City looks at traffic with rezone requests

City Council members discussed three rezone requests that had been presented to the Planning Commission at the Jan. 2 meeting which were being presented to the City Council.

One request was approved. One was denied. And, one failed to pass with a tie vote.

The questions were discussed in detail at the City Council work session Tuesday, Jan. 9.

City planning director Jessica Grady presented the three requests and said representatives for the two properties which were not approved had appealed to the City Council.

“The concern I have is about a precedent set by approving one and not another, impacting the area and the negative impact with the increase with density and traffic with the city having a solution yet.”

Two of the properties are near the intersection of Weston Street with Patton Street and Hazelton Street. Area residents had complained about traffic congestion there the first time one of the rezone requests was presented.

Council member Jeff Neil said, “My concern isn’t the intersection. It’s that entire street both ways … if we’re not careful chasing that shiny growth thing, we may end up in a weed garden, not a rose garden. It needs to be planned for the whole area.”

“When we’re looking to put in multi-family high density,” Grady said, “we prefer to put it in the inner corridor. They (Planning Commission members) feel the weight of the public, but also of upholding the plans we have in place.”

“So much rides on the school. Are they a part of that conversation,” asked City Council member Nadine Telgemeier, noting that the traffic congestion is worst in the mid afternoon when school traffic is backed up in the center turn lane for more than 30 minutes waiting to enter the school property for student pickup.

“They know the issue,” Mayor Nathan See. “I think it’s just going to be us coming to them to see what we can do together.”

“Maybe they could take a road out to Hazelton. We need to create a plan that is going to work for everybody at the end of the day,” See said.

“We’re putting multi-family when we don’t have a solution for current issues,” said Matt Blood, City Council member. “Aren’t we putting the cart

before the horse?”

Engineer Robbie Bullis said he could look into flexibility about the intersection, but said adding stop signs on Weston Street may help Hazelton and Patton, but not Weston. Bullis said there are 4,000 cars a day on Weston Street and about half that on Hazelton and Patton streets.

“I think looking at the intersection is the wrong thing. I think it’s the corridor,” Neil said.

Planning Commission member Karen Sherman said that the responsibility of the Planning Commission is land use and that it begins with zoning, not with the large scale development plan.

“Something that stands out to me,” said Ginger Larsen, City Council member, “is that it was a full room (at the Planning Commission meeting). I’ve only seen that one other time.

“How do you say that it is okay but the adjacent one is not… We can’t say we don’t want growth.”

The three ordinances were to be presented to the City Council at the regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16.