• Responsible Residential Development
• Emphasis on Commercial Development
• Augment Human Resources

Responsible Residential Development

Payson is headed in that direction right now. If you take a tour of the subdivisions that have been built here over the last few years you will see that each subsequent development is a little better planned, a little more pleasant to look at and to live in. I am sure that in each case you will also find something that could be improved upon. I hope that it is evident that the Planning & Zoning Commission and the City Council have learned from each one and improved on the next one.

This doesn’t come by accident. It is very hard work.

What makes this particularly difficult is that in the past the City has often been forced to work from a defensive position.

When a tract of land is annexed into a city it is zoned. Not before! The zoning imposed on a tract of land both constrains and entitles those who wish to develop it. In many instances in the past, the initial zoning placed on a particular annexation has not demanded enough of the developer. His entitlements are greater than his constraints. For example: acres and acres of farm or orchard land that has been annexed into a city with an R-1-10 zoning requirement entitles the developer to build out the entire development in ten thousand square foot minimum lots. This is his trump card. Any change made in that initial design comes through compromise and deliberation. This compromise usually does lead to more deliberately built homes, but almost always at greater density and smaller lots than prescribed by the original zoning.

This is how a city finds itself in a defensive position.

I believe that the city could establish a stronger position for itself and for effective, enlightened residential planning in the future by establishing “a development zone” that would be applied to every new annexation. This Development Zone would be defined by density, not by lot size, and that initial density would be very low.

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Emphasis on Commercial Development

Rooftops don’t fill potholes.

Each new home that comes to a community brings a price tag with it. This price tag isn’t the one, two, or three hundred thousand dollar
mortgage that comes pre-attached. It is the cost of the ongoing, day- to-day, year-to-year services that every city pledges to provide for
its residents. Police, Fire, Ambulance, Utilities, Water, etc.

All the things that we love to hate; including: impact fees, hook-up fees, and rising utility rates; all come up just a little short of
paying the bill.

What about property taxes?

Did you know that only 13% of the property tax you pay finds its way back to Payson City? Compare that to the 74% of the property tax that
goes to the school district each year. Then think of this: In one year a single discount store on the south interchange of I-15 generates more in sales tax for the city of Payson than we accrue from all of the property taxes paid on private residence in that same year.

Payson has experienced unprecedented growth in just the last few years. There are more homes and more good people than there have ever been, and there will be more coming. They will have more money to spend than there has ever been in Payson before.

Residential Development and Commercial Development are like the seats on a schoolyard teeter-totter. You have to put enough weight on the residential side to lift the commercial side at first; and then, you have to put more weight on the commercial side, enough for it to lift
the residential back up.

I believe that it is now time to put more weight on the commercial side. It is time to devote full-time people to the promotion of
commercial development in Payson.

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Augment Human Resources

Is it possible that Payson City has not hired an additional police officer in the last five years?

If there is a theme underlying the ideas reflected in this platform statement it is that Payson is not just growing; it has already
grown, grown more than most of us realize. There is more growth to come. Count the empty spaces in subdivisions already approved within
the city limits and you will find room for more than a thousand new homes.

Each of those two-car garages imposes added pressure on our current streets and intersections. Every “two-and-half baths” impacts the
infrastructure. Each new lawn has to be watered. How many garbage trucks can you fill with a thousand more garbage cans?
(This is not the next internet joke, it is a brain teaser.)

I know from experience that the city departments are headed by good, dedicated people. I also know that they are being stretched to the
limit.

Payson City is in the process of hiring a new City Manager. Presently the number of candidates has been pared to about a dozen. I hope that this new manager will see that the human resources of the city are every bit as much a part of the infrastructure as the water lines
under our streets. As a commissioner I would pledge my support to the maintenance and upgrade of the human aspect of Payson’s infrastructure.

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