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River Heights planning commission forwards updated general plan to city council with map correction and data clarifications
Summary
The River Heights Planning Commission voted Tuesday to forward a revised general plan to the City Council, asking staff to correct a historic-overlay map placement and to verify an anomalous gross-rent figure before council consideration.
The River Heights Planning Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to forward proposed amendments to the city’s general plan to the City Council, asking staff to correct a historic-overlay map error and to verify a rental-cost figure before council consideration.
Commission members presented a roll of textual and map updates intended to bring the general plan up to date with recent zoning changes, transportation discussions and county projections. The changes shown in the draft include revised population estimates based on Cache County projections, a reduced total of developable acreage after removing the area identified as the “Chug property,” the removal of PUD zoning from areas now unavailable, and the addition of a historic-overlay policy to recognize and protect structures at least 50 years old.
The draft also modifies the transportation chapter: the commission removed a previously shown “200 East” connector alternative after a recent City Council resolution opposing one of the alternatives and refined the list of future rights-of-way and collector streets the city wants to preserve. The commission’s presenter said the change to recognize some streets as functionally collector — even if they do not meet the 66-foot statutory cross section — is intended to strengthen the city’s position when applying for improvement funds.
On infrastructure and utilities, the plan’s draft used a state resource to estimate water-system capacity and connections. The presentation noted a current system capacity figure of 1,325 connections and that, if an outstanding application for additional water rights were approved, that could add roughly 565 connections for a total of about 1,880 connections. The presenter said those figures and other numerical edits were generated from state and county data sources.
Members noted one numeric discrepancy in the draft’s affordable-housing section. Commissioner discussion flagged a gross-rent figure that appeared anomalously high; the commission directed staff to verify and correct the rent statistic before forwarding the plan to council. The motion forwarding the plan included two exceptions: the historic-overlay map correction for a property on 400 South and the rent-number verification.
Public comment included praise for the draft plan’s maps and quantitative sections from resident Mike Jablonski, who also expressed approval that the City Council opposed the 200 East alignment and described ongoing restoration efforts along the Logan River. Jablonski told commissioners he and others have spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on riverbank restoration and applauded a city ordinance that limits development near the river’s high-water mark.
Commissioners asked staff to correct the mapping error (adding the historic overlay to the indicated lot on 400 South), to verify the rent statistic, and to produce corrected maps for the City Council packet. The planning commission’s action was to forward the amended general plan to the City Council for consideration and possible adoption.
