{"id":17268,"date":"2019-03-06T13:35:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T19:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=17268"},"modified":"2019-05-28T13:36:10","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T18:36:10","slug":"june-1992-zephyr-archives-facts-opinions-a-summary-of-the-months-news-by-ken-davey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/06\/june-1992-zephyr-archives-facts-opinions-a-summary-of-the-months-news-by-ken-davey\/","title":{"rendered":"(June 1992 Zephyr Archives) Facts & Opinions: A Summary of the Month’s News…by Ken Davey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Ken Davey.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fact:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nneed to get control, because right now, it’s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere\nare the guidelines?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nneed direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\nthe above are quotes from Moab City Council members during a May 5\ndiscussion of the impacts of bed and breakfasts, overnight\naccommodations, and the influx of visitors to Moab during the spring\nof 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opinion:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The\ncouncil is right that certain aspects of tourism are out of control.\nBut they fail to acknowledge their own role in that development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More\npeople are pouring into town than ever before. The record-breaking\nvisitation numbers at Arches National Park in 1991 now look puny\ncompared to this spring so far. In addition, the number of people\ncoming who never go near the park, but spend their time on BLM land.\nThere were groups camping in parking lots, lining up at City Market,\npitching their tents in back and front yards, occasionally without\nthe permission of the homeowners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandably,\nthe council does not want to shut down the flow of visitors; too many\nlocal residents make their living from out of town guests, in the\nrestaurants, gift shops, and tour businesses. But at the same time,\ncouncil members want to be in a position where they can direct some\nof the changes that, right now, are taking place with no planning at\nall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ncouncil members have had opportunities to make statements, in words\nand in action, that they truly want to gain that control. And in\nalmost every case, they have pulled back, because they didn’t want to\nappear to stand in the way of development plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASE\nHISTORY #1\u2014At the north end of the valley, an RV park has been\nbuilt right along the highway and just south of the river bridge,\noutside the city limits. As always, zoning for the area was changed\nby the county commission because as a group they don’t believe in\nzoning and, without any deliberation whatsoever, they turned the\ngrazing area into a commercial zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\narea is not part of the sewer system, and the county gave permission\nfor a septic system to serve the campers and trailers. But for water,\nthe developers had to come to the city and request a hookup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council\nmembers could have asked how the development would affect the\ngroundwater, or how it would affect the future visual quality of the\nnorth end of the valley, or the impact on the wetlands preserve, or\nthe effect on any other services needed by a couple of hundred\ncampers on the rim of the city. But, rather than seem\nanti-development, they held their collective tongue. In fact, they\neven told the developers that if the city ever annexed the area, they\nwould not be bound by the rules and regulations regarding curbs and\ngutters that the rest of the city must follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASE\nHISTORY #2\u2014The Canyonlands Motel construction project at Center and\nMain streets wanted to tear out the mid-sized trees fronting Main\nStreet as part of their building effort. The city’s Shade Tree\nCommission said, well, if you tear out the trees spread about 40 feet\napart, you should plant new ones 20 feet apart. The trade, from the\nShade Tree Commission’s point of view, was more trees in exchange for\nshorter trees over the next decade or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndevelopers didn’t like that idea, but went along with it. But not\nbefore they complained to the council that it cost them, out of a\ntotal budget of probably at least $2.5 million, as much as $200 more\nthan they wanted to spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council\nmembers did not ask why the developers had to tear out the original\ntrees, and did not talk about the need to keep shade in the most\ncentral area of the city. Instead, in the main, they went out of\ntheir way to explain to the motel’s general manager that the Shade\nTree Commission would not get out of line again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASE\nHISTORY #3\u2014The State of Utah has, as part of its Unified Building\nCode, a provision that excavation work on large amounts of dirt\nshould require certain pre-construction licensing and engineering\nrequirements. In the past, Moab neighborhoods have been damaged by\ninadequate planning for drainage and runoff, and residents along\nHillside, for example, have been paying for those inadequacies after\nevery major storm, with cleanup bills and damage to their properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncity building inspector and the city’s planning department were both\nin favor of adopting the new code. But at the public hearing on the\nordinance, one local contractor said, in essence, we don’t need any\nmore regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthe council members in their majority agreed. By golly, you can’t\nactually make people do engineering before they change the drainage\nfor vast areas of the city, that’s just more than we can stand. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those\nare just three examples from the last couple of months when the\ncouncil had golden opportunities to \u201ctake control,\u201d to set\n\u201cguidelines,\u201d to determine \u201cdirection.\u201d And in each case the\ncouncil decided to pull back from taking a hard position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\ntruth, the council doesn’t need \u201ccontrol.\u201d It already has it, if\nit chooses to exercise it. The council doesn’t need \u201cdirection.\u201d\nIt needs political will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nanti-development view is not what is required, nor is it likely. But\nif elected officials defer and demur from taking action every time a\ndeveloper or contractor complains, they are letting down the other 99\npercent of the city’s residents, who want to feel that city leaders\nare taking their concerns into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fact: \u201cWe need to get control, because right now, it’s out of control.\u201d \u201cWhere are the guidelines?\u201d \u201cWe need direction.\u201d All the above are quotes from Moab City Council members during a May 5 discussion of the impacts of bed and breakfasts, overnight accommodations, and the influx of visitors to Moab during the spring of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17269,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268\/revisions\/17269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}