Kanab City Council awards bid for airport improvement project, considers agreement for emergency vehicle extractions on Hwy 89

The meeting of the Kanab City Council held on Tuesday, May 13, 2025, was dense with multiple land use and city code discussions, as well as discussion with other local leadership on emergency response issues.

Map of locations permitting the use of fireworks, courtesy of Kanab City - an interactive Google Maps version is available on request from the city.

Attendance was light, and the public comment period had only one speaker, Kane County Commissioner Patty Kubeja. Kubeja lead with comments “not wearing my Commission hat, just speaking as a citizen,” expressing concern on some veterans’ headstones that had begun to sink in the Kanab Cemetery, and a suggestion for a stop sign along Escalante Drive in the Ranchos where drivers had been driving at high speeds along a steadily growing straightway.

During the work meeting and liaison report, Mayor Colten Johnson praised local youth athletics, arts and academics, stating, “Kanab is kind of in their glory days right now; they’re doing awesome, the youth and youth programs around here.” City Manager Kyler Ludwig added optimism for the opening hours and operation of the Kanab City Pool and reminded the public that the deadline for applications to run in the Kanab Municipal Election is coming soon: applications must be submitted in person at the City Offices, June 2 to June 6.

The first action item on the agenda, as well as multiple in the meeting’s body, were discussions and actions on land use and zoning. Of note, the council voted to update Ventana Resort’s phase planning, approved some changes to the city’s general plan regarding residential use in commercial zones and had a lengthy discussion on how to plan zones around the four-way intersection of Highway 89a, Kanab Creek Drive and E 1100 S, as prompted by a request from a property owner looking to build near the current Strawz location. The details of each of these changes are contained within the agenda packet for the meeting on Utah’s Public Notice website.

The council unanimously approved the bid for improvements to the Kanab City Airport, including the beginning of a parallel runway, pavement replacement and concrete for additional hangar space. Citing the grants and FAA support, Ludwig stated, “This is $2,500,000 and the city is on the hook for about $80,000 of that … we can’t complain, an $80,000 cost for a $2,500,000 value project.”

City Staff presented the updated map for locations within city limits where fireworks are permitted in preparation for the Fourth of July season, with Ludwig commenting, “We made it a little more specific, there’s a map attached to the resolution. It is going to be excluding a few areas that were previously in …. We tried to move that line away from the Creek and from the hills that would be BLM land.” An interactive digital map is available from Kanab City.

The items that would take most of the meeting’s time were a pair of discussions on Kanab City’s ability and responsibility to respond to emergency situations outside of the municipality’s borders; one regarding vehicle extraction and hazmat along Highway 89, and the other an agreement for fire protection with the Best Friends properties north of Kanab. Kane County proposed an agreement with Kanab City for the former issue, which would allow Kanab City’s emergency responders to, without liability concerns, deploy specialized equipment to emergencies - the primary example being when an individual is trapped inside of a car after a crash - along Highway 89, a stretch of land that is not covered by the county’s fire protection SSD’s. When asked why that area was unprotected by an SSD, Kane County Commissioner Patty Kubeja responded, “That was the original plan, the commissioners did their best to add those roadways out east of town, but it was protested down.” After lengthy discussion and back and forth with city staff, legal counsel and Commissioner Kubeja, the council settled on a meeting time for Monday, May 19, where the different parties and legal representatives could sit down and work through the specifics of a potential contract. Kanab City Council member Chris Heaton added at the end of the discussion, “I think we need a thank you to our legal and our staff, there’s a lot of time and effort going into these … and a thank you to the County too.”

After almost four hours, the city council went into closed session, ending the public portion of the meeting.