Kanab City Council unanimously approves Cowboy Bunkhouse property rezone to multi-family

The September 9 meeting of the Kanab City Council proceeded out of the usual order, to allow more time for enough council mem­bers to arrive for the sake of a quorum - staff presentations for gen­eral context started the meeting, followed by the list of action items.

Following the regular opening procedures, the council presented a pair of employee rec­ognition certificates, one to City Manager Kyler Ludwig and one to City Attorney Kent Burggraaf. Where Ludwig and Burg­graaf were organizers of the city’s regular employee recognition luncheon, they did not present honors to themselves, hence the mayor and council pre­senting them at this meeting. Said Mayor Johnson, “We wanted to recognize their hard work and the hours they’ve been putting in … they’re both here late way more often than they should be, and their good work makes our lives so much easier.”

Following those pre­sentations, the gen­eral public comment period and first few item-specific comment periods went unused. The first action item on the agenda was an adjustment of the Ventana Resort plat along Kaneplex, allow­ing them to consolidate their apartments and attainable housing ini­tiatives into an earlier phase - with the council commenting on their approval of Ventana continuing to make good on their promise of attainable housing, which came as a com­promise in their early plats.

The public did stand to comment on one specific item, a po­tential change of the zoning of property hosting the Cowboy Bunkhouse. The city had recently taken the sort of residency con­tracts out of the usage plans of the C3 zone, which the Bunkhouse occupies, necessitat­ing either a rezone or an adjustment of the business. Owners of the Bunkhouse ap­plied for a change to multi-family residen­tial. Some neighbors of the area expressed concern that long term residency of the area could present risk, cit­ing the area as having a history of disturbance and noncompliance with city law and or­dinance. One citizen who had worked with the Bunkhouse stood to present their side of the story, stating the bunkhouse serves the community as a place to live for people in most desperate need, such as women fleeing abuse situations and individuals looking to reform after jail time. The owner of the bunk­house stood to reaffirm the goals of making the location a stable location for affordable, long-term residences. After significant de­bate on the precedents set by the ordinance and addressing the concerns on the lo­cation’s history, the council unanimously passed the motion granting the property the Multi-Family Resi­dential zone.

The council then con­sidered upgrading the tasers used by the po­lice officers from Model 7 to Model 10 with a contract with the Axon company, who also pro­vide the departments’ body cams and support for evidence recording and archiving. The KCPD budgeted for the upgrade this year, and the council approved the contract.

The meeting then transitioned into dis­cussion items, includ­ing a brief on Senate Bill 215, which re­structures how ground ambulance and cer­tain EMS services are contracted. The city is preparing to syn­chronize the RFP’s for these contracts with surrounding EMS pro­viders.

The final item on the agenda was the review and discus­sion of the unaudited 2025 fiscal year. City Manager Kyler Lud­wig commented that the entirety of the city budget is available in the agenda packet, “in the interest of trans­parency, if you want to check every transac­tion in 2025 you can.” Ludwig commented on a visible reduction in some sales tax and tourism numbers, cit­ing the local fires as a potential cause.

Following the final reports, the meeting adjourned.