Attendance was sparse at the January 9 meeting of the Kanab City Council, indicating the fairly straightforward nature of the evening’s agenda. During the liaison reports, council members covered water infrastructure maintenance at the Levi Stewart Memorial and progress on the all-women city council monument in the works. Reports show good results with the local fire department applying for grants, recruitment and cadets-in training, including a brief plug for the fire department’s recruiting efforts, “if anyone knows anyone who wants to be a fire-fighter, let them know they’re looking.” The council also celebrated Kanab hiring on a trained Paramedic for the first time. During the report from recreation, the mayor thanked Garkane and Clark electric for their help with the new lights over the baseball field. Additionally, the rec department reported good progress on the rec center, and staff anticipates the city pool’s liner and tiling being finished in February.
The action items began with the swearing-in of new council members Boyd Corry and Peter Banks, and incumbent re-elected council member Arlon Chamberlain. After that swearing in, Arlon Chamberlain was also nominated to continue his responsibilities as Mayor Pro Tempore, a position he has served for the last two years.
With the new council members sworn in and quorum re-established, the meeting continued into more regular business. The first few items were some simple zone change applications and approvals, followed by some city-specific zone changes that took most of the meeting’s time.
As requested by the city council, city staff assembled a list of property parcels owned by public bodies that needed to be assessed and rezoned to match their intended use - these lists included some Garkane property as a pseudo-public organization, in Mayor Colten Johnson’s words “a big organization that’s part of a bigger co-op … that basically everyone here is a member of.” The majority of these changes to city property went forward without issue, though Garkane did send legal representation to advocate their position on the change; the city staff had recommended an M1 designation, and Garkane’s representative requested M2, describing the M1 as “hamstring[ing] our ability to serve our clients, your people.” City Planning’s perspective, described by City Manager Kyler Ludwig, “wanted to preserve the residential feel of the neighborhood. They were concerned that M2 would open the door for more heavy manufacturing.”
The City Council discussed the topic at length, including debating a new M3 or utility-specific zone designation. The council settled on designating Garkane’s parcel M2 for now, to allow power service to continue to Garkane’s specifications while the council discusses a more specific solution going forward. Other city zones that the council debated were the city landfill, rodeo grounds, jail and cemetery - the council unanimously passed the resolution with a few amendments to the list, with intent to consider new solutions as mentioned before.
Following this lengthy discussion, the remaining items on the agenda passed with little debate; the council approved some changes to design requirements on prefabricated and mobile homes, approved the purchase of a new fuel truck to replace the current 40 year old machine that is nearing the end of its functional life, authorized some easements at the airport property and denied an application for some impact fee exemptions.
The public portion of the meeting concluded when the council went into closed session.
