More New Homes Being Built In Garden City

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. June 9, 2016.  George Peart, the Residential Building Inspector, reported that there are seven residential permits currently open.  There are still several other licenses open from last year and, there are two additional applications currently being processed.

It was noted that to become a commercial building inspector is much more complicated and difficult than originally thought.  Thus, the City has contracted with Steve Hamblin to continue doing the commercial inspections in the City.

Peart attended the Planning and Zoning meeting and noted that that Commission is working on several project and PUDs.

Peart said that there are quite a few short term rentals out in the County.  The Rich County Commissioners are discussing how to handle the short term rental situation.  It appears that they will probably adopt the same ordinance that Garden City has developed with a few adjustments that meet the County’s needs.  The County will perhaps have to add an additional fee to the short term rentals dealing with sanitation issues.  Because most of the subdivisions use the large dumpsters, it is not possible to keep track of who dumps what.  However, it is known that there is an impact on the amount of garbage in the dumpsters in areas where there are short term rentals.

It appears that the Commissioners will allow short term rentals in the county.  With what information Garden City could give to the County, it appears that there are about 16 to 20 short term rentals currently active in the County.  Mitch Poulson will get more information and details that he will present to the Commissioners next month. It was discussed that perhaps it would be easier to charge the fees by the occupancy number instead of charging a license for each short term rental.

It was noted that Bob Peterson and Kathy Hislop are analyzing culinary water data for July and August of last year to determine if short term rentals have an impact on the City’s water system.  They will have that information in the next week or two.