2022.11.02 PC MTG AGENDA & MINUTES
Town of Leeds
Planning Commission Meeting for
Wednesday, October 5, 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: __ ___ ___ __
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON __ X__ _____
COMMISSIONER: _____ ______
- Oath of Office for Gary Rosenfield, Planning Commission term ending July 2024
Gary Rosenfield:
I’m Gary Rosenfield. I’ve been a resident of Leeds Utah for it’ll be eight years on the 15th of this month. I enjoy it a lot here. I lived in Utah for 20 years. Previously was in Las Vegas for about 21 years total. I was born in Los Angeles, California, a lot of people I know are from there. I started a hobby of model rocketry when I was about 14 years old and eventually ended up making it a business. And I’ve had my current business Aerotech for about 40 years now, this is our 40th year. We relocated from Las Vegas to Cedar City, Utah. We established there and we’re currently in the process of expanding our business Building a new building right next door. We still do model rockets, but we also do high power rockets and rockets for a government contractors, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and companies like that. We have a wide range of products. We don’t do SpaceX type stuff, but you know there’s a market for the smaller stuff. So that’s what we do. I have my wife and my daughter, I have actually three other grown well, two other grown kids in Las Vegas moment. Thank you.
b. Oath of Office for Miranda Nessen, Planning Commission Alternate #2 term
ending July 2025
I’m Miranda Nessen, I’ve pretty much lived here my whole life, my family was a big part of Leeds and Silver Reef when it was started, so I’ve always had family history here. Pretty much if I’m not at work, I’m usually out in the hills somewhere with my animals are out at the lake. Pioneer Family.
c. Oath of Office for Bill Mclaughlin, Alternate Planning Commission Alternate #3 term
ending July 2027
I go by Bill, the most hated guy at the mailbox. spent most of my life in California. I was born in Massachusetts. I was in the printing industry for 25 years and helped a lot of companies develop and needed a break, went into the towing and transport business. spent 15 years doing that. And then moved here to Leeds five years ago to start new and enjoy the adventure. Love the town. It’s been interesting change like us coming from where from the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo. And it’s been quite a difference of lifestyle and pace, and really love it here. Enjoy the town and hope to see some of it stay and not grow too fast.
Chairman Swenson: Thank you very much, again, for accepting and being here and for taking the oath and taking it seriously. It’s a great opportunity. And I appreciate your willingness to all serve. That’s what it is, it’s service to somebody else, you know, it’s a commitment. And life gets in the way, we’re not always here. And that’s why we do need the alternates. But great opportunity to see this little town and get the will of the people and push that forward. So, thank you very much. That’s why everybody’s here. This is one of the rare times that we actually start a meeting with before the invocation. And I’ve asked Tom Darton if he would, but just a note with the new commissioners I want you to have the opportunity to say the invocation if you desire and if you don’t, that’s fine, too. That’s not a requirement of you. But I do want to talk to you individually and let me know. Okay, so we’ll talk about that later, as we do start with the invocation. So, we will have the invocation.
- Invocation: Tom Darton
- Pledge of Allegiance: Chairman Swenson
- Declaration of Abstentions or Conflicts: None
- Agenda:
Commissioner Darton moved to approve the agenda of October 5, 2022. Commissioner Roberts seconded. Motion passed in a roll call vote.
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON _X_ ___ ______ ______
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS _X _ ___ ______ _____
COMMISSIONER: GARY ROENFIELD _ X_ ___ ______ __ ___
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON _ X _ ___ ______ ______
COMMISSIONER: MIRANDA NESSEN _ X _ ___ ______ ______
Meeting Minutes of September 7, 2022:
Commissioner Roberts motioned to approve Meeting Minutes of September 7, 2022. Chairman Swenson seconded the motion. Motion passed in a roll call vote.
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
CHAIRMAN: DANNY SWENSON _X_ ___ ______ ______
COMMISSIONER: ALAN ROBERTS _X _ ___ ______ _____
COMMISSIONER: GARY ROENFIELD _ _ ___ ___X___ __ ___
COMMISSIONER: TOM DARTON _ _ ___ ___X___ ______
COMMISSIONER: MIRANDA NESSEN _ _ ___ ___X___ ______
6. Announcements:
a. Huntsman game cycling event October 6th
Chairman Swenson: Tomorrow morning, starting at nine o’clock, actually, the Huntsman, senior World Games cycling road race will be starting and finishing here in town. There has been changes during the procedure. I know because I’ve been participating, the course has changed. The staging area is going to be the church LDS church parking lot down the street and the start and finish line will be pretty close to that somewhere between here and there. I know. And the course was going out of here to work in and around and through La Verkin and through Hurricane and hurricane on the courses this past week, tarred and graveled about four miles of the road. So, it’s like the parking lot out here, which isn’t conducive to bicycles. Right. And so that’s changed. Yeah. Which is actually better. I think that it will be better. So now it’s going to start here. It’s going to go down through town. It’s going to make a left Turn towards Quail Creek Lake travel along quail Creek. And when it gets to highway nine, it’s going to make a right turn, we’ll be going up the hill to the chevron station, I forget the road name, but the chevron station then comes back down into our Main Street. And we’ll come back, and then a turn around. So different age groups and experience groups, one group will finish with just one lap, others will go then and make a wide sweeping turn. That will be flags and attendance to stop traffic, and then down and do that lap again. The experts will do three laps. So, the only real concern there is, if there’s cyclists coming down the mountain towards the Quill Creek turn, and then people are going to turn left. So, the right of way, we’ll have the cyclists coming down, but they’re going to be going fast. So that’s the only real concern. And it just so happens this past week, up there by the commercial properties. The distribution center is doing construction, adding more commercial on the one side of the road, and they’ve taken two-foot strips across the highway, across the road, six different places. So, it’s dirt, gravel. They just did that this week. For plumbing purposes, I think the hydrants are on one side, and so they’re bringing them over. So, I think they’re going to try to put some carpet down or so, but they’ve smoothed them out, I noticed. And so that’s the only flat gutter that we have, except in front of Roberts house where he threw the tax out. So that will take place tomorrow. Now Cycling is a hard, hard venue to watch. It’s kind of like the opening serve of tennis, except tennis, you get to see the ball over and over cycling. Once they go by it’s done. And it’s just one time and then you won’t see him for another hour. So, it’s not a great spectator sport. But there’s going to be a lot of people here. I did notice in the world games, announcements, and schedule that there’s a discount offering from Casa Tequilana, Mexican food place up here. Which is really nice, as well as the Mainly Pizza. I’ve noticed some cars up there, even today in here with some bikes on the back. And so, I think that’s great. I think that’s great. I’m trying to promote that. This will be the third day it started actually Monday, the third day of cycling, though, maybe tomorrow. And then it’ll go Friday. And then there’s Mountain biking the following. So, all two weeks, there’s a lot of activities going on at the Dixie college down at the convention center every day all night. And if you want to see some pretty fantastic volleyball and table tennis and stuff, it’s down there at the venue. It’s really pretty exciting. And to see the people walking around from all over the world. You have to be at least 50 and on up to 100. And so, there’s a lot of participation. So, it’s really good.
- Chili Cook-off, October 31,2022 4pm to 6pm
Rhonda Mclaughlin: I’m still putting together the details of the cookoff I’m going to start doing a little promotion on our Leeds family Fun soon to get people. I still I do need to get judge for that I have none. And I’m getting together prizes and such on that.
- Truck or Treat October 31, 2022 6pm to 9pm
So, the trunk or treat. I was thinking that it would start at five at the park. And I don’t know if five or six is a better start. We haven’t really had a trunk or treat for here. Last year was in conjunction with the chili cook off. With the kids walking down in the streets not technically close, we don’t want somebody coming down the street and they can’t close. I think five o’clock if that sounds good.
Commissioner Nessen: I know people get more into it with decorating their cars if there’s like a contest for that too. Like I usually show up with all my inflatable Jack skeletons.
Chairman Swenson: That’s a good idea. I think one of the best advertising venues is the post office right for sure. I think you put anything up there and it will get a lot of looks.
7. Public Hearings: None
8.Action Items: None
9.Discussion items:
Commissioner Darton: Well, we had a first annual last year. But that was the first a supposition that it would be an annual and so now it’s an annual because we’re going to do it again. We’re putting together a committee of people throughout the committee to help plan this and last year, we use the flagpole at the church to create a Christmas tree. Problem is we’re not allowed to have decorations outside on the church grounds. So, we couldn’t leave that up. So, we’re going to want to try to find someplace like that. There might be I don’t know, a town flagpole or something. And I heard we might be getting a new one. Do you know what the timing of that is?
Mayor Hoster: I don’t yet I know that Antonio’s been shopping for us.
Chairman Swenson: There’s something wrong with our existing one?
Mayor Hoster: We got a generous donation from Mr. Studdard. To invest in the patriotism of the town, identified that the current one is pretty shambled and little shorter than most people would like. We invested in a new one with that donation I’ll be putting in some additional in to get it.
Commissioner Darton: So, this committee. I will put it out that anybody who would like to participate in this we want, you know, as broader participation as possible. For those who may not be aware, the town of Leeds has two wards or congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here. We’ve got some people from both wards that are going to be participating in the committee. We’ve got a couple of people from the town. Well, we’ve got the mayor of the town that may be involved in we’ve got a member of the town council, who has agreed to be involved, although I understand she was in the hospital recently, just about how she’s doing? She is still there may be up to two weeks. Wow. I hope she gets better soon. Anyway, we would like broaden participation from the town from all walks of life. We’d like to make this a really fun activity and one that people would like to, you know, have become a tradition. and it’s something we want to leave up to throughout the holidays, even past Christmas, maybe take it down first of the year. Because we’d like to have that. We’re we’d like to look at you know what kind of festivities we can have food drink, songs, maybe have some people prepare some musical numbers. We can try to do it all here, weather permitting, we can always use the church, when if it’s rather cold or wet like it was last year. It was raining and windy. And I was sweating because I was hoping that it was going to light when I flipped the switch. And I was hoping it wouldn’t get electrocuted when I flipped the switch. And it worked. Surprise. So, anybody who would have any interest or if you know of anybody who might be interested in participating in the planning, and that would be much appreciated. Let me know, let the mayor know, let Danny know. And just get it back to us and we’ll contact them. So, there’s a lot of planning yet to do. We’re going to have to do a lot of advertising so that we can get people out to it. You know, there’s a limited number of advertising venues, the town website, the post office, Facebook town, Facebook page, are all good opportunities, we may have to put up some signs or flyers. It’ll grow, it’ll grow. I don’t know how many people I have shared this with. But I have this crazy, crazy vision of this growing, to maybe start having a Christmas market here in Leeds, that could draw in artisans from across southern Utah or even further away to come and bring their Christmas wares here and have a little Christmas market for a week or so. I think it’d be a fun thing.
Scott Messel: It works on the Hallmark Channel so why not here?
Commissioner Darton: It always works on the Hallmark Channel. Shouldn’t Leeds be the Hallmark Did you know that Leeds Market before it closed down was in a Hallmark movie. It was in a Hallmark movie a year or year and a half ago. I can’t remember exactly what it was. We were watching the movie. That’s Leeds market, and we made some inquiries. And yeah, one day they came, and they filmed that. I have no idea why they chose that. We are in the big time.
Commissioner Nessen: I would love to help. I might have access to a bucket truck if we need to reach up high.
Commissioner Darton: Oh, that would be great. Because are you looking to get a fixed flagpole or a hinged?
Mayor Hoster: I’m pretty sure it’ll be fixed.
Commissioner Darton: Okay. In that case, a bucket would be really helpful. I actually think that the flagpole trees are the showiest because you can see all the lights. So that’s kind of what I would prefer to see.
Chairman Swenson: Okay. Thank you for putting that together. The first weekend in December maybe right after Thanksgiving. Yeah, exactly. Train right on. And hopefully in the future, we have some things going on with thanksgiving and stuff too. Okay, I think it’s good idea.
Staff Reports:
Scott Messel: I can give you an update about the annexation, the 30-day protest period ends at the end of this week on Friday.
Commissioner Darton: I’m still thinking about it because that backs up on my property.
Scott Messel: After that, it’ll be time to schedule a public hearing and just moved forward through the process of annexation. I’ll work with Aseneth on that. And then just for the new Planning Commissioners, if you have any questions or want any training. Oh, on the annexation, just so you know, I am Scott Messel. I am the Town Planner. What an annexation is, you have your municipal city boundaries and when there’s property that’s outside of the city boundaries in the unincorporated area, there is a process to become a part of the town or the city boundaries. It’s the annexation process and it’s set through state code. Each jurisdiction goes through the process of annexing the property. So, there’s property north of Silver Reef that is unincorporated. And there has been application by two large property owners to annex property into the Town of Leeds.
Commissioner Darton: Part of it’s that BLM parcel Correct?
Scott Messel: No.
Commissioner Darton: No? Because I got a piece of mail that, you know, notified me and it showed a little map.
Scott Messel: The BLM land was really close to it, but it’s not the BLM.
Commissioner Darton: Okay because it showed my property in that little map of affected properties.
Mayor Hoster: No, that property is still BLM land right now. And the property just to the south of it, like adjacent to it is the property.
Scott Messel: I’d be happy to go through any training and just you have questions about your role as a Planning Commissioner I’d be happy to answer any of those.
Chairman Swenson: It was brought up by somebody, I forget when they were announcing that, hopefully to keep the town small and, you know, manage growth and things like that. So, one reason why we’re doing this is growth is coming. Right? And outside entities were trying to come in and annex it on their own and that would leave Leeds with no control of the properties around us.
Commissioner Darton No control and we would have all the downside of having it right next to us.
Scott Messel: All the impact and none of the tax benefit.
Chairman Swenson: No tax benefit, no control over how or what happens. Nobody wants to grow to that extent, but we didn’t have control over it unless we annex.
Commissioner Darton: Yeah, we don’t want to mention names because we don’t actually get upset. But you know, Toquerville was trying to annex the property. And they had already annexed the junction and all that property up there a few years ago.
Chairman Swenson: So good. Heads up by Mayor Hoster. He was definitely on the ball with that. Any other reports?
Commissioner Darton moved to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Rosenfield seconded
The meeting was adjourned at 7:47 pm.
APPROVED ON THIS FIRST DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2022
____________________________
Danny Swenson, Chairman
ATTEST:
___________________________
Aseneth Steed, Town Clerk/Recorder
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