For more than four years the City Council has been wrangling over annexation of the eastern mountains. Tuesday's meeting was no exception.
The council directed city attorney David Church to make modifications in the annexation policy declaration resolution.Yet, in what may be a major blow to the annexation, developer Joel Kester said he was unwilling to dedicate his land as open space to the city. Officials want a city-controlled park in the upper elevations, much of which Kester owns. Kester said he would rather have a private park he could control because he doesn't want people camping behind his house.
Moreover, Kester wants to dedicate water shares from another Utah County community to meet his water requirement, according to Planning Director Jannicke Brewer. But the council, of late, has been balking about accepting other than Alpine water shares.
The final resolution may not come until the next City Council is installed in January. Three new council members will be installed then, including Don Watkins, leader of a citizens group opposed to developing the mountains.
The 173-acre area extends up the eastern mountain and includes 14 landowners' properties. The proposal includes 80 lots in the Willow Canyon Subdivision. But the issues that have prevented an agreement are many and thorny.
The City Council, for example, cannot agree on the number of lots it wants to allow - numbers range between 60 and 70. Nor can it agree on how high up the mountain it will allow them. Some say water pressure would be adequate at the 5,220-foot elevation. Approving lots higher than that would require another water tank.
Access into the area is another concern. As designed now, the only road in or out is Country Manor Lane. Another access, down 300 North, is needed, said city councilman Tom Anderson, but that access would go through an orchard and is not part of the annexation. Anderson said the application is inadequate because it lacks dedicated access and other guarantees to the city, including where the debris basins should go and water issues.
Moreover, as currently designed the annexation would create an island of county-controlled land, deemed unacceptable.
Residents also complained that the city is bent on approving the resolution as a step toward annexation before the development plan is approved. Mayor Joel Hall said completing the development plan is a condition of the resolution.
The council tabled the discussion and instructed Church to redraft the annexation resolution so it created a peninsula of city-controlled property, rather than an island; and to give assurances that water controls follow the city ordinance, that the city will accept water shares in lieu of a water pump, that the annexation would carry a $3,000-per-lot fee, that no construction take place until access to 300 North is assured, that no more than 20 homes be constructed until a second access is in place, that hiking trails be clearly marked on the annexation map, that debris basins meet city guidelines, and that land in the upper elevations be set aside as a park.