Riverton City Council Work Session and Council Meeting - February 18, 2025
Riverton City Council Work Session and Council Meeting - February 18, 2025
The Riverton City Council held a hybrid work session and regular council meeting on February 18, 2025, at 12830 South Redwood Road. The work session (6:00 PM) covered short-term rentals, noise ordinance enforcement, the 4200 West Pond expansion, and business license code updates. The council meeting (7:00 PM) included a public hearing on budget amendments, recognition of Silver Crest Elementary, and discussions on water rate tiers and truck routes. The council approved a budget amendment and provided direction on several policy items.
Consent Calendar
- Minute Approval: Approved minutes from the February 4, 2025 council meeting unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke during the citizen comment period. No electronic comments were received.
Presentations/Recognitions
- Riverton City Choice Awards for Excellence in Education: Councilmember Pierucci presented awards to Silver Crest Elementary students Leah Hansen and Chuck Cameron (absent), and teacher Lindsay Shackelford. The students and teacher were recognized for academic excellence, kindness, and positive contributions to the school community.
Discussion Items
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Short-Term Rental Discussion (Work Session 5a): City Manager Kevin Hicks and City Attorney Ryan Carter discussed Murray City’s “hosted sharing” model (requiring owner cohabitation during rentals) versus Riverton’s current ordinance (owner must live on property 185 days/year, rentals limited to 150 nights/year). Councilmembers McDougall, Heyman, and Broker expressed satisfaction with the current balance, noting enforcement challenges with absentee owners. No changes were recommended; the council agreed to keep the existing ordinance.
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City Noise Ordinance & Common Code Enforcement Issues (Work Session 5b): Chief Shane Taylor provided statistics on common violations: 46 dirt bike violations in 2023, 52 in 2024; 12 golf cart violations in 2023, 10 in 2024; 17 ATV responses in 2023, 11 in 2024. Ryan Carter discussed the 800-foot prohibition on motor vehicle operation near dwellings, noting it is a useful enforcement tool but may need fine-tuning for exceptions like loading vehicles. Councilmember Perucci asked about Harriman’s code; Carter noted Riverton’s code likely achieves similar results. The council agreed to consider minor adjustments but no major changes.
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4200 West Pond (Work Session 5c & Council Item 16a): Public Works Director Cary Necaise presented three options for expanding the pond: Option 1 (add 21 acre-feet storage, minimal landscaping, ~$1.1M), Option 2A (add 11 acre-feet with walking trail and landscaping, ~$1.3M), Option 2B (add fishing, ~$1.4M). Councilmembers debated trade-offs between water storage capacity and recreational amenities. Councilmember Broker emphasized the primary goal of water storage and opposed losing 50% capacity. Councilmember McKay suggested a hybrid with storage and limited amenities. Several members expressed concerns about maintenance costs and impacts on adjacent homes. Consensus was to explore Option 1 with possible minor landscaping, and to seek TRCC funding for amenities. Staff will present refined options at a future meeting.
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Business License Code Updates (Work Session 5d & Council Item 16b): Ryan Carter presented proposed updates to modernize the code, including requiring EIN/tax ID numbers, eliminating outdated provisions, and simplifying fee references. The updates are based on recommendations from former staff. Councilmember Perucci suggested using technology to streamline processes. The council was supportive; the changes will proceed to the planning commission.
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Water Rate Tiers (Council Item 16c): Administrative Services Director Nick Geer presented four options for adjusting culinary water rates, prompted by rising costs (Jordan Valley Water block two rates doubled to $1,100/acre-foot) and record usage (6,200 acre-feet in 2024, up from 5,000). Options ranged from slight increases on high-usage tiers (Option 2) to base rate increases plus tier adjustments (Options 3 & 4). An estimated 500 of 11,000 connections use over 15,000 gallons/month. Councilmembers debated the need to incentivize conservation and cover costs. Councilmember McDougall favored Option 2 (higher tiers, no base increase) to avoid penalizing average users. Councilmember Heyman and Perucci preferred Option 3 (small base increase + flat tiers) as a stopgap until a rate study is completed. No final decision was made; staff will bring back a proposal with financial data for the next meeting.
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Truck Routes Discussion (Council Item 16d): City Manager Kevin Hicks led a discussion on removing 13800 South from the city’s designated truck route network. Staff noted that Bluffdale does not list it as a truck route, and Harriman likely does not. Councilmember McDougall supported immediate removal due to residential character and lack of connectivity. Councilmember Perucci urged waiting until after the Bangater Highway construction ends (late 2025) to avoid congestion. Councilmember Heyman supported removal now. The council agreed to proceed with changing the ordinance to remove 13800 South as a truck route, and to review other routes as part of the upcoming transportation master plan update.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 25-09 (Budget Amendment): Approved unanimously by roll call vote (McCay, Broker, Heyman, McDougall, Pierucci all yes). The amendment adjusts expense funding sources for secondary water and Billy Bocchi Ball, shifting funds from general CIP to park impact fees.
- Short-Term Rentals: No changes to current ordinance; enforcement and education will continue.
- Noise Ordinance: Staff will fine-tune the 800-foot rule but maintain its structure; no code changes required.
- 4200 West Pond: Staff will develop a refined option that maximizes water storage (Option 1) with limited amenities, and seek TRCC funding for potential enhancements.
- Business License Code: Updates will be forwarded to the planning commission for review.
- Water Rates: Staff will present a specific rate adjustment proposal (likely Option 2 or 3) at the March 4, 2025 council meeting, along with an enterprise fund financial overview.
- Truck Routes: Staff will prepare an ordinance to remove 13800 South from the truck route map and present it for council action at a future meeting.
- Future Meetings: Next council meeting scheduled for March 4, 2025, 6:00 PM work session and 7:00 PM council meeting.
Meeting Transcript
All right, Council, I know we have a lot to discuss. We'll go ahead and call our work session meeting to order. Every elected official present and our first item of business 5A short-term rental discussion. Kevin or Ryan leading this. Well, mostly it's mostly going to be Ryan. The main reason for my name there is just kind of really to kick off this evening, as you notice, we've got a lot of different work session type items. We've got a bunch in the work session. We then scheduled a few of them duplicate into the meeting as well as a few more, because we're just getting to the point where we need to have some good dialogue and then get some guidance from the elected officials on how you want us to proceed with a few of these things. So short-term rent rental is the first one geared up for a conversation. Uh recently, uh Murray City did some interesting items with short-term rentals. Uh just asked Ryan to kind of help you guys understand a little bit of what they did, and then just find out if this is something that the council would like to entertain doing something similar or maybe something unique only to Riverton, whatever it is that you would like us to do. Yeah, let me interject for a moment. I guess council, my my thought here, I think I sent out an email to everybody on what Murray did. Um and if you want to compare it to what our current ordinance is and process, I I know on my end I've received some complaints with respect to short-term rentals. You may have as well within your respective districts. So if you haven't and you don't think this is something we need to really change or tinker with, then that's fine. But I thought we'd at least have the discussion. Mayor, what I did is I just captured the language that was operative in the short-term rental uh city code of Murray City, which really sets it apart from all of the other uh short-term residential short-term rental ordinances that are found in cities in Solid County and state probably. And what they do is they basically define the term hosted sharing, meaning that you know, renting for a period of less than 30 days where the primary residence is the is with the host while the host lives on the site in the dwelling unit throughout the visitor's stay. So they make it clear from three different angles that while you are renting out your property on a short-term basis, you have to be there as well, cohabitating. Now, um, I don't, you know, I it's I think that it's hard to say in terms of data, what effect this has on the industry. This ordinance was adopted in January of 2025. Riverton City, and the other thing that's interesting about Murray's code is that it does not have a limit on the number of days per year you can have these things rented out on a short-term residential basis. I mean, any one tenant can't stay there for longer than 30 days, but you could do back-to-back rentals year-round in Murray as long as there is somebody living there for what that's worth. Riverton has a fixed number of days that you can rent per year, but you're not required to be co-op cohabitating with the tenant on the property while the tenant is there. And so the question is whether we like the idea that Murray is hatched here, and if so, then we would be looking at a way to graft this uh uh language into the city's code, and we would come back after we write it through the planning commission. What is the limitation we impose? Number of days. Do you remember? Well, all no tenant can stay there for longer than 30 days. That's by definition a short-term residential site. But they can but they can rent year-round. They can. Under Murray's model, yes. Under Murray's mark. What is ours? What's that? What is ours, really? It's like 120, it's uh somewhere between I think it's about 120 days a year. It's it's less than half of a year. I think it's I'd have to look at that, but there's just a fixed number of days, and that was carefully considered by the council when they went ahead and decided what to do with the code. I don't know that it really those two issues. I don't know that they need to go together. Right. We could still maintain the same number of days per year limitation in the city's code, and in addition to that, require cohabitation. So right now we don't require the cohabitation, but we do they have to get a business license, right? They have to have to register. They have to post a contact number that could be accessible 247. Right, and they have to get a conditional use permit with the planning commission. The planning commission takes a look at their business model, takes a look at their off-street parking, verifies that it's a viable business location given the way the property is built out, right?
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