Document Page 1 of 2 Tribune Archive 1997 LEGISLATURE KILLS TOWNSHIPS; ... 03/06/97 Salt Lake Tribune Types: Utah Published: 03/06/97 Page: C1 Keywords: UT Legislature, Communities Legislature Kills Townships; Replaces Them With Less-Powerful Planning Districts; Townships Voted Out by Legislature Byline: BY LINDA FANTIN THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Last year, legislators gave residents townships. Wednesday they took them away. With the Senate's endorsement Wednesday of House Bill 363, 15 townships are history as of May 5, replaced by planning districts. The loose-knit communities will be able to guide development, but they no longer can lock their boundaries. The bill sponsored by House Speaker Mel Brown, R-Union, also invalidates any proposals to form new cities that don't meet tougher petition standards. The House passed the bill last week and it now awaits the governor's signature. Few doubted the bill would pass. Brown and Senate President Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful, were adamant that Republican lawmakers get rid of the parochial paper governments. But in the end, it was a rift among Democrats that doomed townships. Sen. Joseph Hull, D-Hooper, wanted to give the state's townships an additional year to work before casting them aside. He compared townships to premature babies, which lawmakers are now trying to "euthanize." Hull recruited support from most Democrats and six Republicans -- in spite of the partisan pull of Beattie and Brown. But two Democrats dissented, securing a 16-to-13 Senate defeat of Hull's substitute bill. West Valley's Ed Mayne and Murray's Blaze Wharton insisted their Senate votes were not anti-township. Wharton called himself "a Township kinda guy," and Mayne declared his support for townships before voting to kill them. Mayne said Hull didn't go far enough. He should have protected potential townships as well as existing ones. Mayne called Hull's bill, and a proposal to freeze new townships, "selfish amendments." Although Hull stayed the execution of established townships, he did nothing to stop cities from snatching unincorporated lands that failed the township test last fall. Many of those communities are trying again, and were counting on the Legislature to fix the old law. Eight of the 10 townships in Salt Lake County failed because confusing language in the law required approval from a majority of residents living in the area. All other elections are determined by a majority of those who vote. Mayne said Hull's proposal would make "big ol' chocolate sundaes" out of Holladay, Magna and Kearns and other areas that want to form townships but could not meet the so-called supermajority standard, to be gobbled up by neighboring cities. At least Brown's successful bill would give residents some say through the creation of planning-district boards. Brown's bill also eliminates the ability of cities to automatically annex valuable developments within a half-mile of city borders. And cities can no longer take more than their share of a county's commercial 68