Farmington planners consider The Grove subdivision, new vet clinic

FARMINGTON -- Farmington Planning Commission on Feb. 27 voted to recommend rezoning all the land set aside for the subdivision The Grove at Engels Mill from an R-1 zone to a planned unit development (PUD) zoning designation.

The commission's recommendation will be forwarded to Farmington City Council for its March 13 meeting.

In all, owner Riverwood Homes LLC is asking to rezone 116 acres for the six phases of the development. The Grove is located between Folsom Elementary School and the high school and north of Twin Falls subdivision.

The commission in April 2021, approved a PUD zone for the first two phases of the project, which are already completed with about 128 homes. Phase 3 with 83 lots is under construction.

Melissa McCarville, city business manager, explained to commission members that the original PUD document for phases 1 and 2 had some errors in the property description and this did not match what was on the plat. She took some of the blame for the errors, noting The Grove was Farmington's first PUD and staff was still learning about the process.

In addition, McCarville said, the city council did not rezone the land for Phase 3 from R-1 to a PUD, as required.

The new PUD zone before the commission had the corrected property descriptions and included Phase 3 information, as well as phases 4-6. When The Grove is built out in an estimated four- to six-year time frame, it will have a total of 410 houses.

Ali Karr with Crafton Tull engineering firm represented Riverwood Homes at the commission meeting. Karr, the next day, said Crafton Tull became the engineer for the development in January and will be responsible for phases 4-6. Bates & Associates was the engineering firm for the first three phases.

Karr told commissioners the new PUD does not make any changes to phases 1-3, other than correcting the overall description for what was originally rezoned and what was platted.

For the future phases, the only changes proposed in the PUD are to reduce the lot depth from 120 feet to 115 feet, she said. Other setbacks remain the same as those for the first three phases.

Karr said Crafton Tull is looking at revising the detention pond built as part of Phase 3 because it is oversized for the property. The new pond will meet all regulations required by the city of Farmington, Karr said. These changes will be part of the preliminary plat to come before the planning commission and will have to be approved by city engineer Chris Brackett.

In answering questions from the public and commission members, Karr said the lots adjacent to Twin Falls in phase 6 will be larger lots in the development. The subdivision has smaller, medium and larger lots that are called Cottage lots, Manor lots and Estate lots.

She assured commission member Judy Horne that the cemetery within the development will be fenced in with a wrought iron fence, as promised in the original PUD document. This has not been done yet and Horne said she wanted to make sure the new PUD included a wrought iron fence.

Karr said the developer also will install a sidewalk from the subdivision property to the city boundary of the sports complex on Southwinds Road to help provide a connection for residents to get to the walking track and ball fields.

In other action, the commission approved the large scale development plan for a new veterinarian clinic at 30 W. Main St., at the request of Farmington Clinic Properties, LLC. The commission added one new requirement to the plan, a new 5-foot sidewalk along the property frontage on Highway 62.

Brandon Rush with Engineering Services said the new vet clinic will have 4,300 square feet and will be built behind Farmington Veterinary Clinic on Main Street. When the new building is finished, then the present clinic will be demolished and that space used as a parking lot.

The owner is asking for several variances but these were not publicized as required and will have to be considered at the commission's March 27 meeting. The owner is asking for a variance from street improvements along White Street and also a variance from having to provide a connection to Redi-Lube.

Rush said customers will not be able to access the new clinic from White Street. He said the connectivity waiver is being requested because there is a 4-foot difference in grade between the veterinary property and the Redi-Lube property.

At the meeting, Brackett said city staff would recommend the commission approve the variance requests at its next meeting.