EPHRAIM—After exhaustively considering four options for a proposed development at 200 S. 300 West at the last city council meeting, the council tabled the discussion until the developer, Muddy Boys, could finalize a sales agreement with an adjacent property owner.
Muddy Boys, represented by Clayton Holbrook, wants to develop a subdivision at about 400 West and 300 South, but there’s an issue with access roads. The Ephraim transportation master plan has pegged 400 West as a main road as the city expands into that area, but currently 400 West is just a dirt road.
That dirt road would have to be expanded from 100 South all the way to 400 South in the city’s master plan, and that’s a lot of money for Ephraim City to expend. Muddy Boys is only obligated to improve 400 West for a small portion of the road fronting their development.
“We have to be able to get school buses or emergency vehicles into the subdivision,” Bryan Kimball, community development director, said. Four options were considered, including two that would extend a road south along 300 West, skirting a small existing park, as one way to access the development. Another option was to do a cul-de-sac that would be accessed off 400 West instead of a connecting road to 300 West, and a fourth option was to move the park.
Two Ephraim citizens, Marvin Leatham and Russ Welch, addressed the council with concerns about the development’s possible impact on that small park. Ephraim recreation director Michael Patton also had safety concerns about the park. His concern was about increased traffic next to the park, and he worried about a car going through the park fence or children hopping the fence into the street.
Some of the options presented would require either zoning designations to be changed or changes made to the Ephraim Land Use Map ordinance.
In the end, the council said they could not decide on which option to accept until Muddy Boys finalized a deal with Ron Stevenson, whose property is also on that intersection. The council did decide they didn’t want to move the park but tabled the final decision until the next council meeting.
A second request that would require an amendment to the Land Use Ordinances was made to the city council by Preston Pritchard at 200 South Main, who wants to put in storage units behind his house. The current city ordinance regarding storage units requires them to be no closer than a half-block (about 300 feet) away from U.S. 89, so that Ephraim’s Main Street remains free of storage units.
The council approved an amendment saying storage units would not be located “within the first half block adjoining Main Street/U.S. 89,” with new language saying, “unless located behind a building that substantially screens the view of the storage units from the main frontage along U.S. 89, as determined by the Planning Commission and City Council. In that consideration, the height of the storage units shall not exceed the height of the frontage building.”
With the new language, the way is open for Pritchard to make a proposal for his storage units. There is still another issue, however, because a sewer line currently goes under where the storage units would be built, and the city wants to make sure the utilities are protected.
The discussion of a required utility easement will be discussed once Pritchard makes a formal presentation of his project.
Finally, city recorder Leigh Ann Warnick was granted a request for early retirement by the council. Warnick has been with the city for 18 years.
