The Grantsville City Council approved the city’s conditional use permit for a cemetery behind the Clark Historic Farm after the permit application was appealed Wednesday night.
Susan Johnsen, vice-president of the non-profit Friends of the Clark Historic Farm, filed the appeal after she said the city’s application for the conditional use permit was incomplete under the Grantsville City Land Use and Management Code.
The decision to appeal had nothing to do with attempting to block a cemetery on approximately six acres northeast of the barn and outbuildings at the Clark Farm, Johnsen said.
“I’m not here to argue the location of the cemetery,” she said.
Johnsen did contend that the application was missing some of the criteria covered by the city’s code, including the inclusion of a plan or drawing, to scale, which includes the proposed title of the project; the names and contact information of the architect, planner or engineer; and a complete description of the conditional use and other to scale information like driveways, landscaping, drainage and other environmental features.
Johnsen, whose home is adjacent to the property behind the Clark Farm, also did not receive a mailing notifying her that a conditional use permit was being pursued, which the code also requires.
The city’s application included a map showing the parcel that would be the cemetery site, but did not include a site plan including the proposed location of burial plots, a roadway through the cemetery, or landscaping, such as where trees would be planted.
Johnsen said that if the city has these requirements for other applicants submitting a conditional use permit, it should follow its own guidelines and ordinances.
Jennifer Williams, Grantsville City’s planning and zoning administrator, said there isn’t a form for every different conditional use and as a result, the city used the commercial application for the cemetery. Some of the requirements, she argued, wouldn’t really apply for a cemetery.
Grantsville City Attorney Joel Linares said the city uses its best judgment when reviewing an application to determine if it needs additional information and plans. A permit for a building with little to no impermeable surfaces might need to document drainage features but a permit for a field would not, he said.
“It’s not an exact science,” Linares said. “We try and figure it out as we go along in a lot of ways.”
Both Williams and Linares said the city followed the conditional use permit submitted the first time the city attempted to put a cemetery behind the Clark Farm in 2010 and with a recent expansion of the current cemetery site.
Williams also said the mailing list to notify adjacent property owners about the conditional use permit is generated by the county and Johnsen not being included on the county’s list was a mistake.
Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall said the city would likely lay out burial plots, sprinklers and landscaping similar to previous cemetery projects.
Grantsville City Councilman Neil Critchlow said he had concerns because he believed the city should hold itself to a high standard for conditional use permits and other applications.
“I still go back to the point where we have to make sure that we are far above what we’re requiring of everybody else,” he said. “We should have done those things prior to sending it to planning and zoning.”
The decision split the council, with councilman Mike Colson saying the city presented a basis for what it would generally do with the property but didn’t have a plan that was “fully thought out.” He said the city had the best interests of the citizens of Grantsville in mind when it makes decisions.
“When an applicant comes in, maybe we’re a little more stringent on an applicant because we want to make sure that … Grantsville’s interests are being taken care of,” Colson said. ”Maybe internally, we feel that we’re doing that without someone policing us.”
The city council had the option of approving the conditional use permit, deny the permit or send the application back to planning and zoning so the city could fill in the missing pieces of the application mentioned in the appeal.
The council voted to approve the conditional use permit on a motion from councilman Tom Tripp, by a 3 to 2 vote, with Tripp, Colson and councilwoman Krista Sparks in favor.
Johnsen said she doesn’t plan to pursue the appeal in court, which would be the next step in the appeal process.