TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
PLANNING COMMISSION
OCTOBER 8, 2024
Members Present:
Micah Capener, Chairman
Kaden Grover, Commission Member
Andrea Miller, Commission Member
Mark Thompson, Commission Member—excused
Raulon Van Tassell, Commission Member—excused
Bret Rohde, City Councilmember
Jeff Seedall, City Planner
Bill Cobabe, City Manager
Tiffany Lannefeld, Deputy Recorder

Chairman Capener called the Planning Commission Meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. The meeting was held October 8, 2024 in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Chairman Capener, Commission Members Grover and Miller, City Councilmember Rohde (via Zoom), City Manager Cobabe, City Planner Seedall, and Deputy Recorder Lannefeld were in attendance. Commission Member Thompson and Van Tassell were excused.

1. Approval of agenda:

Motion by Commission Member Grover to approve the October 8, 2024 agenda. Motion seconded by Commission Member Miller. Vote: Chairman Capener – yes, Commission Member Grover – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Thompson – absent, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.

2. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: None.

3. Public Comments: No public in attendance.

4. Approval of minutes—September 10, 2024

Motion by Commission Member Miller to approve the minutes stated above. Motion seconded by Chairman Capener. Vote: Chairman Capener – yes, Commission Member Grover – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Thompson – absent, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.

5. New Business:

a. Land Use Law Training by City Attorney Dustin Ericson

Attorney Ericson said the State gives each municipality the power to create a Planning Commission. This is our City code. It has all the State code requirements. When asked about a sub, Attorney Ericson said legally, it is acceptable. A lot of cities and counties have alternates. Planner Seedall said that is discussion for next meeting. We are planning to have five members and two alternates. The requirement for the alternates is they must attend at least one meeting per month to stay up to date on things. Attorney Ericson said I would suggest 50% of all meetings. Planning Commission Members are non-elected public officials and an advisory body to the City Council. You provide recommendations on land use matters. By law, each of you is to receive four hours of annual land use training. Tonight, we will briefly hit every one of these. They then reviewed appeals, variances, conditional use permits, exactions, building permits and impact fees.

Attorney Ericson said if any landowner has a dispute with the governmental entity, the property rights ombudsman will analyze free of charge for both parties. They will give definition and guidance as to how things would weigh out. When developers apply for a subdivision, they are granted the rights that are in place based on that day or the codes that are in place to make sure governmental entities cannot change their code to make that illegal. Planner Seedall said our very first application is preliminary. I will meet with anyone about concept plans to circle talking points, but we do not require concept applications. Vested right start with the first application to DRC. Manager Cobabe said if they meet the requirements as set forth in the code, the answer is yes. If they cannot do everything, then the answer is no.

Attorney Ericson then discussed land use referendum. Voters can get involved in changing a land use decision. If a city made a land use decision that a significant number of voters within that jurisdiction, did not care for then they can go through the process of getting signatures and putting it on the ballot for the next election. There are timing deadlines and signature requirements.

Chairman Capener asked about the liability differences between the PUD form-based code, development agreements and basic zoning. Attorney Ericson said there is no increased liability. A development agreement is always preferred because we are able to lay out specifically what is going to happen within that PUD. I do not think one has more liability than the other. If we are writing development agreements accurately, they memorialize everything we are doing with the overlay and PUD. Planner Seedall said we are hoping the PUD gives the framework for the development agreements. Manager Cobabe said it should be extremely clear and plain language. All the expectations are set forth in clear terms. In the event there is a discrepancy or disagreement between the code and development agreement, it is always the development agreement that trumps. We should loop the Commission into that process a little earlier. I think you should be more heavily involved than in the past.

b. Discussion and consideration of updates to Chapter 1.27 Sign Permit

The Commission continued their discussion from the previous meeting. They discussed the sizing for temporary signs, as well as how long they can be up. Planner Seedall said no off-premise temporary signs are allowed except those mentioned in this chapter. For political campaigns, they may be erected according to the use table, which is 30 days and may remain a maximum of seven additional days after an election date. This gives leeway. They have 30 days prior to the election and then seven extra days for removal. Having it be 30 days keeps it consistent across the board and uniformly enforced. Signs shall be located in accordance with how all of the other signs have to be permitted, which is keeping them out of the public right-of-way. They cannot create visual distraction. Those are the changes. I fixed a few others like repairs of signs. The only other addition was that all employees can remove any sign that is in violation. That goes for all signs not just political signs.

The Commission further discussed other signs for businesses, including height on poles and signs on buildings. Manager Cobabe said I think reasonable restrictions are a good idea. I like signs on buildings, those are appropriate, but the ones on the street I have a harder time with. We should consolidate those to keep things visually appealing. Once we get into the form-based code, we are going to discuss these more. We can get pretty creative with what we want to see as far as supports, poles and monument signs. Near the freeway you want the signs to pull in freeway traffic. Nobody really uses signs anymore to get around. We just use our phones to take us right to the front door. Planner Seedall said with the form-based code, we will put that in along Main Street to preserve right-of-way and visibility requirements with multi-tenant signs. Wall signs would delineate where businesses are. Commission Member Miller said I like these changes. They really do simplify temporary signs and what those requirements are.

Motion by Commission Member Grover to recommend the updates to this chapter to the Council. Motion seconded by Commission Member Miller. Vote: Chairman Capener – yes, Commission Member Grover – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Thompson – absent, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.

c. Discussion of 1.33 PUD Ordinance

Motion by Commission Member Grover to table the discussion until the next meeting. Motion seconded by Commission Member Miller. Vote: Chairman Capener – yes, Commission Member Grover – yes, Commission Member Miller – yes, Commission Member Thompson – absent, Commission Member Van Tassell – absent. Motion approved.

Chairman Capener said after reviewing my notes, we talked about the three sides not touching. You can only touch two sides on the multi-tenant. Matheson would not be allowed under that. They have 16 of their units touch on three sides. Planner Seedall said that is multi-family stacked, this if for attached housing—townhomes where you can only share two walls. This does not apply to the stacked. We are trying to minimize the amount of shared walls for attached housing and delineate what attached versus stacked housing is.

7. Planning commission comments/reports:

Planner Seedall said we are going to have a public hearing to update five chapters of code in the next meeting, which is going to include definitions and how the Planning Commission operates. Most of them are small, but I am going to see how many we can get through. Manager Cobabe said Planner Seedall and I will attend a conference in Provo. Planning Commission Members can attend if interested. This would cover your required trainings.

Commission Member Grover informed the Commission he is resigning due to personal reasons once City staff finds a replacement.

8. Adjournment

Motion by Commission Member Miller to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Board. The meeting was adjourned at 7:09 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 ___________, 2024.

______________________________
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.