02 Feb SHCC Meeting Minutes – February 1994
SUGAR HOUSE COMMUNITY COUNCIL BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES
February 2, 1994
| Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by SHCC Chairman Roger Miller. Present: Roger Miler, Jerry Romero, Alice Edvalson. Jeanette Priehl, Mary Carlson, Paul A. Christie, LaMar V. Certer, Mike Van Wagoner, Joe Clark, Pam Grimes, Judi Short, Steve Lester, Geoff Kaessner, Ruth C. Jensen, Miriam Murphy, Hope A. Hilton, Kennard Eltinge, Lynn Chatwin, Mary Lu E. Judd, Morna H. Winkelman, Berbara Kleiner, Steve Knettles, Kim Knettles, Dale Chalmers, Rawlins Young, Wes Groesbeck, Dorothy Tuddenham, Lynne Olson, Dave Buhler, Shawn Garcia Schow, Rich Bennett, Anne Menzies, Laurie Saith, Susan Crook, Jeff Chapman, Barbara Chapman, Mark S. Fetzer, Afton Kyriopoulos, Ruth A. Robbins. Brian Bellamy. Gene Davis, Mary Carlson, Keith Christensen, Edmund Simantob. Minutes of the December meeting were submitted for review. Because of the length of these minutes, approval will be given at the March council meeting. Minutes of the January meeting were approved. A petition has been received from Alice Edvalson to become a trustee from the Westminster area. In order to do this, it is necessary that Vice Chairman Jerry Romero, who is also a the Westminster area, become a trustee at large. Dorothy Tuddenham made the motion to accept Jerry as a trustee-at-large, seconded by Hope Hilton and passed. Hope Hilton then made the action to accept Alice Edvalson as a trustee, seconded by Dorothy Tuddenham and passed. Jerry Romero then made the motion that Alice Edvalson become the Secretary to the council, seconded by Hope Hilton and passed. Roger announced a hearing at the Planning Commission tomorrow night, Feb. 3, room 126 in the City/County building on a request from John Clawson for a variance on a flag lot off Parleys Terrace. John met with the SHCC a few months ago and was given approval by the council. Steve Lester announced a reception for the Mayor and City Council on Wednesday, February 23, 1994, 6:00 – 7:30, City/County Building-3rd floor, room 335. All city residents are invited to meet with the Mayor and City Council. Light refreshments will be served. He also announced the Seventh annual Salt lake Neighborhood Conference, Saturday, March 26, 1995. Buttons are available to help publicize the conference. Anyone interested in forms to nominate someone for the Good Neighborhood award given at this conference may contact the SLACC Office, 451 So. State, Room 138, or call 535-7929. Ken Eltinge, a member of the Community Action Program (CAP), described some of the activities this program is involved with such as: the food banks, headstart, emergency housing, and other help for low income persons. Ken has been the representative for the Sugar House area now about 9 years. The policies have been changed requiring that representatiwas be re-elected every two years. This is the time for that re-election. Ken will be running again for this position and if anyone else is interested in running, it is necessary to submit a petition. The necessary petition is available from Ken. Alice Edvalson talked about the new ·Sugar House Area Times· community newspaper. This paper was discussed at the last meeting and was felt it could be a great tool to share information in our community. Alice had some cards with the name and phone numbers of the Editor and Publisher for those interested. The paper is in need of news items and financial help. Roger welcomed Gene Davis and Mary Carlson, our representatives to the legislature and Keith Christensen, the new City Councilman for District 1. Rawlins Young presented a financial report. There is currently a balance of $2,983.19 in the council bank account. There was $46.76 interest earned during 1993. Rawlins indicated that the council needs to submit a current list of council officers and any changes to the bylaws to the City and the State in order to .maintain our standing as a City Council. Rawlins also reported that he had received 2 bills that needed to be paid. One for $35.90 to Holms, Roberts, Owens for printing of the by-laws, and one for $16.58 to Roger Miller for collating and stapling the by-laws. A motion was made, seconded, end passed to pay these two bill. Rawlins also reported that four $10.00 coupons left from the Night Out Against Crime had been used at the trustees’ Christmas party. Keith Christensen expressed concern over the Sugar House Master Plan stating that it is not yet completed. It could take as much as 5-6 months -are to complete. He encouraged us to speed the process and get the plan completed as soon as possible so the plan can be in place when future proposals and projects are presented for approval. Keith indicated that developer packets are available from, the RDA office for developers interested in doing something with the Irving school property. He encouraged anyone interested in this to pick up one of these packets as quickly as possible. There have been 5 picked up at the present time. At least a couple are discussing this project very actively. Those interested in purchasing this property from the RDA must make the necessary applications by the end of this month. The deadline for the decision as to what to do with this property was extended until March 1, 1994. He also indicated that Legacy Manage.ent has not yet signed the contract with the RDA and suggested that ye put as much pressure on them to do this quickly. The RDA is doing everything they possibly can to get this taken care of. Keith Christensen is the new chairman of the RDA for this next year so he will be working very closely v1tb them.Keith indicated he doesn’t know much else on the old post office issue. The city is about ready to make a decision on that issue. They are working on final agreements and restrictions that will be placed on those that acquire this property. We are especially concerned that whoever gets the property will abide by theserestrictions. The city will not be the sole steward of that property. They have agreed to give Landmarks Development that responsibility. Keith also reported that the Forest Dale Club House will not be razed, it will be restored in its present format. This is expected to be completed by the end of this year. Keith requested that the community come to a common agreement on the issues surrounding the discussions going on regarding the Recreation Center. At the present time, there are several views being presented to the city officials and they feel that with the mixed opinions they are getting it is very difficult for them to make decisions. Keith did caution that there is no money available to build such a facility and if we really want a Recreation Center we would have to raise the funds to build it. Rawlins Young indicated that the work that is being done on the Master Plan is not a complete~ rewrite of it, but mainly the redevelopment part of it. Rich Bennett explained a survey that is presently being developed and indicated it should help in determining what the majority of the people in the area would like to see in regards to a Recreation Center as well as other information that could help in the future of this area. This should help in being able to present a single voice to the city. A question was asked of Keith regarding the fees for the golf courses. Keith explained that the policy of the city council is that when a decision is made on an issue during one year, it is not revisited the next year when new council members are involved. There was a group that did sue the city on the fee issue. Keith recommends that we give the city a year to Bee how things work out. Keith did assure us that our area really does have good support with the city council. The city has indicated that the Sugar House community council is one of the most active councils in the city. Representative Mary Carlson reported on the issue of the sound barriers. She indicated that the area on I-215 between 33rd and 36th South is number 1 and the area on I-80 between 20th and 23rd East is number 2 on UDOT’s priority list, but that monies are not allocated to doing anything. She indicated there will be a hearing on Feb. 7 at 2:00PM in room 416 at which this issue will be discussed. We need to get persons at that hearing that will indicate support and need for this project, If we could get $1 million this year and another $1 million next year we could take care of both of these two projects. At the current time, the Federal Government has a matching fund available matching 10 to our 1 so if we could get the $1 million, these two projects that are estimated to cost $6 milion dollars could be completed. Mary doesn’t know how .much longer this matching money will be available. It is very important that we call the legislators and UDOT to indicate our needs. Craig Zvick is the newly appointed head of UDOT.Rawlins Young explained what an Enterprise zone was, describing it as a circle of equal distance around a central point. This could help in getting tax monies to inwast, He suggested that the legislature could help us in getting this set up. He indicated this is quite common in the acre rural areas, but could be. a real benefit in our area. Gene Davis asked his intern who was in attendance at the meeting to make a note of this so he could look at it. Gene Davis talked about the budget process now going on at the legislature. He indicated that there is a projected $210 million of new money. The governor has set aside $43 million of that in what he has called his boom buffer- which he beliewas is just a one time amount of money that possibly will not be there another year. He wants to save this money for at least another year to see if that much continues to be paid. If it does, he will then consider a tax decrease. He indicated the Health Care bills are just getting started. The governor has put~ together a health care commission made up of 7 members fro. the governor’s office and 4 fro. the legislature. Any’ change in health care will be controlled through the governor’s Office and this Health Care commission. There is another bill being considered that will allow insurance to be portable when moving from one job to another. Most of the health care issues have to do with insurance but most would not happen until after this year. !t will take several years to implement all the changes. The governor is referring to his plan as a ‘Market Driven’ plan. Unlike the President’s plan which would provide insurance for everyone this plan would make the people responsible to get their own insurance. The governor’s plan is not driven by nor attached to employment. Gene also reported on a hill that is proposing a sub-committee to study community violence. This ~would be under the committee on substance abuse. He also brought a book that the State of Utah has just completed. It describes what we should do here in Utah in the event of an earthquake. He left copies with librarian, Ann Menzies. He also left copies of pamphlets on -In the Event of a Flood and Flash Floods. Mary Carlson reported that there is a lot of discussion going on at the legislature regarding property taxes. There is a bill that would require that if property taxes increased over a certain level, the homeowner would be given an extended period of time (nine months) to pay the.. There would be no interest over: this extended time. This puts a strain on county government with their budget process$ since the money would not be available up front. The whole property tax is~~ is very complex. Part of the problems are related to the increased demand of housing in the area. A question was raised that perhaps a proposition 13 plan would help. Gene tried to explain some of the problems that this proposition has caused in California. Mary Carlson indicated that many people are most upset with property taxes because this is something that they can do nothing about. Gene explained that we really can do something if we feel the taxes are too high. We do have the opportunity to challenge the tax. In many cases, this has ~worked very successfully. Gene indicated that in the Haster Plan, the old D&RG railroad track going through Sugar House was designated as a trail. D&RG is going to abandon that track and UTA is going to buy that and .make a trail. Steve Lester later reported on this in more detail. Roger and Jerry did visit the apartment that George Veeney was asking for approval on a variance at the last meeting. They found things acceptable and gave approval for George to go ahead. The housing project near the freeway end power sub-station that was presented before the council a few months ago is within 30 days of starting. A few meetings ago there was a concern about a project at 27th South and Elizabeth street being apartments rather than condominium. The developer has been able to work things out so they will be condominiums end not apartments. Steve Lester indicated the -Friends elf Irving- are very concerned about what happens with this area. He reported that the city had declared the old post office as surplus property and is proceeding with the sale to McIntyre Developers for the ownership of the post office. The Utah Heritage Foundation still holds an easement on the property which will make it much more difficult to do any demolition to the property. Edmond Simentob who had made a bid on the post office will perhaps pursue some legal action since his bid did comply with a requirement that it must be owner-occupied. There was an indication that the McIntyre Foundation did not plan to be owner-occupied. Susan Crook reported on the Hillcrest Park project. They are waiting on a new boundary survey. It will probably take another month or so. until they are able to get that completed. They would like to do another neighborhood survey to determine what the needs are now since it has been quite a long time since the last survey was taken. It was indicated that some scout troops may be interested in helping with the survey.Pam Grimes reported on the crime statistics in our area for 1993. There was a 20% decrease in burglaries in the residential areas city wide. We had a 5X reduction in our area. The business burglaries were down 3% city wide, but our area was down 31%. This even with the new shopping area. There was a decrease in car prowls in our area, down from 582 last year to 472 this year. There has been a big jump in juvenile crime arrests in the last couple of years. She showed a large wall map with the gang related activities shown on it. A large number were graffiti. We did have a drive-by shooting a few weeks ago in the area of 11th East and 27th South. Last week on Simpson Ave. and 8th East there was a good neighborhood watch activity. Persons in the neighborhood reported a suspicious car driving in the area. An arrest was not able to be made, but the suspicious vehicle has been involved in a lot of problems. It was a 1978 Pontiac with grey primer on the bottom and black vinyl on the top. If this vehicle is seen in your neighborhood it should be reported. The National Night Out Against Crime will again have a city wide kick-off activity the night before again this year. They could use volunteers to work on the committee felt this activity. Dorothy Tuddenham is working on the plans for our community activity. Pam reported that there has been increased surveillance from the police dept. in the Sugar House area and in particular the Irving area. Office Joe Clark reported that they had e very good turnout for the painting project in the sub-£station. Most all of the painting has been completed now. The office is fixed up nice and will be a very pleasant place for Officer Clark to work. There has been very good news coverage on the establishing of this of1ice. Officer Clark’s hours have now been extended from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday thru Friday on a full-time basis. Voice messaging will be set up and working by this Friday. Persons wishing to contact the police, will be able to call and if no one is there to answer, can leave a message and Officer Clark can then pick up the message and respond as soon as possible, If backup officers are needed, he can cell for them. He will be out on foot and on bicycle as Boon as weather permits to become more acquainted with the Sugar House area and its residents. The phone number at the sub-station is 484-0241. Lynn Chatwin introduced Jeanette Priehl from the office of community affairs. She talked about creating a vision and strategic plan for the Sugar House area. It is hoped this process would help in creating a safe, beautiful, and car1ng community and in developing community pride. The city has a program called a facilitated neighborhood community planning process, This encourages neighborhoods to control their own actions. The facilitator helps set up objectives and action plans and helps to prioritize what is important and organize activities into manageable parts, Volunteers from the community work with the facilitator in developing the plan. This would involve at least 1 night a week for 6 weeks. The committee should be made up of a good mix of persons from the neighborhood, There are 6 other areas in the city that have taken adwantage of this service, Jeannette’s phone number is 535-7923. Rawlins Young made a Motion that the SHCC executive committee determine what is involved to take adwantage of the service offered by the city in creating a vision and plan and take the necessary steps to begin the process. The action was seconded by Miriam Murphy and accepted. This will be an item for discussion at the March meeting. Jerry Romero talked about the background surrounding the recreation center activity. Since the initial meeting there has been a fragmentation of effort. The survey committee has almost completed the needs assessment survey and hope to have it ready to go to Utah State for preparation of the actual survey within a couple of weeks. It is felt that this will give some community feedback and will be helpful in the direction to proceed in regards to the recreation center activity. The site selection committee is also looking at several possible areas where a recreation center could be built. Theseinclude- the Hygeia block; the old Anderson Lumber property, and 5ugar House Pork. Rawlins Young made a motion that the SHCC support survey effort. It was seconded by Hope Hilton. There was discussion concerning the council taking any stand on the recreation center issues. It was clarified that the council only support the survey effort, There was much discussion concerning the- area involved in the survey. It was feIt that the council could assist in coordinating with other community councils in getting the survey completed. Barbara Kleiner asked who owned Sugar House Park. It was stated that the state gave the park to the city and county as a regional park. So it is owned and funded by the- city and county, but is managed by the Park Authority. The county is responsible for the maintenance and management of it under the direction of the park authority. Mary was very concerned about using the park for a recreation center. Barbara indicated that she would be willing to give money to build a recreation center someplace other than the park. Since there are so many questions regarding using the park for this purpose, this issue will be placed on the agenda for the March meeting. The motion that was made by Rawlins was accepted with only 1 abstinence. Lynne Olson reported on the KOPE Kids survey of the SH Business district. This was done in conjunction with the SH Chamber ofCommerce. They spent a couple of days, and of the 340 businesses in the area, 260 were given the survey and 220 returned it. The students did a preliminary tabulation of the survey before it was sent to Utah Slate for official tabulation. A copy of the students’ results was given to those interested. Lynn also indicated that the McIntyre Developers have sent a petition to the mayor requesting that the Hidden Hollow area from the pond and west to the Elizabeth street area be declared as surplus property. The KOPE Kids are very concerned with that happening. It would create a less desirable area in Hidden Hollow. The question was asked how this request affected the effort to update the Master plan. Everett Joyce indicated they would ask that the developers be put on hold until the master plan is completed. Steve Lester reported that the rail road tracks between Granite Furniture and South Salt Lake and another route around the Chicago Bridge and Iron area are going to be abandoned and will be available for purchase. UTA has requested that the SHCC give them a letter stating our support of their action to purchase these rail lines and turn them into a trail system. UTA can getfederal funds to turn these rails to trails it there is community support. Judy Short made the motion that we prepare a letter in support of the rails to trails activity by UTA. The motion was seconded by Miriam Murphy. There was some discussion that UTA might want to later use the trails tor a light rail system. It was felt that this would not happen at least for a long time in the future. There was other discussion regarding a light rail system. The question was raised whether Granite Furniture was in favor of this action. It was stated that they were the ones that were abandoning the track and were in support of this action. There was some concern about UTA being the entity to buy this property. It was feared that UTA would do what they wanted without regard to the desires of the community. Gene Davis assured the group that once the trail was developed, it would be very difficult for anyone to make a change. The motion was again stated adding the statement that we encourage that it remain a trail indefinitely. The motion passed. The issue of the’ WADDOUPS Bill was discussed. This bill would make a uniform standard regarding the amount of gun control the legislature could enact. This means that the standard that was set up would have to followed by rural areas of the state as well as the large cities. Keith Christensen explained that is a major issue to the city. We need to be able to enact gun control laws that will allow us to stop the youth crime in the city and not be tied to standards that are more applicable to rural areas. We need to do whatever possible to stop this bill. Judi Short made a motion that the SHCC go on record as opposing this House Bill 157. Miriam Murphy seconded the motion. The motion carried with 1 opposition. Keith asked that we write a letter as soon as possible to representative Mary Carlson and Gene Davis expressing this opposition and that as many as possible call the House and Governor expressing their opposition. The phone number for the House is 5381029 and the Governor is 538-1000.A motion was made and passed that the meeting be adjourned approximately 9:15 p. m. |
