By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
To say that Mona City Council meeting was a wild one
would be an understatement.
Nevertheless, despite a swearing match by council members
Rick Kolsen and Rory Nielson, who were each upset with the
stance taken by the other, council members voted three to
two to allow a building permit to be issued to Lance Sage
and his wife in Lynn Bonner's subdivision despite the fact
that the roads there are not "substantially complete."
"Lynn Ingram, road superintendent, knows when a road is
substantially complete and he will not sign off on it until
the road is ready," said Harry Newell, council member.
When it came to a vote, Cory Squire, council member who
made the motion, Kolsen, and Quinton Kay, council member,
voted to allow a building permit at the subdivision.
Newell and Nielsen voted against the permit being
granted.
Kay surprised other council members by his vote which he
said he had because exceptions had been made for others in
the past.
"It is not just one person," said Kay. "There are lots of
others."
He did not think that was fair, to excuse some and hold
still others to the strict edict.
During the discussion, both Kolsen and Nielson grew
heated in their comments to each other challenging one
another as they tried to explain why they felt strongly.
As the discussion progressed, Newell and Mayor Bryce Lynn
also had a few curse words to add to those leveled by Kolsen
and Nielson.
"What does that mean?" asked Kolsen. "What does
'substantially complete' mean when we are talking about a
road?"
Once the road base is in and compacted, is that the time
the council will allow the developer to begin pouring a
basement in concrete? Does the road need to be
asphalted?
Newel said that two years ago the definition was made
that substantially complete meant to the point where oil
could be laid.
Bonner said that when a road was to that point in
completion, the council may as well make it so that it had
to be completed and oiled because the next step, the
asphalt, was just a day away.
Bonner said he was closer to being done with the roads
than Quinton Kay was when his subdivision was approved for
building permits. At times, in the past, the council has
gone by the spirit of the law and not by strict
requirements. However, now the council is seeking to make
Bonner follow the letter of the law.
He thought that was not fair, he said.
Precedence could be changed by the governing body without
problem, said Mayor Bryce Lynn.
He and his brother had been developing a subdivision in
Nephi when the rules changed and the subdivision was held to
the new standard.
"We had to change right in the middle," said Lynn.
Bonner is fully bonded on the project, said Kolsen, each
permit will also have to come to the council for approval,
both of which are designed to prevent the problems
encountered with subdivisions in the past.
If Bonner does not meet the demands of city requirements,
in the future, those building permits will not be
issued.
"We are fighting over nickels," said Kolsen.
If Bonner does not get the roads ready for his home
owners to move into next spring, then the council can hire
someone to do the work and can keep the bond money paid to
take care of the monetary cost of road building.
No matter, said Lynn. "We have never overruled the
planning commission."
He said, if the council approved the building permit
before all the requirements were met as far as the road was
concerned, the council would be going over the heads of the
planning commission who have been sticking by the
substantially complete wording in the ordinance which the
city drafted and accepted.
Nielson said he did not want the council to get in
trouble with the state and wanted the council to hold out
for Bonner having the subdivision roads ready to meet the
substantially complete requirement before allowing potential
home builders permits to begin construction.
"It all takes time," said Nielson.
Bonner will have the water tests completed within a few
days, said Pay. If all goes well, that part of the project
will be signed off.
Newell said he thought the council should follow the
recommendations of the planning commission.
The council has, in his opinion, allowed others to begin
building without meeting all the requirements, said Kay.
"Two wrongs don't make a right."
Lance Sage requested that the council approved his
building permit so that he could "put his cement in the
ground" before it grew too cold.
Kolsen said that he thought the council should allow the
Sages to do their concrete footings and foundation. The
Sages could not, however, move into the home until the
roadway was completed and had asphalt topping.
What if the weather were to interfere with the road being
substantially finished. If bad weather comes in, said
Nielson, the road might not get done enough that it would
not turn to "soup" and then a cement truck might not even be
able to get into the property without getting mired.
"Let's take a vote and put it to bed one way or the
other," said Squire.
He then proposed that the building permit be issued with
some stipulations. One of those was that the culinary water
line bacteria tests be complete and that Allen Pay, water
master, sign off on the system.
The water line must then be protected so that it will
stand up to construction traffic as the Sage home in the
subdivision is built.
In addition, the road must be completed to the granular
fill compaction stage.
"Granular fill is not made to shed water," said
Ingram.
As builders use the road to get in and out during
construction the road can be damaged. The road base can also
fail because of moisture and use meaning that the developer
needs to start the road from scratch again in the
spring.
"You let one have a building permit before they have met
the criteria and everyone wants to be an exception," said
Ingram. "You have created a headache."
Squire said the council was made up of elected officials
who had to make decisions. Not always could everyone be
forced to the strictest interpretation of the law.
"That is what we are here for," said Squire. "We are here
to use reason and make decisions."
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