IT'S OFFICIAL •
Houses like the one being built west of Nephi, will
be subject to a 6 month moratorium after the Juab
County Commission passed the motatorium on Monday.
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
It is official: there is a moratorium on all building
in the county.
The moratorium became effective immediately and will
last for the next six months.
"Neil Cook (former commission chairman) called and
said he did not think the wildland fire interface program
was directed at 'rural' development but was more towards
'urban' interface," said Val Jones, current commission
chairman.
"The way he explained it, I could see his point. His
development will be recreational and will not be urban."
Mike Seely, county administrator, said the program,
however, was meant to address all building in the county. It
was directed at protecting property and making certain that
all structures were as safe as could be managed.
The national Firewise Communities program is intended
to serve as a resource for agencies, tribes, organizations,
fire departments, and communities across the U.S. who are
working toward a common goal: reduce loss of lives,
property, and resources to wildland fire by building and
maintaining communities in a way that is compatible with our
natural surroundings.
The national Firewise Communities program is a
multi-agency effort designed to reach beyond the fire
service by involving homeowners, community leaders,
planners, developers, and others in the effort to protect
people, property, and natural resources from the risk of
wildland fire - before a fire starts.
The Firewise Communities approach emphasizes community
responsibility for planning in the design of a safe
community as well as effective emergency response, and
individual responsibility for safer home construction and
design, landscaping, and maintenance.
Firewise Communities is part of the National
Wildland/Urban Interface Fire Program, which is directed and
sponsored by the Wildland/Urban Interface Working Team
(WUIWT) of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, a
consortium of wildland fire organizations and federal
agencies responsible for wildland fire management in the
United States.
The WUIWT includes: USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau
of Indian Affairs, USDI Bureau of Land Management, USDI Fish
and Wildlife Service, USDI National Park Service, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, US Fire Administration,
International Association of Fire Chiefs, National
Association of State Fire Marshals, National Association of
State Foresters, National Emergency Management Association,
National Fire Protection Association.
"We also need to look at county roads," said Chad
Winn, commissioner.
The future may bring a great deal of growth to the
county and planning needs to be done so that the growth is
not helter skelter but organized and well-planned.
"There are nine other developers waiting in the
wings," said LuWayne Walker, commissioner.
Jared Eldridge, county attorney, was assigned to look
at where the line can be drawn in allowing some of those,
who have progressed to a certain stage in the planning, can
be permitted and which cannot.
Many developers rushed, once the announcement was made
in an article in the newspaper, to get the development to a
stage where it would be accepted.
"We should have published a notice of intent prior to
making any announcement," said Walker. "However, perhaps a
public meeting can be construed legally as a notice of
intent."
Eldridge will make that study and will find the legal
precedents that have been established.
Nevertheless, the commission will study the question
of where roads should be built, what fire codes should be
established and what other criteria need to be established
in order to assure the safety of the citizens of the county
as development comes.
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