City council approves ECDC request; school district clarifies confusion around LDS-owned Morse Lee lot

Kayne Pyatt, Herald Reporter
Posted 7/27/21

Evanston City Council coverage

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City council approves ECDC request; school district clarifies confusion around LDS-owned Morse Lee lot

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EVANSTON — A special meeting of the Evanston City Council was called on July 13, prior to the scheduled work session. The Evanston Child Development Center (ECDC) had asked for the special meeting to request that the city authorize an agreement for a lease addendum. The lease addendum would allow ECDC to use the land on which the center sits, which is owned by the city, as mortgage collateral to obtain a loan from USDA in order to build their new facility.

City attorney Dennis Boal explained the request.

“The lease with ECDC and the city is a long-term lease and, in order for ECDC to obtain financing for improvements, the USDA requires an agreement with the city to use the land for collateral. The addendum needed to be approved before July 15, so we called a special meeting.”

Boal added that the terms of the loan would require ECDC to pay $500 per month for the first 10 years and then $1,000 month for the next 20 years. The loan agreement does not make the city liable for the loan and, if ECDC were to default on the loan, the city would only be obligated to rent it out to a similar operation.

ECDC Executive Director Kendra West addressed the council.

“We were advised by Head Start to go this route and the USDA money is available now,” West said. “This will be a $2.5 million investment in the building and in order to get the $2 million loan, the USDA requires this addendum, so they have a way for accountability, since we do not own the land. This loan will get us to Phase 1. We are looking into other grants, as well, as we hope to own the land eventually.”

Evanston Youth Club board member Dave Huggins asked to speak and told the council the club doesn’t want to lose the use of its space, as they need it to provide for the number of youths coming to the club. He said they had received an appraisal of $380,000 on their space at the ECDC area and he didn’t want the club to lose ground on expansion. He was concerned that they already had lost a lot of green space and parking area.

“In 2017, we set up a dispute resolution process for the two groups so they could resolve any issues that came up, such as the green area and parking space, and they need to use that process,” Boal said.

Boal added that he had discussed the matter with Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson-Kallas and they had agreed that any issues between the two entities could be resolved. Boal reminded the council that all they were considering at this meeting was the addendum to the lease.

Evanston Mayor Kent Williams agreed that the city did not want to do anything that would impact the youth club in a negative way and asked Boal whether it would hurt the club if the council passed the resolution on the lease addendum.

Boal said the incorporated terms of the youth club’s portion of the existing facility would not be attached to the loan application.

Evanston Youth Club President Kevin Kallas spoke next.

“We just want to make sure we can still use our space because we don’t have as much of a presence now. There isn’t any rift between us,” Kallas said. “We are both growing, and it is apparent that we both need more space. I think we can work it out. We are not here to oppose the resolution; we just want to make sure our green space is protected.”

Sen. Wendy Schuler, who is also a Youth Club board member, told the council the club wants to see ECDC expand and that the two boards and staff would come together and be creative on how to share the green space and parking area.

Council member David Welling asked West how much time would be involved in the construction.

West said they hope to break ground in August, and it would take a year to 18 months for completion of Phase 1. She said a building expansion was a necessity, and the money with USDA was available immediately.

Williams told those in attendance that this case is a good example of why city government should not be a landlord.

Resolution 21-54, authorizing the execution of a lease addendum that will make it possible for ECDC to use the long-term lease as security for the loan with the USDA, was unanimously approved by the council.

The special meeting of the council was then closed and they opened the work session which had two items for discussion on the agenda.

Jeff Green, who resides off County Road 173, was first on the agenda. Green was concerned about the lack of water in the Sulphur Creek Reservoir and the drought. He asked the council why they had not placed any mandatory restrictions on the public use of water. 

Evanston Public Works Director Gordon Robinson told Green that the city was working closely with the Uinta County Conservation District on water use. Mayor Williams added that the issue had been thoroughly discussed and they had decided at this point to ask the city, county and school district to cut back on water use by at least 30 to 40%; which they are doing.

“At what point does the water depth have to get before restrictions are placed?” Green asked. “In my mind, we need restrictions now. There is a fine line when you are pursuing economic development with a limited water supply. If a developer comes in, where will they get the water if we don’t put in restrictions immediately?”

Boal told Green that the council was considering forming a task force to discuss how to deal with the water issues and would need volunteers. He also suggested Green make an appointment with Robinson to learn what the public works department is doing to relieve water shortages.

Green offered to be a part of that task force. Mayor Williams and the council thanked Green for his comments and concerns and said they would continue to work with the conservation district on recommendations for water use.

Scheduled next on the agenda was a discussion regarding property adjacent to Clark Elementary School. Uinta County School District No. 1 Director of Technology Jaraun Dennis addressed the council.

“There has been a lot of confusion on the property where the LDS stake center was removed,” Dennis said. “The rumor is that the school district owns it and plans to put a parking lot there and some citizens have called to complain. We do not own the property — it still belongs to the LDS Church,” Dennis said.

Dennis said the church had offered the property to the school district years ago, but the school district declined due to the high cost of demolishing a building containing asbestos. He said the church had also come back six months later and asked if the school district was interested in leasing the property for a parking lot; however, that wasn’t recently. 

“If the church does come back to us with an offer, we are here to ask what the process would be if we decided to acquire it for a parking lot for Clark Elementary,” Dennis said. “We are interested in doing that and have considered a preliminary plan to turn the existing alley into a green space next to the neighboring homes and vacate a portion of Morse Lee, include 13th Street and tie the school and that all together.”

Evanston Senior Planner DuWayne Jacobsen told Dennis that, currently, the area is zoned as residential established and it would take a conditional use permit to rezone it to commercial. He said there are utilities there as well.

Dennis said nothing had been designed or signed yet as the church does not want to sell the property due to the fact they are nonprofit. He thanked the council and said, at this point, they just need information regarding the process involved.

Mayor Williams told Dennis they first need to take their questions to the church officials and then if they decided to pursue a parking lot and zone change, they would need to work with the planning department and begin the process of a public hearing for comments on any zone change.