Dear Editor:
I am outraged by the conduct of the Moab City Council whom are not representing the residents. Over the years, many people have participated in the Master Plan development and it was agreed to have transitional buffer zones between neighborhoods and commercial zones. This council is single-handedly throwing out years of community input. Requesting zone changes on a property are required to have public hearings, clearly posted notices at the property address, and are required to be listed on the agenda. I have never lived in a town that made up new zones over existing zones; I believe this is illegal. I carefully researched zoning before buying a property. I did not want to be in a commercial zone, nor have apartments spring up behind me. You are violating our property rights. Maybe it is time to file a class action lawsuit and sue this out-of-line council/City of Moab. Any lawyers want to take it on?
You all have a lot of audacity to give yourselves a nearly 200% “raise.” Plus an inflated benefit package that most here can’t afford. Maybe you should shop at the Health Insurance Marketplace, or get in with Utah Government Trust.
Adding further insult, you want to create a city property tax to pay for all your wages, waste money on study after study while destroying the value of our properties and the peace in our neighborhoods. Maybe we should put these issues (bypass, and the five options for new zoning and growth) on a ballot, then we’ll really see what the majority think. As for the Aug. 4 deadline, all you need to do is narrow the options (we know option one and five are meaningless) re-word the moratorium and re-submit. Then put it on the ballot since you aren’t representing us.
Furthermore, I’m sick of reading about the mysterious survey that got “unanimous” support for a bypass. How ludicrous that millions are spent promoting people to come to Moab, yet you think they will use a bypass to go around Moab? Let’s just destroy our wetlands and Mountain View neighborhoods too. Then I can listen to the rumblings and noise from all sides. Brilliant idea to route more traffic onto the Potash Road with all the climbers, base jumpers, bikers, campers and that dangerous intersection. One doesn’t need to be a traffic engineer to figure out how that will go. Your road widening is going to put at least two locally-owned businesses out of business. I’m sure you won’t pay them fair market value as you ruin their livelihoods. But you could. You obviously have plenty of money for ugly murals at the park; fancy paint jobs on all the city vehicles that look more like tour company vehicles than law enforcement. And let’s not forget the wasteful pay-off to Davidson; every lawsuit she filed was thrown out, yet you gave her money.
I’d like to see a voluntary survey from the motel owners themselves regarding occupancy, not some made-up projection by Landmark Design. How many people have they turned away? And let’s not forget there still are five or more big motels coming in.
You are supposed to represent us, not the tourists. Lastly, when did you sneak through the change in rental length (from six-month minimal to one month?) All you Realtors out there misrepresenting zoning to your buyers, greedily awaiting the illegal Planned Affordable Development (PAD), and the ones pretending they have leases in place (that just happened to cancel out after a week), you should be ashamed of yourselves!
