SHCC Meeting Minutes – May 2003

From Sugar House

Attendance

Trustees Present

Chris Bowler, Dolores Donohoo, Alice Edvalson, Deedra Hansen-Lambert, Michael G. Kavanagh, Scott Kisling, Julie Nitzkowski, Sheila O’Driscoll, Lynne Olson, Helen Peters, Susan Petheram, Ray Pugsley, Judi Short, Grace Sperry, Gina Thompson, Gayen Wharton, Rawlins Young (17)

Trustees Excused

Su Armitage

City/State Representatives

Barry Esham, Mayor’s Office; Dale Lambert, City Council; Kristi Swett, SLC School Board; Danny Walz, RDA; Melissa Anderson, SLC Planning; Stephanie Duer, SLC Public Utilities; Kim Guess, SLC Police (7)

Others

Carrie Francis, Michael Lane, Mark AeUaur, Zealand Saroud, Gracie Rhyne, Mike Murray, Thomas Q. Bailey, Ben W. Burdett, Tom Nitzkowski, Melissa Lichtenstein, Milton Braselton, Elizabeth Bradley, Don Zarkou, Dottie Bintz, Tom Bintz, David Lawver, Nancy Boskoff, Armand Johansen, Doug White, Tom Judd, Zoe Rhyne, Sheri Sohm (22) TOTAL (46)

Meeting Minutes

Meeting began at 7:00 PM with Chair Helen Peters conducting. The minutes of the April meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report

There was a beginning balance of $5,642.30, with payments of $484.13 leaving a balance of $5,158.17.

Chair Report

Helen expressed the council’s condolences to Ruth A. and Amy R. Price on the death of their son and brother, Wm. George Allen Grant. Smith’s Food and Drug appealed the Planning Commission’s denial of their request to build a new store at 9th East and 21st South. The Land Use Appeals Board upheld the Planning Commission’s decision The Mountair Annexation was passed by the SLC Planning Commission. On May 14, the Planning Commission will hear a request by Thomas A. Duffin to rezone the property at 2275 South Green St. from R1-7000 (single-family residential) to SR-1 (Special Development Pattern Residential). Mr. Duffin wants to construct a duplex on the existing vacant lot. On that same date, the Planning Commission will also consider a petition by Chabad Lubavitch to change the zoning of property at 1433/35 South 11th East from RB (Residential Business) to R1-5000 (Residential). The Planning Commission will also consider a request from Johansen/Thackeray Commercial Real Estate for a conditional use and a planned development permit for the property at 21st South and McClelland St., to demolish an existing building and construct a new single story commercial structure for retail and restaurant use in the C-SHBD (Commercial Sugar House Business District) zone. There will be an open house for the Parley’s Creek Trail Master Plan on Thurs. May 15, from 7 – 8:30 PM at the SL County Complex. Helen provided a letter from The Easter Seals of Utah regarding a new adult day care service for senior citizens that will be located at 1603 East Stratford Avenue. The Mayor’s office needs volunteers to work with the Minority Advocacy Team. Anyone interested can contact the Mayor’s office. Helen also reminded us of the Heritage Foundation’s Historic Home Tour in the Highland Park area on Sat. May 17. Scott Kisling reported on the SL County Council meeting of 22 April where the council re-zoned a site for Home Depot on Highland Drive just below 33rd South. He noted that the council’s reasoning for approving this was to replace the Home Base that was on 9th East, and that they felt anything was better than what is there. The County Council recommended that if Home Depot ever moves from that location, they leave the site so it could be rented by another tenant. The Millcreek residents are still looking at some of the side issues to see if there is anything else they can do.

Public Input

Zoe Rhyne, a 6th grader at Hawthorne school spoke about the vandalism that has taken place in Hidden Hollow. She explained that recently several descriptive plaques have been stolen. She asked anyone with information that could help find the thieves to contact the police. Tom Judd said that he feels Sugar House is not a walkable community, and he feels that we should ban all parking for a week and see how many people really do walk. Helen noted a citizen planner workshop being held on June 6 & 7. This is a training session to teach about community planning. Anyone interested should call 467-8448 for more information.

City Council Update

Councilman Dale Lambert noted that we need more representation from Dist. 7 on the city boards and commissions. Anyone interested can contact Dale or the City Council office. There is a special need for the Multi-Ethnic Resource Board. The City Council is working on the RDA budget. It has not yet been adopted, but Dale feels the lighting for the Business District will be approved. It also looks like there will be funding for the Redman project. The proposed Sugar House Business Dist. zoning proposal is back with the Planning Dept. and is being looked at by the new Planning Director. He is especially looking at some of the larger parcels where the present use is not consistent with the proposed zone. There will be 9% of the budget going to the CIP funding but Dale has proposed to supplement that with one time money from reserves. There are 3 different projects the Sugar House Community Council has proposed for CIP funding. The Council may approve a $20,000 CDBG grant for a National Register Historic District nomination for Sugar House.

Mayor’s Office Update

Barry Esham reported that he has received some complaints about graffiti in the area. He passed out information regarding what information is needed when reporting graffiti. There have been some health code violations reported to him, but most of them were businesses. He suggested taking these issues to the merchants meeting. May 10th will be another Saturday Morning With the Mayor at the Cocoa Caffe at 282 E. 900 South. Barry noted that the City’s budget is on the city web site with a link to it on the home page. Michael Kavanagh introduced Sam and Adam and their Scout Master John Williams who were working on a merit badge.

Police Update

Kim Guess expressed regret at the vandalism in the parks. It costs the city a lot of money to replace things that are destroyed. There are still a lot of car prowls in the area. She noted that 12 of the 15 stolen cars in our area had been recovered, but were in horrible shape. The Jeep Cherokee is still the most popular car to steal. There have been some burglaries at construction sites. Home burglaries usually happen during the day with most at homes that are not even secured, they could get in a sliding door, window etc. There have also been some drug and domestic violence problems in the area. There were 3 banks in Dist. 7 that have been robbed, and one robbery occurred in a vehicle while the driver was at an ATM machine. The “Night Out Against Crime” will be held again this year on the 5th of Aug. Kim asked all the neighborhoods to have some kind of activity. Kim also had flyers and information regarding the Peer Court and the Crosswalk Flag program.

School Board Update

Kristi Swett introduced herself as Kathy Black’s replacement on the school board, and said that anyone with questions or comments regarding the schools could contact her at 485-0681, 2256 So. King St. 84109.

Planning Department Update

Melissa Anderson also noted the public hearing scheduled for next Wed. to rezone the property at 2275 So. Green Street and noted that the Planning Commission is not recommending this be done. She reported that the Planning Dept. is recommending the proposed development at 21st So. and McClelland Street with some adjustments to the landscaping, some cross-easement issues, and the 40% glass requirement. Melissa announced a meeting on June 4 regarding the Small Area Master Plan for the Business District.

Utah Heritage Foundation Report

Elizabeth Bradley talked about the Foundations funding programs. She noted that the highest priority for funding is placed on exterior improvements, then on interior systems like plumbing, electrical, etc., and then on interior finishes. Quite a bit of money is available right now due to the low interest rates. They are targeting the Westminster/Fairmont area right now. SLC Arts Council –

Public Art

Nancy Boskoff told about the City’s public art program. Some examples of projects they have done are at the TRAX stations. They are currently targeting public art for the Sugar House area. Several artists submitted proposals. The winning proposal is a series of large cast bronze sugar beets by Dave Christensen. He also did the seagulls and bees on the TRAX stations. One of the beets will be in front of library to the west and at least 2 others will be located in the Sugar House Commons area east of Hidden Hollow. They should be in place by late summer or in the fall. The RDA is responsible for commissioning this art.

Organizational issues

Chris Bowler reported on the updated By-Laws that were distributed at the last meeting. He has received few comments from trustees and it appeared that there were no other comments from the trustees at the meeting. It was suggested that Chris summarize the comments and then make a presentation at our next meeting. Trustee Issues – a committee met to discuss options for dealing with the increased number of persons wanting to be trustees. They discussed adjusting the number of at-large trustees allowed and the idea of getting rid of the neighborhood concept altogether and having all trustees be at-large. Deedra Hansen-Lambert felt that people contact those that are trustees in their neighborhood and suggested that we could still have the neighborhood designation but just not have a limit on the number of trustees from a neighborhood. Grace Sperry felt having everyone at-large could result in all trustees in one area and would not fairly represent issues from other areas. It was felt that the trustees are generally made up of home owners and not renters. Chris didn’t feel it was a bad thing that people join as a trustee because of a specific issue and then leave when that issue is over. Ray Pugsley felt concerned about having too many trustees from one area. He likes having trustees from all areas. Gayen Wharton sees the council as having quite a bit of clout in a political sense. She doesn’t feel the issue oriented trustees are a problem. Gayen wondered if a change like this would be in harmony with our mission statement? She feels we need equal representation. Gina Thompson feels that the neighborhood is important because each neighborhood has different issues. Susan Petheram feels it is important to maintain the neighborhood representation. Trustees were asked to contact Chris with comments on this issue, which will be voted on in July. Chris reported on the new web page and asked us to look at it and give suggestions back to him. www.sugarhouse.cc.

Water Rate Structure & Information

Stephanie Duer from the SLC Water Dept. reported that the approved rate structure will still have a summer and a winter rate, but the summer rate will have 3 rate tiers. The basic monthly charge is decreased and the actual use fee will be more. In a typical year we usually get 15” of water but we need 24” of water to sustain our landscape. We usually use 50” of water, much more than we really need. The City has to be able to supply all the demands of the City and they have to build their infrastructure for the larger usage. If we could bring down the overall usage, the infrastructure could be reduced. The average increase in our water bill will be $48 per year.

Commercial Development at 21st South & McClelland

Armand Johansen of Johansen/Thackery, noted that they had to rotate the location of the building from what they had presented to us at a previous meeting. It was facing 21st South before but none of the tenants were willing to lease with that configuration. They are proposing a building that will have all four sides looking like a store front but actual entrances are on the east side by the parking lot. The tenants are likely to be Pei-Wai, Baja Fresh, and maybe a bank. Baja Fresh would be on the 21st South end with the other restaurant on the south end and the bank in the middle. A motion was made to approve the plan. The motion was amended to require entrances from McClelland. The amended motion read that we approve the plans for the businesses to be developed at 21st South and McClelland Street as presented, with the exception that public access be provided from 21st South for the business fronting on 21st South and that public access be provided on McClelland St. for the two businesses fronting on McClelland St. Voting was 8 in favor, 6 opposed, 1 abstaining.

Multi-Family Housing at 12th East & 21st South

The current zoning will allow multi-family housing in this area but will not allow the height of 75 ft. that is proposed. The proposed building would be a brick & stucco structure and would contain 115 one and two bedroom apartments with one parking stall per unit in an underground garage. RDA money would be used for the underground parking. One suggestion was to buy the Jiffy Lube property and create some green space around the building. A motion was made to approve the multi family development. Discussion: Gayen Wharton feels that this fits with the master plan which calls for more multi family housing in this area but objected to the height of the building. Grace Sperry expressed a concern with only 1 parking stall for 2 bedroom apartments and with the shadow that would be cast to the west. Some felt that restricted parking could contribute to the walkable community environment. Rawlins Young feels that we always have an exception to the rule and is not in favor of making exceptions. Voting on the motion was 8 in favor, 6 opposed, 0 abstentions.

SHBD Trolley Proposal

Doug White made a proposal for a trolley that would run from the 21st South TRAX station to Granite Furniture. Doug found a 1910 trolley car that was used in the Sugar House area and wants to put it and other refurbished trolley cars into operation. He has been in contact with UTA, the Utah Department of Transportation, and the City and has had no opposition from those he has talked with. He indicated that he would build the part of the proposed Parley’s Creek Trail along the tracks once the trolley is in operation. He is committed to clean fuel, low noise, and conservation. Doug wants to be a sub-contractor for UTA and would rent the UTA property if he finds funding. He would hope to be up and running within a year. He has to get permission from the City before he could begin. A motion was made to support this proposal as long as it includes the trail. Voting was unanimous.

Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 10:18 pm.