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- Construction of new fire station in Levan put on hold temporarily
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By Rebecca Dopp
Times-News Correspondent
What was supposed to get underway Monday morning will now have to wait at least fourteen days to allow for public input. Phase 1, groundbreaking, of the new Levan Town Fire Station on the northeast corner of Center and 1st West in Levan, will have to be postponed until a public hearing can be held by both the Planning and Zoning Committee and the Levan Town Council concerning a conditional use permit and changes made to the setback ordinance.
Mike Royce, member of the Planning and Zoning Board, presented the recommendations from that committee to the Levan Town Council.
Royce said that the four neighboring residences of the proposed site were in favor of it being built there. He said that they needed a conditional use permit because it would be in a residential neighborhood.
“According to our zoning standards,” Royce said, “it says that a public safety facility would fall under conditional use. It’s already in our zoning ordinances that we can issue a conditional use for a fire station in a residential area, as long as the people agree.”
“Brady [Taylor, councilmember] explained to me last night [at P&Z] that when the fire station was first being planned, a conditional use was issued by the town board on the assumption that they [fire district] weren’t going to go through all the planning if the town wasn’t going to give them a conditional use for it,” said Royce.
“We didn’t issue a conditional use last night to be approved by this board,” said Royce. “It’s already been done.”
He said there were some issues with setbacks.
He said the fire district would like to have the building set closer to the road instead of in a back corner of the property. In order to do that, 1st West would need to be treated as a 99-foot road instead of a 132-foot road and under conditional use the fire district wants a 20-foot setback.
Lynn Bateman, member of the fire district, stated that regardless of what the council decided they were going to build a building. If the council insisted that it needed to be on a 132-foot street with a 30-foot setback then they would do it.
He said that if they could get the 20-foot setback on a 99-foot road then that would be great.
Mayor Bob Shepherd said they needed to have a public hearing to amend the ordinance and that they had to advertise for fourteen days.
A council member asked if there had been a public hearing on the conditional use permit. It was determined that there had not been one.
Council members said that they couldn’t do anything until the ordinance concerning setbacks had had a public hearing and no conditional use permit could be issued without a public hearing as well.
The public hearings have been set for Wednesday, March 26 at 7:00 p.m.
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