TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
PLANNING COMMISSION
MARCH 25, 2025
Members Present:
Micah Capener, Chairman—excused
Karen Ellsworth, Commission Member
Andrea Miller, Commission Member
Mark Thompson, Commission Member
Ashley Phillips, Commission Member
Jack Stickney, Commission Member
Raulon Van Tassell, Commission Member—excused
Bret Rohde, City Councilmember
Jeff Seedall, City Planner
Bill Cobabe, City Manager—excused
Tiffany Lannefeld, Deputy Recorder
Co-Chairman Thompson called the Planning Commission Meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. The meeting was held March 25, 2025 in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Co-Chairman Thompson, Commission Members Ellsworth, Miller, Phillips, Stickney, City Councilmember Rohde, Manager Cobabe, Planner Seedall, and Deputy Recorder Lannefeld were in attendance. Chairman Capener and Commission Member Van Tassell were excused.
1. Approval of agenda:
Motion by Commission Member Stickney to approve the March 25, 2025 agenda. Motion seconded by Commission Member Ellsworth. Vote: Co-Chairman Thompson – yes, Chairman Capener – absent, Commission Member Ellsworth – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Phillips – yes, Commission Member Stickney – yes, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.
2. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: conflict of interest:
Commission Member Phillips declared a conflict, stating the zoning parcels could impacts her family. She would abstain from discussion and the vote.
3. Public Comments: None.
4. Approval of minutes—February 25, 2025 & March 11, 2025
Motion by Commission Member Ellsworth to approve the minutes stated above. Motion seconded by Commission Member Miller. Vote: Co-Chairman Thompson – yes, Chairman Capener – absent, Commission Member Ellsworth – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Phillips – yes, Commission Member Stickney – yes, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.
Co-Chairman Thompson called a Public Hearing to order at 5:33 p.m. to receive input on the amendments listed below. There were four people in attendance.
5. Public Hearing:
a. To receive public input on amendments to Chapter 1.24 Home Occupation Permit.
b. To receive public input on amending zoning district regulations relating to rezone of parcels 05-200-0040, 05-200-0048, 05-200-0047.
There were no public comments. Co-Chairman Thompson closed the Public Hearing at 5:34 p.m.
6. New Business:
a. Discussion and consideration of Spring Hollow, Phase 4
Planner Seedall said the biggest hurdle with this development is trying to connect the storm drain to the existing pond. Part of the approval process is bringing it to the Planning Commission for review and approval. It would then go through DRC for final approval. This is a checkbox for making sure it fits with the City’s general plan and land use. This is a small portion of the development. Most of the time you would see an entire development’s Master Plan. We are making the developers go through the development process on this phase because it changed ownership and has been a long time since anything has taken place. When asked if there would be any issues connecting this to retention? Planner Seedall said no, the developers are exploring two paths. They are working on that and it would be resolved during the final plat approval process.
Motion by Commission Member Miller to approve the Spring Hollow Phase 4 preliminary plat. Motion seconded by Commission Member Ellsworth. Vote: Co-Chairman Thompson – yes, Chairman Capener – absent, Commission Member Ellsworth – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Phillips – yes, Commission Member Stickney – yes, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.
b. Discussion and consideration of Chapter 1.24 Home Occupation Permit
Planner Seedall said we are seeing a growing trend of businesses being operated out of residential neighborhoods. We want to simplify the process for those that have little impact. Here is the list of minor home occupations. My proposal is that we would allow them to be generally permitted once they go through the application process. Most of these listed would be pretty low visitation and have a low impact to the residential area. Criteria is when the majority of the home would still be used as a residence and does not get turned into an office complex. Next is the traffic generated from the business. They would not be permitted to have multiple visitors at one time. Anything outside this list would be part of the major home occupations and have to go through the DRC to make sure they meet site plan requirements. We are starting to see an increase in commercial daycares, which would be better going through the DRC. Our engineer and public works director understand the building and traffic safety code better than the Planning Commission. We feel these changes are pretty benign. One change helped clarify how vehicles or trailers for the home occupation have to be parked and stored on the premise. If we feel there is a traffic safety violation with how things are being stored this will help with that. Having work trailers stored out on the roadway can cause issues during the winter or limited sight.
Motion by Commission Member Stickney to recommend accepting the proposed changes to the regulation. Motion seconded by Commission Member Ellsworth. Vote: Co-Chairman Thompson – yes, Chairman Capener – absent, Commission Member Ellsworth – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Phillips – yes, Commission Member Stickney – yes, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.
c. Discussion and consideration of amending zoning district regulations relating to rezone of parcels 05-200-0040, 05-200-0048, 05-200-0047
Commission Member Phillips abstained from the vote and sat in the audience for the discussion at 5:47 p.m. She returned to the bench at 5:54 p.m.
Planner Seedall said we are looking at rezoning the three parcels that front 100 East. This zoning would match what Sierra Homes is developing on the west side of 100 East, which is zoned RM-16. That is multi-family, allowing 16 units per acre. The three parcels are currently zoned as R1-8. The developer is hoping to rezone those to be RM-16. The annexation is coming in because those lots are not deep enough to handle the development he is planning. We are looking at annexing to the river bottoms.
Motion by Commission Member Miller to recommend for approval to the City Council. Motion seconded by Commission Member Ellsworth. Vote: Co-Chairman Thompson – yes, Chairman Capener – absent, Commission Member Ellsworth – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Phillips – abstained, Commission Member Stickney – yes, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.
7. Planning commission comments/reports:
Planner Seedall brought up affordable housing strategies for discussion. These are changes that just went through the legislative session for the moderate-income housing list. This has expanded the list we are working on. Here are the strategies we are going to continue in Tremonton. These include reduced regulations related to accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Zones or rezones for higher density of residential development and commercial or mixed-use zones. Also, major transit investment quarters, commercial centers or employment centers. This will be part of our form-based code that we are working on. Manager Cobabe said we have to do three strategies, but if we get to five then we get priority funding status. Councilmember Rohde suggested a strategy that would create 55 plus communities as low-income housing. That could be an easy project. Planner Seedall said another is allowing for reduced regulations related to multi-family residential. That is our PUD ordinance that has been adopted. We can pick the same strategies each year as long as we show we are making progress.
The Commission then discussed how they can better attract businesses and prove they have the base of people who want those jobs. Planner Seedall would look into getting more information that could be presented on this topic at their next meeting. He said I think that could become a very powerful tool to help businesses, we are trying to bring in with industrial, understand what our workforce is comprised of. Manager Cobabe said this needs to be a holistic approach. We cannot focus all our effort on attracting developers to put in moderate-income housing, we also need to focus on attracting good businesses to the area that have high paying jobs so people can afford the houses they want to live in. Commission Member Ellsworth said right now we have a transient community of people who live here and go to other places for work. Manager Cobabe said what we can do as a City is put the regulatory environment in place to help attract people when they ask where to put their new research facility and we have a spot ready. The Commission talked cautiously about who they attract and not having them take up too many resources such as power and water that would negatively impact the City.
Planner Seedall said because the City Council is starting to get cramped with budget season, we will not have Planning Commission on April 22.
8. Adjournment
Motion by Commission Member Miller to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Board. The meeting adjourned at 6:17 p.m.
The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Planning Commission held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.
Dated this _____day of ___________, 2025.
______________________________
Cynthia Nelson, CITY RECORDER
*Utah Code 52-4-202, (6) allows for a topic to be raised by the public and discussed by the public body even though it was not included in the agenda or advance public notice given; however, no final action will be taken.