16 Aug SHCC Meeting Minutes June 2022
Call the meeting to order at 7:03 pm
Welcome to the June edition of the Sugar House Community Council monthly meetings.
We are going to get right into this.
Let’s go first with the Fire Department…
Bruce Healey: Behalf of the Station 3 Fire Department we would like to say Happy Pride Month!!
Detective Sam Fallows Salt Lake City Police Department CIU District 7:
Please use the SLC Mobile App, it is extremely helpful to our citizens and to us the police department. You can report illegal camping, speeding, potholes, etc. Stats for the month of May…410 reports for May. Top 5 calls were for vehicle burglaries (43) going up across the city, shoplifting (31), reportable traffic accidents (22), non-reportable traffic accidents (20), trespasser calls and warrant arrest calls (18 and 17).
Turn your lights on at night to help with vehicle burglaries if you can’t park your car in a garage. Our motor units are back to full time which should help with speeding. We are working on Fairmont Park, the park squad is starting to patrol again but we are well aware of what is going on over there. Please support suspicious activity either through the app or the non emergency number.
Senator Iwamoto: Speaking for all of us, she has been a great champion for Sugar House and we appreciate it. She has decided not to run again and we will certainly miss her. I consider her a friend. We had interim meetings in May and they have been busy. We had two supreme court openings and those have been filled. I was able to go to the white house and what an experience. Wanted to update you on some bills that I have been working on. Will allow people from different cultures to dress in their cultural regalia. Also working on a bill to crack down on illegal speed racing.
Looking at fireworks and the banning of them but the legislature is split on this issue. Water banking is really taking off and will also help the Great Salt Lake. We are in a pretty bad drought so we hope this is the way of the future.
Suzanne Harrison: I am currently in the House of Representatives but I am not running for Salt Lake County Council at-large. There were a lot of changes with redistricting in Sandy and Draper, my boundaries, so that seat no longer exists. I am the only democrat on the ballot. I am a mom and a medical doctor. I am running on advocating for clean air, water conservation and smart environmental stewardship. I have been the school watchdog in the legislature and will continue that work at county council. I want to make healthcare more accessible and affordable at the county level. Also want to advocate for solutions to our housing crisis. Please vote in November!!!
We wanted to allow candidates the opportunity to speak before the June 28th primary. We are joined tonight by Senate candidates for districts 13 and 14. Each candidate will be given 5 minutes. Hopefully they will stick around after they speak to answer questions in the chat.
Senate District 14
Rep. Stephanie Pitcher: Here is her information
Deondra Brown: Here is her information
Senate District 13
Nate Blouin: Here is his information
Sen. Gene Davis: Here is his information
Bill Knowles SLC Ombudsman: Construction Report
Tim Cosgrove SLC District 7 Mayor’s Liaison:
The mayor presented her budget to City Council in May and they continue to have discussions. The city has grown by 11,000 people since 2014 and our daytime population is above 360,000 people. The demands continue to increase on our law enforcement, infrastructure, parks, open spaces, etc. The mayor’s general fund recommendation is just over 420 million with significant investments in affordable housing, public safety, air quality, homelessness, equality, transit, transportation and environmental protection. The budget does include a property tax increase on people who own homes valued at about 520,000 and up. It amounts up to about $130 a year. There is also a General Obligation Bond on the November ballot this year. We are asking for an 80 million bond. That will go to our public lands…parks and urban trails. Increase in traffic fatalities is something the mayor’s office is greatly aware of so the mayor was thrilled when the city council voted to lower speed limits on residential streets to 20 mph. This will affect about 420 miles of city owned roads or about 70% of the streets. Check out ConnectSLC which will change the future all modes of transportation throughout the city. The city is looking at making zoning amendment changes to encourage the building of affordable housing.
Shane Stroud Secretary Report: ByLaws were updated and voted on. Judi Short gave the motion, seconded by Erika Wiggins, passed anonymously. ByLaws are now up and updated on Sugarhousecouncil.org
Mike Bagley Treasurer Report: $7,500.42
Angelina Pena: Circles Salt Lake Board President
Michael McNamee Salt Lake City Planner-here to discuss the city’s updated Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Ordinance. Back in February the Planning Commission voted to initiate a petition to remove the conditional use that is currently used for detached ADUs that reside in single family zoning districts. A month after that planning had a discussion with city council in a work session and we discussed some other updates to the ordinance. We are proposing a number of changes…conditional use requirements would become a permitted use in these areas. The ADU’s would still have to meet all the requirements pertaining to size, height, etc. We are proposing to allow ADU’s on the property that have non residential use. We are also adding some alley activation requirements, intending to liven up allies. We are removing the requirement that an ADU can’t be taller than the primary dwelling, it would just follow the height requirements that are set out in the ordinance. We are also changing the set back to 5 feet rather than 10 feet. We are loosening some of the requirements. We hear a lot about how the restrictions are too strict. The cost and time associated with conditional use is keeping people from building them. The Planning commission would like to get rid of conditional use. Couple of other changes would be limiting the size of an ADU to 720 square feet unless the house is on a larger lot which is 12,000 square feet or larger. We would continue to have a prohibition on short term rentals of the ADU. Right now we have an owner occupancy requirement, we would look at out of town occupancy. If the conditional use was taken away there would not be a public process or a public notice. All building permits would have to still abide by the rules. Short term rental is defined as anything under 30 days. AirBnB are considered short term rentals.
Councilwoman Amy Fowler:
We continue to tweak the ADU ordinance. The council approved ADUs as not short term rentals. As part of this year’s budget we would like more FTEs for compliance. We need to address some of the issues with ADUs. We are understaffed and need more compliance officers to respond to complaints. We are in the middle of budget season. We are coming up on CIP season. There is a proposed property tax increase, along with rate increases. Public comment will be on June 7th about the budget. If you can’t log in please email or text your comments. The budget has to be done by the end of the month, would like to vote on it June 14th. Redistricting is done as of last month.
Cherie Kofoed-Sprage Library Update
Today was the start of our Super Summer Reading Challenge so just get reading this summer. We are slowly bringing events back to the library.
Meeting Adjourned: 8:43 pm
