2022.02.23 WORK SESSION

Town of Leeds

Town Council Meeting for

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Joint Meeting 10 AM

ROLL CALL:
		Present		Absent
MAYOR: BILL HOSTER		x
COUNCILMEMBER: DANIELLE STIRLING		x
COUNCILMEMBER: RON CUNDICK		x
COUNCILMEMBER: STEPHEN WILSON		x
COUNCILMEMBER: LORRIE HUNSAKER				x

ROLL CALL:
		Present		Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON		x
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS		x
COMMISSIONER: KEN HADLEY				x
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON		x
COMMISSSIONER: MARK ROSENTHAL		x

Pledge of Allegiance:

Mayor Hoster: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public meeting, but we are restricting comments from the public at this time until a need to change that. The meeting was called together for our introduction of a key developer who is in charge of a project that is just north of us.

Frank, if you will come on up for just a minute, and pronouncing your last name, I know I will butcher it. If you do not mind introducing yourself and then we will introduce ourselves.

Frank Tussiasna: How many of you been Hawaii before? Very good. Okay. loosen up the tongue. My last name is Tussiasna (Tosee-a-sane-a) lots of vowels. It is a difficult Polynesian last name. I am originally from Southern California, from the Redondo Beach area. I moved up to Utah County about 11 years ago. My background is our company Eastward Management Group. We are a sports management firm. We specialize in sports events and anything in sports, and particularly youth sports. That has been our focus. we have been down here in southern Utah. My business partner, his name is Mike Morley, Mike’s from Spanish Fork and was a member of the House for 10 years. And he builds charter schools and in education, we got together. He was involved in Sand Hallow. We have been trying to put this project together different places and ended up here in southern Utah. There is a lot of sports going on down here, particularly youth sports with tournaments. Our effort was to come down and see if we can make something happen out here to accommodate the growth that is exploding in new sports. The destination with Zion National Park and the great weather, as brought us here to try to put together this large sports development. That is my background, we are a sports management firm, our development partner has done charter schools and commercial and hotels. We are looking to bring a well-managed destination location for sports tournaments, soccer, pickleball, baseball, softball, those type of things and tie it into the beautiful landscape that we have here on Southern Utah. A little warm, but that is only for a couple of months. we figured we could make it work. And we spent most of our time last couple years meeting with all the stakeholders in southern Utah, from the Tourism Authority to the school district to the recreation departments, and really trying to build consensus. We are not your typical developer, where we are going to come in and say, this is what we are going to do Tough luck, we want to get consensus. And most importantly, we want to make sure that it meets the needs of the convenient, particularly to those who are going to be involved and nearby. At the end of the day, we want this to be a win, win, and meet the needs of our growing population, especially our young people who are coming up, and our school and our education and make sure that they have a rich experience when they come through Southern Utah. The mayor reached out and I have never been to a meeting here because most of our dealings are with Toquerville. The property that we are looking at is in Toquerville. It is a piece of BLM property just to the north of Leeds. We have been working with the BLM through a bill on RPPA. We just received approval of ratification and moving forward with the NEPA checklist and hopefully be able to move ground later on this year; if everything lines up and there are not any environmental issues.

We are working closely with the Paiute Native American Indian tribe, their head administrator. One of the things that we are going to have on our park is a Native American Cultural Center, patterned after a place in Hawaii called the Polynesian Cultural Center. The idea is to protect Indigenous people, and particularly their legacy.

On the park. We have eighteen soccer fields twenty-four baseball, softball fields, pickleball courts and we also have the charter school. The charter school is further to the north by the Anderson junction. That charter school is the Jim Thorpe Collegiate Academy named after the Native American Olympian. It is a sport school, and those kids are from Utah, and they play a national schedule, the Native American Cultural Center will be a place where people can learn about the Paiute Indian tribe. And all the proceeds that are generated from that attraction will go to stay with Native American Paiute tribes and build their opportunity. We wanted to make sure that we did something that was a legacy for you were here before the pioneers got here. In a nutshell, it is called the Tocqueville Athletic Recreation Complex are the ARC and the Jim Thorpe Collegiate Academy. And again, it is just north of the Mills property that sits in between that and Leeds.

Mayor Hoster: Fantastic, Frank. That is an amazing introduction. There is a lot that is happening there. Is this all on the East side of I-15?

Frank Tussiasna: No. It is the west side, all the west side.

Mayor Hoster: Okay. Where exactly is that on the west side.

Frank Tussiasna: When you get off of Anderson junction. They have the frontage road that goes down the Mills property. Everything from the exit, headed towards the Mills property, all that piece right there is the location. It is about six hundred acres, and it is all BLM property. If we are going up this way, north, and you are going to get off an Anderson junction, instead of turning right to go to Toquerville you turn left and head into the hill there. if from that knoll all the way down to the edge of the Mills property; It is all right there right along the road. That is all Bureau of Land Management. It has taken us some time because the application, I do not know if you are familiar with the recreation public purposes act, but it was enacted in 1952. And what it allows is the Bureau of Land Management to convey property over to a municipality, not to a private group. And they are only allowed to use it for recreation purposes. There is no commercial on it, no homes now that stuff. And it has to be open to the public. The BLM will grant the property over to Toquerville city, and in turn Toquerville city will engage with us as operators and developers to develop the site. And it is an $80 million project with all the fields and all the schools. We will be operating with the city, but it is essentially a city park. It is not privately owned. It is a public park; it has to be because it is federal property.

Mayor Hoster: Frank, to my recollection, Toquerville does not have that annexed in right now. Tocqueville.

Frank Tussiasna: Well, that piece, supposedly is there, it is the 200 acres. the 200 acres Mills property sits in the county, and apparently you guys, somebody has the first right to it?

Mayor Hoster: Yeah, it is us.

Frank Tussiasna: The 200 acres that sits next to that piece, that is the buffer between the park. It is a parcel that we currently have under contract. And we are planning, on those two hundred acres, to put some of the amenities that will support the park and some homes and things like that. that development is called Zions Landing Resort. And that sits next to the ARC. that is the piece that we will have to annex in either in to Toquerville or depending on how this meeting goes. We just leaving it in Leeds. A lot of people in Toquerville are wondering what is going to happen after this meeting.

Mayor Hoster: I am sure.

Frank Tussiasna: Anyways, I want you guys to know that our number one concern is the impact that it is going to have this area. I have no interest in turning this into a show, because once it becomes a zoo, then it takes away from why we come to this area, which is our beautiful parks and everything like that. We want people to see it and they go back home and leave us alone. It is an opportunity that is really important. It is building a tax base. Toquerville city, just you know for the park alone, their projected to get anywhere from a million to a million and a half in tax base without impacting their city, and without them spending $1. The opportunity for Leeds is really similar. If it is controlled and we do it right, there is an opportunity for this city to benefit from it as well. I am excited for Leeds because of the history here. I want people to see and learn. You know the gym kids are coming with their families. And, when you came to St. George, you visit the park, you went to visit Silver Reef. You learned about our great history and take that home with them.

Mayor Hoster: Where do you currently reside, Frank?

Frank Tussiasna: I live in Sand Hallow. Actually, I live in Utah County, my family is there. I commute every week. I have a place out to Sand Hallow Golf Resort. That is where I office out of and once we are ready, then I will move the family down.

I brought some drawings and renderings and things for questions.

Mayor Hoster: That is a really great point about where it is located, how it is affecting Leeds, and how we kind of got to this point of having a kind of a discovery work session. I would like to just take a moment and introduce you to the rest of our Council and Commission and in our in our interest. I would like to allow our Council to have some discussion with you. Members of the Planning Commission we have a couple seats up here. If you would not mind joining us. You are more than welcome to participate in the discussion as well. Danielle Stirling, Councilwoman, she has been with our town for many years in a leadership position. It is the same with Ron Cundick, Councilman. Both these people have a very strong background in our town. We would like to open an exchange if you have questions for us as well. These are members of our Planning Commission, Tom Darton, and Danny Swenson, who are people that are familiar with how our land use is done. We have some of the other people on our zoom call that Aseneth, our town clerk, is managing and they may speak out as well. Some of them are officials with the town. I will go ahead and open up to the questions from Town Council at this point.

Ron Cundick: I am new to hearing what is going on up there. It kind of jumped out of the sky. I have been observing some of the development in Toquerville, but I was not aware of this particular development. I think that as a town, we are concerned with what is happening in our backyard and front yard. We want to be involved to the extent that it is appropriate. Could you give me some sense of the timeline you are looking at right now to get things going?

Frank Tussieasna: It is independent. It is a firm that the federal government approved. They are aware of. They look at the plants, they look at the deer, they look at all kinds of stuff, anything that would impact it. Then they submit their final report back to the BLM, and then the BLM will at that point, give the city the lease. And once we have that lease, then we will start moving ground. In terms of timeframe, we probably will not be moving any dirt out there until the end of the year. And that is in the best-case scenario.

Mayor Hoster: I have a couple questions. Danielle, did you want to go ahead?

Councilmember Stirling: No, go ahead.

Mayor Hoster: I want to make a couple statements. The idea was not to grill you, Frank. I just want you to know that.

Frank Tusieseina: No that it is fine. This was going to happen regardless, at some point.

Mayor Hoster: I can tell you that we have a great interest in what is happening around us, as well as within us. When I met with the Department of Transportation, the DETAC people were the ones who alerted me to what is happening because of major road infrastructures that are being impacted. Leeds is a unique area that I will not do justice in describing but it is a highly sought place right now because everything south of us is developed out. Now they are going out to the Arizona border and trying to go out in that direction and facilitating waters really tough there. Here is Leeds a town that has been mostly agricultural, we have had a population under a thousand people. We have held this heritage and historical culture. We realize that growth is inevitable, and you could not have said it better, you know, with managed growth. That is carefully done, those things are, are facilitated in a way that does not become a jungle. I like zoos, but I will refer to it as a jungle. We just end up with population that comes in that is transient, that is disrespectful of the locals, as well as the environment. Learning about this now is good for us. If we could be a part of that, I do not know but the idea here is to start to explore and enable us the opportunity take part. As it is actually within our county boundary lines. We are looking at how this affects Leeds. Our ability to flip that switch on an annexation is probably 100%, easier than it would be for Tocqueville to move those lines. I really wanted to make this more of a discovery work meeting. Because we do have more than two council members present, we did make it a public meeting. I will allow you at the end, if you would like to take any of the public’s questions or comments to make that decision. With that, if anybody else has questions for Frank?

Councilmember Stirling: I commend you for taking this on. This seems like it is probably extensive and taken out all of your free time at this point. I do have a question. How many acres is the Zion Landing Resort?

Frank Tusieseina: Two Hundred.

Councilmember Stirling: And how many acres is the ARC?

Frank Tusieseina: Six Hundred

Councilmember Stirling: One of my biggest concerns in in all of the Leeds area is conservation. Conservation of the night sky, conservation of water, and then conservation, of course of the impact of the transportation. Concerning the night sky, do you have anything in your written, I guess, CC&Rs for lack of a better term?

Frank Tusieseina: We have not gotten that far with the resort yet. Our number one concern are those things. I have to tell you. Two years ago, when I came down to St. George, I spent six months just doing research just talking to everybody. We held a big lunch where I sort of big Polynesian lunch. I knew that would get him back. It was great. But I had the parks people, everyone there. The question was, what do we need in the southern region of Utah? Right? I have had kids in sports, and there is nothing worse than going to St. George and being in a long line for McDonald’s of all places. We do not want that as we grow. The three most important things that we began our discussion with was water. Okay, number two was traffic in the parking and the impact to the area. It would have been very easy for us to find a spot buy it and say, who cares, let’s just do it. But that takes away from the overall experience. And in the business that we are in, it is about experience. Youth sports is a $16 billion industry.; Phoenix, Arizona just opened up a large park. The way it is going. Because there are many kids, and with COVID, everyone is trying to get out. Just because that is a case, does not mean you do not want to manage it properly. I am from the Islands, and everybody there is very sensitive about land, and who is coming there and the experience. We said whatever we do, let us make sure we put foundationally into place those things that are going to protect the experience. That is water. That is traffic. That is lights. How are the neighbors going to feel? I do not know how they do in St. George, but it is brutal. There are cars all over the place. One of the first thing we addressed with the BLM was, there is no way we are building a 600-acre park, and not having enough parking, not having enough access. We have met with UDOT and all those guys. Even the legislators I told Senator McKay, Senator Isom, these guys listen, I will not have you guys do what you did at Thanksgiving point. It is not going to happen. This interchange, it is the 27th. When he grows, it has to be done properly. If you have to spend thirty million here, then do it that the impact is as minimal as possible to the people here, because Leeds is part of the experience. Silver reef is part of the experience. It is only as good as people being able to get in and out, and you guys feeling the least impacted. relating to your question. Our water, we went to see Zach at the water district. In terms of the park, their requirement is that 80% of our fields are synthetic turf. The soccer fields, 80% of them are turf, but the baseball fields 100% of them are turf. fortunately, technology has advanced much that in the Midwest, everything is turf when it comes to baseball, and softball. those are the types of things that we are looking to make sure we mitigate the impact of water. On the Mills property, the portion that we are buying has about twenty-one acres of water feet that we are using for our park as well. we have our own water, and we do not want to take away from the natural resources. In terms of the light, what we are doing, we are working closely. Sports has taken a huge leap in technology. we are trying to make sure that we have lighting that is not going to blow up the sky. And that is limited to one area and way away from the homes. that is why that buffer from the park to Leeds is pretty significant. I mean, those type of things, we want to be sensitive to you guys, to everybody. We want people to say Yeah, we are there at Leeds. That is a really nice area.

Councilmember Stirling: Your traffic plan is accessing it at the Tocqueville exit? Are you implementing the opportunity to continue it all the way down the frontage road and connect into Leeds?

Frank Tusieseina: The discussion with UDOT we had is we want to take an overall look with you guys. What I am trying to do is, the preference would be is that the off ramp, Extra 27.

Mayor Hoster: Mayor Hoster: It is really up in the air right now. They are looking at moving frontage roads and different things with regard to the distance available from I-15 to an intersection. They want to work with these guys on the funding. But on the engineering, they have no say. Engineering from DTAC has come in and said they are going to redo that exit right there. But they are also, now, considering I-north.

Frank Tusieseina: Oh Yes. What we have done is when we talked to UDOT, we said, hey, let’s stop all the plans right now, because they were not aware of the project. my first meeting with them when they saw they said, okay, we probably should stop everything. we just ordered a traffic study. That is what drives everything. once they have a traffic study what I am going to propose to them is go ahead and expand the exit there but do a better job of what you have planned, make it more robust. We would like them to bring a road in before that, that just comes to the park. If you are coming to the park, you are not going to the off ramp. You are going to get off on a commuter lane and come right to the park. Same thing as you are coming from the south, that those two areas do not get bunched up. Here is the challenge. In the business that we are in if I have a soccer mom coming to the park, right, and she cannot get her kid to the soccer field, and she is frazzled and not happy; she will literally get on her phone. She will post what she is having happen in her life and she will say this is the worst place in the world. That will go to the tournament director who has contracted for the next few years to have his tournament. And he will say, Frank, we are going to move our tournament back to Mesquite or to Arizona. And the reason that is important is because a lot of this is about economic impact. Right, the Tourism Authority, their number one-line item for revenue in southern Utah is sports. $150 million of economic impact. That creates jobs for us that pays taxes, all those types of things. But that is not going to stay here. If people come here and say that place is a traffic nightmare. Right? And then you will hear from the citizens. This is not sustainable. the only way we fix that is to make sure that you UDOT and everybody is on board about taking that place and saying let us foundationally make this work. Not after the fact. That is what is happening in Lehi. They just fixed it, like six months ago, and it is still bad. And the growth is still coming down traverse mountain and all

over and I do not know what they were thinking.

Councilmember Stirling: this might be a premature question. But for your Zion Landing Resort, do you have a certain amount of acreage for commercial certain amount of acreage for residential that you have decided upon or at least speculated?

Frank Tusieseina: We wanted to entitle it for mixed use for X number of costs per hospitality, and some multifamily vacation stuff, and then homes. The homes, I think right now, what Toquerville city has is two to one acre and maybe three. What we do not want to do is do production homes. We do not want it to look like that. Zions Landing Resort has to be very high end, and when you go high end then it limits who can come there and the type of people. right? We are looking to build the only and first five-star hotel on the site. It is a smaller hotel. And it is meant for super high end. We are tied to lots of folks in in the entertainment industry, have lots of money and it is not going to be cheap. We have horseback riding; it is all that stuff. It is a really unique resort that we are trying to build.

Councilmember Stirling: In that five-star hotel then would it have I guess for your Zion Landing resort and the Arc would basically need eating establishments in your area as well.

Councilmember Darton: My big concerns would be the ingress and egress to the to the park, I would want to make sure there is not Ingress or egress from residential roads in Leeds, specifically Silver Reef, and that side there. Is that the commitment that there would be no possible way to get to the part through residential town roads? All the access would be from that exit twenty-seven, Anderson junction?

Frank Tusieseina: Absolutely. There should be no access to the park other than from the North. If there is any access from the other side, it will be very exclusive to the people who live in the resort. Okay, right. that means that you cannot get into the resort from the north side unless you are a guest there. there is no open parking where you can go in let’s just park in the resort, or let’s go to the south and get in. It is very private and gated in that area.

Councilmember Darton: In the Zions landing part which is the closest to Leeds.

Frank Tusieseina: Everything that is closest to you. We are purchasing that property from the new owners, and they have four hundred acres leftover that they are not developing, and that will be that buffer between the resort and Leeds. The park is on the other side.

Councilmember Cundick: Did you say they are not developing that land, what is going to keep them from developing later?

Frank Tusieseina: They may or may not but, knowing that sellers. They purchased that Mills property for one thing, and that was for their cattle in their horses. They own a home in Leeds right next to the property. And at this point they, plans to build that other four hundred acres. And if they do, I think what we set into place will dictate how that rolls out if at all.

Councilmember Cundick: I mean if they did that puts it right in our front yard.

Frank Tusieseina: Correct. But if I can tell you one thing, they are not interested in doing massive home development there. I think what ideas for the whole six hundred acres at some point in the future is to keep it small and very exclusive. Not, you know, production type stuff.

Mayor Hoster: We always hoped that, but we know property get sold.

Frank Tusieseina: We only taking two hundred acers. I think what we are trying to do with them is to, on the front end, make sure that whatever happens in the future sticks to what we have set in motion.

Mayor Hoster: Have you worked with Ash Creek at all with regard to how your sewage is going to be run?

Frank Tusieseina: I have not. Most of the work that we have been doing is with the City of Toquerville. As it relates to the two hundred acres, we have not done anything yet.

Mayor Hoster: I got to ask. I am very direct by the way. I got to ask why Tocqueville would allow you to, to have dialogue with them knowing that this resides in boundaries that would buttress or be annexed be Leeds and walk down that path without saying, Yeah, you got to talk with Leeds. Is there something I am not picking up? Because, Yeah?

Frank Tusieseina: And again, you will have to forgive me because, you know, most of our dealings have been with. Here is what it is. We had always focused on just the six hundred acres. Just the park. That six hundred acres with the Mills, when they had it, we had tried to make an offer on that property, but they were not having it. We could not make the commitment they wanted because the six hundred acres was not committed yet.

Mayor Hoster: For Mills or for Toquerville.

Frank Tusieseina: Yeah, for Toquerville. We had just started the RPPA process, but there was no way we were going to take down six hundred.

Mayor Hoster: you partnered with Tocqueville?

Frank Tusieseina: Yeah, we had to hurry and partner with Toquerville, we, you know, they had a city resolution to move forward and all that stuff on that 600 acres.

Mayor Hoster: On acres that are not annexed in with them and reside within the Leeds lines?

Frank Tusieseina: My understanding is that six hundred Acres is in Toquerville already.

Mayor Hoster: That you have already purchased? Okay.

Frank Tusieseina: the previous mayor, that when time came, and if we were going to purchase that, that they would be able to, we/they Toquerville would be able to annex it. And the only reason we had not an engaged with you guys, because we were going based on what Toquerville city was telling us what is going to happen in the future. And then your mayor called me.

Mayor Hoster: Yeah, no, I am glad.

Frank Hoster: it was not that we were not trying to pass something by without knowing.

Mayor Hoster: Oh, no. That is not the assessment.

Frank Tusieseina: And I was thrilled when you called because it would be easier to have you guys’ annex it versus having to jump over one more piece.

Mayor Hoster: Here’s where I am highly concerned. What we are seeing, and again I am a blunt guy, we already know about four thousand rooftops that are planned to be put in along the bypass. It has been approved and is under construction. Now, we are looking at this ARC facility and the very first thing that comes to mind is water. It all comes from the same spot. When we talk with Zach and we talked with Ash Creek, we talked with you. There are collective decisions that have to be made. We have our own water company here in Leeds. We work with the district, but all of those things make us question does that affect the existing residents of not only Leeds, but Toquerville and La Verkin and everybody else. This is why I was wondering how come Toquerville would not have said Hey, we have to have you talk with Leeds too. I will want to talk with you and Toquerville at the same time on this because of just that issue of making sure that the water is not compromised for the existing residents or any operations that we have going on right now. That was my question not that anything nefarious was happening, Sir.

Frank Tusieseina: We have been working with Leeds, I mean, Toquerville for last two years. It has been in discussion.

Mayor Hoster: Yeah, that is why I am like? We just learned about it. Like Councilman Cundick saying dropped out of the sky. This is really new to us. We want to be a part of managed growth. Absolutely.

Frank Tusieseina: I am really, really grateful that we are having this discussion, because like I said, it is going to happen at some point. We had a public meeting at Dixie State with Utah Alliance Economic development folks all over the state. And after that meeting, we started getting phone calls, because, and the only reason we have kept this under wraps is because there is no need. There have been groups who have come, especially with sports, everybody has a sports idea, they want to do this, they want to do that. And we are sports guys. And we know that if things are not in place, you should not go live. Right, right. And we purposely did not go live, because we wanted to make sure that the RPPA was done that we had an application and we were not going to get people stirred up, if it did not have a chance of happening because it was large. And from the financing, and we have had people do press releases and get online and only to figure out it is never going to come to fruition. When I came down here two years ago, I met with Sitla, (School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration) And the first thing the guy told me, he looked at me said, Frank, you are number 19. I go, what do you mean, he goes, You’re the nineteenth guy who has come to St. George, with the grandiose plan to build all these fields. And we just told everyone until we have these types of meetings with people, and we know that that UDOT is on board and the districts on board, there is no need to talk about it, because I would rather just go public with advocacy versus pushback.

Mayor Hoster Thank you for that. do you know what that estimated patronage is on your business plan? Just a guess?

Frank Tusieseina: Probably if it were fully active like everything is going and everybody is at the park. There could probably be five-thousand people on site. They have eighteen soccer fields. And they are all going at the same time, there is a baseball tournament happening. And then the sixty pickleball courts. what we have done, we have gone out and signed agreements with sports groups, for example, the International Federation of pickleball. They are the largest pickleball organization. They are taking pickleball to the Olympics in hopefully the next two Olympics. They are moving from Phoenix, Arizona, and moving to this location, and they will be having all their pickleball stuff there. Same thing with baseball and softball. We have plugged in with a group called USSSA. They are the largest baseball softball tournament operators out of Florida. they will be coming in. And then we have local group here Fire Soccer Club that is doing all the soccer.

Mayor Hoster: I am curious on public safety. police and fire for servicing five thousand people. Has that been worked with the Hurricane Special Service District or has any of that dialogue occur?

Frank Tusieseina: We have not gotten that far yet.

Mayor Hoster: Okay. And then my assumption kind of segues off of what

Danielle was saying with regard to commercial efforts that you are planning to do there. You just spoke about some companies wanting to move their headquarters there. In your tax revenue base, are some of those equated in? Or is this just the functionality of the sports operation.

Frank Tusieseina: Oh, no, no. on the six hundred acres? There cannot be any offices. When I say we are moving their headquarters; they are all nonprofit organizations. They will have a building like a Rec Center, where they can operate out of and those type of things, but it is not an official business. There is a piece to the north, right on the off ramp that we are looking at. That would be more conducive to just pure commercial. On the Zions Landing Resort piece, it is mainly just hospitality. There is not going to be any office spaces. We do not want people to be having their businesses there. It is mainly you can leave the soccer field, get something eat, sleep, and then go back over the field. It will not be a commercial district.

Commissioner Darton: Would there be community access to the facilities there? Is it strictly limited to, you know, tournaments and things like that?

Frank Tusieseina: Here’s the best part about Leeds and everybody around here. We are building on the park, a recreation center, and that is for the residents of Leeds and Toquerville mainly, because those are the two closest cities. That Rec Center will have its own pool house. Have an exercise program. And all those city community members get to go there. That is our give back to the city, all of your programming. there is lots of soccer fields. But if you are a resident of Leeds and you have teams here, you get to the Rec Center, you have access, you get special rates for the type of thing. it is essentially the Leeds and Tocqueville Rec Center. that is the benefits of the city. And the best part is the city and does not have to pay for it. No subsidies to you guys.

Mayor Hoster: Wow, a lot, of exciting stuff. I love the video that you guys had on there. Are there any more plans and things that we might be able to look at together?

Frank Tusieseina: I will email you the renderings and all that stuff that you can share with everyone?

Mayor Hoster: I wanted to make sure. I did not recognize Alan Roberts. He is also on our Planning Commission. He is a very insightful person as well. Alan, do you have any questions?

Commissioner Roberts: Very first question, maybe it is more of a statement. Your two hundred acres does lie within the potential annexation boundaries of Leeds and not Toquerville. We have had, in the past, some heated discussions with Tocqueville on annexation boundaries. were they exist to this at this present time?

Councilmember Stirling: Can I stop you for a second, Alan. She is not going to be able to type it up. And she would really like for you to come to the microphone to talk because it needs to be on record.

Commissioner Roberts: It is a WORK meeting.

Commissioner Darton: Work with us Alan.

Commissioner Stirling: Thank You.

Commissioner Roberts: No, thank you.

Your two hundred acres resides within potential annexation boundaries of Leeds. We have had, in the past; I am not sure I want to word that. I better calm it down. We have had some disagreements on boundary lines with Toquerville. Where it exists now, the Town of Leeds has expanded a fair amount of money in the past on determining where the annexation boundary is. At this point, I am a little bit frustrated with Toquerville, if they have had this information, and not brought it to at least the mayor of the town of Leeds and had discussion that way. I do appreciate your openness because it will have an effect on Leeds. But the first thing that you have to determine is where these annexation boundaries are. The services available between the two communities are going to be different at this time. I am not saying that those things cannot be worked out. I am just saying that those services are different at this time between Leeds and Toquerville and how those services can be managed for your project. As far as other details, you are in the early stages of the planning, you have got to acquire that RPPA, or you won’t go anywhere anyway. That is really going to be your first step for the athletic facility. For your 200 acres, that is not the case. Your two hundred acres exists. You do not need an RPPA for that. If you purchase that then you go through that process of developing it however you want to develop that and present it to the municipality into which it is annexed.

Mayor Hoster: Thank you for that Alan. Alan has a really strong historical background in a lot of the transactions that have occurred in Leeds. He was mayor and, later, on the Town Council with the prior mayor. I appreciate his frustration. He vocalized it better than I did. Toquerville is not having these dialogues with us, but that is not your concern, Frank. We want to make sure that the businesses who want to come in here get the assistance that they need from the towns that they are working with, appropriately. Our job is to make sure that all the rules get followed.

Frank Tusieseina: Alan, thank you very much for that, because we have a lot on the line in terms of all of our partners. The most important thing is to address these things early on. You have to know that when we came into town, and we were working with Toquerville city, which is where our focus was. But we had to, at some point rely on what they are telling us with the people around them, because we are not here. Why that was not the case? I do know that I have made a call at one point to the city. But since we realized we were over there, too. I said, well, let’s not do anything until we figure out there’s going to be something in play. this actually is important, because what I would prefer to do, and you want to be straight and honest, I am the kind of guy that says, okay, Toquerville. You guys get in the same room and let us put it all out there. I mean, clear everybody, and then figure out how this thing is supposed to work with everyone’s mutual interest at stake here. Not why didn’t I know? I did not know. They probably should have said something. I knew we were going to get to this point in this annexation discussion. I was told there is a master annexation plan and this and that. Again, we are going…well he told us this, and we should just rely on it. But this discussion is important, because it is people like Alan and you that should be sitting with Keene Ellsworth and their city Councilors saying, Gentlemen, for the good of all of us let us have an honest discussion about what can and cannot happen. What is in our interest at Leeds and what is in your interest at Toquerville and figure out a solution. Not, the last thing we want…we cannot get involved in this mix.

Mayor Hoster: And we are not pulling you into it.

Frank Tusieseina: I know you are not, but they need to understand that too. This is supposed to benefit first and foremost, those people closest to the project. The rest of the people I am not concerned about because they are coming and leaving. It is you that have to live with it every single day. That is why I want to make sure that we address it in these types of forums. Please, I think this is great. We would love to have Alan sit down with those guys and have him say, why didn’t you tell us?

Mayor Hoster: I can assure you, that is probably going to happen. I can assure you that is probably on the calendar soon. We are grateful that you are here able to answer some questions for our officials of the town. I want to ask if anybody else here has any further questions. Danny?

Commissioner Swenson: Thirty-seven years as a firefighter down in Los Angeles area as a captain.

Frank Tusieseina: There you go. Thousand Oaks.

Commissioner Swenson: One day, one time with sixteen soccer fields in the Camarillo Sector, our busiest soccer day response was eighteen calls. I say that because you have not studied this yet, but obviously emergency access and accessibility to that is local. These agencies here are going to have to be involved with that planning, because that has to happen. It is going to happen.

All the questions have pretty much been answered on my part. There is consideration for another entrance exit this way from Toquerville?

Frank Tusieseina: Yes.

Commissioner Swenson: I know access from here is discouraged, but one between here and there could alleviate all the access coming from just one road if we are talking five thousand people, right?

Frank Tusieseina: Yes.

Commissioner Swenson: Okay, you considered that. Availability. Let us say we have a group here that gets together and says, hey, lets go up there tomorrow and play a little Powerball. Is that available without reservation just as a regular open park?

Frank Tusieseina: Again, the BLM requires that the ARC be a public park. It actually is a public park that is managed by someone at the Recs department. And then we are the management company that is managing that. What we are trying to do is make sure that the cities close by have their Rec Center that is just a Rec Center that, when they call up it is just them renting that place. If they want to come up and play that time has been set aside for the residents. There is not a mix. And not an, oh well It is always busy every time I call, I cannot get in. There is a completely separate piece for the park itself. Because we want you guys to be able to go swim, the Rec Center will have its own pool for the residents. That pool is not necessarily going to be a part of the park people coming in. We have other amenities for that stuff. Yes, that Rec Center is meant for the residents, and they have priority. We will have sixty pickleball courts, but you will have your own pickleball courts, you do not have to mix it with those other people. We want to make sure that you feel like your Rec Center is just as good, if not better, than the rest of the facilities.

Mayor Hoster: Frank, would you be open to visits to the location? Because of the dynamics and legalities for Open Meetings meaning two elected officials can be together at the same time, but not more than that without a public meeting, as you probably are aware. We would love to make some multiple engagements with you to go maybe visit the location.

Frank Tusieseina: Absolutely. Come up. Everyone is welcome to bring their side by sides, sign a release and we will go up there.

Mayor Hoster: We might have to do a couple of meetings to do it but then we could get multiple people to get a visual. I thought the video was really enlightening, but it is all clips. Being able to look at the renderings, getting the visual is a helpful thing for me and might be also for some of the other Councilmembers. With that, I do not have any further questions. And is anybody up here have any further questions? Ron? Alan, do you have any other questions? Okay.

Frank, I will ask if you are open to taking any questions from the public, that is entirely up to you. You do not have to answer any of the questions that you do not feel comfortable with. If you are open to that.

Frank Tusieseina: Please do. The more questions the better.

Steve Lasky. Hope to be a resident here in about a year or so. We are working on a little development. You had mentioned a five-star resort and then later mentioned select service hotels, which are two different things. Mentioned maybe 5000 People coming to use that facility? Is the resort meant to house those five thousand plus people? You are probably looking at 1,600 rooms.

Lynn Potter publicly encouraged the town to pursue the opportunities this project would bring to the Town of Leeds.

13. Adjournment

Approved this ______ Day of March, 2022.

___________________________________

Bill Hoster, Mayor

ATTEST:

________________________________________

Aseneth Steed, Clerk/Recorder

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