TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
PLANNING COMMISSION
MAY 8, 2018
Members Present:
Micah Capener, Vice Chairman
Val Bennett, Commission Member
Arnold Eberhard, Commission Member—excused
Troy Forrest, Commission Member—excused
Ben Greener, Commission Member
Bradley Janssen, Commission Member
Tom Stokes, Commission Member
Bret Rohde, City Councilmember
Steve Bench, Zoning Administrator
Cynthia Nelson, Deputy Recorder

Vice Chairman Micah Capener called the Planning Commission Meeting to order at 5:34 p.m. The meeting was held May 8, 2018 in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Vice Chairman Micah Capener, Commission Members Val Bennett, Ben Greener, Bradley Janssen, Tom Stokes, City Councilmember Bret Rohde, Zoning Administrator Steve Bench, and Deputy Recorder Cynthia Nelson were in attendance. Commission Members Arnold Eberhard and Troy Forrest were excused.

1. Approval of agenda:

Motion by Commission Member Stokes to approve the May 8, 2018 agenda. Motion seconded by Commission Member Greener. Vote: Vice Chairman Capener – aye, Commission Member Bennett – aye, Commission Member Greener – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Stokes – aye. Motion approved.

2. Approval of minutes: April 24, 2018

Motion by Commission Member Bennett to approve the April 24, 2018 minutes. Motion seconded by Commission Member Stokes. Vote: Vice Chairman Capener – aye, Commission Member Bennett – aye, Commission Member Greener – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Stokes – aye. Motion approved.

3. New Business:

a. Discussion and consideration of new Planning Commission Chairman

Councilmember Rohde welcomed new Commission Member Bradley Janssen, who told the Commission a little about himself, including his residency, working from home doing 3D printing and his degree from Utah State University in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. The rest of the members then introduced themselves.

Commission Member Greener nominated Commission Member Tom Stokes and said I think you would be a really good fit. Commissioner Member Bennett suggested just moving up the Vice Chairman. Administrator Bench said at the next meeting they could let each member know how long they have served. Councilmember Rohde said all of you are pretty new except for Commission Member Forrest and Vice Chairman Capener. Vice Chairman Capener said Commission Member Forrest was here before me. Commission Member Bennett said but he is not here that often. Commission Member Stokes made a motion to move up Vice Chairman Capener. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Member Bennett.

The Commission also approved a vice chairman for when Chairman Capener is not in attendance. Commission Member Stokes moved that Commission Member Greener be the vice chairman, which was seconded by Commission Member Bennett. Vice Chairman Capener said is Commission Member Eberhard going to stay on the commission? Councilmember Rohde said he would talk to him. If not I do have another gentleman, Tyler Grange, who is interested and has a huge knowledge of planning. If Commission Member Eberhard were to step down Mr. Grange would be a good fit, but I will talk to him and see how he is feeling. He may want to continue.

Motion by Commission Member Stokes to approve Vice Chairman Capener as the new Chairman and Commission Member Greener as the new Vice Chairman. Motion seconded by Commission Member Bennett. Vote: Vice Chairman Capener – aye, Commission Member Bennett – aye, Commission Member Greener – aye, Commission Member Janssen – aye, Commission Member Stokes – aye. Motion approved.

b. Discussion and introduction of Transportation Master Plan

Administrator Bench said this is just an introduction to a big document, which is 250 pages. Commission Member Stokes said why is it so big? Chairman Capener said because it is a 20-year and 50-year plan. Administrator Bench said it has traffic modeling, classification level of service, existing and future road networks, and a Capital Project list. If and when anything happens it will be pretty pricing. There are alternative modes of transportation, truck routes, school zones, access management, traffic calming, corridor preservation, traffic impact study and railroad crossings—it is pretty in depth. The idea is to get the Planning Commission’s recommendation to the City Council to either adopt or not, or to change things up. You need to take some time to read it so you can make suggestions and ask questions.

Commissioner Member Stokes said did we have a 25-year plan before this one or is this the first time we have done this? Administrator Bench said this is the first Transportation Plan in book form. Our previous plans have been a map with roads we would like to see in the future. There is a blip of transportation in the General Plan, but it does not talk about the details like this one. Chairman Capener said I was blown away at some things in there. I do not know if they are true or not, but if so we have some big problems. Councilmember Rohde said like what? Chairman Capener said where we improved on Main Street from 4th West to Maverik is a full seven-lanes, which is a level D service in 50 years. If that is true then the entire City is in big trouble. It is a seven-lane highway that is going to perform at a D-level? What is the rest of the City going to do? The roads are ranked A, B, C, D, E and F, with F failing and D is barely skinning by and A is full service. They are saying the rest of Main Street fails, all of 2000 west fails and most of the roads fail. Councilmember Rohde said unless we make some improvements. The Commission talked about issued they are already having on Main Street, as well as plenty of issues they see in Logan. Councilmember Rohde said this is a great opportunity for you guys to go through this plan. Administrator Bench said it is better late than never.

Chairman Capener questioned why they put in around $70 million for the interchange coming off of Tremont Street, while the other stuff is detailed out. Administrator Bench said they do not know what it will cost for sure, that is a dream. Chairman Capener said yeah, but you have to have something to back it up. You cannot just pick a random number. It should be in the plan, but if you are going to put a number to it you have to back it up with something. Everything else was really detailed as far as X spent on X. Administrator Bench said getting some byways in and around the City would be pretty easy to do, but it is going to cost money. It is the core part of town, which will be tough to improve especially if Main Street has to go wider because of all the buildings. Chairman Capener said I read some calculations on that and with about $5 million we could doze the entire one side. It is really not that much money for the sections that need it. I like it—I think planning is ideal. Administrator Bench said it is a start. The Planning Commission will look at it and then send it onto the City Council, who will do their thing with it. It was last summer when we went through the different versions. We have gone through it with Engineer Breinholt and Manager Warnke.

Commission Member Stokes said I have not read it, but are there any conflicts with our current zoning? He referred to a few issues he sees in Logan with schools and hospitals near roads that should function like a highway. That is poor planning and we do not want things like that to conflict with our zoning. Chairman Capener said that is a good point. Administrator Bench said he would read and find out what the zoning is. He would pass that along to the City Council. If the roads are going to be four to five lanes wide they ought to be zoned to handle that with commercial buildings setback properly, and housing and schools else where. Chairman Capener said or we could make them conform to the speed limit and what has to happen there. Councilmember Rohde said that is part of the advantage of having a plan. We can say 50 years from now this is where we want to be and this zoning will not match that. It could help with some decisions.

Chairman Capener said if the City puts in an interchange, is that the City’s responsibility to pay for that or would it be the State? Administrator Bench said it would probably be UDOT. Chairman Capener said then why it is even in the plan from a cost perspective? Administrator Bench said that is a question to ask, but that kind of a plan has been on the Master Road Plan for 20 years. UDOT sees that and then adds it to their plans because they know it a possibility. Chairman Capener said the advantage of having it located here is that you get both freeways, up there you only get one or the other. Commission Member Greener said it could come to Main Street still. You could get three ramps there easily and go back to I-84. Until something like this happens Tremonton is always going to be a bypass town. Unless they can see it, they are not going to get off. Administrator Bench suggested the Commission take a month to review the document, write their questions down and submit them to Deputy Recorder Nelson.

Councilmember Rohde said some residents have asked him about a decision that the Planning Commission and the City Council moved forward with, which he would like to discuss. He said they were concerned with the new Holmgren Subdivision and the potential of 39 lots with only one access. Chairman Capener said there are two accesses over there. Administrator Bench said there is for half of it. There will still be 39 or more lots with just the one. It wraps around and then has the trailhead. Councilmember Rohde said people are wondering why that was not assessed. I did not know it was something we needed to do. Chairman Capener said there were other subdivisions with 44 lots before a second access was required. The subdivision behind Buttars Tractors has nearly 100 lots. Commission Member Bennett said is there no set number? Administrator Bench said the code says 30 lots and when it gets past that the Planning Commission may look at it in detail and may or may not require it at that time. Councilmember Rohde said we learn from comments like this. As a Planning Commission, as subdivisions come in, let us look at that and make sure if they are hitting over 30 lots we have the discussion. Commission Member Greener said the problem is they nickel and dime us at five new lots then three new lots. You lose track of the overall size of the subdivision. Councilmember Rohde said there are only 10 lots that are affected right now. I am hoping by the time we hit 30 lots there will be another road coming in. The fact of the matter is we approved that many lots. It could be a safety issue for fire or a lot of traffic. We will also have the walking trail, which will potentially increased the traffic even more. It could become a hazardous road. It would be nice to have the developer at Planning Commission so we could ask them these questions. This is our code, what are your plans? It would help us have more knowledge and help us with our decision. Administrator Bench said we did not do anything wrong. Commission Member Capener said it was not a big issue and we did not discuss it because that other road is already halfway there. It will come in before it becomes even close to that number of homes. It is a good point though and we should have addressed it.

Commission Member Greener asked about the storm drain improvements and if that is going and relieving some of the problems the City faced with flooding last year? Administrator Bench said yes. It ties in with UDOT and heads to the Mill Ditch in the Salt Creek area. It will go from the RV Park past Buttars Tractor and will upsize to an 18-inch, as well as a 30-inch in some areas. It should relieve the flooding issue.

4. Adjournment

Motion by Commission Member Bennett to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Board. The meeting adjourned at 6:07 p.m.

The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Planning Commission held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.

Dated this _____day of ___________, 2018.

______________________________
Linsey Nessen, CITY RECORDER

*Utah Code 52-4-202, (6) allows for a topic to be raised by the public and discussed by the public body even though it was not included in the agenda or advance public notice given; however, no final action will be taken.