Special Council Meeting
After months of negotiations and countless hours of research, debate, arguing, public hearings, reviews of 1000s of pages of plans and agreements, etc., tonight (9/3/21) we held a special council meeting to discuss and vote on two major neighborhoods of the Old Farm Estates (OFE) development.
Versions of the two neighborhoods, the Peregrine Townhomes and the Teton Heights Apartments, had been approved already. But both the city and the developers agreed that we could come up with a better plan for both of these neighborhoods.
For the city, it was a proactive chance to negotiate a much better final result than we were slated to get otherwise. The council asked final questions this evening of the city staff, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the developers.
Based on their recommendations and the council members own due diligence, the council vote unanimously to approved the new plans for these two neighborhoods. Given the options on the table, I can't imagine anyone with the city's best interest in mind voting not to approve the new plans and instead sticking with what was currently approved.
Now, I should mention some of the concerns that are being expressed by some residents regarding the meeting.
- The meeting was not an emergency meeting; it was a special meeting held to address these particular issues. The meeting was announced and posted publicly as required. There are such things as emergency council meetings that don't follow standard public announcement procedures, but this wasn't one of those. (I might add that I'm not a fan of meetings outside of the normally scheduled meetings. I'm very sympathetic to this concern. In this case, we thought it was best for all parties involved to make a decision on these proposals--one way or another--sooner rather than later. If we decided we wanted to approve, now was the time for the agreement to be made. If we decided we didn't want to approve, the land owners deserved to know, as ground was ready to be broken on the already previously approved developments.)
- The meeting was held on the high school homecoming football game night. That was not on purpose. No deception or subterfuge was intended as far as I know. We simply didn't check the school district calendar. Though some city business can't be adjusted just because it interferes with the school district's calendar, I will try to take such things into account better in the future.
- There were no public comments allowed during the meeting. That is true. As this was a judgement being made on items on which there had already been a public hearing and a findings of facts by the P&Z, there was not additional direct public comment allowed on the items. We try to keep the meetings and the process as open and transparent as possible, but such are the necessary yet often frustrating constraints of code and law.
- Council members have access to the public comments made during P&Z public hearings, even though we aren't allowed to participate in the hearings themselves. I think it's clear that many residents are very concerned about zoning, density and housing types. I think the mayor, the city staff, the P&Z Commission, and the council are all aware of this and are in the process of addressing these concerns when it comes to future development in the city. Please keep your eyes open for more on this in the meetings to come. And if you are really interested, please drop in city hall and ask about serving on the P&Z Commission or one of the other city's committees. We need more participation.
Well, I expect growth in Sugar City is bound to be the major issue before us for years to come. I hope we all can remain pleasant neighbors regardless of our opinions on the issues that arise. In the end, it is the love and concern and respect we have for one another that creates a great place to live. And Sugar City is a great place to live.