KAYSVILLE -- Forget the demands for more specifics or complaints over proposed cluster housing. What drew the sharpest response from the City Council at a recent public hearing on the city's new general plan was the continued perception that many city residents still seem divided in an east-west fashion.
Councilman Robert Rees said residents shouldn't talk east or west, but just Kaysville.Reed Nelson, another councilman, agreed.
"There isn't a west Kaysville, there's a west side," he said.
Mayor Brian Cook said he's always tried to emphasize Kaysville is just one city.
Councilman H. Arthur Johnson spent 15 minutes debunking a common myth that east Kaysville doesn't subsidize west Kaysville.
Darrell Horne, another Councilman, said he always makes jokes about west Kaysville, but that's just humor because some of his children live there.
The west side of Kaysville is considered anything west of I-15. The new general plan states that a maximum of two units per acre are allowed west of I-15, while a residential density of up to five units per acre are permissible east of I-15.
When 2,600 acres of unincorporated land west of I-15 was annexed into Kaysville in the mid-1980s the main request was to continue half-acre zoning in the city's new addition.
The council ended up approving its new general plan by a 4-1 vote Nov. 9, to climax 18 months of work by various citizen committees and the Planning Commission.
Talk of an east Kaysville vs. west Kaysville came from many of the 150 residents who attended the second public hearing on the plan. The comments surfaced as residents asked for more specifics in the plan, particularly in sections addressing cluster housing in residential areas, zoning differences in different areas of the city and preserving open space.
Some residents at the hearing spoke strongly against cluster housing, the concept of packing homes together to preserve open space in larger sections.
"Cluster housing is an abominable situation," Richard Strong told the council, a comment that drew loud applause from the audience.
Surprisingly, Steve Smoot, a land developer, also spoke strongly against cluster housing. He believes the concept didn't work in Centerville or West Jordan and won't work in Kaysville.
Nelson said many people don't understand clustering or realize it does not affect existing developments.
Some residents and even Rees -- who cast the lone vote against the general plan -- felt the Council should not be in a hurry to approve the general plan and continue revisions to overcome some of its ambiguity.
However, Cook said that he had already heard every concern raised at the hearing before, there was nothing new.
Councilman Stephen Whitesides said it didn't make sense to make major changes in the plan now, unless you get all the various study committees back together and start the process all over again.