CEDAR CITY – The Planning Commission invited public comment in a hearing on the city’s General Plan update during its June 11 meeting.

Community Development Director Brian Maxfield said the city had participated in several meetings with the commission earlier in the year in which the update was discussed in more intensive detail.

“Through that process we’ve taken additional public input,” Maxfield said.

Reed Erickson addressed the commission saying he appreciates the work being done to look into the plan. He said he lives on 300 West and thinks the right thing to do for his area, which is near Southern Utah University, is to focus on being a low-density single-family residential area while the plan called for a medium-density single-family area.

Erickson said the university approached the city a number of years ago, asking them to allow a little higher density in that area.

“Now with what the university has done with its own housing, and with all the other apartments and rental housing available in the community, it’s really time to turn that neighborhood, or at least make provisions for that neighborhood to be turned back to a single-family residential neighborhood,” he said.

He also said the nature of his area has changed in the last 20 years from a family neighborhood to one in which it is difficult for families to establish themselves; and he knows of three families in his immediate neighborhood that are trying to sell their homes to move into a single-family area.

Erickson said the neighborhood has changed dramatically with parking issues and apartments erected behind homes, but he is aware of the difficulty in changing back to a single-family residential neighborhood.

“It’s time to maintain the character of that neighborhood and have pride in ownership in the housing in that area that’s really lacking right now,” he said.

There was no other public comment.

Maxfield said, in a telephone interview, he has heard comments similar to Erickson’s from other neighbors in that area. The city could implement some zoning in that area that would calm down rental possibilities, making room for more single-family dwellings, he said.

After one more opportunity for public comment, the commission planned to make recommendations to the city council regarding the plan update at its meeting Tuesday.

Maxfield said after the commission has made its recommendations, it is up to the council to make arrangements for its own public hearing process and other considerations prior to the final adoption of the plan update.