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Helen Taylor and George Parsons North Ogden City Council – March 9th 2010
City Administrator, Ed Dickie, gave the opening prayer and led the pledge of allegiance to a room packed with concerned Business Owners. Opening Public Comments started with Citizen Ned Malan, who has lived in the city for 55 years and who has paid for a city license for many of those years. He was greatly offended by an unnamed City Official who ordered him to remove the street sign on his property that advertised “Fire Wood for Sale.” He asked the Council to “free the slaves” since more licenses “take wages away from his family.” He stated that “every one is struggling to survive these days” and he would like to see the Council “cut some slack” to the citizens, as they find ways to make ends meet. He suggested City Staff double up on their responsibilities to reduce the size of City Government.
Mayor Harris then opened the Council portion of the meeting by recognizing 3 City Employees that are retiring: Bill Goss, with 27 years of service as the Water System Supervisor, Merlin Clark, with 30 years as the Motor Pool Supervisor, and Roy Cottam, with 27 ½ years as the Assistant Maintenance Supervisor. He thanked each of these individuals for their many years of service to the City.
Chief Polo Afuvai made a presentation on City Ordinance 6-2E-1 in response to the Council’s request, prompted by some younger citizens, who would like modifications on the prohibition of discharging “soft-guns” within City limits. The Chief read the label stamped on the ‘look-alike 9 mm soft-gun pistol’ whereby the manufacturer recommends “use for those 18 years of age and older,” and included the warning that “use could cause serious injury and/or death.” As such, the Chief did not recommend any change to this Ordinance at this time. Council Members Bigler and Flamm inquired as to how kids could be in compliance with the law and yet still play “cops and robbers together.” Everyone agreed on the perceived threat these realistic toy-guns present to Law Enforcement Officers, who must often make split-second decisions. Safety was the primary concern. The impression was left that adult supervision and good common sense should prevail, with use in a suitable privately controlled area. The Council may consider a clarifying ordinance to address this issue at some point in the future.
Craig Barker, Community Development Director, prefaced the ensuing Public Hearing on the existing Sign Ordinance for “Community-wide Special Events” run by non-profits and/or charity organizations. Council Member Flamm pointed out the unfairness of the City being able to post a sign for “North Shore Pool Help” while simultaneously telling Citizen Malan he could not put up his small “Firewood for Sale” sign. Craig detailed the process, whereby, Citizen Malan would have to come to the city with a proposed sign plan that is within specifications, obtain a license, and then he could post the sign. Craig reminded the group that this Public Hearing was only to address “Special Event Signs.”
Public Hearing Comments: Citizen Dave Hulme expressed his concern that out-of-city organizations like the Lutheran Church, Catholic Church and Weber High were attended by many citizens and should not be excluded from posting signs. Citizen James Powell commented that “North Ogden is not a business friendly city” and as a result he does not know if he wants to reopen his business here. Ed Dickie, City Administrator, appealed to him later by saying “please don’t leave North Ogden.” Business Owner, Jo Canfield of “Yoga Jo’s Studio,” was “threatened” twice by City Officials to take a sign down that wasn’t even hers. Citizen Ivan Barker revealed he has sat through many thousand of hours of previous Council meetings on sign issues, and noted how difficult it is for the parties to agree, define and regulate.
After the close of the Public Hearing, Annette Spendlove, City Recorder, presented Resolution 03-2010 to renew the contract with “Miss America” to continue using their rules for the North Ogden pageant. Council Member Taylor reminded the Council that where he had voted against spending money on the pageant, due to budget constraints, he would now support the pageant in line with the majority.
Council Member Bigler presented a summary of “what he feels is right” on the current City Ordinances that regulates business Advertising & Signs. Essentially, he feels the City is “micro-managing” businesses unnecessarily.” Following some research, he stated “to date I haven’t found any other city of comparable size that has such restrictive ordinances.” He feels the “monument style signs,” currently required by the City are not necessarily safer. He questioned, “Who is best to determine the effectiveness and adequacy of a sign?” Is it the City that wants small uniform styles, or the business that pays for the sign to attract the customer? It’s a question of esthetics verses effectiveness. One specific concern Council Member Bigler had is the requirement that all business activities should be conducted “wholly” within the confines of their establishments. He noted the primary exceptions with seasonal businesses (generally with no established connection to the City) and yet “it’s against the law” for our businesses to sell on their own parking lots. The audience erupted with spontaneous applause on this point, and Mayor Harris quickly called for order and asked “please don’t demonstrate in that manner.”
Council Member Bigler feels strongly these restrictive Ordinances are “not the place for City Government.” He cited a few examples where the City is failing to enforce some laws, with Smiths Food and Lee’s Market placing vending machines, salt pellets, ice melt, and bottled water stacked on their sidewalks. Together with McDonalds and Wendy’s posting window signs that exceed the current maximum 25% coverage allowed. He stated the City doesn’t have the manpower to enforce, what he indicated were unnecessary or “silly laws” and therefore the Council should repeal them. The impression was that the City should let businesses govern themselves wherever possible, to manage and promote their business as the owner sees fit. Council Member Bigler added, “We should be doing everything we can to help them thrive as a business here, and our Ordinances are way too strict.” He proposed a Public Business Workshop with the Council, business owners and citizens, to listen and develop guidelines that are “more sensitive to the needs of business owners” to establish a more “business friendly environment.”
Council Member Harris stated that she “had been through a lot of this before and cautioned that it was not wrong to revisit this issue as a city evolves… any changes should be thoroughly researched to show what they would look like to the community.” She thought the “process” should start, and emphasized the community should not expect immediate changes. Council Member Taylor indicated that these were not the only Ordinance that should be changed to “create a better business climate” and the existing Ordinances “went beyond basic and reasonable.” He saw a workshop as a great start and suggested a permanent on-going Committee with Business Owners to address issues on a regular basis. Council Member Turner suggested mailing an invitation to all businesses and the Council decided instead to post a notice on the City web-site.
Closing Public Comments: Citizen Malan addressed the Council a 2nd time and said he was told by the same unnamed City Official that “if he was having trouble that he should go on church welfare.” Citizen Malan was highly “offended and can’t do that” and challenged the group to live on the $10,000 a year he does. He thanked the Council for their efforts and acknowledged it was difficult to find agreement on all matters. Citizen Hulme addressed the Council a 2nd time, and offered a suggestion to “write something into the ordinances on the soft-gun issue to allow use under adult supervision on private property, or public property with appropriate permission” to avoid selective enforcement. Assistant Scout Master Halbert emphasized that it was always the concern of Boy Scouts to ensure “safety and not put any Officers in jeopardy.” Citizen Shawn Maynard, of the North View Business Alliance said most business were “breaking the law and didn’t know it.” He mentioned that he is defending his actions in City Court right now, for parking his Hot Tub Delivery Trailer on his business lot, and was glad this issue is being addressed. Citizen Whitt Woods runs a small business and stated “We do not have a very friendly business City and it’s frustrating… not being able to advertise is tough…do we need to be micro-managed?... let us govern ourselves.” Citizen Aaron Farr runs a small business and wondered why his City license cost him $50 and he doesn’t seem to get anything for it, and yet the State license costs him $12 and he gets legal protection.
Business Owner Denise Jones expressed her appreciation for the pending workshop and requested permission to bring a video presentation to illustrate signage impact to “prove there’s a difference in being able to demonstrate you are open for business or closed, but you can’t show it.” Business Owner Kerry Walker stated he has had the same sign for over 30 years in Perry, Utah, a city smaller than North Ogden, located on a busy highway without any safety issues. He needs a larger sign than the existing “little 32 square foot sign” and he has been reading the Sign Ordinances since he bought the closed North Ogden Theatre from a former employee. He has a May 15th Grand Opening scheduled for the new Walker Cinema with 6 screens. He wants to bring his proposed sign, similar to the one he has in Perry of 200 square feet for 8 screens, hoping the Council would grant approval. Council Member Turner was very concerned on how to expedite his request. Craig Barker explained the process as “generally taking 3-4 months” and didn’t think it could happen timely to help the immediate situation.
Citizen Mike Westbroek, Business Owner of Big O Tires was told by several people over 11 years ago, prior to setting up business here, “don’t go to North Ogden, you’ll go broke and they won’t accept you.” He has found it to be “just the opposite and felt very well accepted and business has been great!” He acknowledged challenges with the existing City Sign Ordinance and “brought a $30,000 sign from his old location and ended up cutting it up, sending it to scrap metal - that was depressing.” He puts tires outside as a way to store inventory since there are now 800 tire sizes. His business generated $162,000 in sales tax revenue and was glad the Council was moving forward to solve this problem. Chris Bolen, Owner of the Cannery Building, indicated his hope that the workshop will make an impact, and while he appreciates what the Council does for businesses, he’d appreciate it if “they would do a little less for us.” Citizen Dave Meents, and Business Owner, was glad the new Council Members are here to address this problem and commented that he felt it was dangerous not to be able to read the Theater sign from Washington Blvd. Jonathon Badger, Business Owner of Lee’s Market, emphasized that where process is important, this issue is vital to business interest and we should move quickly to solve these problems. Citizen Taylor Spendlove, an Architecture Student, expressed his idea that some of the narrow entrances to business could be enlarged to enhance customer access, and hoped our City would never look like Riverdale Road.
Council Member Taylor added after the close of the public comments, that he wanted a “fresh outlook” on the relations between the City and businesses, and that the previous intent “was not to create a bad business climate.” Overall, the impression was that the Council wants to work together with the Business Owners to modify Ordinances that have placed an undue burden on them. Council Member Flamm suggested March 30th at 5:30pm for the Business Workshop. Ed Dickie, City Administrator, commented that “We want to be business friendly” and have the “Spend in North Ogden” campaign, together with banners that are posted on behalf of local businesses. Mayor Harris closed the meeting by inviting citizens to provide input on Weber County’s “Vision for Growth” that ends August 12, 2010.
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