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Show Hope To See You There In his letter to the News (Waiting For An Answer, April 2nd), Mark Minchey says I've "become the exalted ruler of Esca-lante's Esca-lante's internal affairs." Wow! I've been called a lot of things, but ever a Exalted Ruler. Thanks, Mark! But, as an Escalante Planning Commissioner, I can claim no power. Escalante's Planning Commission can only advise the City Council concerning interpretation interpreta-tion of lad use laws, primarily the Zoning Ordinance of March, 1996, and the Subdivision Ordinance. The planning Commission may draft these laws, but we can't conduct the public hearings on them, or adopt them, or enforce them. Those are all City Council responsibilities. The Planning Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and must advise the City Council concerning Escalante's general welfare. We are all full time residents of Escalante, but we can't and don't deny the legal rights of outside developers like you, Mark. Lillian Lyman's request, which you cited, is an example ex-ample of how the Planning Com- mission operates. She can't put another house on the same lot (Zoning Ord. Chap. 4-4) and she can't create a large enough new lot from her other property (Chap. 4-7 and 4-8). If we had approved her request, we would have violated our own law. However, we can ask the City Council to amend that chapter. Now, I am completely mystified about your interpretation of the affordable housing matter. Escalante, Esca-lante, like every city in Utah, is required by state law to have an "Affordable Housing Plan" in its General Plan by the end of this year. The state has defined our city's needs for us; we simply have to show a plan to match their numbers. num-bers. And the only way we can do that is to designate a zoning district for high population density. The houses and duplexes and apartments don't actually have to be built this year or ever but we must have a designated place for them. The state requirements is not funded (what a surprise), so the cities are (See Hope To See... On Page 4A) Hope To See... on their own to find builders and lending institutions. If and when Escalante can scrape together some incentives to offer developers and banks, the first person the city government gov-ernment will offer them to will probably be you. That's right, Mark Minchey. But' it's the way that you've taken this way beyond the state requirement that I really can't understand. un-derstand. Me, "go to Washington to ask for federally funded affordable housing"? Well, Washington is pretty this time of year with the cherry blossoms and all, but I'm one Exalted Ruler who isn't going "inside the Beltway" anytime soon. I disagree with most points in your letter, Mark, but I strongly support on the thing: "I urge the people of Escalante to get out and find out what is going on in their city." A great chance to do that will be the Escalante Community Meeting, Which will be an all-day meeting at the High school on a Saturday in May. The city government is sponsoring this meeting to get help from all the citizens of Escalante to solve our community's problems. Hope to see you there, Mark! Jens Munthe Escalante Planning Commission |