Four Grantsville residents asked the city council to amend its moratorium on subdivisions during its meeting Wednesday evening.
The city council approved a 180-day moratorium on approval of new subdivisions, multiple unit residential facilities and planned unit developments during its Oct. 4 meeting. The council previously set aside a possible moratorium at an Aug. 29 work meeting.
Rob Brown asked for an amendment to permit minor subdivisions after his paperwork was held up at the county surveyor’s office and he missed the submission deadline prior to the moratorium.
I’m not trying to build a subdivision,” Brown said. “I just want to give my son and his family a place to build a home.”
Timothy Rieffanaugh said he was in the process of completing a minor subdivision to sell a portion of his property to a neighbor when the moratorium went into place. He said the buyer had no plans to build on the piece of property but the minor subdivision request was held up by the 6-month moratorium.
Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall said a number of families were impacted by moratorium.
“There’s six families that I’m aware of that are all in this same boat,” Marshall said.
Brad Phelps, representing one of the six families affected, said they were subdividing their property for the same reason as Brown.
“We’re in the same situation,” Phelps said. “We have some of our children that are wanting to build on our lane.”
During the council reports near the end of the meeting, Councilwoman Krista Sparks suggested reviewing an amendment to the moratorium at an upcoming council meeting. She said the council is not aware of every small project that comes through planning and zoning, or what’s on the table.
“I think it’s worthy to maybe put an agenda item to discuss the moratorium amendment with minor subdivisions, if we can look at something like that,” Sparks said.