We find three particularly interesting tidbits in the news this morning; and once again the Standard-Examiner sets the pace.
On the front page, Bryon Saxton reports that Governor Huntsman's Geologic Hazards Working Group, is nearing completion on the drafting of a model ordinance to assist local governments in writing their own ordinances for landslide-prone hillside development projects:
SALT LAKE CITY — A geologic hazards task force hopes to make available to city and county officials a model ordinance they can work from to prevent or mitigate building on potential landslide areas.We believe the timely intervention of the Governor's task force in this arena is a very good thing, inasmuch as it will create a coherent document with potential applicability throughout the state. We believe Emerald City planners, who have been fumbling with their own revisions to Emerald City's existing Sensitive Zones Ordinance, ought to stand back and table any proposed hillside ordinance revisions, until the governor's task force has completed its project in June.
Some recommendations in the draft include requesting that leaders become educated in land-use regulations, a stricter enforcement of grading codes in building on sloped lands, and updating and making more accessible to the public geologic hazard maps.
Next, Scott Schwebke reports that a completed Mt. Ogden Neighborhood plan document is now in the hands of the city council. This document, which represents the efforts of the hundreds of community-minded citizens who served on neighborhood committees over the summer, appears from today's article to fairly embody the expressed desires of the Mt. Ogden neighborhood community:
"... a citizen committee that studied community identity calls for the city to revise its ordinances to prohibit new gated communities and subdivisions in the Mount Ogden area.We look forward to having this matter added to the council calender at the earliest available date.
"... [A] committee assigned to look into park and open space issues, determined Mount Ogden Park, including the golf course and adjoining land, should be kept undeveloped.
'The golf course and trails that wind through the park and nearby properties are a regional amenity that is enjoyed by a larger area than just this community,' according to the committee."
Finally, as noted in a lower comments thread, Councilman Safsten, a "Gang of Six" council holdover, and one of the more reliable Boss Godfrey supporters on the city council, announces this morning that he will not seek re-election to his Ward 4 council seat.
Best wishes go out to Councilman Safsten and his family -- and especially his wife Christine. Your blogmeister himself has a family member suffering from the ravages of multiple sclerosis. The expression of our sympathy is thus particularly heart-felt.
Take it away, gentle readers.
Update 4/26/07 11/;53 a.m. MT: Gentle Reader Ozboy provides us a helpful heads-up on two excellent Kristen Moulton articles from the Salt Lake Tribune website, discussing the Governor's Geologic Hazards Working Group project. See: Panel crafting to-do list to prevent damage from slides, quakes, floods and Stricter rules on housing debated.
14 comments:
I've just posted my comments on Mr. Safsten's decision to not seek re-election on an earlier thread.
My condolences , best wishes, and prayers go to Christine, Rick and their family.
I was heartened to see the three highlighted sections of the Mount Ogden Plan remain! Protecting the Mount Ogden course, park, trails and NO gated developments to be built.
Also, Rudi, I also hope that this city will DO NOTHING about hillside development until the 'big boys' who know what they're doing release their report.
Hopefully, this mayor will put his ego aside and be humble enough to take direction from those who really do know more than he does!
If Kristen Moulten doesn't out right skunk the Standard on Ogden stories, she at least writes a more comprehensive article. Case in point is the two pieces in today's Tribune on the Safsten bailout and the slip sliding homes.
The sliding houses article she wrote is much more detailed, especially when it comes to the mealy mouthing of the spokesman for Anderson Development.
In my opinion this Anderson outfit is one of the most dangerous in Utah history. I believe them to be robber barons of the first order. The group includes Greg Curtis, speaker of the Utah House and known gas thief, Hutchins, former 3rd District Court Judge, and several high powered attorneys. This pack of lawyers is a so called "Development" company. They have been accused of using their legal clout to intimidate citizens who have the gall to oppose their developments. Hell, they might just sue me for writing this post!
Favorite quotes in the Trib article from Anderson Development mouth piece:
"Fewer and fewer people can afford to develop properties in Utah because cities are making it immensely difficult to get in the door" and "You are impacting the marketplace every time you come up with this concept of 'we'll just pass it on to the developer'".
This presumably said with a straight face! Hell, Every body and their dog has become a "developer" these days! Every city is completely overrun with wanna bees and treasure seakers. Most of them just build the minimum junk they can get away with that barely passes city building codes. Most of them are making huge profits at the expense of the unknowlegable public that is buying their junk.
The Utah Legislature has, in the past few years, passed several laws that completely guts the local cities ability to regulate building in their juristictions and has placed inordinate powers in the hands of developers or any one who fancies themselves as such. Never in Utah history has so many so called developers built so much inferior junk and made such obscene profits. And this guy is crying about how picked on they are! That's like Matt Godfrey crying about Matt Jones picking on him!
Anderson development, on their web site, openly brags about being the force behind some of these horrid laws that take building authority away from local government and gives it over to the predator developers, and this guy has the arrogance to cry about the big bad cities making it difficult for them!
My favorite quote from Kristen's article comes from Scott Carter of the Layton Bldg department:
"I'm the poor sucker that listens to the people as they leave their home after a landslide. The Developers are long gone. Do they come back and want to help? NO. Where they do run is to their attorney and to a cave...They hold on to their dough and run!"
In Anderson development's case they don't have too far to run for their attorney, hell THEY ARE THEIR ATTORNEY!
And finally to Safsten. While I do consider him a Baffoon and mayorial sycophant, I do offer my condolences to he and his wife, I wish them the best and I hope for her recovery. I also am going to miss kicking him around.
In my reference to the oafishness of a slavishly Gondola Godfrey councilperson, I intended to impart no familial/health insensitivities; God (the real GMan running this mortal GTrain and subsequent immortal coil) bless the Safstens and us sinners.
"Update 4/26/07 11/;53 a.m. MT: Gentle Reader Ozboy"
Where do you come up with this drivel Rudy?
"Gentle" - This is a load of crap! He ain't gentle by any account. He is known to shoot puppies and set cats on fire.
"Reader" - Another stupid joke. He even has to get his smutty magazines on tape.
"Ozboy" - Haw! The lame ass dude doesn't even live in the land of Oz.
So give us a break Mr. Blog. Tell it like it is. In this case "Mean illiterate carpetbagger" would be closer to the truth.
May I pose a question regarding ethics. I've wrestled with this one for a bit now, and I wonder where you folks come down on this. Clearly, this administration and RDA has errored sinse Mr. Moyal first approached the planning commission. They were totally unprepared, and wronged Moyal from the get go. Had anyone of them been in Moyal's shoes, they would feel exactly as he does, and pursue the same legal path. They've actually gone so far as backdating ordinances, and adopting a partial and by their own admissions, questionable mixed use ordinance. All this haste being of their own making and driven by timelines.(unprepared,expiration of the temporary moratorium and pending law suit) Having been part of the RDA, could the council members objectively perform their duties as a legislative arm of local government? Is their involvement in their dual role compromising their ability to seek fairness and in this case justice? Do we as the Governed expect justice, fairness, morality and honesty from our elected officials,or, is it their duty to act more fiducially and try any means possible to wiggle out of a lawsuit? Have these trusted public servants been placed in a no win situation having to sacrifice their personal convictions to protect their position as a member of a governing body? I know Godfrey's driving the ship and placing them in this moral dilemma, much of it by design, to achive his personal objectives and I sense his lack of integrity and morals is totally compromising the council members. Maybe some one could offer a solution and guidance to help solve this dilemma.
Bill C,
One vote of the city council and they could set Moyal free to fix up his property. But they won't do it, because it won't come up on their agenda, because they don't set their agenda, CITY BUREAUCRATS set their agenda, NOT COUNCIL MEMBERS!!!
As Rodney would have said, “I gotta’ tell ya, they got no SELF respect. No SELF respect at all . . .”
wait a minnit....are you SHURE that an agenda item can't be placed by member(s) of the council???
Where does it say that?
Danny, I took the time to listen to the whole meeting, on their website. Not only were they confused and perplexed, but you could sense their internal struggle. Even Godfrey's lapdogs were hesitant before voting to adopt.(not having video, I don't know if a wink or some other gesture was provided by little matty) The ajournment to closed session is what has me wondering. City attorneys and the administration pressuring the council, pending lawsuits, what hat should they wear. If they follwed true judeo christian values one could assume they would acknowlege their wrong and make ammends? But somehow I sense they were more guided by the need to pursue a different course, one many seemed uncomfortable with. This item was on the agenda, and maybe the right thing to do would have been not to cave into the pressures from so many complications. Dorene seems to be the only one that didn't over analyze, sticking to her gut feeling. The fact they had so many doubts should say that it's not what we want. There was a giant unmentioned elephant in the room.
They did struggle. They asked questions...well, some did. They hung tough, for awhile.
But, Godfrey just kept pushing,,,and then Safsten and Stephenson seemed to be the ones who changed Susie's original motion. That's why Doug was so confused. "What are we voting on now?"
They all have A gut...wish they'd displayed GUTS and followed Nancy Reagan's lead, and 'just said no!'
LIKE A TRUE DICK TATER GODFREY HAS SOMETHING ON THEM ALL!
Pardon the change of subject, but dontcha just love the pure unadulterated hubris of these Neo Con wonks that have so much power these days!
We now have Idiot in Chief Bush dispatching Mike Leavitt, Margaret Spelling (Secretary of Education) and good old "I don't remember what I had for breakfast" Alberto the Attorney General Gonzalas, out about the country side, including Utah, to solve the mass shooting problem!
I mean really, all this high priced brain power, at huge expense, to go out into the hinderlands to figure out that once in a while some nut case powers up and blows a few people away. So are these Republican wonks now also psychiatrists?
Gonzalas wouldn't know where his ass is if it weren't attached, and now he is going to plumb the depths of the insane mind? Maybe George Jr. figures it takes a nut case to know one.
Oh yea, the real jewel in the Utah case is that Mary Kay is also on the case and will surely give us all the answers on why that pathetic kid blew the people away at Trolley Square.
Meanwhile the US continues its swirl down the proverbial drain. With these guys at the wheel no wonder we are all going over the cliff.
Mary Kay! First she knows better than all the experts about Soccer Stadiums, now she is a friggen master shrink! Maybe we can get her up to Emerald City here and figure the pathetic pathalogical micro brain of Her Godfrey and his sorry sycophants.
Curiouser and Curiouser it gets as we decend down the rabbit hole...
Mary Kay and her hubby should just make toothpaste commercials.
Bill C.
I do concur with you as I did yesterday that Dorrene was correct to vote no. And yes, as Dan said, the ordinance is a mess. But it is better than the first one.
And the Godfrey Syndicate did skillfully manipulate the River Project to make it seem this ordinance was needed, and was an emergency. That’s why the six voted for it, I surmise.
But the good news is, the council did not apply it to the whole city. So the Peterson angle (denied by Lurch Montgomery even though it was the real driving force) was not won by Godfrey. This is a huge point.
Now, the council must hold firm when Monty strong arms them to make the MUO apply city wide, which he will do, as sure as the world.
The issue of city ordinances being an impenetrable rat’s nest is another matter, a valid one, and one that should be addressed. We might start with letting Lurch join Gomez, Morticia, and Uncle Fester in retirement, and getting somebody in that job who can clean the code up. We can’t expect our volunteer PC and part time CC to do it.
This should be Job 1 for the new mayor. Lurch has been Godfrey’s willing enforcer. He who lives by the Syndicate, dies by the Syndicate.
Just stumbled on this recent quote from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:
ROCKEFELLER: Don't you understand the way Intelligence works? Do you think that because I'm Chairman of the Intelligence Committee that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. All of it. All the time. I only get, and my committee only gets, what they want to give me.
Sounds a lot like something our City Council members could say about the Godfrey Administration.
Post a Comment