Virgin council adopts revised subdivision ordinance and amends water fee schedule; budget and committee changes also approved

The Virgin Town Council on Dec. 30 adopted a revised subdivision ordinance, approved a second-quarter budget amendment and passed several administrative resolutions, and amended the town’s municipal fee schedule to add an excess water usage charge required by the regional water conservancy district.

Why it matters: The subdivision ordinance restates and consolidates the town’s development rules and clarifies which local bodies exercise administrative authority over subdivision review. The water fee change implements an excess-usage charge the town’s water wholesaler requested; the council also made a statement in the adopted language that no fee created by the ordinance will be collected retroactively for use prior to adoption.

Subdivision ordinance and procedural changes

The council considered a new, consolidated subdivision ordinance that the planning commission and town attorney had revised after reviewing a draft provided by Sunrise (engineering). Council discussion focused on who the ordinance designates as the “administrative land use authority” for various review steps (planning commission, town attorney or development review committee), timing references that must match state statutory timelines for small towns, and housekeeping updates tied to an upcoming migration of town code into a new municipal-code system.

The council adopted the ordinance with several technical edits and a set of specified cross-reference corrections (the motion referenced changes to sections in the 18.00 series and consistent citation of the Utah State Code). The ordinance was presented as a complete restatement with targeted fixes the council requested; the planning-related checklist associated with the ordinance will be issued by the town as a supporting policy/resolution rather than embedded in the ordinance text.

Budget amendment and other administrative items

The council approved a second-quarter budget amendment (amending the fiscal year budget by $26,550) to fund a handful of small GL (general ledger) adjustments, seed funding for a couple of new accounts and two remaining monthly payments on a town truck loan. Finance staff reported roughly $14,000–$15,000 of interest income in a town investment account and said year-to-date revenues exceeded expenditures by about $500,000 through the first five months of the fiscal year (presentation-level figures provided by staff).

Other resolutions the council adopted included: - Revision to the capital-improvements policy to add an additional public member to the capital improvements committee and a subsequent appointment to fill that seat; - Adoption of the town’s emergency operations plan; and - Adoption of the 2025 meeting calendar and associated planning commission/work-meeting schedule changes.

Water excess-usage fee: $10 per 1,000 gallons for certain connections; no retroactivity

The council amended the town’s municipal code and fee schedule to add an excess water usage surcharge requested by the regional water conservancy district. The ordinance language references Title 7 (water services) and creates a new municipal-code section stating the excess usage fee framework.

Key technical details discussed in public and in council deliberations: - The regional agreement requires the town to adopt an excess-usage fee that applies when monthly usage exceeds a threshold (the threshold discussed at the meeting was 38,000 gallons per month); - There are two fee levels discussed in district materials: a $1 per 1,000-gallon surcharge for preexisting connections and a $10 per 1,000-gallon surcharge for connections established after Jan. 1, 2023. At the Dec. 30 meeting the council adopted language that implements the $10-per-1,000-gallon surcharge for the post-2023 connections and removed the first chart in the draft that would have applied a different table to connections prior to Jan. 1, 2023; council members agreed to adopt the smaller/preexisting-connection chart in a future, separate amendment; and - The council explicitly added a short provision stating that no fee created by this ordinance will be collected retroactively for use occurring before the ordinance’s passage.

Council members and staff noted an administrative complication: the town’s billing/GL setup includes older overage charges that had been planned historically (one line referenced a $2.38 per 1,000-gallon overage above an earlier 15,000-gallon tier); staff said they will reconcile existing billing lines with the new surcharge structure to avoid duplicate charges.

Votes at a glance

- Subdivision ordinance (complete restatement; technical edits and housekeeping changes): approved (roll-call vote recorded) - Second-quarter budget amendment (resolution): approved (roll-call vote recorded) - Revision to capital-improvements policy and appointment to additional seat: approved - Emergency Operations Plan (resolution): approved - Meeting schedules for 2025 (council and planning commission): approved - Ordinance adding excess water usage fee (creating new municipal-code section in Title 7) and resolution amending fee schedule (deleting the pre-2023 chart and adding the post-2023 $10/1,000 schedule): approved; council added a nonretroactivity statement to the ordinance text

What the council directed staff to do next

- Town staff to post the finalized subdivision ordinance and provide the planning checklist/policy document publicly (the checklist was circulated to council and is expected to be adopted by resolution); - Finance to reconcile GL accounts and ensure the truck loan payments and newly created GL lines are properly recorded; and - Staff to forward the finalized water-fee ordinance and fee-schedule changes to the town’s water wholesaler and ensure billing systems do not double-bill for the same consumption.

Ending: The council completed several standing administrative actions and adopted the subdivision ordinance and water surcharge amendment, while asking staff and the planning commission to complete follow-up housekeeping (checklist publication, billing-system reconciliations, and final ordinance codification). No litigation or emergency action resulted from the votes recorded at the meeting.