A. Purpose: The purposes of the provisions of this chapter are: 1) to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the residents while protecting and preserving significant scenic resources for the long term benefit of LaVerkin City as a whole; and 2) to further the goals and policies of the general plan in relation to land use, densities, open space and community image.
B. Intent: The standards set forth herein are intended to achieve the following objectives:
1. Minimize adverse soil and slope instability; decrease the potential for erosion; and prohibit activities and uses that would result in the degradation of fragile soils and steep slopes.
2. Protect and preserve the visual resources which are of significant value to the community. Such resources include, but are not limited to, major hillsides, hilltops, ridges and ridgelines, knolls, mesas, cuestas and escarpments, boulder outcroppings and large boulders, canyons and natural drainage areas, and other areas of historical or visual significance. Retain the integrity of significant on site and off site views to or from these resources.
3. Minimize the adverse effects of grading and cut and fill operations; avoid highly visible scarring of hillsides; and protect natural vegetation, sensitive hydrologic features, and visually prominent landforms.
4. Discourage mass grading and terracing of large pads but permit flexibility for reasonable development practices as appropriate.
5. Establish a hillside development process that requires applicants to select suitable development sites on their property through the use of slope calculations, maximum land holding capacity, or development agreements to determine the appropriate density, intensity, design and location of structures and improvements.
6. Provide hillside development standards that maximize the positive impacts of site sensitive design, grading, landscape architecture, and building architecture, that will protect the inherent scenic value in the proposed projects subject to this chapter.
7. Permit the flexibility to modify or remove relatively small topographic features which have slopes distinctly different from surrounding property in order to facilitate reasonably efficient development in a particular area. The exclusion of such features or areas shall not be contrary to the overall purpose of this chapter.
8. Encourage the appropriate location, design and development of proposed projects which provide enhanced human enjoyment, while protecting people and property from hazardous conditions, including rockfalls, rolling boulders, unstable slopes, landslides, mudslides, flooding, and erosion.
9. Minimize the impacts of development to the surrounding natural environment by controlling the location, intensity, pattern, design, construction techniques, and materials of development. (Ord. 2013-03, 4-3-2013)