Council: Let’s Develop Devil’s Hole!
By Brian McNary
Hurricane Valley by Lori Cole
Well, it was a strange night, Sept 17. Generally, I walk into council meetings with little to no hope of anything interesting ever happening. It’s like being locked in a room where they play nothing but “Dr. Zhivago” on a never-ending loop. For days.
But today would be different.
There would be no baffling and mind numbing staff reports. Instead, the council went directly into public comments. That’s when things got interesting.
Public Comments
First up, Stacey Eaton. Mr. Eaton has been a staunch supporter of Dan Catlin for Mayor and has been seen sitting in the front row of council meetings with a “Catlin for Mayor” shirt on.
Mr. Eaton had apparently bought or placed signs in the city right of way for Dan Catlin and was notified by the city that he must remove them. Apparently it seems, the city has some sign ordinance that they have never really enforced until now and Eaton was in violation of the sign ordinance. Mr. Eaton gave a number of examples of other political signs that had been ignored in past election cycles. Mr. Eaton summed up the whole affair as “that’s crap” according to my hastily written notes.
Then Anita Eaton walked to the podium. She elaborated in greater detail and with additional examples of what Stacey had said earlier. She also questioned why any city councilman would abstain from a vote without declaring a conflict of interest. This “abstention” happened in a prior meeting when Chuck Williams abstained from a vote regarding a zoning change for Ray and Kathy Bence.
Then Kathy Bence made her way to the podium.
Now in case you were wondering, the first 30-45 minutes of this meeting have gone missing from the usual You Tube recording. Like those critical missing minutes from the Nixon tape, the missing You Tube footage coincides with that period of time wherein the Eatons’ were speaking. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe not. Whatever the case may be, somewhere thereafter, the recording begins. (Update: the audible portion of the recording is available and can be found here).
Kathy Bence stated that there was nothing nefarious regarding Chuck Williams vote and explained that their zoning change was actually an upzone- to agriculture- rather than a request for some denser zone change.
Then Ray Bence spoke. Ray questioned, rather insincerely, why it was that Stacey Eaton did not run for a council seat. He also mentioned an incident in Wal-Mart in which Eaton had confronted him while he was standing in line. Ray Bence then left the podium and bent Stacey’s ear just a little bit more while enroute back to his seat.
I knew that the rest of the meeting would not be anywhere as interesting as the beginning was. So the slog through 12 business items begins. The first one was the most interesting.
Item 1
Now if you were looking at the agenda, you would see 4 lines of absolute gobbley de gook which means nothing to anyone trying to read item 1. It is a zone change for the Devil’s Hole area. They want to develop and build houses on either side of Devil’s Hole excluding slopes and the area immediately adjacent to Devil’s Hole in the center. The map of the property zone change can be viewed here. The discussion begins here.
Once again, Wayne Olsen led the charge into questioning a zone change without knowing what they intend to build there. You lose a great piece of leverage when you approve a zone change without seeing a model, an overlay of lots, or housing design. Forget tortoise habitat, water concerns, or public access. So Olsen voted against the zone change as did Gary Chaves. The measure passed 3-2 and the developers will now come up with an MPDO (Master Planned Development Overlay) for the development. Perhaps there will be some discussion when the developers submit what they are planning to build.
Items 2-4
Items 2-4 all passed. They are all boring Firelight items. Trust me. However, if you want to view unending homes, here’s the Firelight PA-1 MPDO Final Site Plan and Firelight PA-11 Final Site Plan. You can also view one of the many Addendums to the Development agreement for Firelight.
Item 5
On the creation of a citizen’s committee for the Chief Toquer Reservoir Recreation area. It includes 7 members, 3 citizens. If the direction of recreation out there interests you, you should contact City Hall and get involved. It beats going to council meetings.
Item 6
Employee policies and procedures. Tabled.
Item 7
Joint Agency Regional Water Conservation Plan. In short, developers will continue to develop anything they can build on while the water overlords increase fees and curtail use on those of us already here. Could they encourage water conversation by cutting rates for homeowners who conserve water? Sure. Will they? Not a chance.
Item 8
This was the 111,000 change order #20 for the parkway. This is the change order for a very minimal amount of work that JB Excavation performed but failed to provide any precise detail on exactly what they did. This was the work Wayne Olsen questioned at the last council meeting. This item passed 4-1 with Olsen voting no.
Item 9
Another change order to clean up “rip-rap” by JB Excavation. It was for 9,150. It passed 4-1.
Item 10
Land use violations and clarifying penalties. Passed 5-0.
Items 11 and 12
Getting a chuckle from me, like a good English 101 essay, the last two items both touched on Toquerville’s sign ordinance. Providing applications, fees, and enforcement authority for signs that violate the city’s ordinance. So, if you want to put up a sign- you are going to have to pay for it. Thus, this meeting started with signs and ended with signs.
Calendar of Events
Movie in the Park, Friday, Oct 3, dusk at Center Street Park. (Not Dr. Zhivago)
Halloween Story Telling- Saturday, October 25, 4 PM. Old Town Hall
Trunk or Treat, Saturday October 25th after the story telling. 6 PM church parking lot.