Palmer Council recognizes May as Bike Month; zoning a hot issue

PALMER — The Palmer City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday at City Hall to discuss zoning regulations, bike month, and Who Let The Girls Out?

The Council issued a number of proclamations honoring retirees, perfect attendance, and declared May to be Bike Month. City Councilman Pete LaFrance was particularly excited for the proclamation. LaFrance rides his bike to and from each and every city council meeting, even in the bitter cold of winter. LaFrance says he started riding his bike to meetings as a way to keep fit, but it has become a part of his work on the Council, including a bike survey last year.

“As I was biking more and more and understanding Palmer as a bike city, other issues came to the forefront which prompted me to do the cycle study this fall and make the recommendations I have to the council. So what turned out as just a fitness thing opened my eyes up to a different side of the community and allowed me to be a better council person,” LaFrance said.

The hotly discussed item on the night’s agenda was an ordinance adopting a new chapter to the Planned Unit Development regulations to create rezoning for more dense housing projects. Three Mountain Rose Estates residents testified on the topic. Though those testifying had varying points, Alan Lind compared the new code to the Bible.

“People with good motives can argue either side of the question fairly competently,” said Lind.

Council member Brad Hanson offered an amendment to the ordinance, which specified the density of the multi-use zones. Board members were hesitant to vote on the ordinance one way or the other, citing a memorandum from the Planning and Zoning Commission that recommended no change to the code.

“Be creative! We’re looking for someone to come in and be creative with different ideas on living units,” said City Manager Nathan Wallace. “There is more clarification on how the old was very restrictive and this is less restrictive. We took out the density piece because each property is different.”

After lengthy discussion, the council voted to postpone its decision, allowing City Attorney Michael Gatti to offer a more in-depth report and give the public another opportunity to review the ordinance and offer their comments.

“We want more information,” Wallace said of the council’s decision to postpone.

The Council also discussed a community grant to the Downtown Merchants Association for the “Who Let The Girls Out?” event, which celebrated its seventh year this weekend in downtown Palmer. Before passing the grant in its entirety, there were issues with the circumstances of the grant. The City of Palmer is not mentioned in Who Let The Girls Out radio advertisements despite supporting the event each year, and heard no report from the Downtown Merchants following the 2016 event. The board discussed limiting the funding given to the downtown merchants to a flat fee, instead of issuing a grant for each event.

Late in the meeting, the Council heard testimony from the Engine 557 Restoration Co. regarding its resolution in hopes to use the rail within Palmer in the future to run tours between the airport and the train depot.

The council will have its next regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, May 9, at City Hall at 7 p.m.