October 7, 2009

Trustees Absent Excused –  Ed Sperry.

Trustees Absent Unexcused – Pat Denslow-Kilroy.

Others Present –  Jaelene V. Myrup, Adriane Juarez, Traci Marsing, Melissa Lichtenstein, Susan L. Smith, Pat Rowe, Lisa Adams, Soren Simonsen. 

Call to Order – Maggie Shaw, Chair 7:00 pm

Approval of Minutes – Dolores Donohoo’s motion to approve the minutes passed unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report – Dolores reports a beginning balance of $3,705.96 balance with $370 deposit from plant sale, $154.85 in expenditures with new balance of 3,921.11.

Chair Comments –  7:01 pm Election of SHCC Trustees begins. 

Public Comments –  Mallie Jowell asked about a petition for a new trustee in Nibley neighborhood. 

Sugar House Merchants’ Report – Barbara Green reported DJ Baxter presented info about Portland street car trip at Merchants breakfast and that it was interesting to see the density of buildup around the trax line.  This may be an interesting topic for a future presentation.  A Westminster business student is interested in writing a business plan pertaining to the Merchant Association, if you think this may be of interest to you, contact Annalisa Steggel.  No Halloween events this year in the stores, but Turkey Days, Turkey Trot, and the Santa Shack will be happening. 

Business Spotlight – Michael G. Kavanagh introduced Zach Barnard, owner of Z Pizzeria & Café, 1588 E Stratford Ave, 801-484-9792,www.pizzeria.comThis is a newly relocated business which offers, coffees, pizzas, salads and catering.  They do everything from scratch so catering orders need some advance notice.  They have a $7.99 lunch buffet – come check out the new Sugar House location.

Presentations –

• Mayor’s Office –Scott Atkinson, Asst Police Chief and Brian Dell, Division Chief for Salt Lake City fire were present to discuss the Proposition 1 bond issue on the upcoming November ballot.  The current public safety building was built in 1957 for the NW pipeline company and was purchase by SLC in 1988.  The original capacity of the building was 287, but has been operating over capacity with over 700 occupants.  The current facility houses both police operations and fire administration. Modernization funds allocated by SLC were redirected to remove asbestos found in the building, which has led to the building deteriorating to the point where it is no longer functional for operations and the 911 communication center.  SLC Fire has 11,000 more runs than any other system in the valley with operation back up in fire station #1.  Both the main facility and back up buildings operate on the same network service so outages caused from the deterioration of the current facility result in breakdowns at the back up location as well.  The preferred site is across the street from the main library and parking will be underground for officers and staff.  There are ongoing negotiations with the county and state to join together for space in the new building, but nothing has been determined and does not affect the overall plan for Salt Lake City.  Any new building will be built to withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake and have a self contained heating, cooling and air circulation to allow them to operate 24 hours to coordinate all the services and better respond to emergencies. Questions were raised about building a public/government building in a Central Business District (CBD) are and taking away potential for retail and housing that is called for in that area’s master plan.  The preferred site is not set in stone and if the bond is approved the selection process will be open for public comment through the Mayor’s office so people can weigh in on its location.  The site is preferred to establish a central core for all emergency operations and functions and many cities of equal and larger size have the same configuration.  Question was also raised about longevity of the building and the need to constantly upgrade buildings in the city that require tax payer money.  It was pointed out that the bond is up to $125 million and that does mean they have to spend the entire amount and the city plans to sell the current public safety building and redirect that money into the project.  This bond will result in an increase of $75/year to residents and $43.52/year for the average business.  Tours of the current facility will be offered to the public every Wednesday at 4pm. – to schedule a tour or to get more information visitwww.slcgov.com.
• David Evertt – presenting information on the Proposed Alcohol Normalization Ordinance  was not present.                
• Lex Hemphill, Sugar House Park Authority spoke about the fireworks in Sugar House Park.  Lex stated that 2009 was the last fireworks show that the Park Authority will fund and organize.  The impetus of the decision was prompted by finances as 85% of the budget is geared toward ongoing operations and year to year maintenance, which is paid for by the city and the county through an annual contribution which dates back to 1957 when the park was formed.  An additional $57,000 is typically generated from terrace reservation fees and other fees to fund capital improvements.  Consequently for the last 15-20 years the Park Authority has been using the bulk of the discretionary money to fund one event every year.  Two things occurred to change the approach of the Park Authority in regards to funding the fireworks and the first is a new master plan that was passed in 2008 that identified many infrastructure upgrades that need to be made and the only funds available for this come from the unallocated fund of approximately $57,000.  Past capital improvements have been made by applying to the city and county for additional funds and this year they did not get funding for those projects which redirected focus for the discretional money.  The second reason was a bill received last year by the SLC police for a service fee of $22,000 that was unexpected and prompted the focus on how that discretionary fund is spent.  The Park Authority wrote a letter to SLC and Salt Lake County asking for support to continue funding the fireworks event.  Mayor Becker responded that they would help with 1/3 of the cost while Salt Lake County has never been in the business of funding fireworks and declined to begin.  In April the Park Authority voted that 2009 would be the last event they would fund and organize.Total costs for the fireworks event is about $50,000 (for a bare bones events without entertainment).  In 2009, expenses totaled about $35,000 not including the police expenses (which were waived for this year only) and about $5,000 from vendors offset the total amount to $30,000.  The Park Authority would now act as the permitting agent to whoever would come in and do the fireworks show.  They recognize the tradition of the event and want to continue to make the park available to this event by possibly waiving the permit fee and offering any expertise they have gained in organizing the event.  In August the Park Authority set down a series of guidelines for any entity that wants to pursue fireworks in the future to ensure the event is free, open to the public and non-commercial in nature. Question was raised about revenue from the garden club and it was noted that facility is independently operated by the Sugar House Garden Club and all revenues generated by them are not part of the park budget.                
• District 7 Candidates – 
  • Lisa Adams –Life long Salt Lake resident and studied Journalism and English at the U then received a law degree from U.  Varied background as a trained mediator, attorney and community volunteer.  Before focusing on raising her 4 children worked as a clerk for the Attorney General’s office, a legal aide, and had a small private practice.  The change in focus to raise her children also included volunteering to provide legal representation and is currently working to represent children.  Believes in volunteering and community service and currently does this through the U alumni, PTA, foster care review board (parental rights), high school activities and as a soccer coach.  Through those experiences has learned it is important to have skills of bringing people together with diverse backgrounds.  Has learned to step back to view outcomes/solutions that work for whole community as you can’t have everything you want.  During her walking campaign the issues most raised have been ones of crime and safety (wants to see an east side police precinct), walkability (bridging the divide of 1300 E), transportation in relation to UTA routes and Sugar House street line, taxation and the desire to preserve open space.
  • Soren Simonsen – Current city council representative and has found the city council to be a great challenge and opportunity and would like to continue to be your representative.  This is a diverse district and it is challenging to represent people with different opinions.  Listening and reaching out is important to communicate and has found his day job is as a planning facilitator has taught him to listen and do a lot of outreach.  Feels proud about the work he has done to bring people into local government.  Before serving on the city council he only received 1 newsletter and that prompted him to commit to sending out at least 2 newsletters a year to highlight issues such as air quality, local business support, city recycling, town hall meetings, etc to increase participation.  In addition, he has also an email list serve for now over 1,000 people to notify about various city meetings and city council public hearings and issues of interest to district 7 residents, changed the website on the district 7 website that is now the standard for the entire council website for easy access, changed policy for communicating with media, helped launch a communications committee to provide fast facts to the media before city council meetings to run stories prior to the public meetings, feedback on all these changes has been positive.  Look forward to continue serving this district please vote for him.

Chair Comments –  8:01 pm Election of SHCC Trustees ends.

Mayor’s Report – Shawn McDonough 801-535-6338 SLC Community Liaison.  Garfield school is going up for surplus sale by Salt Lake City and normally the process for disposition of surplus property is not an open process.  Due to interest and outcry from residents they opened up comments from the public for one week and received about 80 comments and the Mayor will review those and weigh them in his final decision.  North Temple viaduct is moving forward SLC, SLCO, UTA, Utah State, surround property owners and Salt Lake School District will join in to redesign the bridge for a cost of approximately 71 million to help better connect communities.  Follow the green brick road – Mayor highlighted new green asphalt process they are testing for possible future use.   For more information visit www.slcgov.com. 

Council Report – Soren Simonsen reported the city council has spent a lot of time over the past month on issues concerning the north temple viaduct project.  Also, the city council is working on a landlord tenant ordinance to address issues of rental properties.  If you, or you know of landlord/tenant that would like more information you can contact Soren.  Purpose for this change is to create an incentive for landlords to manage their properties (ex: excessive police call backs) and they want tenants to know they have rights and landlords have certain responsibilities to ensure the rental is safe.  The new proposed ordinance was vetted with the Utah Landlord Assoc, several other landlord association groups and other interested people.  City council is working on revision to demolition ordinance and citywide historic preservation plan that will provide new tools to historic preservation (if you have not seen that plan you can go to the city council website for a link to view it).  City council will probably adopt that plan due to favorable recommendations from several city departments.  Working on resolution to essentially change past practice of not creating new historic districts in the city.  Hope to allow some neighborhoods possible consideration for local historic district to provide regulatory mechanisms and incentives to preserve historic features.  City has a goal to add 70 miles of new bicycle lanes and they hope to restripe cross walks  and lane definition strips to calm traffic in various areas.  Question concerning heightened traffic along 600 East and the possibility of speed bumps was raised.  City no longer does speed bumps as there are other ways to go about calming traffic that doesn’t have negative impacts on emergency response.  Soren is happy to talk about options.  CIP grant applications will be coming in about 6 weeks for possible projects.  Question about Walmart and Soren responded that he has heard nothing since April after Walmart indicated they would not continue pursuing the rezone.

Council Business

Chair Report – SHCC paid dues to a group called Utah Neighborhoods to allow us to take advantage of their 501(c)3 status to accept tax deductible donations and possibly use their bulk mailing permit.  Hopefully Robin Bastar can help us move forward with our own 501(c)3 status.  Eric Nelson of Red Mountain responded to inquiries about that project today to report their lender is no longer lending and the whole project is on hold.  However, they are still committed to the project and are continuing to look for financing. Mayor wants emergency preparedness and CERT training to be done through community councils.  Susan Smith, (the interim southeast quadrant leader) who helps coordinate CERT trainings (a 21 hour training) spoke about the city’s outreach to community councils.  Ray Pugsley is the CERT training contact for the SHCC.  Sally wanted to thank all those that came out and supported the event for the Imperial neighborhood park.          

Committee Reports – View committee reports on www.sugarhousecouncil.com                               

• Land Use (Judi) – Update on DI proposal that went to planning commission in September.  Conditions were made on final approval from planning commission that includes: retail entrance on 21^st South, preserve the Jensen home or move it preferably to another location on the site, urged them to move the drop off to the south or the west, want barrier in the parking lot to cut off traffic from Blockbuster, cut 4 stalls per 1,000 square feet instead of 5, add more landscaping, add 2 areas of 20 square feet of glass on the west side, and add more bicycle spaces.                                                                 
• Plant Sale (Judi) – Really only made $345 due to expenses and a fuller report is online under special reports on the main menu.                                  
• Parks and Open Space (Lynne) – Update to report on website is a response letter from District 7 candidates on their position regarding parks and open space. 
• Transportation (Rawlins) – Organized and led a field trip of city officials and interested parties along the Salt Lake/Jordan Canal portion that runs from I-80 to 3300 S (Brickyard) to discuss pedestrian walkway.  No development can occur on top of the canal due to public utilities restriction and they hope to have a CIP proposal for funding to study the possibility so there is information available for any future developments. 
• Bylaws (Elaine/Ray) – Bylaws haven’t been reviewed for 5 years and two issues have been brought up in the committee for the first round of reviews.  The first is the removal of trustees to identify “what” would cause a removal.  The second is the elections process bylaws regarding ballots, time factors, and other issues on this.  The committee will come before the board this winter with their suggestions and recommendation for discussion and decisions.  Last review had the committee proposing changes section by section so the whole council can digest each proposal.  Bylaws committee hopes to bring issues before the council to get trustee feedback and discussion and then they can review it again before a motion is presented to encourage full discussion.  A proposed bylaws change was passed to council members to review Section 5.1 Number and Qualifications to include a position of “Immediate Past Chair” as a member of the Executive Committee.
• Elections Committee announce SHCC Election results.  Laurie reports the results: Chair – Phil Carlson, 1^st Vice Chair Judi Short, 2^nd Vice Chair – Larry Migliaccio, tie for 3^rd Vice Chair between Maggie Shaw and Rawlins Young (Rawlins wins a coin toss to become 3^rd Vice Chair), Secretary – Amy Barry, and Treasurer – Dolores Donohoo.   

Motion made by Phil Carlson to adjourn passed unanimously. 

Adjournment 8:50 pm