By Clay Möffitt

October 19, 2006 | RIVER HEIGHTS -- River Heights is faced with the issue of a few residents misrepresenting the majority of views of the people in the city. In order to prevent this, the Planning and Zoning Commission decided Tuesday to have Mayor Bill Baker formulate an official statement for the city in regards to Environmental Impact Study (EIS) conducted by the city of Logan.

"We need to get our opinion in about the EIS," Commissioner Blake Wright said.

In March of 2005, a group of River Heights citizens signed a letter sent to the Logan City Council about their feelings about the study. The residents particularly opposed creating an access route to 500 South from 100 or 200 East.

"This is signed by a group of citizens who are very adamantly opposed to any kind of connection," Commission Chairman Chris Himmel said.

The commission was also concerned that restricting access would also discourage developer DeLoy Hansen from building his planned conference center, which the commission hopes to bring commerce into the city.

"We should be talking to Logan City and the engineers about allowing for that or accommodating that or taking that into consideration for a future time," Himmel said. "But now it should just be limited access, but when they design that intersection, it should be it could accommodate larger access."

The commission acknowledged the letter is over a year old and it should have taken action sooner, and it might be too late now to impact the study, but it is still important to let Logan city officials understand how River Heights city stands on the issue.

Also on the agenda, certain residents sought boundary realignment to accommodate the 8,000-square foot minimum requirement.

First a young couple, John and Kristin Reem, who are looking to building a house in the city, reached an informal agreement with Grant Matthews to purchase the adjoining lot next to their lot if the commission would grant the realignment to give them necessary size requirement.

"It's all on paper, pending what you do here," Matthews told the commission. The main concern from the commission was regarding an 80-foot width at the setback line, because even with the addition of Matthews' land, the lot is a very narrow lot.

The commission told the couple if they get a sketch plan that shows the 80-foot width by the next planning and zoning meeting on Nov. 5, they will be granted the realignment.

David Rasmussen also sought realignment because he expects to sell part of a rental property he owns that has a garden on the back part of the property.

"We're planning on selling the rental property, and before we do that, we'd like to take a small portion of the back of the property and maintaining the garden," Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen also owns the lot adjacent to the garden, and if granted the realignment the combined lot will meet the 8,000-square foot requirement. One of the procedures necessary for the approval would be to have a survey performed, but Rasmussen found out the surveying companies would take at least a month before they could do so and it would cost $1,800.

The commission chose to exercise its option to allow Rasmussen to bypass the survey and have the title company to provide the legal description of the property.

In both cases the commission didn't officially grant the requested realignment, but the group counseled the citizens in the next step to take to meet the requirements for the ordinance.

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