By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB), on Wednesday, June 30, approved plans for a new church building to replace the LDS Logandale Chapel on Moapa Valley Blvd which burned down in February 2009. LDS Church-contracted architect Dennis Patten of St. George, Utah, presented the plans to the board.
“These represent a new building design for the church,” Patten said. “It is one of five or six new designs currently being considered.”
Patten explained that the new designs were for somewhat larger buildings than have been used in the past, with a wider floor plan and more classroom space. The proposed building would be about 19,000 sq ft in size. It would have a low slope roof with parapet walls that would hide an array of solar panels on the roof.
The new Logandale chapel is planned to be built in the same location on the lot as the old building stood. Parking space and entrances from the main highway would remain largely unchanged, Patten said.
MVTAB member Guy Doty asked about the time frame expected for the building’s construction. “That is strictly up to the county at this point,” Patten responded. “We’ve gone through ten different meetings so far just to submit the documents. Now we are here to submit this to you. After we get through this process, we can finally submit the plans and then we will await the county on approval.”
Patten did state that, once construction is begun, the project would be mandated by contract to be completed in no more than nine months.
During the public comment period, Overton resident Ron Ward expressed concern about additional traffic in the area that the project would bring. He suggested that perhaps a bypass be constructed to allow traffic to get around the site. But Patten stated that the traffic to the site was not expected to be excessive and that it would constitute no more than an occasional delivery of building materials and equipment.
Logandale resident Lorraine Bailey asked whether local contractors would be given the opportunity to bid on the construction project. Patten responded that the general contractor on the Logandale project would be a negotiated settlement. But that the sub-contracts would be opened up for bidding on the job.
MVTAB member Billy Mildice observed that the county staff had made a last minute change to its recommendations to the board. In the original write-up, the county staff had recommended approval of a waiver of development standards being requested. But earlier that same afternoon, the staff had reversed that to a recommendation for denial.
Patten explained that this was regarding the location of new sidewalks, curbing and gutter proposed along the Moapa Valley Blvd in front of the project. The county code requires full off-site improvements on the project. The church is entirely willing to conform to the code and make the full improvements, Patten said. But complications arose in meetings with representatives from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT).
“When we asked about details of where those improvements should go, NDOT wasn’t ready to give us an answer,” Patten said. Patten explained that there was confusion in reconciling the improvements with property boundaries on adjacent parcels. In any case, NDOT couldn’t determine exactly where the improvements should go, Patten said.
Patten had thought that an agreement had been reached with the county and NDOT to grant the waiver for now so that the church project could move forward. “Then when NDOT knows what we need to do, we’ll be happy to put in the improvements later,” Patten said.
“We have met with the county and complied with everything for the past five months,” Patten said. “We thought we had come to a solution. And then this afternoon at 3:00 I got a call from the county staff telling me that they were changing their recommendation on the waiver to denial. I don’t know why the sudden change at the last minute.”
“Couldn’t you submit your own plan for the road improvements to NDOT and then they can tell you if they approve them or not?” asked Mildice.
“The trouble is that they don’t know where they want them,” Patten said. “Of course, we can put the improvements in according to our best guess. We are prepared to do that. Then when NDOT knows what it wants, if we need to, we will move them. But as it is, we can’t move forward without the waiver.”
MVTAB member Guy Doty felt that the full improvements shouldn’t really even be required in this case. “To require full improvements is not warranted here,” Doty said. “This isn’t a new project but a replacement. The improvements that are there right now would still be there if the church hadn’t burned down. To require this is to take a misfortune and add more misfortune to it.”
But MVTAB member Judy Metz said that if the church was willing and ready to make the improvements, the process should go ahead. “We should grant the waiver,” she said. “Then they might come to an agreement with NDOT before going to the County Commission. If not, we can put in a condition that they put in the improvements later when NDOT is ready.”
Doty made the motion to approve all the requests including the waiver of development standards on the off-site improvements with a condition that full off-sites would be built when the time comes. The motion was approved with a unanimous vote.
