council report

by Brian McNary

Reporting on the council meeting for 04/19/23

It’s budget season. The city will be talking about that in subsequent meetings. Nothing yet.

The first item (moved up on the agenda) was the zoning change for an RV resort (again) presented by Jake Peart on behalf of Bob Lichfield. Peart opened up with an apology for his behavior while presenting this item at past council meetings.

There was quite a bit of chatter between Peart and the council. Previously, Peart had requested a zone change from R-1-20 (residential, 20 acres) to MU-1-20 (multiple use) to build an RV resort. The problem is that council members generally don’t see MU-1-20 allowing an RV park as a permitted use. So any rezoning request to MU-1-20 as it is currently written- would not “green light” the project anyway.

Peart did disclose that he was seeking the rezone on behalf of an undisclosed buyer(s). The problem then became that if a council vote was taken and the rezone request failed, applicant could not bring the matter back for consideration until a year had elapsed. That might very well terminate any pending sale of the property.

Three councilmen, including Sands, were probably “no” votes. (author’s opinion) Peart decided to withdraw the request for now but the issue will likely rise from the dead once again.

It should be noted for clarification purposes that the property in question is located on the St George side of the highway. It is behind (west) of the Shangrila subdivision. It is near, but not on, the new bypass.

The next item for consideration was the cemetery. Cemetery language changes were presented along with new fees. Since the cemetery is 70% full, it would be my suggestion to try and get your final resting place settled soon before the fees go up. I apologize for not having that fee schedule here. They were substantial increases.

Toquerville cemetery offers a wonderful view. Similar to Grafton’s. However, the view will only be available to your friends and family.

Item last. The nightly rental ordinance. This ordinance puzzles me.

Nightly rentals like BRB and VRBO have become relatively commonplace. I am sure that the vast majority of people obey existing laws. I don’t think it’s commonplace for a bunch of people to rent a place in order to have a “keg” party although I’m sure that has happened.

Now as a retired Chief, my ears always perk up whenever the city considers a new ordinance with an enforcement and fine component. My first question was “Why do we need this?” My second question was “Who is going to enforce this ordinance?” “Who is going to prosecute this ordinance?” and “How much is enforcement going to cost us?”

Now the City of Toquerville showed this escalating fine schedule for the ordinance. It was on a graduating scale and climbed into the 1000’s of dollars. There were other components to this ordinance as well. So who did they plan to ticket? Homeowners for the misdeeds of renters? Out of town “VRBOers” would simply crumple up a ticket and hightail it.

So I waited for clarification from the City Attorney. I waited to hear similar things from the City Manager. I did this because I have missed prior discussions about this ordinance. It was clear to me that this issue had been discussed before.

Mostly I think any “disturbing the peace code violation” could be enforced by the County Sheriff. Homeowners violating a city ordinance would probably have to be investigated by code enforcement on behalf of the city. Do we have code enforcement? Would they come out and investigate at midnight?

I don’t know.

This ordinance left me with so many questions that I scheduled a meeting on Tuesday with the City Manager to discuss it. My gut feeling (*see crazy, retired guy opinions) is that this issue could be cleaned up immensely and simplified.

The City of Hurricane has reported several problems. Homeowners refusing to license, renters causing noise and traffic problems. It’s not Armageddon yet but Hurricane has set up a hot line to deal with the problems. Hurricane claims that they have fined homeowners in excess of 10,000 dollars for non-compliance.

So I will find out what goals the city is trying to achieve. I will update that here or in a separate post if the explanation becomes too lengthy.

Two other items on this issue. Some subdivisions already have CCR’s (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) that don’t allow overnight rentals. Homeowners in the old Toquerville town site do not have a homeowners association thus they might get saddled with a higher proportion of overnight rentals.

I’d also like to find out if Toquerville would like to issue a boilerplate agreement detailing the ordinance to be handed out when a rental agreement is signed.

My current tour of duty has been completed for now. We are working out the kinks and looking for additional writers.