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Show 7 January 8, 2004 - The Springville Herald - Page Thirteen oetiinancGS by Caleb Warnock Staff Writer Mapleton residents will now find it more affordable to build and rent accessory apartments. Mapleton city planner Mathew Evans said the city recently re-cently amended its ordinances to ease restrictions and impact fees on accessory apartments. The decision goes against a countywide trend toward tightening accessory apartment apart-ment restrictions. In recent years, Pleasant Grove, Highland High-land and Orem have joined provo in moving to restrict or completely prohibit accessory apartments. Only Mapleton and Lehi have made it easier for residents to rent accessory apartments. Previously, Mapleton residents who wanted to rent an accessory apartment were charged the same onetime one-time impact fees as someone building a new home--$5,000 if the apartment did not require re-quire separate utility meters or $6,000 if separate meters were required. Those fees have now been cut in half. Evans said the city has found that those who typically typical-ly rent accessory apartments are young couples without children. "Our typical single family has 4.2 people, so when you have half of that in an accessory acces-sory apartment, we thought the fee should be half." The city also used to regulate where accessory apartments would be allowed by what quadrant of the city they would be built in, he said. "We found that to be arbitrary," ar-bitrary," he said. "If residents want to rent their entire basement, base-ment, why should we regulate that?" Evans said that the city also clarified its definition of an accessory ac-cessory apartment. Living space that does not include full access to the main house is now defined as an accessory apartment. Springville may create neighborhood groups to give residents a voice "We tightened up the language to define what it is, to avoid people getting into loopholes," he said. "There were people who were saying 'It is just my relatives living in there,' and yet they didn't have free access to the house. We now consider that an accessory ac-cessory apartment despite the relationship." The new ordinance allows al-lows all homeowners in rural zoneswhich includes the vast majority of the cityto have an accessory apartment. Homeowners in higher-density developments will not be allowed to build accessory apartments. '' Resident Veloy Cook, who was instrumental in getting get-ting the law changed, said it allows more moderate-income families to live in the city. "I grew up in Mapleton and have always loved living here and loved the small-town atmosphere," he said. "But there were not really opportunities oppor-tunities for moderate-income families to live here. By allowing accessory apartments it meant moderate-income families can live here." Cook said he and his wife recently purchased a home in Mapleton that had a fully finished basement that could have been used as an accessory acces-sory apartment-but the family found the required impact fees to be prohibitive. "It looked like a good opportunity, op-portunity, but the fees were exorbitant," he said. "Now the fees are very realistic." The family has found renters rent-ers for their basement and the additional income makes it easier to make ends meet, he said. "It is fantastic," he said. "We live on two-thirds of an acre and we live in a larger house and we don't have two small children and we don't need the full house. We are able to subsidize our income and keep our mortgage payment pay-ment affordable." by Caleb Warnock Staff Writer Springville residents with concerns or suggestions about how the city' should be run may soon have a new forum to speak out. Former Councilman Mark Balzotti said the city is in the final stages of a plan to form neighborhood advisory committees. The committees would consist of residents from different geographic areas ar-eas of the city and could meet as often as once a month. The proposal would have a member of die city staff or city council attend each meeting of each neighborhood committee to answer questions and take feedback, he said. Springville Mayor Fritz Boyer said he expects the city council to vote on a formal plan within weeks. In work sessions over the next few weeks, council members will decide whether committee members should be voted in by informal neighborhood caucuses or appointed by the mayor and council. Members of the neighborhood neighbor-hood councils could advise the city council but would not have power to set city policy, Boyer said. "They have to realize they are an advisory committee," he said. "They should not feel pressure to direct the council's decisions." Boyer also stressed that the neighborhood committees commit-tees would not replace the city's Planning and Zoning Commission in making recommendations recom-mendations about specific development projects, though they could give input about how developments might impact im-pact their neighborhood. Balzotti said even though the city council would not be bound to follow recommendations recommen-dations from the neighborhood committees, advice from the residents would be carefully weighed. Neighborhood council coun-cil members might be invited to speak at council meetings or provide written recommendations recommenda-tions to the council on some issues. "We would be foolish not to listen to them," he said. "If you are going to organize them, you have to listen to them." The committees would allow al-low both residents and council members to be better aware of issues within the city, he said. "We just wanted feedback feed-back from the community," he said. "The other purpose is to disseminate information from the city more clearly." City staff member Hazel Ha-zel Dunsmore, who worked as a Provo City employee for five years, where she worked closely with Provo's neighborhood committees, is now working with Springville to help organize the committees. commit-tees. "It is all about information," informa-tion," she said. "It is a way to get information out to the community com-munity and to get grass-roots input. It gives residents an opportunity to participate." The city council will decide de-cide if the neighborhood committees com-mittees will have authority to organize their own committees to study issues such as neighborhood neigh-borhood safety and beautifi-cation, beautifi-cation, she said. Developers could also take plans to the committee that represents the neighborhood where they are hoping to build, in an effort to take care of any community concerns early on in the process. pro-cess. "They can get input up front and know if they've got the community on board," she said. Volunteers who are interested inter-ested in helping to organize a committee in their neighborhood neighbor-hood can call Hazel Dunsmore at 489-2703. Maplewn library metis volunteers by Caleb Warnock Utah County Library Board members would like to extend the hours of the only brick-and-mortar library open to residents in unincorporated areas of the county at no fee, but a shortage of volunteers has stymied the effort. The Utah County Library Board oversees the county's bookmobile service and maintains a library in Mapleton, Maple-ton, which serves both as a headquarters and storage for the bookmobile and as a city library for Mapleton residents. resi-dents. Mapleton provides the building and pays the utility bills, and the county supplies one paid staff member and the books. The library, located at 305 N. Main in Mapleton, is now open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Board member Deanna S. Hillier said the board decided de-cided it would like to extend the hours of the library and went to the Mapleton City Council to get permission to do so but was told there were not enough volunteers. The library needs to be open longer because it is the best way for bookmobile patrons to get access to the Internet, and to allow greater access for patrons to check out books, Hillier said. "It would be better to have it open later," she said. "A lot of people work nowa days, and when it is only open until 4:30 it limits who can go." Board member Deborah Glenn said the library has only one paid employee and does not have money to pay more staff to stay after 4:30 p.m. "We want to extend the hours, but the county would have to provide additional funding for workers to be there and the county, being in a budget crisis, doesn't want to do that," she said. Keeping the library open late would mean better access for children to use the Internet Inter-net or book resources to do their homework, she said. . "It could be open in the evening for kids doing homework, home-work, and working parents would have access to the library," she said. "There had been a sense that is what people would like." In a meeting of the Mapleton Map-leton City Council, Council-women Council-women Cynthia Edmunds estimated that keeping the building open until 7 p.m. would require as many as eight volunteers and someone to be in charge of the evening program. Council members said if volunteers could be found, the city would be willing to begin an evening program by keeping the library open late one day a week. Hillier said library board members are looking for volunteers vol-unteers for the effort. People interested in volunteering can call 370-8136. (P) ini .-- ' V 'j'-ijnr.t Children and parents who attended the Community and Family Nigt Monday at the Springville Spring-ville Museum of Art had a wonderful time putting clay on a framework of a large dragon. The process showed them how sculptor s do their work. Featured artist Gary Price brought the project and will eventually cast the statue in bronze. nC3 CDODTP CP OGDLE A mm URGENT SALES (oSnG'Pgtt4 MEMORANDUM Till li ' ' To: All Sales Associates Re: Final Phase Oak Plus tunuiutc W, on. lojlfZ hereby directed to take tne louowuig 1) Take EXTRA MARK DOWNS on every Bedroom, KSSffiS5- Office. Everything in the showroom must go! 2) Sell it all, and sell it fast! Regardless of the original price! 3) Offer savings of up to 70 and more. wuti I The final phase of our Going Out Of Business Liquidation has been announced and we are still iammed, packed and stacked with quality furniture and mattresses. We are selling at near panic prices. Additional discounts hove been taen on top of markdowns.lt you are even remotely thinking of new turnitureims is the one sale you cannot attord to missi Advise your customers that all items are subject to pSe and when they are gone, they are gone forever. anv means necessary w ' , tFTL nPTT Living Rooms, Bedrooms, fiaT Dining Rooms, Home Office, Ul Dinettes, Leather Sofas and If! TL t A t ... Loveseais. Maiiresses, Lamps, Pictures, Entertainment Centers, Accessories, Youth Furniture, Bunk Beds, Occasional Tables, and much, much more.. Additional Discounts On Top Of Markdowns In Every Department! Tn i fr mmmmm r w mrn AGAIN! i Jl n ft - "v::i AnMi Baanwan r ! llt This could be your final chance to save 50, 60 70 and More! We urge you to take advantage of these additional savings, because when this is over it will be over FOREVER! .aiHST.'H,'HI,'fa-.. |