Nibley
sends proposed design standards back to public 'drawing
board'
By Diana Maxfield
October 22, 2005 | NIBLEY -- Easements
around waterways and potential encroachment on private
property were the big topics of discussion at a public
hearing on commercial design standards at Thursday's
City Council meeting.
The council voted to send the design standards to
a public workshop, where citizens can express concerns
and help the Planning and Zoning Commission and council
decide on specifics of the ordinance before the council
votes on whether to make the ordinance a law.
The proposed new design standards would, among other
things, allow the city to take a 30-foot easement on
either side of a body of water on commercial property.
A similar ordinance allowing the city to take easements
on private property was repealed three years ago in
January 2002 after citizens petitioned the city council,
said Chris Daines, an attorney representing several
Nibley citizens. Citizens are concerned that this new
ordinance will be used by the city as an underhanded
way to take easements on private property as well as
commercial zones, Nibley property owner Donna Loosli
said.
"Have the backbone to put it in there that property
owners are not going to be touched," Loosli said. "Until
you put it in black and white, it doesn't mean a darn
thing."
Councilman Scott Wells said the purpose of the easements
was not to take private property, but rather to provide
the opportunity for the city to put walkways along waterways,
like those found along waterways in San Antonio, Texas.
"Nobody intended to take your backyards away from
you," Wells said.
Larry Jacobsen, chairman of the Nibley planning and
zoning commission, the body that drew up the design
standards, said the commission did not have private
property in mind when the ordinance was written. He
said the commission felt water is a resource that all
citizens should have access to, and taking easements
from commercial property was intended to protect these
waterways.
The larger concern of the commission, Jacobsen said,
is to provide standards for design of commercial buildings
which are going to come into Nibley in the coming years.
"We can shape the development or we can just let it
come," he said. "It's not us against you. We're all
in this together."
Other citizens said they were concerned about other
aspects of the ordinance. Nibley resident Todd Hansen
called the ordinance "totally out of line.
"Eighty percent brick is not very smart," he said.
The design ordinance would require businesses to be
constructed of 80 percent brick, which would exclude
most of the new businesses being built in Logan, Hansen
said.
Mayor Lynn Welker agreed that the design standards
might be a little tight. He said he had driven from
Logan to Orem, looking at many communities along the
way and found only one new building that was constructed
in a way that met the proposed design standards.
The public workshop about these design standards will
be held Nov. 16 at 6 p.m.
In other business the council:
-- voted to revise a flood insurance damage prevention
ordinance.
-- discussed a possible tax write off for Marvin Hansen,
who is selling the city 22 shares of water.
-- discussed a possible agreement with Utah State University
about sewage treatment at the south animal research
farm.
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