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Cornish planning committee reviews decades‑old zoning and property‑taking rules, flags missing pages
Summary
At a Jan. 15 meeting, the Cornish Town Planning and Zoning Committee reviewed historical ordinances on property takings, zoning and the town building code, found missing pages in archived documents and recommended staff research current Utah code before any formal adoption or repeal.
Cornish — The Cornish Town Planning and Zoning Committee spent much of its Jan. 15 meeting reviewing archived ordinances and town code, including a 1990-era zoning ordinance and an older procedure intended to govern potential constitutional taking or exaction claims. Committee members found gaps in the archived record and agreed to research current Utah code before pursuing revisions.
Speaker 2 called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m., and the committee moved quickly into a review of prior minutes and ordinance text. "We started reviewing ordinance O3‑01," Speaker 1 said, and members noted the agenda packet contained missing pages. "Missing page. Guess we gotta rewrite the whole thing," Speaker 2 said during the review.
The committee examined language described as the "Cornish Town Zoning Ordinance," which members said appeared to date from about 1990. Speaker 1 summarized the ordinance's purpose as authorizing the town to enact land‑use regulations and described a separate historical ordinance, labeled in the packet as "Ordinance 90‑5‑1," intended to establish a procedure for reviewing actions that could involve a physical taking or exaction of private property. "This is setting up how that would all go about," Speaker 1 said, noting the document references both the town and Cache County.
Members raised practical examples for why coordination with the county matters. "There have been homes in the past that have not fulfilled all of the town requirements and yet have been given final inspection clearance by Cache County," Speaker 1 said. The committee discussed whether county inspection clearance should be coordinated with the town to ensure zoning clearances and setbacks are satisfied before occupancy is granted.
The packet also contained a note about the town's building code referencing the Uniform Building Code, 1986 edition. Speaker 1 said that such dated references "probably don't need" to remain and recommended staff check whether the town should instead reference a more current state or model code.
No formal action was taken to adopt, repeal or amend any ordinance during the meeting. Committee members agreed to follow up: review the missing archival pages, check relevant sections of the Utah code for updates, and return with recommended edits or proposed language.
Votes at a glance: The committee voted to approve the meeting minutes on Jan. 15 (motion by Speaker 1, seconded by Speaker 2; outcome: approved). The committee also voted to adjourn later in the meeting (motion by Speaker 1, seconded by Speaker 2; outcome: approved).
The committee scheduled no further public hearings at this meeting on the ordinances under review; staff follow‑up to confirm applicable state statutes and to locate or reconstruct missing pages was the agreed next step.
