Planning commission approves Mountain Bay subdivision improvement plan, conditions preliminary OK on water and access

The Willard Planning Commission approved the subdivision improvement plan for Mountain Bay Subdivision, located at approximately 8200 South Highway 89, and conditionally recommended approval of the preliminary subdivision plan after staff reported outstanding technical work on sewer, emergency access and culinary water.

Staff said the developers have included dry sewer mains in the plans and that homes would use septic tanks until a gravity sewer line is constructed, a schedule that depends in part on Army Corps wetland approvals. “They’ve put these dry sewer lines in their plans,” the staff member said, describing the interim septic approach.

Commissioners pressed applicants and staff about emergency access and fire safety. The chair warned that the site’s single public access raised safety concerns, saying he had been on site and saw “the one access for, like, a zillion houses” and that losing that route would be unacceptable. Staff responded that UDOT had granted a temporary secondary emergency access limited to emergency vehicles and that the city attorney had advised the fire‑code threshold is applied to the subdivision itself (24 lots), not to existing adjacent developments.

Water service was a central condition for final approval. Staff said culinary water will be supplied under a wholesale agreement with Fair River Water Conservancy District and that a bill‑of‑sale contract must go to the city council and be signed by the mayor before staff can issue final approval. Presenters and the district’s engineer discussed master‑meter sizing and head loss; an exhibit in the staff report showed an end pressure near 65 psi, above the 20‑psi fire‑code threshold, and the engineer said the system can provide roughly 1,500 gallons per minute in analysis submitted to staff.

Commissioner Sid moved to approve the subdivision improvement plan and later moved to approve the preliminary subdivision plan with the condition that the bill of sale and the water contract be finalized; both motions carried on voice votes. The commission directed staff to secure Bear River Water District’s technical sign‑off on master‑meter details and to forward the required water contract to city council for execution.

Next steps: staff will follow up on Bear River’s review, finalize master‑meter details, and present the bill‑of‑sale contract to city council; final subdivision approval by staff is contingent on those items being resolved.