Checketts looks to annex
A key step in Stan Checketts’ dream to build a family recreation park on the south end of Logan came to fruition at the Logan Municipal Council meeting Wednesday.
The council voted unanimously to accept a petition for annexation of nearly 44 acres of land between U.S. Highway 89-91 and 800 West. While the petition was accepted, it does not guarantee the properties will be officially annexed into Logan City.
“Annexation cannot be initiated by the city,” said Karen Borg, council chairwoman.
Borg said individuals interested in applying for annexation go to the Community Development office and fill out the petition for annexation.
“When they do that, we as a body have to formally accept the petition,” Borg said.
Checketts has said he desires to build an outdoor family recreational facility with miniature golf, batting cages and go-carts on the property, while occasionally building and testing the tower rides his company, S&S Sports Power, is famous for. After being constructed at the park, the rides would be relocated elsewhere in the world.
In December, Checketts had a request turned down by the Cache County Planning Commission for a conditional-use permit to build a tower ride on the property. The commission opted to leave the matter up to Logan City.
Director of Community Development Jay Nielson said even if the properties are annexed, what happens after that is up in the air.
“When you annex a property you just annex the property,” Nielson said. “You don’t guarantee the project.”
Borg explained the acceptance of the petition by the council was not an official annexation of the property.
“It doesn’t mean that we’ve annexed the property. It doesn’t mean that we’ve expressed any opinion about whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea,” she said.
The next step is the process of certification, Borg said.
“By next week, the city recorder and the city attorney’s office will go through the petition and find out if, in fact, it is a legal annexation,” Borg said.
The councilwoman said the plan would be verified that no islands of property or illegal configurations would be created if annexation were to occur.
“Then we certify the petition as appropriate, and at that time, we set a public hearing,” Borg said.
The problem, she said, is the city’s annexation policy will be adopted before the time of the public hearing.
“We’re going to look at that public hearing, and we’re looking at February,” Borg said. “It certainly won’t be before 45 days.”
In other business, Nielson presented the council with the draft for the city’s annexation policy plan.
He expressed that any potential growth for Logan City will have to be to the west, as it is surrounded by towns and mountains in every other direction. He said Logan is rapidly running out of room to grow.
“We have determined that our most critical land use to deal with, with our growth, is multi-family,” Nielson said. “We have 95 acres left.”
Nielson said based on current growth projections, the city would be out of multi-family acreage by 2004, with single-family residential areas consumed by 2006.
“We have currently almost 600 acres of single family. Much of that, however, is in the existing community in the way of vacant lots,” Nielson said, stating those areas are unavailable for development.
Nielson said 981 acres of industrial-zoned land remain available and noted one solution for the diminishing residential space could be converting some of the industrial land to residential.
Nielson proposed three new zoning areas as part of an annexation of lands to the west of Logan. The Urban Service area, Rural Reserve area and Resource Conservation area were the three types of zones that could be created.
Councilwoman Tami Pyfer questioned whether the creation of the new areas would require amending the current city zoning ordinance; Nielson said it would.
Borg said a public hearing for the annexation plan will be held in February.
* Other council business:
Public Works Director Kevin Hansen, who was on the agenda to discuss alternatives to the proposed dugway project, was absent from the meeting with an illness and will be at the Jan. 15 meeting with his presentation.
Mayor Doug Thompson, the Logan Transit District and Jensen Haslem Architects were awarded by the Utah Masonry Council for the Logan Transit Center building.
The European-style structure tied for first place in Utah with Skaggs Catholic School in Salt Lake City and was entered in the national championship in Tampa, Fla.
“The city encouraged quality building,” architect Tom Jensen said. “I think that reflects the quality of the transit district, that it will have that kind of character.”
–str@cc.usu.edu