Amending the Agreement of the Amendment of the Agreement

We appeared at the City Council's work meeting on May and requested that they approve an amendment to the Development Agreement. It currently states that both twin homes must be owner occupied for 15 years from the time the CCRs are approved. Since both Joan and we plan to "owner occupy", it's okay but we hear that financing may be difficult since banks don't want to loan on those terms. So we asked that this stipulation be removed from the agreement.
The City Council did not approve.
However, one member suggested that we come up with a compromise, perhaps a shorter time period of owner occupancy or applying it to one unit instead of two. They would hear us in the next regular Council meeting.

We researched other restrictions for owner occupancy in Provo and found that, while 15 year restrictions like ours were common years ago, since the mortgage meltdown in 2008, development agreements usually only had 1 or 2 year requirements. Some three year restrictions were placed if special financing were involved. Steve suggested we request that only one unit have owner occupancy restrictions and that only for 3 years.

We wrote it up and I prepared a 3 1/2 page presentation about all the reasons they should approve this request. Joan and Steve and I arrived at the Council Chambers on June 7th, on time for the 5:30 City Council meeting, and found that we were # 14 on the agenda.

Most items didn't take a long time but some did, and it was well after 9 PM when the Assistant Community Development Director Bill Peperone whispered to me, "It's getting late; the Council members are tired. Make a short statement simply asking for their approval. I think they'll give it." We had been working with Bill on questions about subdividing, etc. and he was right. A couple of the Council members had a few questions but voted to approve the request unanimously.

We have a couple of changes to make in the plans but then we'll be ready to send them in for the building permit. Joan and I are going to a brickyard tomorrow to choose brick and decide about stucco and trim colors.