara needs to cross BLM land for their project and they are asking the city to approve of and apply to the BLM for right of way. Whoever will be maintaining the road needs to make the application to BLM.
Calendar of Events:
Veteran’s Day will be celebrated at the City offices on November 9th. Veterans, stop by for a cinnamon roll
Community Readiness Meeting November 9th, 7PM to 9PM at Town Hall
Turkey Trot Trail Run November 23rd 8:30 AM at Toquerville City Park
Wreaths Across America, Saturday December 16th 10 AM at the Toquerville City Cemetery.