Property Taxes, Blacksmith Shop and Rep. Gage Froerer's contributions and The Monastery

SEE UPDATES AT END OF POST

Today we present a potpourri of VERY IMPORTANT issues. First, kudos to the strong stance Huntsville Resident and Weber County Republican Party Delegate, Alan Clapperton, has taken against our elected officials (Republicans) with regard to the Property Tax Crisis. Read his strongly worded letter to the editor in today's Standard Examiner.

Also in today's Standard, we read reporter MARSHALL THOMPSON's version of the planning commission tabling the requested rezone of the Blacksmith Shop in Eden. As he mentions, Weber County planner [Scott] "Mendoza said the petition has gotten a lot of attention. 'I’ve gotten several e-mails. … I think the blacksmith shop is held pretty dear in Eden.'"

Larry Zini of the VCRD also offered a report on the Planning commission meeting yesterday on this very Forum. Ogden Valley's voice is being heard in ways previously unheard of even a year ago, and our humble readers are to be commended.

Back to the Property tax issue, Huntsville Resident D-Bell has been in contact with lawyers and has an initial plan of attack, but it is now time to put up or .... shut up!

If you are willing to pitch into the legal fund, send Mr. Bell an email and let him know your level of dedication (i.e. how much cash will you be willing to put into the legal fund).

We finish up today with several Property tax and Proposition 13 related articles and documents forwarded to us by our esteemed State Legislature and Huntsville resident, Gage Froerer.

• Huntsville Town Resolution Supporting Gage Froerer's Tax Efforts
  
  
• Salt Lake Tribune Editorial 8-28-07 No Prop. 13: Simplistic fixes have unintended consequences regarding Proposition 13
• 
  NCSL LEGISBRIEF: Property Tax Relief: Limitations On Property Assessments
• 
  Proposition 13 - 25 years later
• 
  INITIATIVE PROPOSAL B Tax Limitation Act
• 
  Utah's Property Tax
• 
  Proposition 13 - A Ten Year Retrospective

This issue is heating up. What say you Ogden Valley?

Click "Comments" below to opine.

Update 8-31-07: County Commissioners Guest Commentary from Today's Standard

Update 9-1-07: Our most gracious friends at the Monastery could use our support.

OVPC Meeting Last Night (Aug 28th)

Congratulations! You are making a difference!

During yesterday’s OVPC (Ogden Valley Planning Committee) meeting both the Planning Dept. staff and the Commission mentioned the numerous e-mails and phone calls they received concerning the rezone request ZP #10-27 for the Blacksmith Shop property in Eden. As a result of your efforts staff recommended a denial or tabling of the petition, and that the petitioner work with them to better utilize the property under current neighborhood commercial zoning and possibly a historical preservation approach. The Commission accepted staff’s recommendation and tabled the rezone request.

A discussion also ensued about the possibility of developing a historical zone for the one or two block area surrounding Eden Park.

That was the good news.

There were 4 Consent and 12 Regular agenda items scheduled for last night. After a 4 hour meeting the Commission only completed review and made recommendations on the 4 consent and first 6 regular agenda items. The remaining 6 items will be heard in a special OVPC meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 13. And, although the published Meeting Agenda did not indicate public input would not be permitted, there was no public input allowed on Sage Glen.

The Commission gave recommendations for: final approval of the Country Gardens Subdivision, preliminary/final approval for Saddleback Range Subdivision, preliminary approval for Basin View Estates Cluster Subdivision, Eden Valley Ranch Cluster Subdivision, Elk Shadow Subdivision, Phase I of Moose Mountain Estates Cluster Subdivision and Sage Glen Cluster Subdivision (all phases). In total 181 home sites were given recommendations for preliminary and/or final approval for development.

After major concerns expressed by some in the audience and a few of the Commissioners, a discussion was held about insufficient County infrastructure present to handle any water sheet flow and flooding from Country Gardens, Eden Valley Ranch or Elk Shadow to the homes and lands around these sites. The developers’ plans do not resolve these problems and homeowners could make matters even worse by building landscape berms. Additionally, these sites have been given Health Dept. approval for septic tanks!

Legal noted that the County Engineer is the final decision on possible water problems. The County Engineer said the impact fees recently passed will help with the cost of addressing some drainage problems in the County. What he failed to mention was that the impact fees will only be collected at the time of a building permit, not at the time of subdivision development. If only lots are sold in a development it may be years before the County has the necessary funds via impact fees to address this problem!

Presentation of Moose Mountain and Sage Glen Cluster Subdivisions redesigns were accepted by the Commission, again without any input allowed from the audience on Sage Glen.

Despite the concerns and the fact that we did not hear a definitive resolution to the water sheeting problems discussed, all of the developments recommended last night will go to the Weber County Commission for approval. No public input is usually allowed at such meetings. So let your voices be heard; get your typing skills sharpened and begin writing to the three County Commissioners on your concerns about these developments!

Our questions to our Commissioners should be, why are we approving any new developments using septic tanks? With the water quality already described as "polluted" and at best "Impaired" in Pineview Reservoir, what are our elected leaders thinking? We may have to live with existing septic tanks, but we certainly don't need any new ones!

We should also demand that the County Engineer give his total assurance that there will be no water sheeting problems
caused by the construction of these new subdivisions if they are approved by the Weber County Commission.

Your VCRD Staff

UPDATE - 8/29/07 2:00 PM Our humble State Representative, Gage Froerer, has sent some Property tax related articles and documents for posting on the Forum. Check back later this evening to review.

OVPC Meeting on Tuesday, August 28th 4:30PM

This is an alert for all readers of our blog. The OVPC meeting for tomorrow has a full agenda. Some of the agenda items are
Eden Valley Ranch Cluster Subdivision, Elk Shadow Subdivision, Moose Mountain Estates Phase 1 and the Sage Glen Subdivision in Five Phases.

The new posts below describe other agenda items in more detail. If you have input or concerns regarding any of these agenda items, be at the meeting and/or write your OVPC Commissioners to express your feelings.

Your VCRD Staff

UPDATE - 8-28, 2007: The Ogden Valley Forum and Huntsville Resident Larry Zini was quoted in yesterdays Salt Lake Tribune

And in the August 28th Standard Examiner, we read a guest commentary by Eden Resident Richard Evans who tells of interesting phone calls with our elected officials regarding property taxes.

Change in CVR-1 Zone in Huntsville Area

On August 28, 2007 at 4:30PM the Ogden Valley Planning Commission will have their regular meeting. On the Agenda
is a request (ZP #11-07) from new property owners to amend the already approved Residential and Commercial Area Requirements for parcel #20-036-0035 located at the Southwest corner of Old Snowbasin Road and Hwy. 39.

The VCRD and local residents oppose this request for the following reasons:

This property has been rezoned twice before.
• First it was rezoned to CV-2.

The previous owner then petitioned to rezone to CVR-1 so that a condo/tel could be built.

When the original CVR-1 rezoning petition (from CV-2 to CVR-1) was granted it was with limits. Those limits included:

• the maximum sizing of 63,000 sq. ft. (as originally presented by petitioner when she requested rezoning to CV-2),

• a mixture of residential and commercial,

• a minimum of 15,750 sq. ft. of non-lodging type commercial,

• the commercial portion is to be built simultaneously with the condo/tel.

The current CVR-1 zoning with restrictions should have been apparent to the new owners at the time of their due diligence when purchasing the property or before committing moneys to this project.

Lifting of the restrictions would increase the overall size of the building to 72,000 sq. ft., and reduce, or possibly eliminate the requirements for non-lodging type commercial under 9C-5 of the CVR-1 ordinance.

Additionally, on the site plan the new owner is showing a 35 ft height under a conditional use permit increasing the height maximum from 25 ft. to 35 ft.

The VCRD membership and local residents are opposed to any conditional height increase as well. The current town homes (Ski Lake Townhomes) & condos now being built across Hwy 39, are limited to a 25 ft. height along Hwy 39. Some of these condos and townhouses are permitted to be taller than 25 ft. as they build down the slope closer to the water.

The property in question is on the South side of Hwy. 39 and on an upslope. This means that any construction activity will start out higher than the townhouses and condo’s on the North side of Hwy. 39, and if granted a conditional use increase in height, will be much higher overall than other similar units built in the area. This could negatively impact the view lines of the scenic corridor along Hwy. 39.

We ask that this commission recommend denial of this request to amend and lift the restrictions on the CVR-1 zoning for this property and also deny any conditional use increase in the height from 25 ft to 35 ft.

We urge all VCRD members and Valley residents to take a stand against this "shell game" approach to the development planning process. Show up at the meeting and be heard and/or write your OVPC Commissioners.

The VCRD Staff

Protect the Blacksmith Shop in Eden

NOTE: This is one of two important posts today. Be sure to also view the previous post regarding Property Taxes.


On Tuesday, August 28 at 4:30 PM the Ogden Valley Planning Commission will hear Zoning Petition ZP #10-07 to rezone property located at approximately 2145 N & 5500 E in Eden. This location includes the Blacksmith Shop (across the street from Eden Park).

The Blacksmith Shop is one of the few remaining buildings in Ogden Valley dating back to 1800’s and as such should be preserved. If there are citizens in the Ogden Valley that wish to assist in having the Blacksmith Shop in Eden designated as a historical landmark, now is the time to act.

The zoning petition should only be grated after receiving a specific commitment from the property owner to preserve the Blacksmith Shop as a historical building, including all the details that this commitment would entail.

If you agree with this position please e-mail or call the Ogden Valley Planning Commission before August 28 and ask them to protect the Blacksmith Shop in Eden by getting a written commitment from the owners before any rezone is granted.

Ogden Valley Planning Commission (OVPC)
E-mail:
You must write your e-mails to the planning clerk e-mail address and instruct her to give each Commission member a copy.

Her e-mail address is: ssillito@co.weber.ut.us

Regular Mail or Hand Delivery:
Mail or hand deliver your comments to:

Ogden Valley Township Planning Commission Office
Attention: Sherri Sillito, Planning department
2380 Washington Blvd. Ogden, UT 84401.

Include instructions to distribute your letter to all Ogden Valley Planning Commission members.

Telephone:

Sherri Sillito 801-399-8791

Remember to include your Name, and Address so they know who you are and to eliminate the possibility that your e-mail or letter would be discarded.

Property Taxes - A Broken Record?

A note for our new bloggers: The text underlined and in blue below is a link to another web site or article. Single click on the link to read the article.

With less than a month to challenge your property valuation, we are approaching the end game of our Showdown in the Valley, aka "The Ogden Valley Tea Party." The Valley rumblings are beginning to spill over the mountain, thanks in large part to a series of property tax related articles in the Standard Examiner. Huntsville resident D-Bell and others have also been spreading the word, and today we will post several links to related stories throughout Northern Utah.

First, in yesterday's Standard we read a letter from Huntsville's own Erma Wilson who does a masterful job of illustrating her tax situation as well as that of her youngest son.

While we are looking at letters to the editor, we see that Mr. Allen Miller of Layton has experienced several years of substantial increases.

Davis County residents will receive some immediate relief as a result of their revolt which began a few short days prior to our own, so there is still hope for us - we cannot give up our fight!

We see that Roy will not ask for a tax increase although they have experienced modest appreciation, while new growth has helped to keep the Morgan County tax rate even. We also see that Morgan County's assessed values have increased 20%, compared to 116% in Huntsville Town proper.

Several local residents have suggested a class action suit against the County Commissioners and Assessors to put an immediate halt to our outrageous increases. Lawyers are being consulted and the legal wrangling could be expensive ($10-20K we guess), but if spread over many residents the expense would be minimal. We would like to start compiling an informal list of those interested in putting $100 or more into a legal fund, so please drop us an email if you would be willing to join in the class. Also, be sure to let us know how much you would be willing and able to put into the legal fund.

That's all for now Ogden Valley, be sure to post your comments below.

VCRD Mission Statement

The Valley Citizens for Responsible Development (VCRD) is a registered, nonprofit corporation.

The VCRD Misson Statement:

The general purpose of the VCRD Corporation is to advocate the protection of the rural characteristics and natural resources of the Ogden Valley. The Corporation will review, comment on, and monitor development plans in the Valley, and will engage developers and government officials to ensure that their actions and decisions promote well-planned and sustainable communities in accordance with the Ogden Valley General Plan, and that new development and infrastructure complies with local, state and federal law. The VCRD grew out of a petition of 113 Ogden Valley community members who shared concerns about the development in the Valley.

The VCRD has grown in recent weeks to include new members from all across the Ogden Valley.

We will soon have a complete VCRD Web Site with easy links to the Ogden Valley Forum blog site and other active citizen groups that share our goals.

We do request that if you wish to join the VCRD, please mail the yearly dues of $10 per person ($20 for couples) to
our mailing address:

VCRD
P.O. Box 115
Huntsville, UT 84317

Please include your mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address so we can update our records and get you into our communication loop.

Remember: Speak up for what you want, or take what you get!

Your VCRD Staff

Ogden Valley Ordinances

Weber County has issued a new revised session for the hearings on the Ordinances:

September 10 – Second session on the Resort Recreation Resort Zone Ordinance.

September 13 – Public Hearing on the Sensitive Lands Ordinance.

October 11 – 3rd work session on the Resort Recreation Resort Zone Ordinance.

October 11 – work session on the TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) Ordinance.

November 8 – Public Hearing on the Resort Recreation Resort Zone Ordinance (Tentative).

December 10 – 2nd work session on the TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) Ordinance.

January – Public Hearing on the TDR Ordinance (to be scheduled) (This public hearing will include the recommendation to add this section to the Resort Recreation Ordinance.

The VCRD Staff recommends that all Ogden Valley residents make it their business to read and understand these ordinances. The passage of these ordinances will have a profound impact on the density growth of the Valley.

However, if they do not become law, we will be in for unchecked density growth that will have a negative effect for the entire Valley.

More Property Taxes and Riveting Letters

Thanks to our friend at the Standard, Charles Trentleman, for his article this morning entitled "Taxes revolting? Actually, some of us are quite happy." Charlie has long been a friend of us up here in Ogden's Hole and we are hopeful he is creating a Top of Utah - wide public awareness of our dire tax situation.

As he so eloquently illustrates in his cover story, "Taxes Through the Roof," the problem extends well beyond Ogden Valley and its overinflated (and possibly illegal) property assessments.

We also read a riveting letter to the editor from Eden's own Shanna Francis (Ogden Valley News Fame) chiding our arrogant, developer friendly Commissioner Ken Bischoff for his inappropriate conduct during a recent Commission meeting.

Yes, the same commissioner whose son recently received an unprecedented variance for his non conforming Ogden Canyon lots that were previously deemed unbuildable. The same commissioner whose campaign signs were plastered at Ski Lake Village last year. The same commissioner who will not respond to queries or suggestions from his constituents. The same commissioner who refused to sign an ethics pledge.

One of our humble readers tipped us off last November during Bischoff's reelection campaign, but it apparently was too little, too late. January 2011 is a long time, but it looks like we are stuck with him until then.

Click "__ Comments" below - the forum is yours, Ogden Valley. Blog on!

Property Taxes, Balloon Fest and More...

Updated 8-19-07 at 11 am

From today's Standard we read about our local State Rep. Gage's plan for a property tax rebate. Our readers already knew of his efforts as we were first to break the story yesterday. We appreciate his efforts and are cautiously optimistic that this will be at least a good place to start for tax reform.

Also, Huntsville resident D-Bell continues to research tax inequities and has suggested a class action lawsuit against the County Commissioners and Assessors. After the Wednesday meeting, there was some wrangling of local attorney's who also had the same suggestion. Would you be willing to pitch in for the fight? 100 residents X $100 would go a long way towards a legal fight.

As an aside, here is some information about California's Proposition 13. Huntsville's own Larry Zini also posted "Proposition 13 - Pros and Cons" recently.

And lastly, from the Standard we read about the weather hampering our infamous balloon fest. Sadly, the balloon fest seems to have become just another event to exploit our pristine valley in order to sell lodging and real estate. Wolf Creek's Nancy Seraphin states, “This is the biggest weekend of the summer for our rental and lodging properties,” she said. “The majority of our overnight visitors come in the winter to ski, so this is a nice boost.”

Enjoy your slow and scenic drive down the canyon today, and leave early.

UPDATE 8-18-07 @ 3:45 PM: Thanks to our friends at the Weber County Forum for their sympathy to our cause. We were their top story today. Rudi and Company happen to have the most read forum in Northern Utah.

Ogden Valley's Tax Revolt and Press Release Form Representative Gage Froerer

UPDATE 8-18-07 (5 am): The Weber Basin Water Conservancy asks for large tax increase - meeting Monday.



From Today's Standard, we read Jamie Lampros' Article about our infamous meeting Wednesday night - or the precursor to Ogden Valley's Tea Party.

Davis County is having their own revolt, although their increases pale in comparison to ours.

Comments? Click on the link below and OPINE!

We just received this from Representative Froerer's Office this morning:


August 17, 2007

State Representative Gage Froerer has asked for a special meeting with the Weber County Commission and the Weber County School District to discuss a property tax rebate in Weber County. Froerer is asking for a rebate of taxes to all owners that had property value increase over 25%.

A rebate this year would help those hit hard by the huge increase in value this year and give us the opportunity to correct the problem on a permanent basis at the State level.

Proposition 13 - Pros and Cons

My wife and I lived in California in the late 1970s when Proposition 13 was created and passed by a state wide voter initiative. It was opposed by most state legislators along with most County and City governments. What follows is our personal view on the effects of Propsition 13 over the last 28 years in California.

The supporters of the Jarvis-Gann initiative (prop.13) were realtors and a majority of the state’s property owners.

Prop 13 was attractive to many since it promised to cap property taxes that were increasing at an unprecedented rate. Many older and retired homeowners were being forced to sell their homes because they could not afford the ever growing property tax bite.

What was not apparent during the campaign to pass Prop. 13 were some unintended consequences that would follow this major tax code change.

The opposition forces to Prop. 13 were the Police, Fire and other County or municipal leaders that were threatened by a possible reduction in tax funding for their services impacted by a fast growing state population.

Prop. 13 succeeded in California because of the high mobility of many of its residents. California residents move around or upgrade their home status at a very high rate. This activity is an important ingredient for tax based services under Prop 13.

Positive results of Prop. 13 in California:

A cap on your property taxes at the existing level. Minor increases in the future taxes as long as you remained in your
present home.

The sale of homes around you had no negative influence on
your property taxes as long as you remained in your existing home. This protected older and retired property owners from continuing increases in taxes.

Implementation of Prop. 13 in California prodded State and local governments to initiate tax programs such as impact fees and other bond based taxes that directly taxed only the new property owners for some government services.

Unintended Consequences of Prop. 13 in California:

Inequities in property taxes on identical or similar homes.

If you and your neighbors had similar homes and property taxes, those that remained in their existing homes saw almost no increase in property taxes. However, those that wanted to upgrade their lifestyle and sold to buy a larger home in the state, paid property taxes at 1.27% of the purchase price of their new home. The appraised value was adjusted to the price of the purchased home. This tax rate is also applied to the property tax amount on new construction.

As a result of these tax changes, similar houses next to each other may have a large disparity in property taxes depending on how many times one house sold. This may negatively impact the ability of a homeowner to sell the higher taxed home in the future.

Utah is growing very quickly, but most Utah residents are less mobile and stay put in their existing homes. This could cause a tax revenue shortfall due to a statewide Prop. 13, thus creating serious tax based funding problems for those services such as Police and Fire, as well as many other City, County, and State services.

Prop.13 did not result in serious tax shortfall problems in California because of the never ending movement of homeowners and new construction. However, it may be something to consider when we consider a similar tax option in Utah.

For many property owners in California, the overall posititve effect of Prop. 13 was that it forced the tax supported entities at all levels to start implementing fiscal responsibility (living within a budget) instead of having open access to the taxpayers checkbook.

Larry and Sharon Zini
Huntsville

TAX REVOLT IN THE MAKING!

Ogden Valley spoke loud tonight during the Property Tax Revolt and time will tell how clear we spoke. We told our elected officials we don't care how we got here, but how do we repair it.

This will be a constantly changing situation, so check back often for updates and feel free to post your comments by clicking the "comments" below.

Also, sign up for our email list which is located below to be kept up to date on breaking events.

In the mean time, here is some information about California's Proposition 13.

Upon signing up, you will receive an email that contains a link. Click on the link to complete the "Double Opt in" sign up process. (The email may end up in your Junk or Spam mail)

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Property Tax Informational Meeting This Wednesday / Huntsville Town No. 1 in the Nation For Property Value Increase

UPDATE 8-15-07 Click here to read an article from the Davis Clipper Entitled "Tax Revolt," along with a synopsis by D-Bell

Ogden Valley Property Tax Petition




Huntsville Property Tax Petition (Huntsville Residents Please Sign Both Petitions)


An informational meeting will be held:

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

6:00 PM

Snowcrest Junior High School, Eden, UT

Among those scheduled to be in attendance and available for comments will be County Assessor Cheryl Madson, County Commissioner Craig Deardon and State Representative Gage Froerer.

We recommend you:

1. Sign the property tax reassessment petitions which are located on this site - Huntsville Residents please sign both petitions
2. Bring your "Property Valuation Notice" to the meeting. Some have suggested a "burning of the Valuations" or a Boston Tea Party reenactment, although we won't sanction that extreme - yet. (We are making copies of our notices just in case, however).
3. Read the Standard Examiner article written by Gage Froerer
4. Read "D's Tax Facts" written by Huntsville resident D-Bell where you can read about Huntsville's 116.45% increase in property values.
5. Read an archive post for the Ogden Valley Forum
6. Call 801-476-4216 to get a list of realtors who will provide you with a Certified Market Analysis
7. Bring your market analysis to the meeting if you have it

Ogden Valley Property Tax Petition


Huntsville Property Tax Petition (Huntsville Residents Please Sign Both Petitions)


Update 8-9-07: You may remember a significant tax increase last year as well. Click here to read an archived posting from the Ogden Valley Forum

Property Tax Petitions

Update 8-10-07: We have added a link to a detailed briefing on Property tax specifics by Huntsville resident D-Bell
as well as a link to a Standard Examiner Guest Commentary by State Rep and Huntsville resident Gage Froerer.

Update 8-9-07: You may remember a significant tax increase last year as well. Click here to read an archived posting from the Ogden Valley Forum

We have also added one click button links to the Property Tax Petitions mentioned below:

Ogden Valley Property Tax Petition


Huntsville Property Tax Petition (Huntsville Residents Please Sign Both Petitions)


Ogden Valley Residents,

Huntsville Resident D-Bell has been doing extensive research on all of our behalfs with regard to the Outrageous Property tax issue.

He has been compiling substantial information which will benefit anyone and everyone who wishes to challenge their property tax evaluation. Additionally, he has created a petition which was originally planned for Huntsville Town residents, but has been expanded to all Valley residents to create a louder, and hopefully more effective voice.
Click link above to view D-Bell's briefing

For residents of Huntsville, please sign both petitions as we are all Ogden Valley residents.

The Huntsville Town Web site, www.HuntsvilleTown.com has a "Property Tax" page with informative information listed, and it will be updated frequently over the next couple of weeks.

We will also try to post the updates on this forum.

Sincerely,

Richard L. Sorensen
Huntsville

Letter to Managing Editor of Standard Examiner

Subject: The Examiner Story on the Weber County Commission Meeting, Aug. 7,2007

Andy, I was disappointed in the story written by Jamie Lampros. I agree that citizens should not try to manage a story like this, but when there is an obvious lack of research and many basic facts are missing or in error in the story, it demonstrates that some reporters may do a questionable job.

The problem starts with the headline. It is obvious that this reporter did very little research into the issue, and did not research several major facts. If your reporter would have demonstrated the basic investigator's skills, these facts would have been in the story.

"Summers won't pursue approval for rock crushing" is inaccurate. Click here to read more...

PROPERTY TAXES - WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY?

Check back for a petition and information on appealing your tax.

Rock Crusher Denied!

Tonight, the MV-2 Ordinance for heavy manufacturing was denied 3-0 by the Weber County Commission!

The second MV-1 small cement batch plant was approved for conditional use pending restrictions that are to be written. The vote was 2-1 for approval.

Commissioner Dearden voted against both petitions.

Thank you to all of you that worked so hard to defeat the MV-2 Rock Crusher. We are going to examine the conditional use provisions for the cement batch plant to insure that it will stay a small customer oriented batch plant.

I counted 104 people in the room at the meeting tonight. Congratulations!

Larry Zini
VCRD Acting Chairman

Rock Crushing/Cement Plant Alert

UPDATE: 8-2-07

The MV-1 and MV-2 ordinances are available at the bottom of this post.

Be sure to take the poll that is located on the right column (scroll down)

Update 8-3-07

Scroll Down to next post to Read a letter from Petitioner Thom Summers of S & S Construction

Valley residents, just a heads up, the Weber County Commission has scheduled a hearing on the approval request for the Rock Crushing/Cement Plant for August 7th at 6 PM. It was in the Standard Examiner, Top Of Utah section under Agendas today.

This means we all need to get the word out again to our residents to write to the Weber County Commissioners (not the Ogden Valley Planning Commission) to express our opposition, and the sooner the better. See below for communication information.

Make sure you follow the format below to insure your e-mail's, written letters, or phone calls are not rejected. Also have them include the Zoning petition numbers of ZP 05-07 and ZP 06-07 in the e-mail's and letters.


Weber County Commission

When contacting the Weber County Commissioners and their clerk, please reference the petition numbers, for example (Zoning petition numbers.) if available.

Weber County Commissioners and Clerk e-mail addresses:

Bischoff,Ken 801-399-8401 kbischof@co.weber.ut.us
Dearden,Craig 801-399-8401 cdearden@co.weber.ut.us
Zogmaister, Jan 801-399-8401 jzogmaister@co.weber.ut.us
Halacy, Shelly (clerk) 801-399-8401 shalacy@co.weber.ut.us

Remember to include your Name, and Address so they know who you are and to eliminate the possibility that your e-mail would be discarded.

Telephone: 801-399-8401 will reach the clerk & Commissioners on the Weber County Commission

Regular Mail:

Mail your comments to the Weber County Commission Office, 2380 Washington Blvd., Suite 240 Ogden, UT 84401

Your VCRD
Click here to read a previous post


OGDEN VALLEY MANUFACTURING ZONE MV-1 ORDINANCE

OGDEN VALLEY MANUFACTURING ZONE MV-2 ORDINANCE


Ogden Valley Residents Opposition To Rock Crusher / Cement Plant Petition - deadline August 3, 2007

Thom Summers Speaks about his Rock Crusher Business

Thom Summers sent the document below to provide his point of view on why his Business should be located in the Ogden Valley. His document has not been edited or changed in any way. - The VCRD Staff

To the Concerned Citizens of Ogden Valley:

Many rumors have been circulating the Valley about the PROPOSED rock crusher/cement plant. We would like correct the rumors and state the facts.

The rock crusher would be used to... click here to read more...

Powder Mountain Rezone Tabled!

The Powder Mountain Rezone was tabled by the Ogden Valley Planning Commission at the meeting tonight. The Commission has scheduled another hearing on September 24th.

The OVPC commissioners said that they may not be ready to discuss Powder Mountain's request even on that date. They accepted the fact that they must make an intensive study into the status of the 3 pending Ordinances and how they will impact the Powder Mountain request when implemented. This study could push the actual hearing out to October.

There were several people that spoke to the Commission about their opposition to the rezone petition, several effective objections were put forth including the traffic over the Pineview dam with the projected traffic from the increased visitors to Ogden Valley. Other objections from the speakers and Commissioners was the impact on the overall density numbers in our Valley.

We did find out from the Powder Mountain representative that Cache County will not be putting a road to their side of the development, so all increases in construction traffic and visitor traffic will be borne by Ogden Valley roads and residents. The developer's representative gave an example of an average of 10,000 skiers a day and a Christmas-New Years increase of up to 20,000 skier's a day at their new resort. Try to imagine that kind of traffic going across Pineview dam and on your roads throughout Ogden Valley.

The VCRD membership needs to remain vigilant on the Powder Mountain issue. Some people want to stop the entire development, but that may not be possible. If not, we should continue to push the OVPC to table the request until the 3 proposed ordinances are passed and implemented.

Larry Zini
Acting Chairman VCRD