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Fruit Heights council directs staff to issue RFP for general-plan update, asks planning commission to study a trails amendment
Summary
After months of public concern about outreach and multiple contentious topics (golf course, trails, MIH), the council directed staff to prepare an RFP to hire a consultant for a comprehensive general-plan update and separately asked the planning commission to review a targeted amendment removing required trails on private property except where development would create five or more lots.
Council members spent an extended period debating whether to pursue a full rewrite of the city's general plan or to approve targeted amendments. Several council members said public outreach and rebuilding trust are priorities; others said a professional consultant would shorten the timeline and provide broad-based public engagement.
"We're in the middle of this process. We're not doing anything now," one council member said of the timing; another argued the city should commit to professional outreach to avoid repeating failures in the prior process. Staff said two consultant proposals had been discussed and that an $80,000 placeholder was in the draft budget for consultant services, with the bulk of the cost tied to public outreach.
The council voted to direct staff to issue an RFP to select a consultant to manage a comprehensive general-plan update (motion passed with one recorded abstention). Council also separately voted to ask the planning commission to follow state procedures and return with a recommendation on a proposed amendment that would remove required trails on private property unless the parcel would be developed into five or more building lots by a single owner.
Council members emphasized that targeted amendments could be considered concurrently with a rewrite, and staff said existing applications already in the pipeline would not be halted by the process; a moratorium would not automatically stop projects with pending applications. Planning commission work on moderate-income housing strategies was reaffirmed and scheduled for a future August presentation.
