Some residents want to know why, if the city has a moratorium on construction of multiunit housing developments, so many new developments are going up.

The City Council imposed an indefinite building moratorium on all such developments, except condominiums, in late May and has denied requests for mobile-home units or developments larger than four units. However, one resident says the city's lenient zoning ordinances have allowed similar developments to go in under the guise of condominiums."Condominiums can be anything, the way the ordinances currently read," said Barbara Chapman, who has fought Payson planning officials and the City Council to make the city more restrictive regarding the number of developments it allows.

Chapman started attending zoning and council meetings after a friend, Lori Laird, got her involved in protesting a proposed condominium development on the city's northeast side in April.

"We found that all the apartments that were being built (in Payson) were being built in our area, and we felt like there was nothing we could do," Chapman said.

In particular, both the Planning Commission and council called special sessions in August to discuss the definitions of planned-unit developments and condominiums in existing ordinances and to clarify how action is taken on proposed developments, she said.

"This is ridiculous," Chapman said. "They're doing anything to avoid voting (on controversial developments or proposed zoning changes) in front of us."

City leaders have defended the sessions with little comment, but it's not the first time city actions on developments have been questioned.

Last year, the council was wedged between angry residents and a local developer in a dispute over construction of an eightplex on the city's northeast side. The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the site plan, although it didn't follow zoning requirements for placement of multiunit dwellings.

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City officials said they realized their mistake too late, and if they had reneged on the construction allowance they could have faced a costly lawsuit from the developers.

Planning leaders now say they're revising and updating certain ordinances to ensure that the city isn't swamped by new development.

"We need to decide whether people prefer multiunit housing to be spread throughout the community or to be designated for specific areas, and even how much should be allowed to go in," said Bob Provstgaard, assistant planning chairman.

Further planning and zoning action, as well as action by the council on housing ordinances, is expected in the near future.

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