View the meeting (click to open)
Current Events
- If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss current/future topics related to the city, reach out to me to set up a time to visit. (email, phone call, or in person)
- As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park, you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
- Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Work Session (Long Term Plan Discussion)
The city of Dayton has a long-term plan that’s used to keep track of future capital needs and a rough idea of what can be expected for costs each year. We go through it once a year and try to weed out what’s really needed but it can become a game. It’s a 10-year plan, though we generally focus on the next 2 years. This wasn’t too eventful other than there were a few things in next year that didn’t seem to make sense. The result of this discussion can end up a significant input to the ongoing budget process.
Item E (TelCom Concept Plan)
This plan involves a property on the intersection of West French Lake Road and 121st Ave. It’s a 26,000 sq. Ft building on 8.5 acres with some outside storage. As always, our planning commission had already commented on this and about the only concern was the city’s restriction on the use of gravel in a parking lot. This company uses vehicles with tracks that would easily damage pavement, so they typically use gravel in those areas. This will likely drive a change to that ordinance to allow some amount of gravel use.
Item F (Planning Commission Appointment)
The Planning Commission opening resulted in 6 residents applying. 2 of the applicants bubbled up to the top and the decision was to appoint Keith Grover.
Item G (Building Variance)
Back in Sept 2024 a barn burned down on an Ag lot on East French Lake Road. The barn was in violation of a height ordinance the city has and due to that was subject to a 180 day limit to replace it. I wasn’t aware of that 180 day limit nor was the owner. On top of that the ordinance hadn’t been updated when we updated the residential rules for accessory buildings and should have been. The result was the council granted a variance 5-0 to rebuild the building and instructed staff to update the Ag ordinance.
Item H (Scannell Preliminary Plat)
This development first was approved a few years back but at that time the developer determined the market wasn’t ready. They decided to resurrect the project with some changes to the design. There wasn’t much concern, and the plat was approved 5-0.
Item I (Scannell TIF)
TIF (Tax Increment Financing) is a way for cities to push a development that won’t go forward without some financial assistance. When approved, ALL of the property taxes (city, county, and school) are used to help that development happen either using that money for infrastructure (such as roads) in the immediate area or directly handing that money to the developer. As I’ve stated many times, I’m not a fan of the latter.
A TIF for granting the money to the developer was approved when this development was approved a few years back, but the circumstances were different and this time it was the opinion of the entire council not to approve TIF this time.
Item J (125th / East French Lake Road Mill and Overlay)
This was to approve developing plans and specs to mill and overlay 125th and East French Lake Road from Territorial up and east to Fernbrook. It will also include the Stonehearth Ridge neighborhood. It was approved 5-0.
Item K (Budget Discussion)
Rather than a discussion, this ended up just being a request from staff to have each council member let staff know what budget goal they want to see staff work towards. From what I can tell most members are going to limit it to not raising the tax rate. I get the feeling there’s frustration on the council that staff doesn’t seem to want to limit what they are asking for, especially given they know our capacity was 8% yet they requested 19%.
As always feel free to contact me with your opinions or questions.