ST. GEORGE — Expanding the George A. Barker River Park and creating a new town annexation plan was approved by the Springdale Planning Commission on Wednesday. Their recommendations will be forwarded to the town council for approval.
The commission recommends changing the zoning on the park from valley residential to public use for land parcel S-150-D. The town recently acquired the property adjacent to the park.
“As leaders of our town, we’re looking 50 years out and 100 years out; we’re not just looking at what’s going to happen in the next few years,” Barbara Bruno, Springdale mayor, said.
Future residential development would be inhibited by flood and erosion hazards. According to the draft plan, a public park/open space is suitable for the property. There has not been any public comment on the rezoning.
“So, for example, the school and the land that the elementary school is on, we only fairly recently changed that to a public use zone. We use that zone to acknowledge that the land is intended to be used only for public use and not sold to be developed or anything like that. So it just protects it in perpetuity, so to speak,” Bruno said.
The River Park has picnic tables, barbecues and restrooms. Across the footbridge is the Marj Bonner Dog Park. Inside the dog park are trails that run along the Virgin River, and this area is off-leash for dogs.
Another zoning issue the board discussed was the potential annexation of land near the town. The Planning Commission recommended approval of the draft of the town’s annexation plan. It will be on the Town Council’s meeting agenda in March.
“Currently, because we don’t have a policy at all, no one could come to us to ask for annexation,” Thomas Dansie, Springdale Director of Community Development, said.
The state requires municipalities to have a plan in place if any property owners want to annex into a town. The Springdale plan would require that sensitive areas next to national parks are protected.
“We are anticipating that you’ll (annexation applicants) do so in a manner that protects the sensitive areas that place priority on open space, that upholds our general plan, and in such a manner that there is not a financial impact due to infrastructure on the town,” Dansie said.
The plan will guide Springdale to start from and then make changes down the road if desired. He said it will put into place criteria to evaluate future annexation requests from property owners.
Mayor Bruno stated the town would not go after people’s private property. The policy is a way for Springdale to be notified if someone wants to be annexed. For example, some of the Trees Ranch property is in the annexation plan area. The rest of the ranch is in Washington County.
“And if it is in our annexation plan, then we will be notified of anything that the owner applies to do there. And so it’s really all about communication. We couldn’t and wouldn’t stop it, and we just want to be apprised,” Bruno said.
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