City Council - Regular Meeting

No, two colors. Watching the in here. I want pretty delicate.

That was your day. I don't know. Yeah. See what Looks like they're talking

I don't either. I don't either. together.

If I need any eyes, I'll I'll Yes, I know. It's kind of Are you doing something?

Thank you. All right, welcome everybody. Good afternoon. We're glad you're all here. We're going to go ahead and get started with our meeting. Um council Oh, she's here. Good. Excuse you for a minute. That thanks you. Um let's go ahead and get started. We're going to get started right with a prayer. I don't Kurt, are you here? Oh, yeah. There's Kurt. Kurt Saurin. And we Kurt is representing today the He's the pastor of the Southern Utah Home Away Church. Did I get that right?

Yep.

All right. Welcome. Let's see. Oh, yeah. That one works. Uh, thank you for having me tonight, actually. Uh, we're going to start. Um, good evening, Mayor Hughes, city council members, and all city employees present here this evening. Dear Father Yahweh, we thank you for allowing me the opportunity to pray here tonight with our city leaders. It's Passion Week. 1,994 years ago, you sent your son to die for our sins. On Sunday, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday or Easter as most of us call it. This Sunday, we will celebrate the best gift a person could receive. And we thank you, Lord, for that gift. Tonight, I ask you, Lord, to give our mayor and city council members your wisdom and discernment as they make decisions that affect all of our city. Give them and their families protection in a divided world. We pray for all of our city employees, the firefighters, the police department. Lord, keep them safe and also give them your wisdom as they have to make quick decisions that affect their lives as well as others. We ask for continued blessing on our wonderful city and all the people who live here. In Psalm 127:1, Lord, it says, "Unless the Lord watches over the city and guards, the guards stand watch in vain."

In Isaiah 13:22, for the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. It is he who will save us. With that verse, we see that you, Lord, are the judge of all. We may not like that, but he holds us accountable for all we do. He put you all in office to do his will and make godly decisions on all that comes before you. We know that's a lot of responsibility, but God, again, we ask you to give them your wisdom and make the tough choices here tonight, the council as well as Mayor Hughes. As I close this prayer, I ask you, Lord, to continue to bless our country. We thank you, Lord, for your guidance and providence with the founding of our great country. This year we celebrate 250 years of being a country founded on godly principles. We are so thankful that you are forgiving as we have gone astray many times. We thank you for your grace. I ask this all in the name above all names, Jesus Christ, the great I am.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kurt. Um, I've asked Councilman Austin Anderson to lead us in the pledge.

Please stand and repeat after me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Yeah, I'm going to Okay. Um, we have some pre-aggenda items tonight. Uh, we have a couple of proclamations. Uh, first we the first one we have Natalie, I think you have that one. Yeah. Yep.

Whereas we firmly believe that the values of compassion, empathy, and community support are the foundation of a united and harmonious society, fostering connections that transcend differences. And whereas the strength and prosperity of our cities, towns, and villages are based on the selflessness of its residents to serve up and uplift one another. And as whereas we acknowledge the profound impact that could be achieved when we extend a helping hand to our neighbors, especially in those in diverse backgrounds, lifting them up collectively, working to improve lives. Whereas we nurture a culture of giving within our cities, emphasizing that volunteerism is not just a duty but a source of personal fulfillment and community strength as we work side by side with and learn from each other. Mutual understanding increases, misconceptions can be corrected and the new and new friendships are built. And whereas we urge citizens to care for one another, volunteer and engage in service of in service and kindness that contribute to our city's betterment and its inhabitants well-being regardless of background or belief. And whereas the city of St. George has joined a growing list of supporters, including the president of the National League of Cities and hundreds of leaders to date in making a commitment to volunteerism. Now therefore, I, Jimmy Hughes, along with the city council of the city of St. George, do hereby proclaim that the city of St. George commits to promoting volunteerism, leveraging justserve.org to make it easier for residents to find engagement to to engage and volunteer in opportunities and will regularly acknowledge and celebrate the con the contribution of volunteers.

Thank you. And that Cheryl, you're here from Just Serve, aren't you? Yeah. Come on up. And who's with you? Yeah. Re come and introduce who's with you and tell us a little bit about this proclamation. All right. Thank you for reading out that proclamation. We're really excited about this. Um this is Larry and Cheryl Young and I am Tammy Salmon. We are just serve specialists here in St. George. And um let me just tell you what this award is all about. This is really exciting. The Just Serve City Award recognizes cities demonstrating exceptional commitment to community service, volunteerism, and collaboration between civic, faith-based, and nonprofit organizations. It highlights cities that use the Just Serve platform to build a culture of service, connect volunteers with opportunities, and foster an inclusive, compassionate community. Just Serve cities are recognized for their commitment to connecting volunteers with meaningful opportunities and encouraging inclusive service for all ages and backgrounds. Just Service has demonstrated or sorry, St. George has demonstrated exceptional dedication to promoting and supporting volunteerism, creating a culture of service that uplifts individuals, strengthens neighborhoods, and builds lasting connections. We're grateful to live in a community where service can be a way of life and are pleased to present St. George with the Just Serve City Award.

Awesome. I didn't know we were getting an award. Here, I'll come down. I'll come down.

This is something for you to display. This is the League of Cities and Towns is our next thing is that we want to become a global desert city because this is a big deal in the United States and throughout the world. It's a global thing. We're ready to be seen. Okay, thank you for uh all kinds of opportunities to serve in our community. We always have good volunteers. Okay, Danielle, next my voice will stay with me. Whereas in Utah, one in three women and one in six men will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime compared to the nation. It is estimated that Utah

has higher rates of sexual assault. And whereas as sexual violence is a prominent and pervasive issue, it is necessary to provide services, support, and believe survivors of sexual assault. And whereas there is a dire need for prevention efforts directed towards the ceasing towards ceasing the occurrence of sexual assault. And whereas cities can increase the quality and togetherness of their community by creating an environment where sexual assault is unacceptable. And whereas together we can continue to strengthen prevention, support healing, and create a community where everyone feels safe and valued. Now, therefore, I on behalf of Jimmy Hughes, mayor, along with the city council of the city of St. George, Utah, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as sexual assault awareness month in the city of St. George in recognition and support of survivors of sexual violence, honoring those who have shared their stories and advocates such as Southwest Forensic Nursing and Healthcare who have led the way. Their courage reminds us that prevention is possible and that each of us has a role to play. Is Brennan here? Come on up. There you are. We met the other day and had a great conversation. Good evening, uh, mayor and council. Thank you so much for this proclamation this evening. It means so much to survivors worldwide. And we just want to say Southwest Forensic Nursing and Healthcare stands in solidarity with all the survivors here in Utah and worldwide. And it means so much for the council to uh make this official uh here at home uh that April is sexual assault awareness month. So, thank you so much. Um, we will be attending a lot of events this month. Um, so please come out uh and stand before us. Repost on social media. Feel free to wear teal, which is

the official color. And thank you again. Really quickly, Brandon, will you give just a brief synopsis of Southwest Forensic Nursing and what they do? That's so important. Thank you. Yes. So, we operate a 247 365 uh dayear hotline where survivors can call and get care around the clock. Uh we provide uh a forensic exam by specially trained nurses uh who do this. um outside of their their normal job. They're on call 24 hours a day to respond to folks who are in in dire need of that care. Uh and we can meet people at our clinic, which is a really private space, also any of the major hospitals in the area. Great. Thank you for that and for what you guys do. Thank you, Mayor.

Um we'll want to get a picture as well. So, come up and we'll council will assume the position again. You can see Right. Um, we have one more. We're going to do that a little bit later. So, uh, we okay with C? Are you doing that? Who's doing that?

I'm doing that. Okay. Jeez. Okay. Right now we have a interim finance director and we need one that will be able to be the finance director. And so this interim finance director has been doing more than just what a finance director does for for quite some time now. And so it's uh with great pleasure that I would like to appoint uh to the finance director the one and only Tiffany Le Joyce. Awesome. So, what I would love to have before we have Tiffany come up here and share with us some words of wisdom is a motion uh from the council uh for that appointment.

So moved. Second. So we have a motion from Natalie and a second from Danielle. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Appears the voting is unanimous. Tiffany, if you would like to come up and say a few words and tell us who's here with you today.

Mayor and council, thank you so much. I do have my husband and my children here along with my parents, my brother, my niece and her daughter, and some of my staff in the back. So, I am humbled to accept this permanent assignment, and I look forward to all the great things that we can do together as a city. I am thankful for the support that I've been given in the last seven or eight months with the interim position and with my 20 years with the city um from both the executive staff, city council, um my staff as well. So, I just look forward to everything we can do in the future. Thank you so much. Yeah, we're super excited, Tiffany. So, thank you.

Thank you for being willing. Just just this week I had the opportunity to welcome the conference the Utah FOA is the acronym Utah government finance officers association was here in St. George. So that's all from people from all over the state of which Tiffany is a part of that group. And uh it was fun to talk a little bit about the people that are there to make sure that people like us up here who are making promises that we may not be able to keep don't do something we're not supposed to do or make sure we have the money to do it. So we're super grateful for those people. They're really behind the scenes uh making sure that uh the government's working correctly and when and if we get audited and when we do our audits. That's the person. Tiffany's the one that makes sure that we always get clean audits. So, we're super appreciative of that. So, thank you. Okay, next up is Shane. Are you doing this? Okay, come on up.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So recently we went to the uh Utah Recreation and Parks Association awards and the city of St. George actually was awarded three different awards and so there some of the folks that are recognized are here today. So if Chad McWills could come up um we have an incredible partner in Greater Zion and the URPA partner of the year award which is a pretty big deal went to Greater Zion this year for their help to the city of St. George and Parks and Recreation.

And then if Julie Adams could come up. So Julie is a volunteer at our St. George Museum of Art and she does such an incredible job and she Judy Adams was actually awarded the outstand outstanding citizen volunteer. So we really rely on volunteers at our St. George Museum of Art. So, this was a real honor for us. Thank you so much.

Okay. And finally, our own 50th annual St. George Marathon is awarded the outstanding special event in the entire state this year. And so, could I have the marathon staff come up real quick? These guys work so hard for this. And I'm gonna actually ask Michelle just to give us a really quick update on the numbers. And you think you'll be pleasantly surprised. So Jordan, here's your

Well, I just checked for Chad and we're at 6,03 participants for this year. So we uh that's about double what we did last year at this time. So, we opened yesterday morning at 6:00 a.m. and we watched money grow on trees. It was really fun. So, we're off to a great start and we're excited for the things that are going to happen this year that will make this year really special. So, thank you.

You want to do a picture now with everybody? Yeah. So, we want all three of you if you would come up with your awards and so we can get a picture. And council, if any of you want to say anything about any of that, you're welcome to.

All right, since we get get an opportunity to talk about the marathon stuff and all of our park staff, I I have to say that what an amazing group this is standing right here in front of us. There we go. We have a lot of great people. Um, at this point, while Shane's still here, um, I have another proclamation. If any of you don't know, uh, Shane is our resident tree hugger. We affectionately call him tree lover. I mean, this is a literal. That's not just a term. He will hug trees. And if you want to know anything about trees, you can ask Shane. He knows it. So, um, I have this proclamation that I'll go ahead and read. Whereas, in 1872, Sterling J. Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas the h the holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas the city of St. George recognizes the contributions contributions an healthy community forest has to clean the air and water, reduce storm water runoff, enhance energy conservation, improve public

health and safety, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees in our city increase property value, enhance economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas the city of St. George has now been recognized as Tree City USA for the past 34 consecutive years by the National Day National Day Arbor Foundation. And whereas the city of St. George is committed to plant at least 500 new trees each year to renew its urban forest. Now therefore, I Jimmy Hu Jimmy B. Hughes, mayor, along with the city council of the city of St. George, Utah, do hereby proclaim April 25th, 2026 as Arbor Day in the city of St. George and encourage all public officials, educators, civic groups, and citizens to plant new trees and properly care for our existing trees to help create and promote a healthy environment for the well-being of present and future generations. Shank, do you have something to say about Arbor Day?

Yes. that we want we want to invite everybody this year to come out on the 25th to our Little Valley Park. And we are planning to plant 250 trees in honor of our nation's 250th birthday on Arbor Day down at the Little Valley Park. And that's a really big facility. And so we walked it and we think we can at least get 250 trees. So please come out. It's like 9:00 am is when we start and um we'll have the trees, we'll have refreshments and and it literally is my favorite holiday of the year. Awesome.

Yeah, I bet. I'll bet. I comes without a doubt. Another picture David And there are no coincidences that actually falls on Shane's birthday. He just told me. So, and and then there's his hair. We all love that. Okay. Um, where we at? Got all that done. Any more other pre-agenda items?

No.

Okay. So, now we have this is their first meeting of the month, which is our open comment period. So, this is the time when you can come and address uh myself and the entire council on on any topic. I do uh you do have to fill out one of these sheets. If you have if you're wanting to address uh today for public comment, you fill out one of these sheets. Um just really quickly, um comments, we we don't have comments that are pertaining to any agenda item today. Uh that includes any public hearings or public input and that should be given when it's uh when the time comes. um you'll be given a limit of three minutes per person and we won't be responding necessarily to these comments but it is for a chance for you to let us know. So is if there's any others if you'll fill them out and hand them to Christina. I do have two here and we're going to go ahead if you'll just come up to the mic and state your name and we'll go from there. So first of all we have Jake uh is it Corbin?

Corkin. Corkin. All right. So I'm just Okay. Yep. It is a K. I apologize. speak. You're good.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. Thank you for your service in the community. Um, I'm here to speak about the city's policy towards short-term rentals. Um, I understand that the current policy prevents short-term rentals in any location that is not zoned specifically for short-term rentals. And I would like to propose that the city considers, and I understand why that's the case. I understand that short-term rentals can be um you know can drive investor uh demand for homes. It can disrupt neighborhoods, reduce housing supply, and reduce the quality of life for neighborhoods that have too many short-term rentals. So, I I do understand a lot of the reasons why that's in place. I would nonetheless like to propose a middle ground policy to allow owner occupied residences to uh use short-term rental or to to put some of their space up for short-term rental. For example, a spare bedroom, a cassita, bonus room, etc. Um, a key requirement would be that the resident or the owner lives on premise. Um, I believe this works because with an owner present naturally prevents many of those issues associated with absentee short-term rentals. neighbors still have someone accountable for that that's living there and it doesn't in incentivize investors buying up housing supply. Um I think this approach allows residents to benefit modestly from our tourism in the city um without encouraging investors to buy up that property. I personally have a cassita in my home. I would love the flexibility to earn some extra money in this uh challenging time with rising costs. Um I know that I would personally benefit. I also believe many residents in the city would benefit from such a policy. And so, in closing, I believe that such a middle- of the ground policy would protect the neighborhoods while giving residents reasonable flexibility and encourage responsible hosting rather than investor-driven short-term rentals. And I hope the council will consider

exploring an owneroccupied short-term rental policy. Thank you, council and mayor.

Thank you. Next up, we have Ronald Everett to talk about the Fourth of July. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you for your service as council members and mayor. My name is Ron Everett. I'm 84 years old and I was born and raised in St. George. My dad was born and raised in St. George and lived here for 94 years. Um, the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday and it's becau it's because of my mother who immigrated from Germany. She left her hometown and her mother and father whom she was a lonely child. She left Germany on the day Adolf Hitler had a rally in her hometown and she left for Berlin to catch a boat to come with her her new husband Ellis who had been a missionary in Garlet uh to come to St. George. She ra she one of the first things she did was she got her application to become a citizen. She had to wait five years and in some cases they made them wait for a couple of extra years. But as soon as she could become a citizen, she did. And she kept her citizenship papers in her dresser drawer in her bedroom for her entire life. She raised four boys. We went to parades. If we didn't stand for the flag passing by, she'd wrap her knuckles on our head. If we didn't put our hands over our hearts, she'd not tell us again. We sang the Antum and we stood for the flag and we're honoring that flag on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The flag was not created until a couple of years after the Revolutionary War had started when Benjamin Franklin noticed that the British troops had a flag that

they could rally behind, but the Continental Army did not. and he approached Bets Betsy Ross about creating a flag. She created several of them, but the one they settled on was the one with 13 red stripes and white stripes and then a blue field that had uh 13 stars in a circle each representing the colonies that that existed at that time. The Declaration of Independence was written in response to a nonresponse from King George III. There had been a brief there I'm going to run out of time here, but there had been grievances sent to King George and he ignored them and sent troops. The war broke out. It lasted seven years. There were 46,000 men that died fighting for our freedom. There are another 40,000 that died of wounds and disease and frost at Valley Forge. They put it on the line. When the war finally ended seven years later at Yorktown in in Virginia, the British sailed out their ships and it took two years for the Paris Treaty to be signed where we were where we actually did have our freedom. and that I get emotional about that. But from that, the Continental Congress reconvened in order to create a government. We didn't we fought this seven-year war. We didn't know what we were going to put in place. So, at the end of that seven years, the Continental Congress got together. They worked on it for for quite some time and came up with the Articles of Confederation which was heavily states rights and no power at the federal

level. It lasted two years. The Congress then reconvened. They worked on it for a couple of years and came up with the Constitution. My grandfather Jacob Broom from from Delaware was one of the first three delegates to sign the Constitution of the United States. His daughter came to St. George as a member of one of the first families in the group of 309 that Brigham Young sent to St. George and they built their home on the corner of Forest South and First West and part of that house is still there. So we have this community has a tie to that constitution and Jacob Broom was one of the three first signers of the Constitution. I'm happy that we celebrate the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. I know that you're making plans for that celebration. I hope it grows every year because it it it can't just become a holiday for fireworks. We've got to do more and I'm glad to see that you're moving in that direction. And I I thank you for that. I thank you for your time. And I know I went over, but that's what I do.

Thank you. Important stuff. Thank you for that. That's the only two I had. So, unless there's any others that filled out a paper, we'll proceed with our agenda. Item number three on the agenda is the consent calendar. There's seven items on the uh consent calendar this evening. Staff has reviewed these or recommend approval. Uh these are administrative items and staff does recommend approval. Council, any discussion, questions, or a motion? Mayor, motion to accept the consent consent calendar as presented.

I'll second. We have a motion by Danielle and a second by Austin. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed?

Motion carries unanimously. Item number four is a public hearing in consideration of resolution number 2026-00006R to review and approve amendments to the fiscal year 202526 budget. Good afternoon, mayor. Good afternoon, city council. Staff request to amend the budget for the replacement of the roof of the Dixie Academy building. The current roof is over 25 years old, very outdated, very worn and in desperate need of replacement. And so this funding will include new asphalt shingles, new cement board fascia, restoration of the sophet, and install new exterior windows and all the surrounding areas of the windows, including stabilizing and lowering all port chimneys. Funding is available through the community development block grant funds the city received as part of the annual allocation for FY FY26. Staff requests to amend the budget in the amount of $355,000 for the award of the contract and to provide a contingency for any unforeseen items on the project and we just have one item today.

That's the only amendment. Okay. Now, this is a Do you have any questions while Jared's up here? Anybody? Okay. So, this is a public hearing. So, I will go ahead and open up the public hearing for any who have come to speak to this topic. You're welcome to come up to the microphone. All right. Seeing none, we'll come back to you, council. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve item number four, um, resolution number 2026-006R. Second.

So, we have a motion by Steve, a second by Natalie. Uh, this is an ordinance requiring a roll call vote. Starting with Steve. Steve Campai. Natalie Larson. I Daniel Lin. Michelle Tanner. I Austin Anderson I. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Item number five is a public hearing in consideration of ordinance number 2026-023 vacating portions of applied roadway located at 200 East Street and 300 East Street south of 700 South Street at the driveway entrances servicing Dixie High School.

Okay, I'm standing in for West today. Hope that's okay. This is uh there are two portions of city roadways that are uh requested to be vacated. Um without the image on it's uh just right here next to Dixie High School. It's 300 well the extension of 300 East and 200 East. It's where you can see that's it's part of an old platted roadway. Um the actual document that you have in your plat or in your packet are these two documents. The idea is um these roadways are part of their parking lot. They the school intends to come back and um adjust some property uh lines. It has to do with uh let me pull that back up right in here. So their intent is once we've vacate these roadways and we're going to hold off about 25 ft where this traffic signal is over at uh 200 east. But once they once we vacate these roadways, they intend to come back and readjust some of these property lines. Like uh the old city pool, part of it is on their their property and they just want to adjust them. So this is the first step with that. Questions for Cameron? If there are no questions, this is also a public hearing. So I'll go ahead and open the public hearing hearing for any who have come to speak on this topic. Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and come back to you, council, for your motion. I will make a motion that we approve ordinance number 2026-023 vacating portions of a platted roadway located at 200 East and 300 East Street south of 700 South Street at the driveway entrances servicing Dixie High

School. A second. We have a motion by Michelle, a second by Steve. This is also an ordinance requiring a roll call vote. Starting with Michelle. Michelle Tanner I. Danielle Larkin I. Natalie Larson I. Steve Kemp I. Austin Anderson I.

Motion carries unanimously. Item six is a public hearing in consideration of ordinance number 2026-024 vacating a portion of a 7 and a half foot wide public utility and drainage easement along with a 10-ft wide ingress and egress easement for maintenance located along lots 78 and 79 at Twin Creeks at Stonebridge phase 2 amended and extended.

Uh this item is to as John mentioned to vacate a couple of easements. It's the regular MUE or the the utility easement on the side and back of these uh lots right here um where the red is indicating and also the side of this lot. Um this image is showing that there's an additional easement to maintain that wash halfway wash. However, um we have full access next to the golf course and it's very steep right there. Uh so staff has looked at it. Um, this has gone through JUC and and uh we've analyzed this thing. Our JUC members are okay with it. Um, staffing is okay with it. Um, but it would it would vacate the two easements, the 10-foot um access egress ingress easement uh for maintaining the wash and the the utility easement along the property line between these two lots and then in the backside of these two lots. Um the intention of this property owner is to come back later and fix the property line uh between the two homes. The the wall is a little bit off and so this is the first step for that.

So Cameron, you said that that would change your ability to access the wash to maintain the wash that you're not concerned about that. No, we have uh if I can get back to this, we have full access um from Sunre Golf Course. If we were to try and go back behind those lots, they have walls, they have pools, right where this location is, what's being vacated where the green line is, we also have a sewer line um easement, and if we needed to get back there, we can go through there. Um but just where these two lots are that's being vacated, we don't need that.

Any other questions for Cameron? Okay, this item is also a public hearing. So, I will go ahead and open the public hearing for any who have come to speak on this issue. Item number six, if you'll just state your name for the record. Brad Nelson. Uh, I'm lot owner 78. I I just came to see what this was about, honestly. So, I'm happy to uh accommodate that. I don't need an eman on my place. So, that's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and come back to you, council.

Mayor, motion to approve ordinance number 2026-024 vacating a portion of a 7.5 foot wide public utility and drainage easement along with a 10- foot wide ingress egress easement for maintenance located along lot 78 and 79 in Twin Creeks at Stonebridge. Phase two amended and extended. Second motion by Danielle, second by Michelle. Uh this is a roll call vote. Uh starting with Austin. Austin Anderson I. Steve Kemp. I Natalie Larson. I Danielle Lurin. I Michelle Tanner. I

Motion carries unanimously. Item number seven is a public hearing consideration of ordinance number 2026-025 vacating a portion of a platted roadway located at the intersection of 400 South Street and 1000 East Street.

Okay, this one is uh the last of the three easement vacations. It's right here at uh 400 South. Uh you can kind of see it on this county map. It's the extension of what was originally a platted roadway. Um, in conjunction with this, it will uh it's the first step in vacating this so that we can exchange some property with the university to be able to uh get a substation site for us. And so this is just this little triangular piece right here. Here is the If I can get to right there. So, it's just that that little triangular piece right there. Any questions?

Cameron assumed you didn't have any. He's already sat back down. So, no, you're fine. Uh, this is a public hearing as well, so I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Remember to state your name for the record.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. My name is Brad Last, and I work um as a special assistant to the president of the university. I was asked to come and just express appreciation to the city council for consideration of this ordinance. Um, obviously you were part of the new sub substation process down there and uh we're anxious to have the old substation moved, anxious to purs part participate in the building of a larger substation on property that we're exchanging. So uh just would encourage uh you to pass this ordinance.

Thank you, Brad. Anyone else come to speak on this issue? Not. I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and come back to you, council. I'll make a motion to approve um consideration of ordinance 2026-25 vacating a portion of a platted roadway located the intersection of 400 South Street and 1000 East Street. I'll second. So, we have a motion by Natalie and a second by Austin. This is a roll call vote starting with Danielle. Danielle Lurkin. I Michelle Tanner. I Natalie Larson. I Steve Camp. I

Austin Anderson. I Motion carries unanimously.

Item number eight. Consider approval of resolution number 2026-007R approving a memorandum of understanding between the cities of St. George Island Santa Clara Washington Hurricane for the purposes of establishing a coalition to guide local planning and implementation of storm water management practices and procedures. This item is actually an existing memorandum of understanding. This is an update to that or amendedou um to add hurac to the list or to theou and then update the mayors that are part of that. Other than that it it there's no change. We currently have a storm water coalition and they they get together, coordinate, plan um to deal with the the regulation with the uh NPDES, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Any questions for Cameron? Okay, this is not a public hearing. So I come back to you council for your motion. I will make a motion that we approve resolution number 2026-00007R approving aou between the cities of St. George, Ivan's, Santa Clara, Washington, and Hurricane for the purpose of establishing a coalition to guide local planning and implementation of storm water management practices and procedures.

Second. We have a motion by Michelle, second by Danielle. This is a roll call vote. Starting with Natalie. Natalie Larson. I Steve Kemp. I Austin Hatter. I Michelle Tanner. I Danielle Larkin. I Motion carries unanimously. May I make a comment? Does that mean it's going to rain? If we're worried about storm water, I think that's a positive sign, right? If it doesn't rain now, especially where we just got the windows all washed, there's something wrong.

Item number nine. Consider approval of ordinance number 2026-011 amending the city's general plan by changing the land use map from commercial to MHDR on approximately 8.91 acres generally located west of Dixie Drive and south of Canyon View Drive. Good evening everyone. So just as a reminder, we saw this one back on February 19th. So this is just a continued item. Just a reminder of where the location is. south of Canyon View Drive and just west of Dixie Drive. Current uh general plan is commercial and the current zoning is R110 and PDC. So, as part of that last continuation, there was a couple of items that you asked us to address. We're going to address some of the last um general plan amendments and zone changes. Uh we you'll also see some of the previously presented accesses, some contours and crosssections, and you'll hear just a tiny little bit of information about the road patent information. Um, so back in 2018, we had talked about how this had changed several times. So back in 2018, it changed from this LDR to MDR on the west side and commercial on the east side. In 2018, there was also a zone change. We also talked about that gas station that was on the northeast corner of this property that was approved. And here's kind of what the layout looked like. So you had your gas station and convenience store. And then there were also some uh future uh restaurants and retail that could have been a little bit further out the south on that property. And then obviously the the elevation of that convenience store. In 2018, the general plan changed again. So it went from just that MDR section on the east changed to MHDR. And at that time they were looking for a proposed dens density of about 15 units per acre. And then in 2021 we talked a little bit about the BLM building. So this 2021 zone change was uh about that BLM building that was going to be on the south portion of that property and it changed to PDC. You can see the the BLM

building. They had some storage here and then they had some additional parking on that uh southeast corner. Again, there was another general plan amendment that happened in 2022 and this was for the MHDR section that was on the west side and this changed to commercial. So this was approved. This was potentially going to be the location of a behavioral um health clinic, Rise Up Health. So, we had talked about we just wanted to see some of the accesses, right? So, this is on the the west side of the property. So, you have your Grand View Town Homes to the to the south of this property. Excuse me. Grand View Apartments to the south of the property and then Grand View Town Homes on the on the west side. So, last time I think you remember your Wes talking about that road that was over here in this corner. there was some type of access that was going to be there. Continues along the west side of that property and then continues to Canyon View Drive. We talked about that PDC zone change for the gas station. So, there was that access on Canyon View Drive and then the access over here on Dixie Drive and as part of the BLM building change that was going to be a shared access, potential shared access as well. The BLM building also had a potential access on that far south side as well, the southeast corner. And then we also asked for some contours. You can see there's quite a bit of elevation change on this property. And we also here's an aerial view of some of those contours. Plus there's we're going to show you some cross-sections here. So the first cross-section we're going to show you is that line A. So that line A runs north to south, kind of starts up at the Grand View uh apartments, runs kind of on that the plan development commercial property where the gas station was. And you can see that there's a 30-foot difference in that elevation. Line B. So Dixie Drive down to running again running north to south to those ground view apartments. Again, another 30 foot difference on

those elevation changes. Contour C running east to west. And you can see a 40 foot difference here. And then line D just a little bit further to north still running east to west. Again, another 40 foot elevation change. Little bit about the road patent is that the talking with the city attorneys that this is considered an access easement, an access easement only. As part of those documents discussing those access easements, it talks about two different roads, road B and road C. Road B is basically where that current road is now. And there's also, it's a little hard to locate exactly where that other road act road is, but it's over here on the southeast corner. Not very big, about 100 feet long. And then just a reminder that the planning commission approved it with a 5 to1 vote. There was no public comment on it and no conditions. And I can go back through any of these slides if you'd like to see them again. And the owner and the applicant are here if you have any questions for them.

Thank you, Brian. Any questions for Brian? Ryan, the the road that is Sorry, if you can go back. I think you're calling it road B. Road B. Um, when you say that it's an access road only, you mean there was there was debate last time about whether the property owner had access to that road, but we now know that that is his property and the access only would be for the person who had sent us the letter saying that the property owner did not have a right to use it. That's that's our understanding. Correct, Ryan? Yep. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that.

Other questions for Brian or the applicant concerns? If there are none, I would entertain a motion. I move that we approve ordinance number 2026-011 amending the city's general plan by changing the land use map from commercial to MHDR on approximately 8.91 acres generally located west of Dixie Drive and south of Canyon View Drive. Second.

We have a motion uh by Michelle and a second by Danielle. This is an ordinance also requiring a roll call vote. Uh we'll start with Austin. We can do we have discussion on the motion? Yeah, absolutely. We can have discussion. Uh we talked I mean it's I'm a little concerned about the frontage on Dixie Drive not being commercial. I'm okay with the the back portion of it to be the MDR MDR, but I don't know. Do we have an ability to do that or do we have to make a decision just on this as it is?

You you should make a motion based on what the applicant has proposed. Okay. If you want to give some guidance on what you'd like to see as part of your motion, you can do that and he can choose whether to come back based on what the outcome is. I would like to see a commercial along Dixie Drive and the the more dense housing on the on the west side

as part of that discussion. Um I was concerned about that too, but once I went out and stood on the property, it felt to me like it was so high in the air that it just made a lot more sense for it to be commercial or sorry for it to be residential rather than commercial because it's 40 feet up. But I don't you guys might have a different opinion on that.

Well, it's just with that road that's got to come down. I mean, there's an existing road that's going down. So, I don't know how do you how do you plan on each side of that? Yeah, I think that's challenging as well with commercial because it's my understanding that the applicant has attempted to use it as commercial, but there just hasn't been the demand for it even, you know, further down Dixie Drive in Dixie Commons. I think they've struggled and you would think that that would be such a prime location for commercial. So, I think it's just a challenging piece of property too with the elevations and if there's the demand for housing over commercial in that particular place, I'm I'm comfortable with allowing the change and it was residential prior. So, I'm comfortable with that.

I noticed that Brian left out the slides that showed the density of density here from the previous uh discussions. Do you have those slides still, Bran? Since I'm the only one on the council that lives on the west side, we have a lot of high density over there. A lot of high density and medium density. And especially down where this property is, you're looking at um significant higher density with projects up on top of the hill, Los Palmus, all the way, you know, behind that, the the bigger projects, and then all the way up Valley View Drive. Um so that concerns me. um the idea first of all the understanding that the this right of way that was granted to Mr. Rogers prior to uh the applicant uh taking ownership of the property through a patent back in 2017. Um and knowing that it is just a right of way and that it can it does it is not a road, it is a rideway uh across the applicant's property and as long as that access is maintained, it can be um then it then it's it it's okay for the applicant to do what he wants with the property. Um, also a concern. I looked at the the the BLM drawing and seeing that there was the possibility of having uh both a shared access with the gas station uh property owner and then an additional access further down at the end, I guess you'd call it the southwest corner of the property. Uh, I envisioned uh maintaining commercial all the way along that piece and just having two access or excuse me uh the one access further away from the um intersection the the Valley View and uh not Valley View, excuse me, um Dixie Drive and what's the road that goes up on top of there?

Canyon View. Yeah.

And then an access coming in off of Canyon View into a commercial project. Um those are things that have given me pause and and made it look to me like uh that front piece would work for commercial. Uh it would take some um some excavating some of this material out where it could be used up on top as fill. Um and and then retention along the the between the commercial and the uh the medium high density residential is how I would envision it. um the map that Brian showed of the other roads that were possible from the grand the apartments and the town homes. Um those looks like they provide a possibility of two accesses into and those may still be available I think to access. Uh the upper piece for medium height density residential uh strengthens my feeling that I that uh you could make commercial work on the front. Separate the commercial from the residential uh with um retaining and uh the grade separation and then keep the the commercial on Dixie Drive. Those are my thoughts. That's what I would like to see happen. I would like to maybe hear from the applicant maybe some of the challenges that they've had with this property and you know to the point of having commercial stay consistent on there with those elevation change I I think we would be talking millions of dollars to be able to excavate the amount of of dirt to really make that as visible from the roadway

procedurally are we able to do that since we already have a motion, a second, and we're just taking discussion on the motion prior to voting. So, be typically because we have a motion, we do have a motion. Um, but we did allow uh more comments, conversation. So, I think in fairness, if the applicant would like to come up and make uh any points of clarification, you're welcome. Not required, but if you would like to, you're welcome to. Is that okay, Ryan? Okay. Thank you council and mayor for taking the time and allowing me to come here. What I I g I guess the reason that I address this is we have concern about commercial. It has been commercial for five six years there. Nobody biting. Steep's in the real estate business. He should know what sells and what won't sell. We're just trying to get this property sold, developed. Bottom line, nobody has bought. Nobody has even thrown it out there that they're interested in this being commercial. So given that uh the roads that you're seeing on there that that road's going in that's a project but I don't know where it's coming from there. I have not signed off on any of that property. So I I wouldn't say those roads are in for definite. this fellow that was caused the problem saying he owned that other road was doing all this work on that road. At the same time he was telling me that I

didn't own that other road. That's that's neither here nor there for this point in time, but I hope you can see what I'm talking about. I'm not sure on those other two entrances. So, the entrances are probably going to come from a different way. So, are those are those entrance entrances, Brian, are they not are they not already building those? Is that road not only going in on the on the west side? Is it the west side?

I think I think in talks with Lonnie here, I think he said that they are currently from what I understand. Thanks, Lonnie. Oh, you're good. You're good. No problem. Uh, from what I understand, from what Lonnie said, I haven't been to the site, but it sounds like they are starting to build some type of roadway along that west property line. Is that correct, Lonnie? Yes. Yeah.

Where where that bottom arrow is where we they there was talk two years ago of that road coming into the apartments where that is they have got that road which I planned on cutting that corner down because that's the high spot of this property. They have built that road up 10 feet above the high part. So to be able to make that road work, we I was up there today with excavators and they said, "I don't think there's any way that road can come off and down to where those apartments are." They have they've not looked into accessing that off of that road at all. Anyway, we we can't really go on that right now because I have never gave approval for those that road to be built on my property, which it has been.

But now, that doesn't necessarily affect this the motion that's before us today. That can still be That's correct. All All we're after today is just zone change. Perfect. Does anybody have any questions specifically for the applicant?

I think actually what you're after today is a general plan amendment to medium high density residential which will then be followed up by zone change. M uh Mr. Google, I appreciate you mentioning that I'm in this business. I received this flyer today on my email from your broker uh to sell this property for about $16 a square foot. Um I I think the reason why you haven't seen any action on this property being someone in this industry is that it's probably a little bit overpriced. Uh mo now that's a debatable issue. People can argue that back and forth one way or the other, but for a piece of property that needs work like this one does, uh I think that that price per square foot uh may be a little bit high.

Okay, I can I can take care of that, too. I had two different real estate agents that do quite a bit in town. One told me it was $17 a foot. One told me it would be priced at $16 a foot would be what it would be good at. I am currently pricing it at 12.75. I got this bro flyer today from the broker. That's been three to four years ago. If it it it was emailed to me today. that

my point is is that the property is being marketed at a lot much higher than $12 a foot and that I think may contribute to the challenge of being able to sell the property. Okay, answer this. Does does residential property sell for less or more than commercial property in if it's medium to high density residential property? It definitely will sell for higher based on where it's located and what type of soils you're dealing with and other things like that. I I think what we what we want to do though is refocus on I I mean regardless of the price of the property exactly we need

Mr. Dubler brought it up so that's why I understand but I'm I'm just saying we need to come back to the fact that we have a motion and we're we're going to we're going to vote on that because there is a motion and a second. um is if this plan works or not, regardless of the price of the property and and that's not speaking against you, Steve, or or the applicant um because it's not our duty to make sure the applicant gets as much money as he can out of the property either. So, um just in my estimation now, you guys can do what you want. You're going to vote. Um

can I make a comment just in fairness when you say it's been on the market? It's been on the market several different ways as high density and as commercial over the last seven years. hasn't been consistently zoned one thing or the other. So when you say like I feel like the city's been very fluid in changing zoning over the last five years, you know, I mean it's been commercial, it's been high density residential. It it has flip-flop back and forth more than ever. I've seen a piece of property since I've been here go back and forth as as you know as far as that. And so it's hard when you look at general plan and planning because we have to look at the whole city and we have to look at the future of the city. We have to look at what Gap Canyon is going to turn what what's going to turn Canyon View into right there. And I do look at density and there is a ton of density out there and maybe you don't see it yet because it hasn't been built but those people have come in for the zone change for the high density and it does you know create a lot of traffic a lot of people when we have the high density in just one location. I think to that point though of our zoning being fluid is it has I mean it was residential before changed to commercial you know it's we do this all the time in different areas of the city we do have a housing shortage an affordable housing issue that is for whatever reason and maybe it'll change in the future a challenging area for commercial even the existing commercial areas out there I I believe struggle

I would disagree that the Dixie Commons area was all built out as one big project and then it filled up very slowly. It from my understanding there's very little vacancy left in the Dixie Commons project. Um so I think that Dixie Drive is taking off on a commercial level. Um but it has I I will agree with you that there has been some vacancy at that 1600 South and Dixie Drive intersection in the past.

Yeah. And like I said, maybe as that area expands and grows that will change. But I guess I don't necessarily see that we need to be now not willing to be fluid in the zoning when when we have been fluid for so long. Let me let me just say thank you, Michelle, but that area that is filling up now, but they've struggled struggled with getting their commercial off the ground just down the road a half a mile. It is all at level with the road with Dixie Drive. our property is so above and the just the contour of the land just really makes it extremely hard to be commercial. Can I ask a quick question? Based on the fact that you have the contours that you you know you know the diff the distance, have you done any type of cut and fill map on this to find out what it would cost to level the property? I I I just threw that out to the guys today and they said you'd probably be looking at 20 to $30 million to move this dirt off and level at. So, you know, considerable considerable amount of money above what it's priced at. So, it as I look at that, it's really not an option. So,

so as a point of clarification where we have the motion to approve approve this if this motion fails what what's the what happens from here? So, say somebody wants to make a you know suggestion for something different. Is he stuck from coming back the applicant? No. And so he's he's can't come back with the same application. So if he makes a substantial change to the application then he can come back within that year. If he wants to propose the same application then he's got to wait one year. Okay. Okay. Let's just assume it fails. We don't know what's going to happen here. Any other questions? Any other comments?

I just want to add one thing. I I I think that the medium high density makes total sense away from Dixie Drive, but I I've seen this in other parts of the city. When we're looking at this, we're looking at the highest and best use. Once that commercial goes, you never get it back. And it I would argue that the commercial is worth was worth more money than the medium to high density residential. But I don't think it makes sense to have that whole partial commercial. I just think along Dixie Drive, I think either way you do it, residential or commercial, you're still going to have to deal with that dirt. I mean, that's still you're going to have that those costs either way. But I just think it's tough when we're looking at general plan. We don't want to leave islands of stuff and I don't we we we zone this all commercial and now we're creating an island of commercial. A little tiny splotch of it on the corner and it's just generally we like to keep Dixie Drives a main road. You like to keep commercial along that. That's just my two cents. But totally support the the the I think if you go back to the 2022 zoning map, they had commercial along Dixie, medium high on the other side. And I I think that is a great mix. But

agree with that. Council, could I just listening to you? First of all, I don't want to go another year with what Austin is saying. Would the council and the mayor be happy if we took that part that does go along Dixie Drive over to that road that we've had problems with? Yeah.

So, the Oh, can you see the road? So the road that comes up is on that south side of the commercial property. I'm not te technology savvy. Does that work? Does that one work? Okay. So yes. So the road, you can see the road coming out and that's the part that follows Dixie Drive. Yeah. If we left that commercial, would we be okay with the balance going to the the MDR? That would be a substantial change, correct? So, that wouldn't require him to wait a year.

Yeah, I mean, he could and Ryan, you can weigh in. He can amend his application to propose that and the council could consider it now or it could it could be approved as amended and then we would come back with the ordinance updated um with those changes. Okay. That that would require us to withdraw a motion though, right? Or do we just go forward on that and then amend the motion? Okay. I I I got ahead of myself, I guess. I'm sorry, but I'm just Is everybody clear what he's saying there?

Yeah, I think you're probably reading the tea leaves correctly, and I am willing to withdraw my motion and amend it um to state that the portion of the property to the east of the uh easement roadway will remain commercial. Yes. And the remainder will be um medium high density residential. High density. Yes. I'll second. I'd like to have some discussion on that. I think it's a great idea. Hold on. Make sure I'm doing this right. We had a motion in a second. Does Does Danielle Was it was you that made the second, right?

Awesome. Oh, you the first time, I guess. Second time. Sorry. Does does John need some clarification down there with the papers or is he good? We'll let these guys.

So, the original motion,

the triangle piece. It exactly. It'd be a three- cornered piece. Okay. Basically, just to be clear here, so I'm doing this right. You made the original motion and you made the original second. So, do does she have to does the regional second have to agree to amend or can somebody else can somebody else I'm just working on the parliamentary procedure? She withdrew her motion. So, so she's made a whole new motion. Yes. All right. Even I can learn something new. Isn't that amazing?

Well, in the absence of adopting formal rules, we can go with what the council wants. the general plan is a bubble. So, being able to move that to make the most sense for future development a little bit is we're okay when we get to the zoning portion. Yeah, we're fine because the zoning becomes much more specific where the general plan, you know, we have we have a little bit of a bubble we can flex, right? But the general idea is along Dixie Drive would be commercial. So, if you're looking on the screen up there, can you see that moving up and down? Yes. See what? See the power I have? Wow. That's So they're talking that line right there. That triangle piece right there.

Right. Could you see that? Could see it very good. It would go over to the road, right? The the This stays This stays road. This stays commercial. The triangle stays commercial. Yeah. You guys all understand that? Just want to make sure everybody's clear. Okay. So, I was just trying to clarify how this works. So, because the motion was withdrawn, it's a brand new motion by Michelle to do as described.

This is a this is a Yeah, this So, we clear as mud. Okay. So, we have an we have a motion by Michelle and a second on this amended motion by Austin. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, this is an ordinance requiring a roll call vote starting with Austin I. Steve Kemp I. Natalie Larson I. Danielle Larkin I. Michelle Tanner. I

The motion passes unanimously. Thank you for your hard work on that one. Item number 10, consider approval of ordinance number 2026-026 to amend the White Dome Apartments PDR generally located east of River Road and north of White Dome Drive for the purpose of adding signage. Okay, so the White Dome apartments, they are located north of White Dome Drive and east of River Road. Current general plan on them is high density residential and current zoning is PDR. So this PDR is part of the was originally approved in 2021 and was part of the Southern Hills West area zone plan. Um at this time or at that time um this area 9 is going to be the discussion today where these signs we're going to talk about. Um, it was originally approved for five apartment buildings with 160 units. In December of 2021, it came back through with plan development amendment for the White Dome Apartments. Um, at that time, no signage was proposed and they were to um they were would be required for any signage to meet Title 9-13. So far, three of those five buildings have received their certificate of occupancy. And one thing that they would like to do, one thing about that PDR is that they are allowed to come through and um do an amendment to it to present signage that varies from um from from the ordinance. You're going to see this chart again, but this gives you a general idea. There's some residential portion of code in 9-13 some of those requirements and then also there's a section in PDR that talks about the some of the requirements for signage checks mark check marks obviously ones that they are meeting and

then everything else is something that they are proposing a change to. So just a couple things technically so night 13 says they can only have two two low profile signs two per subdivision. They're looking to increase heights. They're also looking to be a little bit closer to the road. And so here's the sign locations. So we'll have a a big monument sign that's going to be over on River River Road that would be along river road. And then you'll have two smaller signs that one will be fronting on White Mountain Drive and then the other one will be on that access that kind of goes in between the apartments and that commercial area to the to the west and to the south. So again, part of the the they're sorry, they're usually only allowed per code to have two low pro low profile signs and only two signs per subdivision. They're asking for three. This is this big sign that's going to be over on River Road. So the maximum height per code is 40 or 48 inches or 4 feet. They're proposing a sign that's 7.3 feet tall. This is just to show you that it's also supposed to be incorporated into the landscape design or a planter box. So, this is kind of to show you how it would fit into that landscape in this area. This is not exactly where that sign would be. These signs have gone through the joint utility committee and the joint utility committee has approved those locations shown on that previous um slide. Um just one thing to note on that location is that this sign will be located about two and a half feet back of property line. Property line right now is the back of sidewalk. Yeah,

I have a question about that. So, that's one thing that I'm fine with. Um the it seems like where it's sitting it wouldn't be problematic, but if it's closer to the road, is that going to cause a sight line issue?

So, that is something that we look at as part of the the sign permits and then also as the part of the JUC process is there's that 30 foot sight triangle and so we do go through those and make sure that those signs will not be in that sight triangle area and this one is just outside of that. Is is spa is speed taken into account for that? Because those cars on River Road tend to go faster than just in a general neighborhood. So for me on River Road that seems like it may be a problem and not is on White Dome Drive, but to me that that line of sight because I know even sometimes those utility boxes seem to get in the way. I think the sign's beautiful. I just wish it was closer to the building.

It's and Cam could I'll let Cam speak on it. So there's actually two triangles per se. There's the right at the corner that that Brian's talking about and then there is another one in Ashtto in the green book that talks about speed. And so we can look at both of those. Um the one that talks about speed makes it a little bit longer. So you have to pull it back a little bit more. But yeah, we can analyze that. To me that makes sense just because I don't know if it's what the speed limit is but it seems like it's 50 miles an hour even though it's not. and we have big trucks and and other things like that. So to me, I I think it's a beautiful sign. I just think it needs to be nudged a little bit closer to the building.

I would probably make that if if this ends up going through part of a the condition that staff looks to make sure that it complies with those standards. Maybe just another note too on that 2 and 1/2t distance is that so typically in in the sign code it says it has to be at least 10 feet back in residential areas as well. The problem with the 10 ft back at this location is that there's underground utilities in this location and that's why JU told them to move it forward to that 2 and a half foot mark. Um, as part of that JUC 2, they also limited the height of the sign because of those overhead power lines. So, just something else to keep in mind too when you're thinking about the height. When when you say that they limited it, that's the height that we're seeing being requested is what they limited it to. That that is what I understand. Yes.

Got it. Okay.

Yep. And then these are the signs over on the east side of the of the property. Now, originally these came through as signs that kind of looked more like that one that says Hampton. It's a panel and post. There is a portion of the code that talks about how it's supposed to be a monument sign. And so this design matches our definition of monument sign where it's got an opaque pedestal. It it blocks the the view of the poles. Um again, signs limited to 48 inches in height. These ones are six feet. And then also we talked about that be that it be the signs being incorporated into the landscape design or a planter box. Obviously these ones are not incorporated into the landscape. Still still great looking signs but don't match that portion of the code. So here's that uh chart again. So again number of signs distance from property line on that one and river road. Um talking about the landscape planter boxes the heights all of them are over right allowed four feet. They've gone seven 7.34 feet and six feet and just the total number of signs in that subdivision. With that said, uh planning commission held the public hearing on March 10th recommended approval with a 5-0 vote and no conditions and I can answer any questions you may have and the applicant is here as well. Questions for Brian or the applicant? Brian is good. He's very thorough. Okay. If there's no questions, you know what that means.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we approve item number 10, uh, ordinance number 2026-026 to amend the White Dome Apartments PDR, generally located east of River Road and north of White Dome Drive for the purpose of adding signage as presented by Brian in the presentation. Can you make that motion line of sight? Additionally, I will add to my motion that uh staff will confirm uh line of sight distance uh considering the speed on River Road as well.

I'll second. So, we have a motion by Steve and second by Austin. Any further discussion? If not, this is an ordinance requiring a roll call vote starting with Michelle. Michelle Tanner. I Danielle Lin. I Natalie Larson I Steve Kemp I Austin Anderson I motion carries unanimously. Item number 11 consider approval of ordinance number 2026-027 to amend the Hidden Valley master plan PDR zone on approximately 11.7 acres generally located south of Hidden Valley Drive and west of Rio Road.

Sorry, you get me again. Um, Aan Aanita at Hidden Valley, kind of like John was saying, you kind of probably know where it's at, but just east of I-15, south of Brigham Road, more specifically just south of Hidden Valley Drive and west of Rio Road. Avanita phases one and two is over here on that uh east side. And this will be Avanita phases three and four. Current zoning is PDR. It is part of that Hidden Valley and Fossil Ridge or Fossil Hills plan development that was originally approved in 1999. and current land use is high dens or excuse me medium density residential and public facilities. Now just a note on that public facilities as part of the original approval in 1999 there was planned to be an elementary school over there on the west side. Um in 2020 the Washington County School District declined to require or to acquire the parcel um and eventually became part of that residential area. Some of that was a shift for uh phases one and two that's that was in 3.1 and 3.4 areas. Um the area we're going to talk about today is 3.5 and 3.7. The allowed density at that time or part of the approved plan was eight units per acre and they are proposing a density of 4.6 dwelling units per acre. These are all going to be single family homes. Um it's going to be 46, excuse me, 45 single family homes. One thing that you'll also notice as part of this site plan is that there is a park over here on the west side. As part of the development agreement, there is a three and a half acre park that needs to be dedicated to the city before 400 um certificate of occupancies have been issued and we are at that threshold. So, as part of that, it just has to be dedicated. The city's going to build it. The from what I understand, the parks department is currently in the drawing process. Um, but it will be uh the city putting it in landscape plan staff will go through

this with a fine tooth comb when we get the official site plan review and go through it with the with the final plat some of the grading if you wanted to see some of the topography. Obviously pretty relatively flat out there and the proposed utility. This has gone the preliminary plat did go through all the different departments and did um did approve get it approved through planning commission. Uh with that planning commission held the public hearing on March 10th, five to zero vote, no condition or excuse me, one condition that the road uh shall be required to be or excuse me that the developer shall be required to install the roadway improvements along their frontage and the park property as required by the city and their development agreement. That is a condition that public works requested to be put in there. With that, I can answer any questions and the applicant is here as well.

I have a question, Brian. Uh it looks like there's a master plan future frontage road. Uh that will not be affected by this. Correct. It's still on the plan. The master plan frontage road might be a good plan or good question for the applicant. I think Rick is here or Cameron. Or Cameron. True. Oh, Cameron.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Rick Meyer with Bush and Gudgel. Uh that's correct. The the frontage road is actually currently in design right now and uh along with the frontage road improvements, we're going to be dedicating that park with that uh road. Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion that we approve item number 11. Approve ordinance number 2026-027 to amend the Hidden Valley master plan PDR zone on approximately 11.7 acres generally located south of Hidden Valley Drive and west of Rio Road. Do we need I think we need to add PC recommendations. Oh yeah, with staff's conditions. I'll still second. So we have a motion by Austin and second by Steve. This is a This is an ordinance requiring roll call vote starting with Austin. Austin Anderson I. Steve Kemp. I Natalie Larson I.

Danielle Lin I. Michelle Tanner I. Motion carries unanimously. Item number 12. Consider approval of ordinance number 2026-028 amending the Akenville interchange area commercial plan development commercial zone on approximately 5.06 06 acres located at Pioneer Road south of Night Hawk Drive in order to modify the previous approved Mojave Crossing development.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Okay, so I'm going to be presenting this case and move the mouse over. Okay. So, if you remember back in 2025, we did bring this case before you um right here on the aerial map. It's the um the one outlined in red um Mojave Crossing. It has a hotel uh retail building and a medical building. Um land use map does show at PD. It's part of the Akenville plan. And then the plan, it's a plan development commercial zone. Um so the applicant is this is this is what it was um the the time that it was approved. Um the applicant is coming back today because um they've made some changes um that we consider cons uh significant and so the changes are mainly dealing with the hotel that's at the south portion of the property. So um let's go over what was approved. Wait, let me go back really quick. So, this hotel that was approved, it's got a porticochair here and then they have a little outdoor covered area for the pool or indoor area for the pool and their their plans have changed slightly. Um, this original hotel was 107 rooms. Um, and they were over with the total parking of the entire site um by 14 spaces. Um, so now let's talk about what the changes are. Um, so this is the proposed plan development. Um, this hotel has actually been reduced to 94 rooms. Um, it's got a little bit skinnier. If you look at the hotel, it's a little bit skinnier and the Portico is gone. Um, they've moved the hotel uh north a little bit and they've added a

wing here um on the south side um which holds it has eight rooms on each floor. There's three floors to it. Um, four rooms will be facing um, on each side there. One, um, towards Sandpiper and the other one towards Pioneer. Um, and then they've added the outdoor pool and sports court area. Um, just kind of zooming here in here on the hotel, you can see the details. There's the sports court area, the swimming pool, and then here's the wing. I will mention too that on the original plans and the original approval, they did have a large vehicle parking here on the uh east side. It's still there um with this new plan. Um this is the landscape plan proposed and I'm missing I had them side by side but I don't see it doesn't seem to be there. Okay. Um, parking requirements. I I did kind of briefly mention this. Um, they originally were over by 14 stalls. They're now over by 18 stalls, but they have reduced the total number of stalls um proposed um from 238 to 234. It just means that they're more um they're under a little bit more because of the reduction in rooms in the hotel. Um so, some renderings to show you. This is what it looked like before. You can see the um outdoor covered pool area here. Um this is the hotel retail over in front of it. And sorry, medical building here in front of it. And then the retail close to Pioneer. Um again, another shot of the approved renderings. And one more shot of the approved renderings. It's kind of looking northwest a little bit. Um, and then

this one's looking from Sandpiper just straight uh east on this one. Um, now this is the proposed new building. You can see the wing prominently shown right here. Um, again, this is looking directly north. Um, you can see the rear side of the hotel. Um, on this one, we're looking more south uh west a little bit. Um, on this one you can see the retaining wall. They are keeping that retaining wall between Sandpiper Drive and the property as the property does sink down quite a bit. It sinks 12 feet below um, Sandpiper Drive. Um, here's a image or rendering of the amenity area. And then um, on the original hotel design, the entrance was in the middle of the building. It's now pulled down to the south closer to Pioneer Road. Um the applicant did also supply some drone photos. Um this is approximately what it would look like out the third story and we've got a couple more drone images here looking further down the street. Um we did bring this before the planning commission. Um the planning commission uh heard this item. There were a couple public comments. Um there were concerns about in the council um there was discussion about having them lower the entire site by four feet. Um so there was a question well did they have to do that? That was never put in the motion when it came to the council last year. Um and then there was um a comment about the one there was one person that commented and they had three different items that they brought up and one the second person had one which is the hotel rooms facing Sandpiper and facing the residential. And then the first person

they also talked about um they were concerned about uh extended stay which we have been told this is not an extended stay hotel. Um, and then their last comment, let me look that up really quick. Carol, could you repeat what you said about lowering the site? Yes. When we when we brought this to the council last year, um, there was a discussion um that this council had about lowering the entire site 4T down. Um but that was never put in a motion when we when it came to it was not part of the approval from March of 2025.

No, it was not. Um in the approval from March, you see the on the screen there's 15 items there. There's actually 16, but the first 15 were the conditions that were put on this um on this case back in 2025. um staff has kept all of them on there and then we did add on an additional condition um to have the lights um around the amenity area off by 10 p.m. um just to ensure that um to keep that area dark for the residents that live close by. Um that's the only new uh condition added. So, the the one last comment that the uh first person that made the public comment had was a um didn't see the landscape plan. We did have one and then they were concerned about a lighting plan, which we do require the site plan approval time. So, um that's where we're at. Um the applicant is here. I'm just leave these uh conditions on there. If you have any questions for me, I can go over anything in more detail or if you have questions for the applicant. Are there questions for Carol or the applicant? Also, some of you may have received uh I did some emails from residents and some phone calls. Um those just to just a summary of that, those issues that came up were the the pool going from indoor to outdoor and the and the wing. One of those did explain that it would have been nice if the wing was more towards the sandpiper and to help block the noise. Um the other some of the concern was about what the noise from the pickle ball courts which I guess is a sport court, not necessarily just a pickle ball court.

So I don't know you guys got those I assume. Okay. Okay. And it was interesting. I noticed in the explanation from the developer that they actually put the wing south specifically because they there was discussion before the residents not wanting the windows of the hotel closer to Sandpiper. So, I think they're just trying to balance, at least it sounded like they were trying to balance um the requests from Sun River from before.

And I think there was some discussion previously that that there weren't going to be a lot of windows on that end. It's interesting after this went through um city council after I think three times it went through after visiting with Sun River Sun River residents um the concern there again when if it was extended stay that the parking wasn't sufficient because they felt like a lot of construction workers and construction trucks may use that hotel and I don't know how you tell whether a hotel is extended stay or not because we don't limit nights and maybe it has a fridge in it, some other amenities. But I but to me, I understood that a little bit differently after watching construction trucks and their equipment park and hotel parking lots that go don't go on site that don't go out on site. And I think the difference is in Southern River, they own their roadways, so they don't want those other vehicles spilling into their neighborhoods when they don't fit in the parking lot. I think as a city we did a really good job of saying we don't want any egress on Skyhawk or Sandpiper anyway. So they had to come off Pioneer to get to get there. I and I don't really care that the pool's covered or uncovered. I think there's issues with covered pools. I do have some concerns about pickle ball courts even like the lights go out at 8 o'clock at night with the that sound in the middle of the winter. I I that's some concerns I have.

Mr. Mayor, is there a restriction in there on hour that they have to have the pool closed or the lights out or was it 10? Yeah. The only restriction was on the lights and it was 10. Okay. Steve, you had

Which if the lights are out, there's probably no one playing pickle ball in the dark would be my assumption, though. Yeah, mayor. I'm just concerned that that this council and the staff and the planning commission spent I mean 15 now 16 conditions to this item. Um I know that that I personally spent several hours on site trying to figure out how to make how to find a compromise between the parties. And we got there. We found one. um finally finding a way to uh drop that second entrance out onto um the side road between the two um uh the medical and the and the retail building I think was kind of the what made it happen and kept the traffic off of uh Skyhawk

yeah sandpiper sorry um I don't want to start again and I'm I think that the developer should continue with the site plan that he had approved in March of 2025. Mayor, can we give the developer an opportunity to come up and explain why they certainly changed? Certainly.

Hi, council. Thanks for having us tonight. I'm Colobby Anderson with CR Engineering. I'm representing the team and the owner and the developer. Um, I I don't think it anyone can debate that this is a beautiful project. you see those renderings um and everything we've done to try and get to where we are. Um candidly, we were a little surprised that this qualified as a significant change and required us to come back here. All we've done in the last year since the PD site plan was approved or um a year ago was try to dial in the site plans, get construction drawings put together, um get our billing permits in, and that's what took us to this point. It's not that we were trying to change the intent of the project or what we were doing. That's kind of how we got to where we are. The reason the um hotel footprint and what we're calling the wing ride the addition that's just in conversations with the brand of the hotel that came up Atwell IHG as we continued to work with them on um meeting their requirements and qualifications that is what kind of came out of that. Um obviously we've tried to push that. Yes, we we tried to push that far to the east because of the window conversation from a year ago. Um, with regard to the the sport courts and lighting and noise, um, again, if you look at those renderings, it's a beautiful project. The owners, the operators, nobody wants the neighborhood to hear all of that or see all of that just as much as the people staying in the hotel aren't going to want pickle balls bouncing around late into the night, right? And other noise. So again feel like this is just a beautiful project and call it a significant change or not I guess I don't I don't personally feel that way it's just us come going from concept or preliminary plans to construction drawings and working on the final design and that's how this has kind of spun into what it is. I still

feel like overall um you know the intent of what was improved and and again just just getting to the point we are today to see these renderings and how beautiful this project's going to be the landscaping the architecture um meeting all the qualif or the requirements of parking and access and landscaping um those buffer walls from from the west side with with all the trees. This is going to be a really beautiful project. So we're not again we're we're we're here really not trying to say we need to start again on any of these conversations. I mean, again, we we would have rather not been here at all, right? We didn't feel like this was again that big of a change. So, that that's kind of where we're at tonight. Hopefully, you guys agree that this is a beautiful project and and again, the conversation we had a year ago several times to get to where we are is I think still 99% of the same conversation. um that that should still be hopefully what we all thought was a good idea a year ago and what was approved. So happy to answer any technical questions or other questions you guys might have um for me or other representatives from our team.

Do you have question? Anybody have questions for It's Chris, right? I'm Colobby Ander. Colobe. Okay, Col. Sorry. I don't have any necessarily questions, but just to that point, we did have all of those conditions already. We're at 15. And with this change, there's not any others that the planning commission came up with other than one, you know, being, hey, don't have the lights on after a reasonable time after 10 p.m., which to your point, even I would think that you would do that anyway for the courtesy of people trying to sleep in a high-end hotel, right?

For for our residents, the hotel patrons as well as the the the city residents, of course.

Right. And so I mean I'm seeing you have that that wall for the sound barrier. You're going to have vegetation. There's the roadway sandpiper in between the residences. Personally I don't see this as a significant change either. Um you know moving the amenities slightly you know indoor to outdoor lights are out at 10. I don't see this as a significant change or need to put additional conditions outside of what the planning commission already did. Thank you. And yeah, just just one further note, those those windows of those um rooms facing to the west, just just so you know, that is over 240 ft away. That those drone those drone aerials we did in the very very beginning was if you remember one of our very initial site plans where we had the hotel running north and south, right? So all the windows were facing there. So, we flew a drone up there near the west side of the property at about 25 26 27 feet and you can see that you couldn't really see into anybody's properties and and through other iterations of the site plan, right, the hotel shifted east west. But again, now now those windows are over 240 ft away again. So, if we flew that drone anywhere near there again, you're you're maybe seeing rooftops and probably not seeing anything by the time the wall and the trees and everything going up this site. Again, this the site the site is 12 feet below the road in this like as Caroline said, right? And then we have walls and trees and again we we've just tried to make this a beautiful project. I mean I I hope I assume you all saw those renderings like I I even as I didn't put those together but I am just so impressed with how it's turned out and it's something that our group is really really proud of because I think it's going to be really neat as we all come here to St. George. You know, many of us live up north. I live up north and and see this project. It's one of those ones that's super awesome. We've we've put it out there on social media and just bragging about it and how excited we

are. So very excited to hopefully make this a part of the city. Thank you for that. Is there any other questions for the applicant? Thank you. You're welcome. Do you have any further discussion items? I think it looks great. I really do. I think there's been a lot of concessions made on this site with the no access to San Piper and the pickleball court. I mean, it's 200 feet away, two walls away, two rows of trees away and it's one. I mean, there's 12 pickleball courts in Sun River that 30 feet from houses. So, it's it'd be hard for me to say they can't have a pickle ball court. I don't

No, I I just They're already 12 feet below the other road. I don't think we put We I feel like we I remember that we didn't put it in because once we figured out the exits, then we figured it was okay. Yeah. Yeah. What? Yeah. I I will check into that. It was a lot of discussion on that. Uh Councilman Kemp did he had some good information on that. Uh but it's not it was not required in the motion. Um so that's the crux of that. Mayor, I'll make a motion if we're done with discussion. Okay.

Mayor, I'll make a motion that we approve ordinance number 2026-028 amending the Atkinville Interchange area commercial plan development commercial zone on approximately 5.06 acres located at Pioneer Road south of Nighthawk Drive. in order to modify the previously approved Mojave Crossing development, including all 16 recommendations from and conditions from the planning commission. So, the 15 original um conditions that we had lengthy discussion on and then also that the amenity areas have their lights shut off by 10 p.m. Second.

So, we have a motion by Danielle, second by Michelle. Is there any further discussion? Uh, this this is also requiring an ordinance requiring a roll call vote. Starting with Austin. Austin Anderson I. Steve Kemp. Nay. Natalie Larson. Nay. Daniel Lurkin. I. Michelle Tanner. I. Motion carries by a 3 to2 vote.

Okay, that's it. It's the end of the meeting. Oh, okay. Well, we Yeah. Okay. So, that's the end of our agenda items. Um, reports, unless we already did our appointment. So, so our reports. Uh, go Michelle. Start with you. Any reports? No reports. Awesome. I don't know if you've heard, but the Aquabats are going to be here tomorrow night at 7 pm. So, just thought I better report on that art festival this weekend. Everybody knows that and it's one of our big fun events, but since I'm over arts, I'll just highlight it. Very good, Natalie.

Well, I believe tomorrow morning we are going to unveil a statue, or at least you are, at 9:00 a.m. out here in the plaza. Yeah. But you want to say something about that? No. I'm glad I would have said that when we're all done, but since you're saying it, we're perfect. 9:00 a.m. be there.

And we have Easter egg extravaganza going over at the All Abilities Park at Thunder Junction, which is always fun. And the Easter Bunnies there, and the Sunbolt continues to move forward. And also remember as uh after the ribbon cutting and the uh veiling of the statue uh you should have gotten your invite about picking your art piece at the Have you done Have you got any information on that? Oh wow. Oh, you are Man, this is going to be your first time. You get to go and pick your your favorite art. So they'll have a ribbon for you. You can go pick your council choice. Thank you guys. Um, you can pick your council's choice and uh get give them the ribbon.

Yeah. Yeah. Tomorrow. And then the art festival goes tomorrow and Saturday, but they'll want you there to do that if you can. So, pick your piece. So, the artists, they really love that. Uh, especially when it comes from people like myself who don't even understand art, but they love it when it speaks to people like us. So, actually today I went and picked out a watercolor up here at Gallery 35. So, fun stuff. Steve, no reports. Austin,

um I met with the planning department. We're working on the CBD grant money and where what we can fund and one of the things we realized was we can fund we can use some of that money to fund sidewalk and driveway bridges in the LMI areas. So hopefully we can use that to help offset some of our shortfalls um in the roads. Very good. I have to say one more thing about art. Go ahead.

So since you said you don't understand art, I have to say that sometimes there's this idea that there's like this snobbery in art and only certain people understand art. But I think that is completely wrong because I think everyone loves what they love. And so whatever speaks to you, that's art to you. And we got to get rid of the high, you know, the high fallooning. You have to have this knowledge about art because everybody art speaks to you and whatever you love is good art.

Yeah. I I had the privilege to this past weekend to go by the Art of the West. Is it the Art of the West display up at the Museum of Art and met an artist? Oh, I can't remember her name, but anyways, a very influential artist who flew in just for that show. She's the one that that runs the Art of the West. Super cool art. Enjoyed that. Um,

some of them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was also able to be here with the art around the corner with the to meet with some of the art artists and and hear about those uh sculptures that are around our community. Super cool. loved it. Um the one right out here in the plaza, the two sisters and I it and to visit with her and talk about her and her sister and how that inspired her to do that um that piece which looks really good right there. Yeah. And she pointed that out. It looks really good right there. It probably should find a permanent home right there. So it was fun. No, lots lots of fun stuff happening this weekend all across town. So, uh, anything else? Okay. Well, the good news is that we're done. The bad news is that I'm going to need a motion to adjourn and then I'm going to need a motion to um go to a closed meeting to discuss litigation, security, property acquisition, or sale, or the character and professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual.

So, there you go. I'll need I'll make a motion to close session. I'm sorry. A week without a closed session is like a week without sunshine in my life. So, thank you. So, a motion to adjurnn and go into a closed session. Is that the process? No one's going to second. We're not going to second. They're leaving you hanging. I'll second. So, we have a motion by Austin, a second by Danielle. All in favor say I. I. I. All right. Thank you. We'll reconvene in close session. What's that? Did we even vote? They said I. Nobody said they. Oh, all in favor say I.

Opposed. Okay. I didn't say anybody opposed. No. Motion carries unanimously. And adjourning the meeting is non-debatable, but we do have to reconvene, so we had to agree. All right. Okay. Guys are making this job hard.