By Rebekah Bradway

October 2, 2006 | PARADISE -- Disagreements arose in recent meetings of the Town Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission, because the members are unsure of Paradise's exact boundaries.

There are two maps of the town, surveyed with different town borders, and members of the commission and council do not know which map is correct.

"Somewhere in 15 years, this boundary has moved," Planning Commission Chairman Jon White said. "We want to know when it changed and why it changed."

Hansen and Associates, based in Brigham City, is the company that surveyed the town and made the maps.

The issue of the town's limits came up in the planning commission's meeting Wednesday with the Obrays, a local family. Bruce Obray, with other family members, came to the meeting to get permission to make a subdivision of his lot so his son Ryan could build on the subdivision. The commission was not sure if the Obrays needed approval from the town or from Cache County, because they didn't know if the lot was actually in the town.

"We've been paying our taxes to Paradise City for nine years," Obray said. "When we acquired the property, it showed all three pieces of my property in the map [of Paradise].

"Who's going to pay the cost and go through the procedure of finding the boundary of West Paradise?" Obray asked.

The town council also discussed where the town boundaries are, a week earlier at their meeting. When they spoke about a proposed cell phone tower in the area, they didn't know if the proposed location was in the town or the city.

"There may be a franchise fee you can collect," Councilman Leland Howlett said.

"We can't say we approve the tower without a survey," Councilwoman Margaret Obray said. "Find out if we own it and then deal with it."

The council and the commission brought up the same problem with the uncertain boundaries at their separate meetings.

If the Obrays' lot and the cell phone tower both are in Paradise limits, so is a machine shop that is in violation of not having enough right of way, causing the company's trucks to tear up the road.

Cache County issued Humboldt Intermountain Machine a conditional-use permit, but if the shop's location is in the town, Paradise will have to deal with its violation.

The secretary for the council and commission called engineer Chris Wight of Hansen and Associates to survey the town so the members will know Paradise's exact boundaries.

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