The Insider

Popular Categories

Escalante City Council Weighs Zoning Change Request


 

ESCALANTE – The Escalante City Council chambers were packed for the February 6 council meeting. Topics of interest included a public hearing regarding a requested zoning change, the selection and swearing in of a new city council member, and discussion of street lighting.

All current members of the council were present, including Mayor Melani Torgerson, Greg Hughes, Marlene Stowe, Louise Barnes, and Greg Allen. City attorney Barry Huntington also attended.
A public hearing was held to review a request submitted by Dennis and Dana Waggoner, owners of Escalante Outfitters, for a zoning change on a property they are interested in purchasing behind their commercial Main Street business. On behalf of the current owner (Chatterson) they are petitioning for a zone change from Multi-Family Residential District (R-M-7) to Residential/Commercial District (RC). The property is located at 75 North 300 West, and is currently a vacant lot with water and sewer. The Waggoners explained that they would like to purchase the property to incorporate it into their existing property, with initial plans for landscaping, tent sites, and possibly cabins, later. Letters were sent to 22 adjacent landowners offering the opportunity to comment on the zoning change request.

Six letters were received by the city opposing the zoning change. One neighbor present at the hearing said she would not like the zoning change approved. Another neighbor said that Escalante Outfitters has been a good neighbor, and very quiet.

A discussion between council members and petitioners included what happens if the zoning is changed and the current petitioners sell the property, drainage issues on the property, comparison of neighborhood impacts between the tent sites/cabins proposal and the current zoning allowance for multi-family units.

The public hearing was closed, and the council unanimously passed a motion to table the zoning change request.

Prior to the public comment period, Mayor Torgerson clarified that the street light agenda item was about replacing bulbs in the pedestrian lighting on Main Street only, if that helped anyone with framing their comments on that item.

During the public comment period, Harriet Priska petitioned the city about a request she has already made to the city to help fix the stone wall that was damaged when a city-managed building across the street “blew up” in a wind storm and impaired the wall about three years ago. She is trying to sell the property and is hiring a mason to fix the wall and would like a response from the city. Bill Weppner asked the city to hold a public hearing regarding BLM’s 2.0 rule and how this “outside influence” affects our valley. He also commended the county’s emergency workers for their brave efforts, citing a call and response he’d heard on the scanner from Boulder during a snow storm. Howard Hutchison applauded the city’s move toward more efficient (LED) street lighting as long as it doesn’t affect dark skies and the soft lighting we currently have. Jean Bramble read a letter on behalf of Bob Hartman who is out of town. “We all know looking up at night sky is awe inspiring,” Hartman said in his letter, and urged the city to keep and promote dark skies as a resource. He suggested a city advisory working group on the subject of lighting planning, with the goal of dark sky city designation. Jean Bramble echoed that she supports Bob’s idea to develop a citizens’ group to advise the city on lighting and suggested the inclusion of council member Louise Barnes on that committee. Fred Spencer said that as a pilot he feels that dark skies endanger his life. That GPS is not accurate, and altimeters are not accurate and so he relies on the lights of the city to land at night. Mark Saunto commented that he would also like to see a more comprehensive lighting plan for the city, and suggested care in selecting new LED bulbs, as high output LEDs can be very bright, or “cool” and create a lot of glare. He noted that other local towns including Torrey, Bryce Canyon City and Boulder have lighting plans and Escalante could do the same. Gary Griffin said two LED lights have been installed near his property and one aims the light down and the other one sheds light across his yard, negatively affecting his quality of life. Mark Austin made a comment about lumens, that 5000 lumens is a bright bluish light and yellow orange is more soft light in the 2700-3000 range and should be plenty of light for the city’s needs.

Next up was appointing a city council member, to take the place of Melani Torgerson, who has been appointed as Mayor to replace Jerry Taylor, who has been elected as Garfield County Commissioner. Mayor Torgerson said that four citizens expressed interest in the seat: Clayne Coleman, Joe Catlett, Dan’l Lindsay and Flint Chynoweth. Each was given an opportunity to make a statement regarding their candidacy and qualifications and three took the opportunity. Flint could not be here to do so, Melani said, because he was, “stuck on the mountain.”

Clayne Coleman discussed his roots in Escalante and having had the opportunity to come back to Escalante after living and working away for a long period of time he said he would like to serve his community. Dan’l Lindsey noted that he is from Wayne County and has lived in Escalante for seven years and feels his experience as a general contractor could be helpful. Joe Catlett, owner of Nemo’s Restaurant and Escalante resident since 2012, said he is a results-driven person and uses a project manager’s approach to solving problems and would be eager to serve on important issues affecting us every day.

Following these presentations the Council went into a short executive session and everybody (except the council) left the room and squished into the hallway, and had some lively discussions among themselves. Upon reconvening Council member Barnes represented the council in their decision, and said they appreciated the applications of all these good people. She said they unanimously selected Dan’l Lindsay, and he was subsequently sworn in, and took his council seat. The council encouraged the current applicants and others to stay engaged as other seats will be open eventually, or even soon.

Danny Perkins gave a brief Sheriff’s update. “We’ve slowed down but have enough going on to keep busy,” he said. He said they had a suicide down at Ticaboo, the local murder and assault here in Escalante and lately a murder suspect at other end of county [Panguitch] with a high speed chase where officers punctured the tires of a man who shot guy in Colorado. “We are kind of out in the sticks, folks, but we live in the real world, too,” said Perkins. “I really appreciate your words, Bill, [addressing Bill Weppner] about our volunteers. We just had our volunteer conference we’ve done for nine years now. Utah is number one in the nation in volunteerism and I think Garfield County is leading the pack in Utah. Appreciate that someone has taken notice. Thank you.”

City Recorder Stephanie Steed made a request for a five-day Utah municipal clerk training in Salt Lake City. The cost is $400 for tuition plus her time and travel. The Council approved her training request.

The council discussed street lights. Mayor Torgerson proposed to the council that the city replace light bulbs on Main Street–just the pedestrian lights—with LED bulbs. These are metered, and the city pays for the power. Bulb replacement cost would be $50 per fixture for a total of $2500 plus $300 labor. Garkane is currently offering a reimbursement program and the city would receive $750 in credit. The plus is that on those fixtures the energy cost would drop 75 percent, according to Garkane estimates. Mayor Torgerson said the type of LED bulb (warm or cool or other attributes) is open for discussion by the council. It was noted that other street light poles around town are not metered, and the city pays $9 per pole per month. The council unanimously agreed to move forward with the bulb replacements.

In council reports, Council member Allen said there are grants and loans to put a wildlife fence around the airport.“We have a plot map and it looks like we will get the money,” he said.
Council member Stowe said she had talked to Sheriff Perkins about hiring inmates to clean up the sewer pond “whenever we dry up” and he said to just give them 2-3 days’ notice. She also said that somebody got stuck at the dumpsters—it is really muddy.

Council member Barnes, in her new role overseeing buildings, said she and Mayor Torgerson had a teleconference with the architect regarding the preliminary drawings for a new Community Center and Care and Share. “We will take those plans and go to CIB for a grant. It’s looking good.”

Mayor Torgerson thanked the city employees and citizens. “Escalante is a great place,” she said.

—Insider

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.