TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MARCH 3, 2026
Members Present:
Kristie Bowcutt
Brent Jex
Beau Lewis
Sharri Oyler
Blair Westergard
Bret Rohde, Mayor
Linsey Nessen, City Manager
Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP
Mayor Rohde called the March 3, 2026 City Council Workshop to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting was held in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Rohde, Councilmembers Bowcutt, Jex, Lewis, Oyler, and Westergard, City Manager Nessen, and City Recorder Nelson.
1. Call to Order and Declaration of Conflict of Interest
2. Council Reports and Updates
Councilmember Jex mentioned an email he got. It said the key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. Growth happens on purpose. Claims do not start in court—they start in everyday decisions. Clarity prevents claims and training builds clarity. The police department has been active. The Council was notified of the search warrant served on a gang house. Two gang members were arrested for distribution of narcotics. We continue to see increases in child abuse cases. Other than that, our officers are healthy.
Councilmember Bowcutt said Public Works has a lot of projects going on. They are working on the water main on Tremont Street and are going to start work on Rocket Road. The retention pond is going in. With construction on Rocket Road, we discussed getting the message out to people. That is such an artery for a lot of people. I suggested a message board on both ends. At our next City Council meeting we are going to tour the treatment plant. They are also getting bids for the cemetery—the new section to be paved. They are going out to bid for secondary water in Holmgren East, too.
Councilmember Lewis said one of the economic development initiatives is free revitalization updates. We have RDA funds that will become available so we have been strategizing around that—how we deploy that capital and make sure it is creating economic development on Main Street. We are also working on recommending a framework for the Utah Main Street program. We are proposing we apply for that. With that comes a whole program showing exactly how to go about doing Main Street and avoid guesswork. We will take feedback from our Main Street Committee and put it through that model to get the guidance we need to move quickly. Jared Lewis and Kelly Wood have helped a lot. Ms. Wood is the one who found the program. I am also working with Trudi Hatch, Micah Capener, and Shawn Milne. We are gathering data and the downtown business owners since they are the ones ultimately who are going to make decisions on facade grants. We will attend a workshop. The application opens April 15. As a Council there is no formal action tonight, but down the road it would likely involve a resolution of support. I will keep you updated. Also, Parks and Rec. We all have an email with updates to review. More discussion will come in the March 4 meeting that we are all invited to. This will be a good chance to get public input. The USU Wellness Survey has gone out. The more feedback we get, the broader the responses we get and the more we as a Council have confidence in making decisions. We encourage everybody to participate.
Councilmember Westergard said the Fire Department had a meeting with the hospital. They are working on issues and getting trained. They got set up with the hospital and Weber dispatch and are plugging away. They are short staffed but taking care of business.
Councilmember Oyler stated the partnership with the Tremonton and Garland libraries is done. I talked to the Garland City Councilmember who attended out meeting last time and she said they did not want this separation either. I do not know how it came about. This was not a decision made by Tremonton. Tremonton wanted to continue it because it helps patrons and has been good. Garland did not want to continue that course.
Mayor Rohde said I had an aha moment this week. We have assigned each Councilmember different responsibilities, but we need to remember that Manager Nessen is the administrative side of the equation. I found myself sticking my nose in her business, which I should not be doing. If there is an issue with employees or anything like that, Manager Nessen will deal with it. Councilmember Lewis said being a councilmember could take 80 hours a week if you let it. I am willing to do all I can when departments heads reach out or want my opinion. However, there are things I should point back administratively and let Manager Nessen get the right people involved. I am willing to serve, but I do not want to be out of bounds. Mayor Rohde said we are the legislative arm. We make the law and the City upholds it. If we are doing anything to influence decisions that City employees are making, we are out of bounds. We are here to put the law in and make sure we are doing everything on the legislative end. We have hired a great City Manager and staff. Let us let them be the administrative side.
3. Presentations:
a. Title: RES 26-17 Appointing someone to serve on Mosquito Abatement
Mayor Rohde said we put out applications and I would like to present Debbie Brantner to serve on the Mosquito Abatement District Board. We have a resolution to vote on tonight. She is really excited.
b. Title: ORD 26-03 Establishing the Citizens Advisory Committee
Mayor Rohde said we have the ordinance and charter in here for the Citizen Advisory Committee. It will be a public entity and their meetings are open to the public. In our last meeting, they did a good job covering what they are going to do. They will have their board and discuss issues. We will not have anyone from the City legislative side at those meetings. If this passes, I encourage any citizen who is interested in participating to apply. Councilmember Bowcutt said I am excited for them to get going. I think the information they can bring back to us is going to help with decisions.
c. Title: Presentation on the Scope of General Plan Update—Community Development Director Jeff Seedall
Director Seedall said we are going to engage Landmark Design to help with our land use and general plan updates. We prepared this scope to present to the Council. We are going after a UDOT grant. City staff and Landmark would work together to review our current master plans, seeing where there are good consistencies and where there might be discrepancies. Next, we would start a data gathering cycle with the public, helping to engage and understand what the public is hoping to see. We would then start working through the small area plans. There are two areas I think could use proactive approaches—one being out by the Inland Port and the other is Fridal Heights down south to Rocket Road. Those are two areas that would be helpful for the City to have some planning and input. We could start to see pressures of development moving that way. We would then present it to the public for final touches. The Neighborhood Partnership Initiative (NPI) will help with communication to do some of the data gathering and public input. We are happy to add the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) into it as well. Councilmember Bowcutt said with hiring a new employee, I would like to get their feelings on this before we move forward. I would also like to have a budgeted amount before this moves forward. The new employee deserves the right to say this is the direction I want to go. Director Seedall said this is just about making sure the consultant knows what to put a price tag on. If the Council and City staff felt comfortable enough working through the NPI and CAC, we would report back to Landmark and could take public outreach out of the scope. That impacts what they are responsible for and what we can do in-house. I am just asking the Council if you are good with this checklist for a consultant to help do the planning updates or do you want adjustments? This is Landmark’s itemized statement of work. The Council agreed it would be helpful to have the finance director, city planner, and zoning positions filled before making too many decisions, as they would play a key role in these plans. Director Seedall said this is not an action item, I am just presenting to keep the Council in the loop. If there is anything the Council would like to see adjusted let me know. Every city does their master planning as they best see fit. Tremonton traditionally has had a General Plan that is more of an executive summary and then has plans, depending on the topic, that support the General Plan. What we have generally done is looked at what is the need right now or what are the master plans we need and then get those handled. A good rule of thumb for Tremonton moving forward is about every five years, those master plans should be reviewed and likely updated. Updating a Master Plan is much cheaper than recreating one. In this instance, the reason we are going to Landmark, is this is less about creating a new plan and about revising the current Land Use Plan and then adding those small area plans to give the City some administrative guidance and proactive thought process. If development comes into one of those areas, we have citizen input way before the development pressure come. Time is on our side. I just wanted to consider how much to allocate for our budget this coming year.
d. Title: Discussion of City Council Attending Administrative Meetings
Mayor Rohde said this is ordinance culture or in other words, we have always done it that way so we continue to do it that way. I love finding where we can change and make things better. I found out that when it comes to DRC, Planning Commission, and other public meetings, we as a Council should not be attending those because we can influence decisions at those meetings. That opens us up to litigation from a developer or citizen. So, no more attending open public meetings as a legislative body. Planning Commission is the big one we have attended forever. We reached out to the Utah League of Cities and Towns and their lawyer said the best practice is to stay out of those meetings. Let the administrative side take its course and come to the Council for final say. In our formal meetings, that is going to be the rule from now on. If any of you think of any other ordinance culture, bring it up.
e. Title: RES 26-18 Repealing RES 26-14 – River Valley PUD
Mayor Rohde said we are repealing this resolution, which was the PUD on River Valley. We did not hold a public hearing so by law we have to repeal that. If we decided to go with a PUD, we would need to have a public hearing before having that discussion again. We are repealing a decision we made last week because of not following due process.
4. CLOSED MEETING: No Closed Meeting held at this time.
a. Strategy session to discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms; and/or
b. Strategy session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual; and/or
c. Strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation; and/or
d. Discussions regarding security personnel, devices or systems
The meeting adjourned at 6:44 p.m. by consensus of the Council.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Mayor Rohde called the March 3, 2026 City Council Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. The meeting was held in the Tremonton City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Rohde, Councilmembers Bowcutt, Jex, Lewis, Oyler, and Westergard, City Manager Nessen, and City Recorder Nelson.
1. Call to Order
2. Invocation by: ChrisDean Epling, Neighborhood Partnership Initiative Chairman
Pledge by: Sicily Smith, Student
3. Roll Call
4. Approval of Agenda:
Motion by Councilmember Bowcutt to approve the agenda of March 3, 2026, with the amendment of moving from the Consent Agenda item 8. c. to Strategic Business for discussion. Motion seconded by Councilmember Jex. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.
5. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: None.
6. Presentations
a. Tremonton City Citizenship Award to Elementary and Intermediate Students
Mayor Rohde said this is the best part of the month having these kids come in to be honored for their wonderful citizenships within their schools. We appreciate their examples. We can learn a lot of good lessons from you all. Councilmember Lewis presented the awards and gift cards and then they took a picture.
7. Citizen Engagement – General Public Comment
Ben Greener said I want to thank you for getting the US Space Force flag up at Midland Square. Just one little detail there is a special order those go in, so we need to rearrange them. It starts with the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and then Coast Guard.
ChrisDean Epling said in the workshop you talked about public input with the General Plan and I wanted to affirm that through the NPI we would love to help and work with Landmark Design. I did a survey last year and got over 40% response rate out of 400 citizens and would love to help in any way, shape, or form to get a survey distributed and have more input and data. Please use us as you will instead of a third party to help save the City money.
Chris Danvers said during your workshop Councilmember Jex asked a question of how to project growth. As we get new plans for the City finalized and decide what pieces of land are supposed to have which code, I think you should be able to plan off that. Especially if you stick to the plan. Until we have a new plan in place, I think it would be a good idea not to change what we already have. It just does not seem right. One plot is trying to go from R1-10 to RM-16 and I do not think we as a City are ready to do that much.
Layne Wilding said it appears that Tremonton is trying to make things work and make this a good place while looking for a lot of public input. When meeting notices are sent out, it says there will be opportunities for public input, but when we go looking for documentation to review it is hard to find. If it is going to be an open document and open meeting, why can you not attach the documents so we could actually have them at our fingertips? I wanted to see where a public notice of a resolution was that was passed, but could not find it. It would be so easy to attached the document to the notes. Today, looking at your agenda and for input on discussion about the establishment of the Citizens Advisory Committee I could not find that document. Good luck to citizens who are trying to do their due diligence. It would really be helpful if you attached them. One thing that concerns me is zoning and PUDs. His three-minute time limit was up.
Jamie Poppleton said I am a real estate agent in Utah and Idaho. There are 15 townhomes right now that cannot be sold. Some have been on there for 100 plus days. There are 57 homes right now that are for sale in the 84337 zip code. I do not believe we need any more townhomes or apartments. I would appreciate it if the Council would put out a document showing how many of those have already been approved and the destinations where they are going to be. This is what our town will look like so we as residents can take a look. I would like to personally see what is already out there and slated to be built in a diagram or presentation form and discussed with the public.
Mayor Rohde then gave Mr. Wilding more time to finish his previous thought. Mr. Wilding said if I read the code we have on residential density, we are not allowed to have anything less than 8,000 square feet. In order to be changed to anything less than 8,000 square foot, single-home, one family residence, is to go through a PUD. Valley Vista right now is planning to have 75% of their homes less than the 8,000 square feet with the PUD. Heritage Country will have 95% of their homes less than the 8,000 square foot lot. Some lot sizes are going to be 3,000 square feet. How do you put a house on a 3,000 square foot lot? You have 10-foot sides, but the PUD document is looking to adjust that to five feet so you can stand in between two homes and touch both. That is crazy. I do not think we need that kind of high-density housing in Tremonton. My opinion is we can do better than that. On the Hill where I live, we are all for single-family. We are all saying no to the PUD. We do not want that kind of density in our community and on the hillside, but the PUD might override us.
Mayor Rohde then asked if anyone else needed more time to present their thoughts. There were none.
8. Consent Agenda – Any Councilmember may request an item be removed for separate discussion
a. Approval of minutes – February 12, 2026 & February 17, 2026
b. Approval of Resolution No. 26-17 Appointing representative to serve on the Mosquito Abatement District Board
c. Approval of Resolution No. 26-18 Repealing RES 26-14 – River Valley PUD—this item was moved to Strategic Business
Councilmember Bowcutt said on the February 17, minutes, in our discussion on resolution 26-18. I asked if a public hearing had been held, but that is not in the minutes. I would like that added.
Motion by Councilmember Lewis to approve the Consent Agenda with that change. Motion seconded by Councilmember Jex. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.
9. Strategic Business (Ordinances & Policies)
a. Discussion and consideration of adopting Ordinance No. 26-03 Establishing the Citizens Advisory Committee—Norman Kay, JeD Abbott, and ChrisDean Epling
Mayor Rohde said here is the ordinance and charter that has been written. We had the presentation last week. When asked about timing, Mr. Kay said I have worked on the application and am working on certifications. I have created an email and phone number for the committee. The intent is to create an online application where citizens can decide if they want to apply for the board, a team lead, a volunteer, or maybe all of the above. After this is generated, it would depend on what the response is and where people are interested in helping. Committee seats will be based off voting precincts. We want representation across the City. Team leads and other volunteers have no restrictions. They can do what they want, wherever they live, and as much as they want depending on their time and passions. We have discussed a few avenues for getting information out.
This item was opened for public input. Mr. Wilding said I am concerned about the CAC versus the NPI. I have been working with the NPI for the west side. According to documentation, it says there are going to be seven committee members. We have four groups and it appears they are going to be my boss. They put a little flow chart together to describe who is going to communicate to who and how the communication is going to take place. As an NPI member I have struggled to get contact information to send out the information we have. That is part of my assignment in order to get input from citizens. It sounds like the CAC team is going to try and do this exact same thing. It seems we have two groups doing the same thing. Could we merge these together? It appears we have way too many things happening here. I suggest putting this on hold until we figure out how we are going to interact with each other. I do not want to do the work twice and do not want our citizens getting confused as we both approach them on the same thing. My question is, who is the boss and how are we going to work together? What are the roles of the NPI versus the CAC? Councilmember Bowcutt said the NPI is more about building and developments. Ms. Epling is spearheading that to help people understand and get public input while the CAC committee will be used more for issues that come up that the Council wants input on. There will be crossover when needed, but they are not going to compete with one another. Mayor Rohde said the original intent was the NPI reports and works with the Planning Commission while the CAC works with the City Council. Both are advisory committees to those organizations. We will need crossover at times because the CAC is going to need the information that the NPI gets from their group.
After discussion on different ways they could work together and best structure that, Mr. Abbot said I think it comes down to we have to work together. Ms. Epling said the CAC would be the central hub we all report to? Mr. Abbott said yeah, we are the ones that have to collect all the data and look at it and then specialists would present so the Council gets the best information possible. Ms. Epling said we can fall back to the CAC who reports to the Council and they can bring a specialist with them, which I like and then the NPI reports to the Planning Commission. Mr. Kay said the main communication vehicle would be the NPI. I do not plan on sending out a newsletter or anything else. Information will come from the NPI and flow back. We want to have a team that helps put that into understandable jargon. The person who would present would more than likely be the chair of the NPI or someone they have decided would be an expert. They would present on their behalf. Mr. Abbott said both of these entities are a way for us to know better what the public wants. We want to make decisions based off public sentiment. We are not trying to create a council within the council, we want information from the public and that is what I love about how this is set up. Structure is good and important, but information from the citizens is what we need most. The three communication channels will likely be surveys, open forum meeting, and the NPI as a structure.
Mayor Rohde said we are two months into this new term and are getting there. I feel like we have accomplished a lot. I am excited that the information that is going to come in will be objective. They will tell us how many voted for or against it. We do not just want to hear one side of the story. Ms. Epling said I appreciate this opportunity for the public to have this avenue, but also, I validate the staff and their roles. The Council can do what is best for the City. We know we are just an information channel not a decision-making channel. You will take the information and determine if it is the right location and time. We understand there are going to be hard decisions made. Everyone is okay with adjusting, but people do not want to feel like a developer is coming in and putting as much multi-family housing as they can. We do a good job of looking for the compromise. We also want to educate the public on PUDs and how they work.
Motion by Councilmember Jex to move forward with this committee. Motion seconded by Councilmember Oyler. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.
From the Consent Agenda, the Council discussed Approval of Resolution No. 26-18 Repealing RES 26-14 – River Valley PUD. Mayor Rohde said we are repealing the resolution approved in our last meeting. We did not follow due process. We did not have a public hearing. By law we need to repeal that. Councilmember Bowcutt said thank you Recorder Nelson for the packet. I spent hours reading it. A public hearing is required in coordination with applicable state code and local requirements. Why are we not moving forward with a public hearing for River Valley? It was scheduled and then cancelled? Why did we pull back? Now the PUD is being removed from that development. This was put together by former Manager Bill Cobabe who told me last summer that Tremonton was going to be paying a lot of money for the roads that were going to go in and around there. He said once it is in the PUD it cannot be changed. Is removing the PUD legal? By removing this PUD, it is going to cost Tremonton a lot of money. Through the PUD this development was going to help pay for part of a road and a chunk of Stokes Park. When these resolutions come up, it is our duty to debate. We should not be rubber stamping stuff. I would like to know why the public hearing has been cancelled and why we are removing the PUD. If you pull the PUD does that mean we are going to cut back on density? There are a lot of moving parts. When asked who is pulling the PUD, Mayor Rohde said the developer. It was not in effect because I did not sign it. We are repealing our vote. That is a mixed-use zone. They can still go forward with their development because they are not doing anything different than what we approved. This was approved several years ago under a mixed-use zone. They can build within those parameters. The PUD was going to give more density, but if pulled, the developer cannot take advantage of those. There is no longer a need for a public hearing because we are not introducing a PUD. There are things that have been established and will remain due to the original agreement made several years ago.
After some discussion, Mayor Rohde said we really need to button down our processes so that you as a Council can trust when it comes to you, things have been done properly. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. We as a City can do a better job of vetting the data and making sure it has gone through the proper channels. We are trying to move into a more structured system.
Motion by Councilmember Lewis to approve Resolution 26-18, repealing Resolution 26-14. Motion seconded by Councilmember Jex. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.
10. Reports and Calendar
a. City Manager Report
Manager Nessen said I am busy working on the budget. We have interviews for the zoning administrator on Thursday. The following week we will work on getting city planner and finance director interviews scheduled. We have good applicants and I have high hopes.
b. Upcoming Calendar Items
Mayor Rohde said March 4, at 5:30 p.m. is the Parks presentation. The Pantry has a food drive on March 14. There is a training for City Council at Garland. This is your Incident Command Center training. We want to partner with Garland to come up with good, incident command and emergency services for our City. The Senior Center Health Fair is March 25 from 2-5 p.m. The Slothathlon starts April 30 at Jeanie Stevens Park at 7:30 p.m. Spring Cleanup is in May with dumpsters at Public Works. The Library Summer Reading Kickoff Party is May 29, from 4-6 p.m.
11. CLOSED MEETING: No Closed Meeting held at this time.
a. Strategy session to discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms; and/or
b. Strategy session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual; and/or
c. Strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation; and/or
d. Discussions regarding security personnel, devices or systems
12. Adjournment.
Motion by Councilmember Jex to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Bowcutt. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.
The meeting adjourned at 8:17 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 for the City Council Meeting held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.
Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder