Citizen Portal
Sign In

Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows

Get Lifetime Access

Laketown schedules public hearing on water fees and hires water attorney

Town of Laketown Town Council · February 4, 2026

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Laketown set a Feb. 23 public hearing to consider adjusting water impact fees and unanimously approved engaging attorney Dani Cepernich for water-law advice; council members said an attorney will clarify whether fees can be reduced under state law.

The Laketown Town Council on Feb. 4 scheduled a public hearing for Feb. 23, 2026 at 6:00 PM to consider adjustments to the town’s water impact fee and other water-related issues, contingent on legal guidance the council requested from a water attorney.

Mayor Brandon Willis said Utah law clearly authorizes imposing water impact fees but is less explicit about provisions for reducing them. To clarify the town’s options, council members unanimously approved an engagement letter with water attorney Dani Cepernich. The motion to approve the engagement letter was made by Council Member Denise Johnson and seconded by Council Member Kirsten Gash.

Council discussed the idea of lowering the water impact fee and noted Sunrise Engineering — the firm typically advising on such fees — was unable to attend the meeting. Discussion of water rights and broader fee policy was postponed to the next meeting; staff added the item to the Feb. 23 agenda so the council can consider attorney guidance before taking any formal action.

The council also approved (unanimously) increasing the payment to Jones & DeMille by $3,500 for ordinance and resolution work; council members said this is to compensate Kendell (the town’s contract worker) for ongoing ordinance support.

What’s next: the public hearing on Feb. 23 will be followed by a council meeting; the attorney engagement is intended to provide a legal opinion on whether and how the town can alter existing water-impact fees.