Short Term Rental Issue & Water's Edge

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. December 3, 2014. There was a great deal of interest in the short term rental item on the Public Hearing Agenda.  Several realtors, short term rental managers, and others involved with the short term rental business were in attendance.  There were about 25 people there.  Most of these individuals were concerned that the City might limit locations for short term rentals, rezone certain areas, and so forth.

Lance Bourn, Chairman of the P&Z Committee, noted that there are only three HOAs (Home Owner’s Associations) in the town out of 21 that do not allow short term rentals in their developments—Bridgerland, The Cottages, and Lockwood.  In the past the City’s attorney has told the City that they could not support subdivisions’ rules and regulations.  Anyone who requested a license for a short term rental should be allowed to have one even if their HOA does not allow overnight rentals. 

The attorney, however, has been looking into the HOA’s rules and regulations.  When the CC&R’s (Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions) of an HOA specifically states that short term rentals are not allowed, the City could refuse short term rental licenses to individuals living in those areas because the individuals who have purchased homes in those areas would be aware of this restriction.  The City would like to be able to assist these developments follow their current rules by denying individuals short term rental licenses in these three subdivisions.

A representative from the Lake Meadows Home Owners Association was present and noted that Lake Meadows CC&R’s state that no short term rentals are allowed in that development.  He asked that this development be placed on the list of having no short term rentals.

Most of the individuals present didn’t realize that the City was not trying to rezone areas or stop any particular areas from having short term rentals.  When this was understood, the tension disappeared and several suggestions and comments were made that were helpful. 

It was suggested that instead of rezoning some areas that a paragraph be added to the short term rental ordinance.  The paragraph would note that as long as the City has a letter on file from the HOA President noting that his development doesn’t allow short term rentals, that a short term rental license could be denied.  That letter would give permission to the City to no longer give short term rental licenses to individuals living in that particular location.

The suggestion was also made to make a map showing which areas did not allow short term rentals.  Many people need to see, not just hear what is allowed and where.  This map could also be placed on the City’s web site as well.

The majority of the individuals attending the public hearing left after this item had been covered. 

The next agenda item dealt with the Water’s Edge Development.  Norm Mecham, developer, noted that currently his engineer and the City’s engineer are working together to work out a plan that includes the City’s plans for 150 South and how it ties into the Water’s Edge Development.  He noted that currently there needs to be agreement on sewer, water, and drainage.  Drainage is probably the biggest issue right now.  Mecham said that the two engineers were working on the differences in the two plans.  He said that he wanted everything to be worked out and asked that he placed on the agenda to come back next month with all of these particular issues worked out prior to any approval be given to him.

He mainly had an over view of the whole project so that the Committee would be aware of what will be coming in the future.  He noted that the project has been divided into various phases.  All common areas will come along with the phase as needed. 

He was asked why the amount of land included in the subdivision is different from one plan to another.  He noted that an active survey would be different than the land included in the deeds because of the water levels and the changing beach. 

He reported that the easement along the south of the property needs to be written and signed between the City and Water’s Edge.  He noted that it should be completed in the next week or two.  He will have more information on the easement for the meeting next month.

The Unmuddled Mathematician

The Turkey

By Chris S. Coray, The Unmuddled Mathematician

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent time with your families, and enjoyed turkey sandwiches.  At the end of this story it may be a while before you eat your next one.

Many years ago a young man, Russ Weeks, left his teaching job at Richfield High School and came to USU to earn a Master’s degree in mathematics.  He became my student.  As he was not yet married we sort of partially adopted him and he spent many holidays at our house.  We became and are very close.  Eventually he married and bought a small house in Paradise.  He and his new wife remodeled the house, added a garage (the inside of which he painted the brightest white I’ve ever seen) and began teaching at Logan High School.

As he had a couple of acres of land, he and his former professor (me) hatched a plan to raise a little fresh provender for our families, in this case, turkeys.  Special, genetically enhanced, broad-breasted white feathered turkeys.  There were 12 of them.  Spring became summer, then fall, and our flock of birds did well.  They did so well that we became victims of our own greed.  These turkeys just kept getting bigger and in our greed we kept putting off the harvest.  Although it is getting a little ahead of the story I tell you now that near Thanksgiving these turkeys weighed 55 lbs each on the hoof.  They were seriously big.   Now it’s time for you to pay attention.

Neither of us is a farmer or rancher.  But what the heck, how hard could it be to harvest a turkey?  The answer is that our education and degrees didn’t work worth spit.  But it wasn’t because of a lack of planning.  Here was our scheme.  We would capture the turkey and hang him upside down from a truss in the spiffy new garage.  Then we would take a 5 gallon plastic bucket, put about 15 lbs of rocks in it, and attach the bucket to the neck of the turkey, nicely stretching the bird out.  The bucket was suspended about 1 inch off of the garage floor.  Then, as our plan for actually killing the turkey was to slit its throat, we engineered and built what we called our “Cone of Harvest”.  This 6 inch long cone was made to fit around the neck of the turkey so that the blood would drain straight down into the weighted bucket, making no mess, even if the turkey flopped a little.  After a short interval we would use scalding hot water to help us remove the feathers, then we’d clean the bird, and voila, Norbest would be only a vendor in our distant past.

Our plan proceeded as designed right up to the work of the “Cone of harvest”.  It was a bitterly cold night.  Russ and I had all in readiness.  However, when we slit the neck of the turkey all of the muscles in the bird relaxed and I swear the turkey got about 3 inches longer.  Down to the floor went the bucket, no longer applying any tension.  The turkey began a wild flop which was not much stopped by any of our gear as there now were a couple of inches of slack in our system.  Round and round went the turkey, so fast and so strong that blood sprayed all the way to the beautiful white walls of the garage.  Then it froze.  Viewed later it was sort of like we had thrown red speckle paint all over the walls, except where the blood hit Russ and me, leaving sort of a clean white human shaped shadow behind each of us on the walls.  I don’t think my wife kept the clothes.

We had not distinguished ourselves, at least in the way we had hoped.  Afterwards, the scalding water and removal of feathers went well, the cleaning just fine, but this story isn’t over.  Remember, I wrote that the turkey weighed 55 lbs on the hoof.  This was determined when the turkey was freshly dead but still wearing all its clothes.  Once cleaned it didn’t weigh that much, but it was still huge.  So big that we tried an experiment to see if it would fit in the oven.  Nope, not close, and this was not a small oven.  Too tall and those darn drumsticks.  So we pondered some solutions, e.g., cutting it in half, going to a commercial place to cook it, and some other more dramatic tricks involving truck bumpers.  The one we settled on, and this is the truth, is that we took an 8 pound sledgehammer and bashed the turkey breast on the top, crushing skeletal structure, but making it a really, really broad-breasted turkey.  Further, we gave the turkey a case of anklehipolitis, which is done by turning  the ankles into hips using severe pressure.  But we ended up with a half inch to spare, not a lot of circulation room but the oven door closed.  We note that should you try this that you cannot make enough dressing to fill the cavity. 

Our leftover turkey sandwiches lasted 4 months and were not thin sliced.

Turkeys On Hodges Canyon Road

This old, nearly featherless tom has found a hen...part of the herd (flock?) of 50 turkeys on Hodges Lane
Photo by Elvira Luzack

Response To First School Board Reapportioning Meeting

To the editor:

As many RCT subscribers know I have been working on getting the school board seats reapportioned according to population. It has been a very interesting experience learning about the law, reading and studying the state code and then petitioning the county commissioners to reapportion. Progress is being made and hopefully in the next couple of months the process is complete.

The commissioners established a redistricting committee and invited me to present the information I have collected. I presented my information to the committee November 19th. After the committee was able to digest the information, they began to see the consequence of redistricting and at least 9 of the 14 are not excited about the shift of influence in the school district. I understand why they feel that way, it is not easy to change and even less easy if something is lost in the change.

When the majority of the committee realized Garden City and Laketown will likely have three votes on the school board the majority became upset that people "over there" would have control, especially since "they don't live there and don't have kids in the school system." They questioned if it was really necessary to use census data, "why don't we use registered voter data?" they asked or "why don't we use child distribution in the county?"  "But children data or voter registration makes more sense". They objected when Commissioner Cox said the committee has (by Utah State Code) to use census data to draw lines.

Many people on the South side of the county think the census is incorrect and that there are not 824 people that live in the Garden City zip code. Residents in Bear River Valley think that many summer residents improperly filled out the census data but I submit and believe the census is accurate and some people that are "summer" residents are indeed residents of Rich County. As long as they are registered as primary residents in only one voting district they have the right to choose where they are listed as primary residents. See Utah code 20A-2-104.  "Summer" residents are actually only a fraction of the population of Garden City residents as evidenced by the data below.

A number of families have moved to Garden City in the last ten years.  This is also evidenced by the data below which shows 92 elementary students coming from Garden City.  Many of these families make a living serving the recreational community of Bear Lake.  They plan on staying and raising their families here, and because many have been here multiple years already I think they will make it.

There is also a number of transient types of families and workers. The transient group is harder to track because they move in for a summer to several years. I think this group in particular does not register to vote or vote thus making it difficult to win a county wide election up to this point, so Garden City has some work to do to win county wide elections.

There are also many retirees who live in the Garden City area year round. This group is not to be confused with retirees who only live here in the summer, although some part time residents do claim their Bear Lake home as their primary residence. Each of these groups deserves representation under the law.  I have studied the census data for Garden City very closely and compared that to my own count. I believe the census data to be correct. It is not good to base policy on assumptions or desire that the census is faulty.  It is better to base policy on numbers and facts. 

Though the children demographic is not allowed by the law to use for reapportionment, it is interesting information to compare as the county redistricting committee would like to do. From the committee's discussion they believe there is a large disparity between the children population and census population.  However, the percentage of school children vs. the percentage of the whole population in Garden City compared to the county is almost exactly the same.

The information below came from the school district and primarily comes from the busing routes. I have done some computing to get some of the numbers (they are marked with *) and you can do the calculations if you like as well.

Garden City elementary children:  92
Laketown elementary children:  31*
Randolph elementary children:  61*
Woodruff elementary children: 51

Garden City middle school students:  36*
Laketown middle school students:  16*
Randolph middle school students:  25*
Woodruff middle school students:  30

Garden City high school students:  47*
Laketown high school students:  21*
Randolph high school students:  43*
Woodruff high school students:  24

Total students from Garden City and Laketown:  243

Total students from Randolph and Woodruff:  234

Total students of Rich County: 477

Garden City students make up 37% (175/477) of the county student population. Garden City residents, according to the census, make up 36% (824/2264) of the county population.

One interesting conversation arose from the potential of Laketown and the North part of Bear River Valley being in the same district. They realized that if Laketown voted as a block, Laketown would control the seat.  That really perturbed the majority of the committee and the discussion then turned to "maybe we should change all seats to at large."  I listened for a time and then interjected that if they don't like "Laketown" controlling the seat if Laketown votes as a block vote then maybe the committee understands how Garden City residents feel about the block vote of Bear River Valley residents when it comes to county commission seats. I think they came to some understanding.

I would like to thank the commissioners and the committee for taking the time to complete this process in a timely manner.  It is the right thing to do, even if it is not easy. I am happy to discuss my findings with any who have questions.  My purpose in requesting the school board redistricting is to see that every Rich County resident has equal representation on that governmental board.

Bryce Huefner, 435-757-0967

bryce@bearlakelandscape.com

Winter Clouds

Photo by Tammy Calder

Sign Ordinance And Rental Ordinances Worrisome

To the editor:

I think that a discussion is good on  uniting on what we would like as a community theme, or other community issues. I have participated in many of those discussions in many communities. In our process here however,  we need to be careful how we implement our ideas, which to this point we have not.

There has been more than a bluring of the lines between public and private property. Detailed law that is compelled by elected and unelected officials not allowing the freedom for self determination with regard to one's private property or anything else it seems, is a moral wrong and wildly inconsistent with the founding of our country, our pioneer heritage, and grandparents. Those of us old enough to remember back know what I mean. They had many of the same discussions,  but without  "looks" being made "law". They encouraged rather than to dictate,  because to dictate, is tyranny. Alexis Tocqueville warned of this micro-managing in "Democracy in  America". He further specifically referred to this process we are engaged in right now, and feared that we as a country would go down this very sad road; eliminating liberty by a despotic government. He said that the opposite is what made America great. Our grandparents back to the founding of our country held in high regard Charles Montesquieu who said "It is not for the advantage of the government to deprive an individual of his property, or retrench the least part of it by a law or political regulation". Cecero "The community was established with no other view than that everyone might be able to preserve his property". I could go on and on, but the founders of our great country wanted law to expand property rights, not eliminate them. This is not a right or left issue, It is and AMERICAN issue.

Elected and non-elected leaders, please educate yourselves about our country's founding and constitution,  and stop passing laws that did not come from the people. Shame on those few people that want to use local government to impose their will on the rest of us, it is despicible.

Stop this ordinance on eliminating the right of someone who wants to rent their property. City Council, you have NO right to do this. Pens and phones all over the place! It is obvious that our community is reeling and angry with this constant authoritarian behavior, we are the sovereign, not you. Sorry for the length of this, but this needed to be said.  BTW,  I love the idea of having lights up for the winter, for the reasons already given.

Rick Rose

Polar Plunge Sponsors Needed

Sponsorships are available for the upcoming Cisco Disco and Bear Lake Polar Plunge in January. We are seeking donations for this event and hoping you could help us out. Below is a list of items that our 2015 sponsors will get for their donation.

$100 Sponsor - Logo on 2015 Bear Lake Polar Plunge Sweatshirt.

$200 Sponsor - Logo on 2015 Bear Lake Polar Plunge Sweatshirt ,$5 off 2015 Bear Lake Rendezvous Chamber Dues  and a Bear Lake Polar Plunge Sweatshirt.

$300 Sponsor - Logo on 2015 Bear Lake Polar Plunge Sweatshirt, $10 off 2015 Bear Lake Rendezvous Chamber Dues , 2 Bear Lake Polar Plunge Sweatshirts , and a 2015 Bear Lake Utah State Parks Pass.

All proceeds for this event are given to Hope Kids.  Restoring Hope. Transforming Lives.

Hope Kids provides ongoing events & activities and a powerful, unique support community for families who have a child with cancer or some other life-threatening medical condition.  Hope Kids surround these remarkable children and their families with the message that hope can be a powerful medicine.

If you would like to be a sponsor for our 2015 Bear Lake Polar Plunge, please reply to this email, attach your logo and send payment to the Bear Lake Rendezvous Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 55, Garden City, UT 84028.  We will have your sponsor items available January 24th, 2015 at the Bear Lake Polar Plunge for pick up! You can view the event flyer at this link: http://bearlake.org/events

Angie McPhie,  Bear Lake Rendezvous Chamber of Commerce

PO Box 55

Garden City, UT 84028