Claims have been made that I support high density housing, which factually is not true. You can ask the residents near 4000 West where every year I've worked to stop townhomes from being built. Or ask the residents on 3450 West whom I worked with to protect the zoning of their neighborhood. You can also talk to residents off of 3600 west and 11800 South where the zoning was high density commercial. Working together we approved a development for senior housing rather than townhomes, like those across the street in South Jordan.
I always have and always will work for proper planning and the protection of property rights of existing residents and their home values.
There have been many meetings where we have denied high density zoning changes. There have also been meetings where zoning changes were approved. In those meetings you can see that the city council followed the recommendation of the planning commission and usually the vote was unanimous in support of those changes. A majority of these changes were taking large pieces of raw ground and converting them mainly into ⅓ and ¼ acre residential lots which matched the surrounding zoning.
An exception would be those projects associated with senior housing. I pushed to help establish for the first time, a zoning code for senior housing. I believe senior housing is a great benefit to our community. It allows a place for older residents to downsize and stay in Riverton. Parents can move to be closer to their families to give and receive support. Senior housing has no negative impact on our local schools, minimal impact on city services, and seniors are a great addition to our community.
The claim that I approved high density on February 7th 2023 is factually not true. The townhome development on 12600 South was approved by the previous city council in 2017. I personally met with the previous mayor in 2017 and voiced my strong opposition to the development. As part of that approval in 2017 there was a small section of townhomes for senior housing. The city had no senior housing code at the time and the idea that seniors would buy a three story building as a retirement home was flawed in my opinion. I was not part of that decision.
We now have a good senior housing code in place and several wonderful projects that consider the needs of seniors. With that in mind the majority of the council voted in February to fix a problem from the past and to help existing residents take control of their HOA to better manage their neighborhood.
You can review the minutes of the meetings for yourself and you will see that I am not a supporter of high density housing, and am a strong defender of existing residential property rights.
If you have further questions, feel free to reach out to me directly at 801-931-9933