A Stealth Council Agenda & Other Interesting Stuff

Last night, gentle reader Sharon attended the regularly-scheduled city council meeting, and offered this "quick and dirty" report in a lower comments session. Her post provoked some scratching of readers' heads, inamuch as it was unclear, even to some of the council, evidently, exactly what the council approved last night, re the Mixed Use Ordinance matter which had suddenly appeared on the council agenda.

This morning's Scott Schwebke article clarifies the situation somewhat. From appearances, it is evident that the council approved a stripped-down version of the proposed mixed use ordinance which has been rattling around the planning commission for many months.

OGDEN — After a spirited debate, the Ogden City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday night establishing a mixed-use zone that can be applied in two areas of Ogden.

The council agreed to allow the new zone to be used downtown and in redevelopment areas, such as property that includes the Ogden River Project. However, the council stopped short of allowing it to be extended to other parts of the city.

Several council members said they felt uncomfortable expanding application of the zone without further study.

“I’m not sure we have had time to look it over,” Councilwoman Susan Van Hooser said.

The council agreed to hold a work session on July 12 to review expanding the zone’s use.

That this matter suddenly popped up on the council calender without fanfare, is troubling to some of us. We checked the council agenda, as published in the Standard Examiner on April 23, and this is the the language contained in that published notice:

TUESDAY - Ogden City Council - 5 p.m. work session, 2549 Washington Blvd.

That's it. The published notice was sparse as sparse could be. NO mention of the Mixed Use Ordinance. No mention of the city council meeting agenda at all!

We have serious doubts whether the notice of last night's meeting even slightly conformed to legal notice requirements for the calendering of such an agenda item. In this connection, we urge our readers to contact the city council, and demand that this matter be calendered for reconsideration, in order that the council may benefit from citizen input, before this ordinance is put into final legal effect. We think our hapless council got steamrolled -- again; and we urge our readers to let the council know what we think about last night's rushed deliberation.

Several other interesting items also appear in the Standard-Examiner this morning:

Rocky Fluhart, Ogden Home-boy, former Emerald City CAO and Salt Lake City CAO under Mayor Anderson, weighs in this morning with his own thoughts on the Godfrey/Peterson Landgrab Scheme. Our readers will also no doubt recall an earlier Std-Ex guest commentary from Gretchen Fluhart, Rocky's lovely wife, Ogden native and lifelong Ogden resident. It would appear, based on these two articles, that Mr. and Mrs. Fluhart are anything but Godfrey-lemmings.

Concidentally perhaps, we also find an article about Gretchen's brother, another Ogden Native, Jeff Lowe. Jeff, an internationally-acclaimed mountaineer, is still working on his Ice Tower Project, according to this Bryce Johnson story:

OGDEN — The resurrection of Holographic Ice Tower, which has been laying dormant in a west Ogden parking lot for two years, seems about to begin.

The location is still being determined. The money is still being raised.
But the tower’s proponents are sounding more optimistic than ever that the only refrigerated ice tower in the world could be standing, frozen, in Ogden by next winter’s first cold snap.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say it will be (ready this winter),” said Jeff Lowe, who designed the tower in the mid-1990s for the ESPN X Games and has been orchestrating its revival.

Jeff's project has apparently received the strong blessing of the Godfrey administration:

Ogden Climbing Parks has already been approved for $200,000 in RAMP tax
money, half the estimated $400,000 it will take to upgrade and reconstruct the
65-foot tower. Lowe and Patterson said the group is applying for other grants to
cover the last $200,000.

The rebuilt tower will feature improved insulation and cooling systems that will make it more efficient and extend its ice season to at least five months a year, Lowe said. In the summer, it can be outfitted with soft wood for a similar climbing experience.

Ogden Climbing Parks has a lease agreement with the city to build the tower at Big Dee Sports Park, just off Harrison Boulevard on the Ogden River Parkway. But Patterson said the city is hoping the tower can be built downtown.

“Because of the iconic nature of this tower, it should be downtown, where it’s seen by our community and helps to add to that high-adventure extreme sport flavor that we’re trying to create,” [John] Patterson said.

We suggest that the fake mountain be installed on the plaza outside the Salomon Center three-story glass facade. That way the indoor "climbers" will be able to watch the ice climbers scale the faux ice mountain, while the "ice climbers" can view the "high adventure" activities on the indoor plastic mountain. That we think would be "most cool." "Synergistic" -- as Boss Godfrey would say.

And one of these days we hope that someone will be able to query Jeff Lowe, for his opinion on the Godfrey/Peterson landgrab. Whether Jeff Lowe is aboard the G-Train, is one of our most tantalizing unanswered questions.

We apologize for the late posting of this article. We've been plagued this morning with a series of technical problems.

The floor is open -- at last.