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Show CASTLE VALLEY TIMES SURVEY TIMES Castle Valley, Utah - Volume 7, Number 3 SHAFER LANE CLOSURE UPDATE At the March 10th Town Council Meeting, the Town Council voted to “physically” close Shafer (i.e. put up locked gates), if permits are obtained from State Lands and if money is available. POA may be able to help with funding. State Fire Marshall told Mayor that locked gates are allowed. HELP WANTE D: Ifyou would be interested in occasional work helping with POA mailings, please contact Jack Campbell (259-5542). KZMU BROADCASTING TO CASTLE VALLEY106.1 ON THE FM BAND PUBLIC HEARING There will be a public hearing at the next Town Council meeting on April 8th to receive comments from residents about whether or not to lower the allowable height of new buildings from 30 to 25 feet and to adopt a new definition of how building height is to be measured. The Town Council meetings begin at 6:30 pm and a public hearing is usually scheduled before the regular TC meeting is called to order. THANKS - March 15,1998 BUILDING HEIGHTS In a spectacularly scenic area like Castle Valley, few people would like their neighbors to build a huge house in front of their view. On the other hand, many residents Gasaway, Hertha Wakefield, Rebecca Martin, Dennis Willigan, Cris Coffey, Eugenia Adair, Trish Hawkins, Robert Ryan, Ken Drogin, & Jack Campbell. SURVEY RESULTS There has been a very good response to the recent POA survey. Nearly 55% of the POA members have responded by this time. The basic purpose of the survey feel that it is more important to let was to see if there is any point in people build their dream houses, rather than to limit their freedom of choice. trying to change the existing POA Covenants. From the responses So, it seems like another conflict received so far, the answer seems to be between freedoms, i.e. the freedom to a strong “yes” (surveys were due back do what you want versus the freedom March 15th, but all surveys received in the next few weeks will be counted). to enjoy your life without someone coming along later and destroying something as important as your view. Last month the CV Planning Commission recommended two changes to the Building Height section of the Zoning Ordinance by a 3—1 vote. The first change would lower the build- There are issues that the POA members seem to care a lot about that are not addressed in the present Covenants, and there are items that the members apparently would like to remove. So, how will the survey results be used? The results from this and several ing height from the 30 feet height currently allowed, to 25 feet. future surveys will be used to draft a The second change would alter the way the building height is measured. The current height definition is “the vertical distance from the average ground surface to the top of the building.” This criteria leaves a couple of very large loopholes in the height measurement. ‘ Loophole #1: if a building is cut into a hillside and if the average ground will (hopefully) more closely reflect ' what the property owners want the surface measurement is used, the overall height of the building could be 35+ feet. And if the building were of a square/flat roofed design (like some of the motels in Moab), then there could be three stories of exposed windows when the house was viewed from below. Loophole #2: since “ground surface” is not defined, someone could To all of you who helped prepare, mail and count the recent survey: Bill Reporting the Results new (modified) set of Covenants that Covenants to be. This new set of Covenants must be ratified by the end of this year. Only those changes strongly supported by the membership will be incorporated in the new Covenants. For instance, the POA members showed strong support (241 - 7) for having a 5 acre minimum lot size. Since this is not in the current Covenants, this would be an obvious addition to the new Covenants. Since members wanted this to remain a “rural agricultural residential” area (as it is now, 223 - 22), the loop- hole allowing unlimited commercial development should be removed from the existing Covenants. choose to build a higher house than his neighbors by bulldozing a higher platform of dirt on which he then built Members preferred having only one dwelling per platted lot (193 - 55). Installing power lines underground (217 — 31), shielding outdoor lighting the house. (While this may seem farfetched this technique was almost used several years ago in this area.) It is also —More Height on p. 3 (223 — 20) and having inoperable vehicles stored out of sight (193 - 49), were other preferrences of the property PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY VALUES— Join the Castle Valley Volunteer Fire Department—Receive Training BEFORE the Fire Season Begins—Call owners answering the survey. The continuing existence of the POA was supported by a 216 to 28 response. Increased enforcement of the Covenants was supported 187 to 55. Members wanted some controls on building heights, setbacks, and fenee Floyd Stoughton, Fire Chief at 259-6049. —More Survey, p. 7 |
