Planning Commission & Land Use Authority - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Planning Commission for June 3rd, 2026.

We will start our meeting off with a prayer by Commissioner Mitchell and the pledge by Commissioner Davis.

Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful to be here this evening. We're thankful for the time we have to take part in this meeting. We're grateful that we We're able to meet under the circumstances we enjoy. We're grateful for our city and for all those who serve and work diligently to help provide communities that we live in. We pray at this time as we meet that we can take care of the item that we'll be discussing and that we can be mindful of the thoughts and ideas that are shared and make good decisions. And we thank you in this prayer and do so in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Item one is approval of tonight's agenda.

Commissioner Tupou, I make a motion to approve the agenda for June 3rd, 2026. Commissioner Mitchell, I second.

I have a first by Commissioner Tupou and a second by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor? Aye. Item two is approval of the minutes from the May 6th, 2026.

Commissioner Davis, I make a motion to approve the Planning Commission minutes from May 6, 2026. Commissioner Tupou, I second that.

I have a first by Commissioner Davis, a second by Commissioner Tupou. All in favor? Aye. Item three is declaration of abstentions or conflicts. Does anyone have any with tonight's? Okay. Item four is a public hearing. A Z-26-11 request to rezone approximately 16.75 acres located at approximately 2335 East Washington Dam Road from the current OS to proposed RA half zoning designation. We'll turn the time over to Eldon.

Thank you, Commissioners. Here's the location of the proposed zone change. As you can see, the current zoning is open space, right there where that red star is, and they're proposing to go to RA half zoning designation. As shown in the exhibit, the zone change is to the outermost point of the flood zone. The remaining land that is in the flood zone and floodway will remain open space zoning designation. You can see that detailed here. If the proposed land is developed, primary access will be from Washington Dam Road between 2275 East and 2359 East. The general plan land use designation for this area is a state, which supports the proposed zone change application. The surrounding zoning to this parcel is open space to the north, RA half to the east, are a one to the south and west and open space to the west proposed. The purpose of this request is to develop the property into a residential development with the minimum lot size being one half acre. And with this being a zone change we haven't seen or acknowledged any development plans just discussing the zone change tonight. Staff recommends the Planning Commission Recommend approval of Z dash 26-11 on to City Council based on the following findings and That are stated in the staff report and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time Where is the floodplain map This doesn't show the lot lines in relation to the zone. If I scroll back to this, you can see these blue lines. This is the outermost part of the zone. And this blue line, John probably with Public Works knows the technical term for that.

I think one of them is a flood way line and the other is a flood plain line. And so the flood way is essentially the more narrow line of where floods are more recently or have more recently flown. And then the flood plain is a little higher elevation where the biggest floods may have reached or may have touched in the past. And so I think they flow into how you engineer it if you're trying to. fill it for building purposes, essentially.

So this area between the orange and the blue, this would be the boundary line. This orange line they can build in if they mitigate and address all concerns in that area. But where my cursor is, is that boundary line. This red line here. You have any questions in regards to the access? I'll just point this out here. There's been some high level discussions that access to this land would would be split between these lot lines here. But again, that's not being formalized tonight in any way, shape or form, just high level discussion as to where that access could come from.

So the stuff that can all take place after, even if, say, this does get approved, moving forward, they would have to work that out.

Correct. There is a city process where legal access can stop you, but it's not at the zone change level. You're allowed to come and change zones and not prove that you have adequate legal access for the city at that point. This as it stands today the city's position is they haven't shown that but they do have the right to petition for his own change and then Attempt to obtain and provide the adequate legal access that that the next step would require How how are they getting to the property now?

It's just an easement for the property owner to get there I but not like public right-of-ways. Correct. Is that how that works?

Correct, yes. With development, we would require public or private drive brought to the property.

This site's a little unique in that the historic route there is essentially doesn't work well with the new traffic routes and the roads that are installed. And so the historic route isn't necessarily something that's that's useful for development activity either, and so that's one reason why there's not a designated, you know, legal sufficiently, legally sufficient access way at this point.

This is Commissioner Davis. Just one other thing, and since we're kind of going down that path of access and easements and the right of way and all that, assuming it's not appropriate for the decisions and discussion tonight. But we've had plenty of conversation with regard to the traffic on Washington Dam Road and construction traffic. And I would think that should this project go forward, we would either want to make a recommendation or remind city council of those traffic concerns. And I would think that we'd probably want to ensure the traffic were steered east down Washington Dam Road. Construction traffic, right? east, you know, eastward towards Washington Down Road to 7 and stay that route rather than going back into a lot of the communities that have already been established and we've heard, you know, concerns about, you know, that heavy truck traffic in the past. So, you know, food for thought probably or something down the road. But I'm assuming not so much part of this conversation, this matter in front of us.

That's correct. That's certainly within the realm of recommendations that the commission could send on to the planning committee or to the city council. The next step after zone change would be something like platting or pre-platting and some of the permits and requirements that the planning and zoning office had for them. And so that's probably the right spot to have those type of conversations. Generally speaking, we don't, possess any rules of what type of trucks can travel on the public roads as long as they're lawfully licensed and operating with the state of Utah laws. We do have plans in the future that we think will help alleviate the congestion on Dam Road, but those probably aren't five years away. They're probably a little farther than that. One of them is a new regional route through the Purgatory Valley that that will include a bridge across the river and then tie right into that interchange on the Southern Parkway. Another one is the Long Valley Road will be completed and tie into the George Washington Boulevard intersection. Right now, a lot of the Long Valley traffic, its only option is down through Dam Road. And so when that community connects to the George Washington Boulevard, we believe that that'll also help alleviate In the short, that'll be the nearest term solution is that roadway will go in probably first. That'll help spread the traffic to the different routes based on their destination, whereas right now they've only got one route out. And so we hope that long term the dam road's more of just a local regional road for people that live and work in that area and not so much a thoroughfare as it is today.

Thank you.

So Curtis Rogers sent an email and was concerned about it being close to his industrial land. But I'm looking here, it looks like the industrial is at least two parcels away. Is that correct?

I've highlighted the proposed zone change and he is located here in this parcel. So is the zone change directly adjacent to Mr. Rogers property? No. However, as this land could develop westward, it would border. If they continue this residential trend west, that could be adjacent to residential. I'm appreciative. I also read those comments. Great comments. Spot on. Just his concern was this residential is adjacent to industrial, dirty, loud, noisy, bright construction type work. So he wanted to make those concerns known.

So we've all been in discussions about feathering and how to properly do that. This is a good example where We try to apply those principles of feathering to pre-existing uses as well as proposed future uses. And sometimes it's not perfect and not pretty. I know that Eldon and his department have been aware of the feathering concepts and are trying to administer those in a way that they can happen here. But there's also houses inside that industrial area. There's also residences wholly surrounded already from from traditional uses. And so it's a difficult region of the city to give a perfect and pretty plan on.

There's currently a house right next to the industrial spot. However, the biggest concern would be if the rest of the boys build the same route, then that's all going to be north of all that industrial.

I can turn on the general plan here. We can take a high level look. And we're right in that area where we're transitioning from industrial to residential, as I had mentioned there, just doing our best to make it all blend. And then the zoning on this is not yet determined. So this would be a zone change here, either to residential or industrial type uses.

Okay, this is a public hearing. So we will open this up to the public if you'd like to stand up and speak to it. Please state your name and if anyone hasn't, would like to speak to it.

I'm Brenda Shuttle. I live at the 2275 East where you say there's been substantial discussion. No, there hasn't about that way, open way. for them to get in and out. So, and I understand this is zoning, but I just want you to know that first. That's wrong. And then I want to know if they, and maybe this is a later date too, but if they did get it and did do it, how would they get the road through? You know, I mean, how would they drive in and out if they would have to go through hours, right? It's not something you guys can ask.

I don't think that's something we have any privilege to right now or how it's going to work. That's something that, from my understanding, has to be figured out privately. Is that how it works? I'm not sure how.

So let's say the Planning Commission recommends approval and the City Council approves the zoning. So there's two steps still where both the Planning Commission and the City Council will hear a zone change. let's say it was granted. That does not grant the landowner any rights to cross other people's lands or expand historic trails or uses of that nature. And so they would be the ones that would carry the obligation to answer the questions you just asked, which is how are you gonna get in? If you're gonna subdivide it, how are you gonna get your invitees and the people that buy those lots? Part of the details that we don't yet know is the size of road they would need. So let's say they, and this is purely hypothetical. I don't have any knowledge that informs us other than just an analogy. Let's say they wanted 500 town homes. That road might have a different size in nature than if they wanted five estate homes, right? And so we don't have enough detail to know what size of road they should put in and unless there was a public road already to their boundary, we don't even tell them where they access that. They've got to go figure that out. So those are good questions. We don't know those answers yet. Typically, a landowner that's motivated will go and meet with the other landowners and make an agreement that essentially identifies and defines a public road, and then usually the developer will build that road and dedicate it to the city. and then that'll be sufficient to meet the city's rules for access.

And we, the owners, one back behind, we did talk a little bit, very, very little, and they didn't, like, agree with what we needed. Yeah. But I don't want to be skipped. And so that's why I'm like, I just don't want them to go, okay, go with the smaller road and you can get through. And then the other question is, if they have it in the flood zone, how they brought in dirt, can they build it up higher and put more homes in down the way?

So they have to, to build in the floodplain or the floodway is an engineering decision that requires that you essentially bring in fill dirt, raise the elevation so that it's out of the area where the floods have been known to occur. That does, that's happened up and down the Virgin River. It happens in every city in the county right now, along other rivers too, like the Santa Clara and places like that. I think you asked the second question, like, does that allow them to get more houses? The density is a different question, but yeah, if they went and filled land that right now is non-buildable and brought it up to standard and had their engineer certified that it was all what it needed to be to be buildable, That would be additional acreage that could be looked at for additional lots and additional units.

And if they had additional past that, would the road have to be bigger again?

Again, it depends on how many. The characteristics of the road are a function of how many trips of traffic are coming and going. And so the city doesn't give them any route to cross it, whether it's a trail or a two-lane road. Their proposal... will be required to go obtain the adequate size road for the proposal they're seeking. Okay. Well, I want to just assure you all of that. The city doesn't skip people. They have to go get a road and dedicate it to the city from the owners before they can get approval to do things. And so, yeah, we don't, we don't skip you when it comes to roads, the road is going to need to go. And I don't, I don't know where your land is. I'm sorry, but I assume from your presence here that it's there.

right there. What was your name again? Brenda Shuttle. Under David and Brenda.

Do you want to just show us? So we can understand where your perspective is.

Is that a current easement? Where the road goes through?

To the side. Where are you at?

Is it an access easement?

It's on that other... The last one you were on. The last page you were on.

And it was given for them to do agricultural back there, a 25-foot easement to cross, but it's turning into so much more even without any of this.

25-foot roads, right, John? Yeah, so they would need double that, and they would also need to dedicate it to the city as a city road, not just an easement.

So they couldn't build any homes back there until they had that road that connected to the main.

I don't think I'm saying that. They probably could put one house on there under some of the agricultural residential type entitlements that the city has.

Well, because it used to be one big lot and they split it. And so they've already got one home on the other one that they did. Now they split that one. And more. Does everybody get to just have easements and come on down or do we work it out?

The city doesn't give easements. The landowners are who do easements.

Because everybody thinks they own it. because an easement, because they bought the property and it split, split, split.

So that's your job.

Yes.

You're the one that owns the land underneath it. You're the one that sends them letters if they're violating the agreement that established that route. The city doesn't go defend private easements for people. But yeah, if you have an agreement that says who can and who can't, I would encourage you to defend it because you can lose those rights if you let everybody use it.

Yeah. Thank you.

And I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, that I mean, to put in a 50-foot wide road or whatever, they'd have to essentially buy the property from you. You'd have to give them an easement, one or the other, or sell them the property to do that.

That's a con thing, though, right?

Yeah. They can't put it in until they can get however big the road needs to be, and they're going to have to buy that property from you to do it.

The most common is they buy it from you. They then dedicate it to the city on a public road dedication fee. And then the city makes sure they build it to code and to spec and when it's adequate and accepted, the city then accepts it, opens it as a public road, which then gives them the right to subdivide and invite others to use the public road. Yeah. But easements, the city doesn't administer private easements. If there is documents, like you said, I encourage you to maybe have your attorney look at it and see what you'd need to do if you feel like it's being breached.

Anyone else would like to speak to this? Really?

Okay.

Then we will close the public hearing portion of this. And if you guys have anything else, would like to speak with the applicant or the promotion.

my thoughts are based on what is currently happening in the area this goes with it my only concerns would be it but it sounds like it's in place as if they do end up doing something down the road that they do the you know take the proper um recommendations to avoid the floods but currently i mean you have houses that are sitting on half acre one acre i mean they are a little bit bigger lots but surround that piece

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I, the easements that's out of our hands, but yeah, I mean, it is zoned for it and you know, the people in the industrial area are there first. So everybody's kind of got to realize that when they come into it, that, but you know, same thing happened over in red waters too.

Yeah. Everybody moved next to a dump and 10 years later, they they're mad that they're living by a dump. Yeah, I'm sure this one in 10 years, folks will complain about, you know, the auto salvage yards, which have been there for decades, right? And so, unfortunately, as open land develops, you get more eyeballs and more opinions, and some of them know how to find ways to submit complaints about things. And so it just seems to be, as you add more houses and more traffic and more people, the complaining does increase with that. Ma'am, there are other steps in the process. I think I mentioned that. So the city council and planning commission both consider zone changes. And so this one is not final tonight. It'll just be a recommendation. After that, there's another step, which we call platting. So there's a preliminary plat and then a final plat. The preliminary plat also goes before this body. And at that step is where you see things like proposed lots and things like that. That's another opportunity for you to show up and make sure and participate as well as listen, ask questions. There's always an opportunity for the public to participate and express again if you have concerns about the roadway ideas. Um, at that stage, when you're starting to show lots and, you know, trip trips of people that'll be there is when, when the planning staff essentially require that a roadway be, be definable and defined as to how people are going to get in there and how they're going to dedicate that to the city. So there's still some more process until we get there, but it's coming. I shouldn't say it's coming. I don't know if they're pursuing it or not. That's the next step if they do.

There have been no substantial talking about it at all.

I think the point is, at this point, they're requesting a zone change. And so not having access road doesn't hold this up. But it would hold up the next process. They can't do the next process until they figure out the road with you.

Commissioner Davis. I don't have any issues with it either. I think the applicant certainly has the right to request a zoning change and I'm not opposed to the zoning change. So I'll make a motion. to approve and forward to City Council items the dash 26 dash 11 request to rezone approximately 16.75 acres located approximately 2335 East Washington Dam Road from the current open space to a proposed re one half zoning designation subject to the recommendations and findings and staff report.

And

1st, by commissioner Davis, the 2nd, by commissioner Anderson. Individual voting commissioner Anderson commissioner Davis. Mr Mitchell I. Mr. I, Mr. I mean, I as well, and this will go to city council with a recommendation for approval. Um.

Item five is adjourning. This is Commissioner Mitchell. I move that we adjourn. Commissioner Tupou, I second.

First by Commissioner Mitchell, second by Commissioner Tupou. All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned. We'll start the land use real quick. This meeting for June 3, 2026. Item 1 on tonight's approval is approval of the agenda.

I'll look for a motion. Commissioner Tupou, I make a motion to approve the agenda for land use authority. Commissioner Davis seconds.

First by Commissioner Tupou, second by Commissioner Davis. All in favor? Aye. Item 2 is approval of the minutes from the May 6, 2026 meeting.

This is Commissioner Mitchell. I move that we approve the minutes from our previous meeting.

Commissioner Tupou, I second that.

I'm first by Commissioner Mitchell, second by Commissioner Tupou. All in favor?

Aye.

OK, item three, adjournment. Commissioner Davis, I move to adjourn. Commissioner Mitchell, I second. I'm first by Commissioner Davis, second by Commissioner Mitchell. All in favor?

Aye.

Meeting's adjourned. See you in two weeks.