City Council 6-Oct-2015: Open Space Prop Sale, Mass Notification System, Town Center Work Session

After our last couple of meeting that had very full agendas and went late it was nice to have a limited agenda meeting that ended before 9 pm.

We did hold a short work session (less than 1 hour) prior to the council meeting to discuss potential town center changes. The discussion basically centered on presenting a summary of our discussion from last time and then outlining possible directions for moving forward on Town Center Zoning (click here to see the presentation). The initial conclusion from the 1st meeting is that:

• The Town Center is seen as different from the standard development pattern in Highland. Desires for it to be an identifiable, activity generating, gathering place conflict with the large lot, higher end, development pattern.
• There is not a current, consensus based, articulated vision for the Town Center.

Note, only one member (Tim Heyrend) of the planning commission attended this work session.

My personal observation is that there are number of town center objectives that are in conflict with each other. Including the following:

• We want open space (I believe some would prefer parks) but we also want the property to generate income.
• We want business but we don’t want traffic.
• We want economic growth but want to limit the number of residents.
• We care about the current land owners and don’t want to harm them but want to change what can be built on their land thus reducing its value.
• We want the road between Ace Hardware and the Splash Pad to be completed by a developer but view developers as greedy and want to limit their profit.
  

Council Meeting

Public Comment

• None

Presentations

1. Elections – JoD’Ann Bates, City Recorder
   .
   JoD reviewed with the council some historical election data, the schedule of activities that go into planning an election, where election will be held this year and the current number of active voters in Highland (the number of voters that have participated in at least one election over the last ? years). Below is a summary of this information:
   
   Early Voting will be held at City Hall on the following dates and times:
   Tues Oct 20 – Fri Oct 23   9:00 am to 1:00 pm
   Tues Oct 27 – Thurs Oct 29  3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
   Fri Oct 30  1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
   
   General Election: Tuesday Nov 3  7:00 am to 8:00 pm
   Precincts HI01, HI04, HI05, HI07 & HI08
   Highland City Hall, 5400 West Civic Center Dr
   
   Precincts HI02, HI03, HI06, HI09 & HI10
   Highland Community Center, 5378 W 10400 N
   
   Candidate information and Sample Ballot
   
   Precinct Map – click to view larger version
    
   
   Active voters: Total 9,184
   

   Precinct	Voters	Precinct	Voters
   HI01	992	HI06	1,007
   HI02	1,060	HI07	1,061
   HI03	874	HI08	760
   HI04	815	HI09	1,164
   HI05	1,141	HI10	310

   
   2013 Voter info:
   Absentee ballots requested: 758
   Absentee ballots returned: 564
   Early voters: 399
   Total ballots cast: 2,391
   
   Voting Percentage History:
   2005: 41%  Mayor + 2 City Council Seats
   2007: 51%  3 City Council + State Education Referendum)
   2009: 35%  Mayor + 2 City Council Seats
   2011: 21%  3 City Council seats
   2013: 32%  Mayor + 2 City Council Seats

2. Library – Kent Slade: Postponed.

CONSENT ITEMS

3. MOTION: Meeting Minutes for the City Council Regular Session – September 1, 2015. Brian moved to continue this to next council meeting so that the minutes can be revised to include more detail including names of individuals recognized, details on fling finances ... . See agenda page 8. Approved unanimously.

4. MOTION: Approval of Election Poll Workers – Highland 2015 Municipal General Election. See agenda page 16. Approved unanimously.

Public Hearing and ACTION ITEMS

5. PUBLIC HERAING and RESOLUTION: Open Space Purchase – Canterbury North. Under discussion was a proposal to sell a trail easement between two homes that is redundant. There is a bit of asphalt on the easement and the land is not well maintained. There were several comments from residents in favor. None were opposed. One nearby resident pointed out she had the same issue adjacent to her home.  I expect she will seek to purchase this as well. Another resident suggested that the proceeds from the property sale be applied to the parks and trail budget (this suggestion was adopted).
   
   One correction. In the agenda it is listed as a 0.64 acre parcel of land. In reality it is a 0.064 acre parcel. See agenda page 18. The sale was unanimously approved with the condition that any profit be allocated to the parks and trails budget as well as that city staff make any appropriate signage changes.
   
   
   
   

6. RESOLUTION: Highland City Justice Court – Recertification. See agenda page 24. Unanimously approved
   

7. RESOLUTION: Intergovernmental Agreement with Utah County - Everbridge Mass Notification System. See council agenda page 39. We were subscribed to a county maintained emergency notification system but that system was recently retired. Everbridge is a mass notification system (email, text, phone) for which the county has a discounted pricing agreement. Devirl Barfuss evaluated the system and gave a favorable report in the prior meeting (see prior council agenda pages 229-249 for Devirl’s report).  Approved unanimously  with the inclusion of a whereas to indicate that  this is to replace a system which is no longer functional

MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL & STAFF COMMUNICATION ITEMS

• Brian Braithwaite requested an item be added to the communication box to have Brian Cook, who runs the program, return in January with report on outcome of urban Deer Control Program.

• Tim Irwin inquired as to the intersection of 11800 and the study. Nathan Crane stated that there were some anomalies that happened and they had to adjust the count. They are working on that and should have a report to staff in the next couple of weeks

STAFF AND COUNCIL ACTION ITEM LIST

Description	Requested by / Owner	Due Date	Status
Road Capital Improvement Plan for FY 15-16. Prioritize and Communicate to Residents	City Council		Continued discussion
Determine Park Use for Recreation	City Council Parks Staff	4th Qtr. 2015	Staff to make recommendations
Building Use Policy - Fees	Rod Emily	3rd Qtr. 2015	Staff gathering information
HW Bldg. – PW Storage Status	City Council Mayor/PW	End of 2015	In progress
Moratorium for the Town Center Overlay	City Council	Jan 2016

LINKS:

• Council agenda with my notes. If you click on the comment button on the top right of the Adobe Reader application or in the Tools Menu, depending on the version of Adobe Reader you are using, you will see a list of all comments in a panel on the right side of your screen. Note, this is a large file and may take a minute to download.
• Staff presentation slides from council meeting. 
• City Council Candidate information and sample ballot for upcoming election.
• Town Center work session presentation