Sanpete County declares local emergency following July 16 flooding

MANTI—The Sanpete County Commission unanimously approved a declaration of local emergency July 21 following severe flooding that struck Fayette and other parts of Sanpete County on July 16, then approved several amendments to the county’s land use and subdivision ordinances while postponing implementation of new regulations for private landing strips until additional standards can be developed.

The emergency declaration states that heavy rainfall caused flooding, flash flooding and runoff that damaged or threatened public and private property, roads, bridges, culverts, storm drainage systems, utilities and other infrastructure. The proclamation also notes that the event may exceed the county’s ability to respond without assistance, allowing county officials to request aid from state and federal agencies and activate emergency response and recovery plans.

Following the unanimous vote, Commission Chair Scott Bartholomew described how quickly the flooding developed despite clear skies elsewhere in the county.

“If you haven’t been down there, it was a nice sunny day like this and it was not raining in Fayette at all,” Bartholomew said. “I wish I could put my picture up here that somebody sent me of just one cloud just sitting in the foothills. And it just dumped.”

Bartholomew said the flooding overwhelmed drainage infrastructure as water rushed out of the foothills.

“It was enough water that the culverts wouldn’t handle it,” he said. “One of them came down my street and the other one came down the old cemetery road and done a lot of damage through there.”

He said crews believed cleanup efforts were nearly complete before a second surge of water was released when a reservoir that had formed east of the highway broke through plugged culverts.

“When we had everything cleaned up and we were just doing a little preparation for future rainstorms, stuff broke loose and came down through again and did even more damage the second time,” Bartholomew said.

Bartholomew also thanked emergency responders and county employees for their work during and after the flooding.

“Kudos to our emergency management, sheriff’s department and fire departments that showed up to help fill sandbags,” he said, adding that the county road department also “stepped in” to assist.

Commissioners said they met earlier Monday with state emergency management officials to review the response and discuss additional measures moving forward.

Earlier in the meeting, commissioners approved several amendments to the county’s land use and subdivision ordinances.

During a public hearing, commissioners considered amendments to the county’s Wildland Urban Interface Code, changes to subdivision requirements and the addition of new land use definitions for service ranches, private landing strips and bunkhouses.

No members of the public requested to speak during the hearing. However, Commissioner Mike Bennett said he wanted to send the proposed private landing strip provision back to the county’s Planning and Zoning Board for additional work.

“I’d like to see us push that back to Planning and Zoning Board to be put into an ordinance rather than just a definition and add it to the matrix,” Bennett said. “I’d rather, I think that needs to be put into an ordinance with setbacks.”

Following the public hearing, commissioners unanimously approved the ordinance amendments with one exception. The commission voted to adopt the definition for a private landing strip but delay adding it to the county’s land use classification matrix until the county Planning and Zoning Department develops a separate ordinance establishing standards.

“We’ll use the definition but kick it back to planning and zoning to develop an ordinance,” Bennett said before the commission voted.