Next Door Post May 25, 2023:
The Mayor held the 4th "Talk About" last night at the Rocky Vista Medical School Auditorium. This one was to discuss how much and what kind of commercial development do we want in Ivins. Once again, this turned out to be more of a "Talk At" than a "Talk About."
The Mayor had a panel of 5 on the stage including our representative Neil Walter, Tim Anderson (resident and Attorney representing landowner of land adjacent to Vista School), Greg Turner (the architect for Canyon Crossing), Larry Page (former Kaysville resident) and City Council representative Adel Murphy.
The audience was once again sparse...and the Mayor wondered why? Really? Like others before it, this Talk About did contain some really good information, but it was overshadowed by the feeling of being lectured to as if we were stupid and at times sounded like a sales pitch for creating a downtown Ivins.
Good comments included supporting Black Desert, Red Mountain and Sentierre as strong commercial businesses the city has already invested in. Many see Black Desert as the Ivins Downtown potentially.
I made the comment that I would like to see the empty three storefronts at Canyon Crossing before we commit to more.
There was a good recommendation that we explore a Senior Living Community in Ivins (think Ovations). Maybe we could create a park or coffee shop around that?
One resident commented after the meeting - what about Red Mountain Blvd - support and develop around Red Mountain Market and the Lightfoot area, supporting the business we already have?
Good takeaways for me were: -We are far away from the freeway and that will affect some businesses that want to come here. -The business will need to achieve $1Million dollars in revenue to stay in business. -Retail, to be successful, requires approximately 20,000 cars per day traveling by. (Think Sunset Blvd) Future Talk Abouts are set for the fall - one on Well Being, one on Public Safety and one on the Dry Wash Reservoir.
I will do my part in convincing the Mayor to not have them be lectures, but we need to show up to keep these conversations going!!!
Why show up when the planning and zoning commissions and the City Council just do what they want even when there are many who show up to protest a development. We watched this in person in the past 6 months with a development in Santa Clara which we are next door to. Those folks could have cared less what the residents wanted, and we saw no support from our Ivins City Council -- at least that we could see -- other than Mike Scott -- the only Ivins City Council member to respond to our e-mails about it -- to support the residents in Ivins that will be affected by the development across from Desert Rose.