2022.09.07 PC MTG AGENDA & MINUTES
Town of Leeds
Agenda
Town of Leeds Planning Commission
Wednesday, September 07, 2022
PUBLIC NOTICE is hereby given that the Town of Leeds Planning Commission PUBLIC MEETING scheduled for Wednesday, September 07, 2022, at 7:00 P.M. This meeting will be held at Leeds Town Hall, 218 N. Main Street, Leeds, UT 84746.
If you are interested in participating remotely via Zoom, please contact Town Hall at 879-2447 or email Clerk@LeedsTown.org for the Zoom details.
Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m.
- Call to Order/Roll Call
a. Oath of Office for Alan Roberts, term ending July 2027
2. Invocation
3. Pledge of Allegiance
4. Declaration of Abstentions or Conflicts
5. Consent Agenda:
a. Tonight’s Agenda
b. Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2022
6. Announcements:
a. Cemetery project update
b. Huntsman Games Cycling event October 6, 2022, from Brandon Price
7. Public Hearing: None
8. Action Items: None
9. Discussion Items:
a. Discussion regarding cemetery land transfer from Washington County to Town of Leeds
b. Discussion regarding culvert maintenance responsibilities
10. Staff Reports
11. Adjournment
The Town of Leeds will make reasonable accommodations for persons needing assistance to participate in this public meeting. Persons requesting assistance are asked to call the Leeds Town Hall at 879-2447 at least24 hours prior to the meeting.
The Town of Leeds is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Certificate of Posting.
The undersigned Clerk/Recorder does hereby certify that the above notice was posted A September 06, 2022, at these public places being Leeds Town Hall, Leeds Post Office, the Utah Public Meeting Notice website http://pmmutah.gov and the Town of Leeds website www.leedstown.org
____________________________________________
Aseneth Steed, Clerk/Recorder
Town of Leeds
Planning Commission Meeting for
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
- Call to order:
Chairman Swenson called to order the regular meeting of the Planning Commission at 7 PM on Wednesday, September 7, 2022.
ROLL CALL:
Present Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON __X___ ______
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS X_ ______
COMMISSIONER: KEN HADLEY __X___ ______
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON __ ___ ___X__
COMMISSIONER: _____ ______
Oath of Office Alan Roberts, Term ending July 2027
Chair: Well, A lot of work you have done. You have done a lot with the Planning Commission. You have done a lot on Town Council as well. Thank you for your volunteering. Ken, we welcome you back. Back from back surgery. Ken has got more metal parts in there. He weighs about five pounds more than five months ago. We hope you continue to improve
- Invocation:
Ken Hadley: Our Father in heaven, we come to Thee this evening. And thank you, Father for the opportunity to serve and to be part of this community. We pray for Thy guidance. Help us as we go through the meeting tonight that things may go well and that we may make decisions that will be best for the community and help us grow on and thrive. We thank Thee for all those who participate tonight. We pray you will be with them. These things we pray for in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Pledge of Allegiance: Chairman Swenson
- Declaration of Abstentions or Conflicts: None
- Agenda:
Commissioner Roberts moved to approve the agenda of June 1, 2022. Commissioner Hadley seconded. Motion passed in a roll call vote.
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON _X_ ___ ______ ______
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS _X _ ___ ______ _____
COMMISSIONER: KEN HADLEY _X _ ___ ______ _____
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON _ _ ___ ___X___ ______
COMMISSIONER: _ _ ___ ______ ______
Meeting Minutes of May 4, 2022:
Commissioner Roberts motioned to approve Meeting Minutes of June 1, 2022, as corrected. Commissioner Hadley seconded. Motion Passed in a roll call vote.
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON _X_ ___ ______ ______
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS _X___ ___ ______ __ ___
COMMISSIONER: KEN HADLEY _X__ ___ ______ _____
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON _ __ ___ _____ __X___
COMMISSIONER: _ _ ___ ______ ______
- Announcements:
Chairman Swenson: With a sad heart that I announce that Sister Gillian Anderson, Mother of Rod Hill passed away today about two o’clock. She has been ill. Pray for the family, services will be Saturday, the 17th for anybody interested in there will be more information coming on that particular day and that will be held down here at the LDS chapel site. Also, Dumpster days, it looked like a great success. It is utilized. Hopefully, the word gets out to everybody that needs to know. So, it is always something to utilize. They were quite full when I went. There was also a dumpster that was full at the cemetery clean up that took place
Cemetery Update
Lorrie Hunsaker: I wanted to give an announcement and update on the Cemetery Restoration Project that has been going. We have had just a massive amount of community support with people showing up. We had over forty different Leeds Volunteer Heroes make their appearance during the two big cleanups that we have had. People in town and donated their backhoes, mini excavators, trailers, chainsaws, pull saws, things they probably should not be allowed to play with at home. It was a good time. We had a little bit of sweat, blood, but do you know what? It is looking outstanding. With those volunteers, we have made our grant match for the $1,000 grant from the state Preservation Committee. We have received three bids for the new fencing. That will be presented at Town Council next Wednesday. We have started a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of everything we needed the cemetery, the volunteer portion has been met with huge success. We are already doing well but we are $5,500 short on what we still need. That includes the fencing, the bid with fencing is almost 13,000. So, we are at 9,500. All the other bids were close to 30,000. So, we were able to get it down to 10,000 And then 2,000, to have the install included. The 30,000 did not include an install. So got it down to the 13,000 and we are almost there. I will start it tonight at this one, anybody that would like to donate to the cemetery. This point, we are doing checks, or cash at Town Hall, or call me and I will come fetch, I am learning to do that. And very appreciative of it, no amount is too small. Anybody donating one thousand or more, you will qualify for a totally nonprofessional, but handcrafted with love bench made by yours truly. Which can have your name or someone in the cemetery’s name stained or just a family name on it or something. We have three of those left. So that is where most of the money that has been donated. So, if I am making noise before the allotted hour, sorry, it is a little hot, but I am trying to get the benches done. So that is what we are doing there. And we have received donations from 25.00 up to 5,000. It has been huge. Any amount is very much appreciated. If you are doing a check in the memo section, write Cemetery, Restoration 2022 so we make sure that it strictly goes to the cemetery. So, I want to thank the tons of people that showed up and trying to balance it out by thanking people that are on Facebook and people that are not on Facebook, and I got the sign up. I missed the Collins’s and Richard Millsap. I want to add them. There were many people that showed up, and just worked their tails off and mean, majority of this room actually is the volunteer crews. So, this is outstanding. Thank you all very, very much.
Chairman Swenson: You’re talking about a fence? What are we looking at what kind of fence? And tell us a little bit about the future expansion, please.
Hunsaker: The fence that we are going with is a five-foot chain link. Some people in town have donated. Allied fence donated three hundred feet of the super heavy duty which we can use because there is a 16-year-old that drives the vault truck. So, it is a little iffy when he tries to make turns, so we are putting the beastly fence on his path. Other people have donated, and we are going to paint it black with a special chain-link paint that will tie it into the front gate and the arch. We are also expanding. There is a 35-foot easement between the edge of Cemetery Road and our current fence and that make any sense. So, we went to more with UDOT and they never want to hear my name again and they said give her the land. What that means is it is the county’s land. They said, actually your problems been solved. Once the county started receiving B&C road funds for that strip of land, it became theirs. So, then I went to the county and the county said, we told you if they would defer to us, we will absolutely give it to you. After talking with Commissioner Roberts, I wanted it to be legal so that nobody else down the road says we got to pull these bodies. So, we are going through that now. I wrote a resolution. I stink at it. Let us be perfectly clear. All I know is to put a lot of whereas, Therefore and resolved. So, I have done that part. And once you guys have looked at if you have any changes, you want to put in before it and then we will send it to Craig and then obviously it will go to the county’s attorney. That would give us, we’re debating again because of the vault driver, we were going to do two rows, but I think we’re only going to be able to do one, but we should be able to get 10 to 15 additional gravesites there and then by the flagpole, we should be able to get six additional gravesites there when we move the fence out. That has all been included in the bid. They said we would get there, and now we have got there so hopefully we can get this part wrapped up.
Chairman Swenson: So, you are adding more from the existing to the road and out into the parking lot?
Hunsaker: There’s there was a double, a quadruple sale of four graves over the years. So, four of those I need to make up somewhere. Then all we have are singles left for the most part. And That parking lot, you da man because that parking lot looks so different and now will be able to bump it out. And then that is over here by the where the main entry is now that will allow about six more graves there. We are getting a few graves out of that We did not think we were ever going to see that. So, it is all cool. It is working well. I really value your input on the land part. And on the resolution, I wrote.
Chairman Swenson: In Utah, Leeds cemetery, can you stack one on top of another?
Commissioner Roberts: No, you cannot.
Hunsaker: Tonaquint told me that they had tried to get it through so that they could do that. Because they were running low before they got their additional land. They were told no by the state, I think because. We also have the additional five east, which is now just for cremains. So that allows four urns per plot along that east side. So Tony, and I need to get out there and start tagging. So, then we can open those for sale once we have the metal stamp tags in there, so we know exactly where they are.
Hunsaker: We can work on the military monument. I was hoping you would mention that. That has been in the plans right now just to get it, so it is secure because we have been having more vandalism. Vandals have been pulling head and foot stones and moving them to different places in the cemetery. They have been taking stuff that belongs on one grave and moving it to another. So, for once my OCD is paying off because I generally remember who had which golf club and which pair of hiking shoes go to which grave. We should get to the point where we do security at night. And that’s just part of the daily routine. But that is just me. We have not we have not opened up for discussion yet. After getting that all secured, then the map needs to be redone. Now that everyone is accounted for, before doing the new map, I think it would be prudent to have the new plots tagged before we have drawing made of the new map. Yes, sir, we will look at the doing the military. I do not know if we are tying it to the Chinese cemetery monument. There has been some talk of that lately. So, we are trying to get as much as we can. But right now, this money for this fundraising would go strictly to Leeds. If there is any leftover, then it goes to the next on the list, which is the Protestant. And then the next on the list is the catholic.
Chairman Swenson: Great. All right, Thank you very much. I will say that if you have if you have not been out to the cemetery, go by look, you will definitely see that there has been some improvement. And also look, because I think in the future, you will see more. The other thing that is impressive to me, is just this past year, in this year, 2022, we have had three different service days out there. It is quite a bit of the same people. But everyone has got a few others that are different, that are new. And that’s kind of exciting. You know, life gets in the way and cannot do everything, right. But it is nice to see the numbers that come out and serve and its definitely service. Some of the things that we are trimming and cutting, good golly, has been there 50 to 60 years and have not really been touched. So, it has made it harder, but it is looking good.
c. Huntsman Games Cycling event October 6, 2022
Brandon Price: I volunteer to come here because I have not seen Susan Roberts in years. How are you? Good.
Huntsman Senior Games. Everybody knows exactly what the Huntsman games are. It is people from all around the world that come here to St. George over a period of two weeks, and they participate in a lot of different sports events. A few years ago, somehow, I got put in charge of the cycling and the triathlon. And it is a volunteer position where I do this for the athletes, I want to come here and enjoy Southern Utah. It is a four-day stage race that consists of a criterium, a time trial, a hill climb, and a road race. The road race typically had been going down SR-18, kind of like what the St. George marathon is, that is becoming more troublesome for events where UDOT does not necessarily want a bunch of events going on SR18 any longer. So, we had moved it last year, and we did not love it. So, we looked around. We looked at the old chum’s classic route and part of the tour of Utah route. And we fell in love with doing it here in Leeds. So, we made an appointment with the mayor and discuss the opportunity of holding the road race here. The road race consists of two different distances, either 26 or 52 miles depending on age and ability. Right now, we are planning on doing is starting right here and in front of the park. We will take a Right down the highway to go out to Anderson Junction. Just basically see on State Street until we get to one hundred North, in which point we take a right off of SR-9 on to eight hundred North, that turns into six hundred North to go through Hurricane and back on the State Street in Hurricane over by close to Sand Hollow. Take a right and we are going back towards Quail Creek at that point. We take a right and come back here. And then this will be the finish line. That is twenty-six miles, and the more advanced riders will do that lab twice. The impact on your town will be about 15,000 people a couple of one hundred drones. No. The cyclists will be probably about 280 cyclists total for this event here. We are hoping for a little bit more than that. Parking up and down the highway here on Main Street in front of the park church as an overflow. And then they can just ride their bikes or walk over from the church because it is so close. So, parking here is easy.
That is our route. Well, and I and I am glad to answer any questions that you guys have. We have police on the busy routes and volunteers with marshals on some of the dangerous turns as well with flags and vests. None of that is inside the town of Leeds. It is more in Hurricane, LA Verkin. We shut down one lane of travel in La Verkin and, but we will not do that here. The shoulder so wide that it is an easy route for us through the town of Leeds. We are excited for this opportunity to work with the town of Leeds. We are hoping maybe you guys could find us a couple of volunteers or to help us here in the park. That would be great. We hope it goes well and we have no impact. We will have porta potties. We will take care of that will clean up any trash that is left behind. Any questions?
Chairman Swenson: I have one suggestion. This stretch between here and Toquerville exit, Anderson Junction, are you looking at shutting one lane off or both? Because they have access with the freeway, there is no reason to have really any cars.
Brandon Price: No, there will lots of cones along the entire route. But and we are not going to set a lane down here. We work with Matt Rhodes at UDOT. We give him the plan. We work with Utah barricades. I printed copies of our entire traffic plan so you guys can have them as well as the certificate of insurance.
Chairman Swenson: Is there any location that racers are stopped anywhere?
Brandon Price: They have to follow rules of the road. So, when they come on a red light, they do not get to just blow through their stop at red lights. They have to stop at stop signs. It is a race, but it is not a closed course race. So, they have to follow rules on the roads.
Chairman Swenson: I am asking selfishly.
Brandon Price: Do you ride?
Chairman Swenson: I do.
Brandon Price: How come you are not registered.
Chairman Swenson: I am. So, I was asking selfishly. How are you going to solicit volunteers?
Brandon Price: Huntsman does a lot of that. They give us some volunteers. I asked friends and family to come and help us. The weekday volunteers are hard to find. I will be honest because everybody is working. Saturday when we do a triathlon. I have a ton of volunteers. The weekdays are tough. If there are any opportunities for anybody in their town of Leeds to help us here, with some marshaling helping us at the start finish. I think the hours you need more seven to two at the latest.
Chairman Swenson: There’s always a lot of volunteers. We talked about that cemetery. Mayor, can we get an announcement out officially from town asking for volunteers, you know, post office something?
Mayor Hoster: We’ll put something together
Chairman Swenson: I think so. Half the people in his town does not work. So, it is not because they do not want to it is just that they used to. I think you can get a number of volunteers and maybe put a list together of what type of volunteer you need to do this or that. Yeah, because there is an interest there.
Brandon Price: The mayor is the only email address I have. Is there anybody else?
Chairman Swenson: that is your good one. You are looking at having it come through towns to Leeds and impact Leeds starting to what time and in about what time?
Brandon Price: Seven to two. There will be awards directly following so we will have the podium out there we will have a Huntsman banner, stuff like that.
Citizen: Are they going to have any food trucks?
Brandon Price: No. People bring their own food. It would be nice to have something like that and that is where I would be. If you guys have a food truck, bring it love it. We do not plan anything like that.
Chairman Swenson: Well, one thing we could do is advertise for our local restaurants afterwards and whatnot.
Brandon Price: If you and email me something a PDF on what you have the resources amenities you have for athletes, we can put that in all the reg bags, that packet pickup. So, when they get their plate inside that if you try to get me to give it all to them, I will fail that it will go in the bags beforehand, and then they can get that with all their swag and all the other things and they can see on Thursday Road race day, what is available here. And then maybe any restaurants that you put in there, maybe you warn them to have everybody show up to work a day because after a road race, they might be hungry.
- Public Hearings: None
- Action Items: None
- Discussion items:
- Cemetery land transfer from Washington County to Town of Leeds
Lorrie Hunsaker: I just really wanted to get your take on the map. The highlighted area is the park in question. And then there is also right along the east side.
Chairman Swenson: Our fence right now is on that property, the highlighted area. Are there any plots right now headstones on it.
Lorrie Hunsaker: There’s nothing in that section. It is the fence and then all that land is in theirs, it is it, they are not using it, okay. But by doing just one roadway wide enough for a mini axe or a backhoe to get in and the vault kid to get them through and just doing one row of graves, we will not really have to do the stem wall because we are not cutting into that we’re at that slope, it starts to level out where we’re going to start. So that part. That is the land, and I just am I going about this the right way with the county doing the resolution? Yes, thank you, sir. That is what I needed to hear. Now on L-1-12-26. It is that little strip, when you are nearest the freeway side, when you come out that drive gate, we are the bulk truck where people drive into the cemetery at that corner, the fence goes forward, makes an immediate left towards the parking lot. So that should be our land. And I just need to know if I should go out there at 3am to change that post. Is that legal or do I need to have a surveyor look at it, the town would be it would be in the town’s best interest to have that documented by a surveyor. Okay, and I got a name and number from sunrise of a reasonable surveyor in town. So that is the next step. I just I have no clue on some of these things. So, I defer to the professionals.
Chairman Swenson: Why is it a separate little parcel.
Lorrie Hunsaker: It is it is not connected to the two big main ones. It is that little corner. I do not know why the fence was put in the way it was. We will make that a nice straight line. And that gives us the extra room for the drive gate. So that those graves can expand out from the flagpole section. But it will not interfere with driving down into there because it will dip back into where it should be now. This is a parcel not an easement. That is a parcel, and it is in our name. The survey just needs to show exactly where it is. Especially so we do not encroach on the neighbor’s property. Any change you want made to it let me know and I will fix it in this draft. Then it goes to Craig Hall.
Commissioner Roberts: Scott. We submit to a Ron Whitehead that they actually cut that road down where that makes a hump over there and then we would be happy to take that from the county after they make that improvement. I am sure Ron would just jump right on that. Yeah.
Lorrie Hunsaker: That was that was one of the options. They said we could have the land and the road and the B&C funds, they would be okay. But not fixing the hump first.
Commissioner Roberts: Yeah. So, when you take possession. You want to get it improved first. You look for improvements before you take possession does not always work. That is something that the town needs to realize that they are inheriting a roadway that…
Lorrie Hunsaker: We are not getting the road, they are continuing to maintain the road and keep the B&C road funds, it stays all in their court. The other option was that we could take over the road and get the B&C road funds, but he said that they would be more comfortable with just giving us the land and keeping that portion. So, it is not us on this particular resolution. That is still there their responsibility to maintain that portion of road. What I was thinking, which is actually figured into this total cost because I think that would work. I mean, putting the French drains right along the edge of the roadway, they have to be deep enough so they are not crashed and so they can maintain the water. That hump in the road is right where our post is before. If you are heading towards the cemetery just before the parking lot, that post right there. That is the hump of the road, and the water runs down and then run through the cemetery. If we put the French drain, we could direct it. If we have this new portion as ours, it has a natural drainage at that corner already that we put it right into, and then on the south end it will find its home. Right? Lowest point. We will assist it to find the next closest lowest point that does not run through the cemetery.
Lorrie Hunsaker: Since we were extending the parking lot out to make sure we could funnel it away. Now we do have a problem with it affecting three plots. Where it comes off now. It comes to the center of the parking lot, and heads southeast, and makes a very abrupt turn by the flagpole. And those three graves right there. So, any new ones going there, we have got to try and divert it down to that natural drain.
-
- Culvert maintenance responsibility
Scott Messel: There’s been some discussion about whose responsibility it is to clean the drainages, gutters, and culverts. A couple different things to just bring up. If there is a culvert at say an intersection that goes under the road, it would be the responsibility of the jurisdiction that’s over that road. If it is a UDOT Road, UDOT would take care of the drainage. If it is a drainage or culvert that goes under a driveway it is the individual property owner’s responsibility, as well as the drainage along the site. An easier way to kind of illustrate it I use example of up in northern Utah, you have the park strip, which is the grass between the curb and the sidewalk. Some jurisdictions require a tree or landscaping requirements in there. The jurisdiction does not go and maintain the grass or the trees, or any of the landscaping in the park strip that even though it is technically part of the right of way. It is the adjacent property owner’s responsibility to maintain that. Over the last couple of decades, you know, used to be that farmers and ranchers were pretty good at taking care of their own ditches, keeping them mowed down. Statewide, it has been more of an issue. People properly maintaining them. And so sometimes there can be issues and sometimes jurisdictions have to step in. It usually ends up happening during a flood event or an emergency. It also is not the responsibility of the jurisdiction to go back in and replace landscaping.
Chairman Swenson: If we look at the road, right behind us, there is the asphalt there is a dirt or gravel section, and then usually a fence line or grass line. So, we are talking the asphalt that middle range that usually where there is a culvert is also the responsibility to maintain that is the homeowner.
Scott Messel: Correct.
Mayor Hoster: If I could add comment to that. If there is a conduit by another property owner, that facilitates damage, as a result of that. So, for example, the UDOT road here, which provides a conduit for the water to collect down by the Roberts and other properties down there. If their aggregation about water has resulted in damages. That is another chapter to this that is not applicable, but we are in the relevance of this is on, we have had damage that has occurred as a result of some culverts or gutter ways not being maintained. Those are causing damage as well downstream. And so those have to be remedied by those property owners, as well as UDOT has to remedy their pathway for the water that is collected and caused damage downstream. Hopefully, that gives some clarification.
Staff Reports:
Scott Messel: I can let you know the annexation mailer was sent out today. So that went out anyone any effected entity within three hundred feet of that property of those properties will receive a notice in the mail. There is a protest period that people can be in favor or against it, they can share their feelings in writing. After that period ends are the public hearing. It comes back to the town and there’s public hearing since such on it.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:47pm.
APPROVED ON THIS FIFTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2022
____________________________
Danny Swenson, Chairman
ATTEST:
___________________________
Aseneth Steed, Town Clerk/Recorder
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