Council Report

by Brian McNary

Council was in executive session to begin the meeting which started a bit late.

Public Forum

As I perused the agenda, I noticed the time slot for public concerns had gone missing. After the meeting I was told that the City was only going to offer open time every other meeting. If true, this would mean a citizen might have to wait nearly a month to speak about something. Though it can be time consuming, public access is more important than saving a few minutes.

Presentation

The first item on the agenda was a lot line shift on Pecan Lane. The item was brought up by homeowner, Mark Strohman, who lives on Pecan Lane.

I report on this issue to illustrate a point. The city attorney was not in attendance. I am not a huge fan of allowing attorneys to take the place of elected officials. But it was obvious to me that the city attorney could have expedited Mr. Strohman’s request for a lot line shift via a number of adjustments to include the city simply vacating two small parcels of city owned land or “grandfathering” in Mr Strohman’s property issues which pre-date current zoning regulations.

To be honest, I was not able to view the map with the proposed adjustments. Had the city attorney been present I think he could have offered a legal solution. As it stands, the item was shipped to city staff for review and recommendations. Unfortunately, this issue was not resolved but it doesn’t sound impossible.

Agenda Items

Items in order and going quickly.

Community readiness signs are to be placed in existing places on Toquerville streets. They essentially look like the old, neighborhood watch signs. This item was approved. (see Readiness Meeting below).

Cancelled the city election because all seats are running unopposed and the deadline to file for a “write in” candidate had passed. This item was approved.

A simple proclamation was approved.

More discussion on the General Plan and Zoning was scheduled to take place but was skipped over.

Two conditional use permits were granted. One for sheltering a number of occupants ( I think on R-20 land) and the other was for a nightly rental.

The last item was noticing requirements by the city. I don’t recall any discussion of this.

The meeting adjourned around 7 p.m. and the council began another executive session on land issues.

Readiness Meeting

As an aside, the first city-sponsored monthly Readiness meeting was held last week. The meeting covered useful information on why preparing for natural or man-made disasters matters, and how to store water. There are handouts on the Readiness page. I was out of town for this one, but hope to attend future meetings.