Logan’s Adams neighborhood
LOGAN — On KVNU’s monthly ‘Speak to the Mayor’ program on Wednesday, Logan mayor Holly Daines said everyone is ready for events to place normally again. But we’ll have to wait and see just when we will return to full normal.
“We’re moving in that direction, I mean we are going to open the city pool this year. Again we don’t quite know what that looks like yet, it might have to be a reduced capacity. Maybe you have one group come in the morning and you say ‘okay you have to leave now’ and they do a clean wipe down and then another group comes in. So we’re exploring the possibilities, but again last year the silver lining there was we were able to do some capital improvements, some upgrades to the pool, because this year actually will be the pool’s 20th anniversary,” she said.
Mayor Daines expressed concern that recent proposed legislation puts forth statewide mandates that diminish local control by cities and towns in the state.
“One of the bills we’re most concerned about is House Bill 82, which is a bill that in its first iteration would have said every single family zone in the entire state, no matter where you are has to allow A.D.U’s. Now what that is – is Accessory Dwelling Unit. So it basically means you could put a…some people call a mother-in-law apartment or you could create another unit in your home.”
Daines said the reasoning behind the bill is noble because of the severe affordable housing shortage. But she said Logan city already tried something like this about 13 years ago to address a shortage then.
But she said the Adams neighborhood council has been fighting the ramifications of this for the last 13 years with too many people in apartments and too many cars.
The mayor said Logan has done a lot as of late to address the shortage, by creating higher density housing downtown, and also in the campus residential zone, which is a very high density zone around the university.
She said legislation may be well intentioned but the long term fallout can hurt cities and towns like Logan.
AUDIO: Mayor Holly Daines on KVNU’s Speak to the Mayor with Jason Williams