Nibley council approves city's first neighborhood commercial zone

By Diana Maxfield

December 2, 2005 | NIBLEY -- The City Council voted to approve a zone change on 3.34 acres near 3100 S. Main, changing a residential zone to the city's first neighborhood commercial zone.

The ordinance creating neighborhood commercial zones was approved Nov. 17, after approximately two years of ironing out details, said Councilman Scott Wells. The first neighborhood commercial zone was created following a public hearing.

"We're looking at a piece of land that makes sense," said Nibley resident Todd Pignataro. He said there is a whole block of land with just one house on it -- his own. Putting neighborhood commercial there, he said, makes sense.

"It's the right thing to move forward with this," Wells said.

Councilman-elect Bryan Hansen said he wasn't sure he agreed that moving forward was the best plan. "There are a lot of uncertainties," he said.

Hansen suggested the city get a plan in place before starting to rezone, in order to eliminate problems that could arise, and allow the city to turn away businesses they don't want.

"If you have a plan, you can blame the plan," he said.

"We cannot plan the nth detail," Councilwoman Dori Peterson said. She said the council has done well on planning for some things, and not so well on others, but the city has grown faster than the master plan. "We have to do the best we can," she said.

The master plan keeps changing, said Mayor Lynn Welker, as growth and development occur. "We can't wait forever," he said.

The council approved the rezone in a vote of 4-1, with Councilman Scott Larsen voting to oppose. "We don't have standards in place to govern this zone, so I think it's premature to approve this without the backbone to guide it through," he said.

The City Council also voted to approve an appeal of PICSEND's conditional use permit. The chair of the planning and zoning commission, Larry Jacobsen, said after the planning and zoning commission approved PICSEND's request for a conditional use permit, he realized there were a few problems which needed to be straightened out before Mark Daines and Bret Peterson, the property owners, begin building.

These three issues mostly deal with landscaping. The development plan Daines and Peterson have proposed has them building on about 2/3 of the lot. The remainder will be left undeveloped for the time being, Jacobsen said.

City ordinance requires 20 percent of a site or lot be landscaped. Deciding the definition of "site or lot" becomes a bit sticky, he said. As proposed, the development plan landscapes 20 percent of the 2/3 of the lot being built on, rather than 20 percent of the lot as a whole, Jacobsen said.

"Leaving things up in the air is not a good idea," he said.

Another issue involves a turn-around easement, Jacobsen said. The development plan, he said, has about five parking stalls in the easement area.

Peterson said he had no problem getting rid of some parking stalls. "We have plenty of parking," he said.

Councilman Jim Waite suggested accepting Jacobsen's appeal on condition that landscaping be done to a 20 percent level for the lot when the lot is fully developed. The parking stalls in the easement areas will also be removed from the plan, and all easements and provisions of city ordinances will be met, he said.

In other business, the council:
-- decided to set up a committee of residents and professionals to look into design standards and have them tweaked by the end of March.
-- officially named the front office area of the city building the Pat Blau Office, in appreciation of 30 years of service by the retiring treasurer and clerk.

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