City Council 5-Sep-2017: Dry Creek Park, Library Expansion

Sixty-three residents were in attendance most were there for the Dry Creek Lake or the Library Expansion presentations.

Presentations

1. Dry Creek Park – Lorin Powell, Lehi City Engineer. Lorin gave a presentation (click here to open the presentation) on the current status of the Dry Creek Park plan. Before I do a brief overview of the presentation let me first go over some background info:
   

   • The reservoir is owned by the North Utah County Water Conservancy District (NUCW), whose mission is “to create and maintain structures that provide for watershed protection, flood control, and debris removal at Silver Lake, Tibble Fork, Dry Creek, Battle Creek and Grove Creek dams. To act as a representative body for the residents of the district along with the various other organizations as prescribed by law. To sponsor and protect water conservation projects and resources for the benefit of the residents that reside within the district.”
     The land owned by NUCW relative to Dry Creek lies within three jurisdictions:Highland, Lehi, and Utah County.
   • NUCW is going through the approval and funding process to have the current dam raised about 4 ft.
   • Once the dam is raised it will become a 21.5 year-around water storage reservoir which will be used by Lehi for their pressurized irrigation system.
   • The grants that fund the development of the reservoir will fund a large portion of the cost to create a park adjacent to the lake. Lehi is willing to pick up the remaining development cost and fund the operation of the park.
   • A park and trail conforms with zoning regulations associated with the land within Highland and therefore would be allowed if an application is made.
   • A Dry Creek Citizen Advisory Committee (click the link to go to the group’s Facebook page) was formed by Lehi City. Highland City Staff members have been attending the meetings as well as some affected Highland Residents. Dennis LeBaron is the Highland City Council representative to the committee. Click here to view the Dry Creek Lake, Lehi, Utah Public Information Packet produced by the group. This is the most up to date packet of information available on the project.

   
   Lorin first showed a few slides of other communities that use reservoirs as parks.
   
   

   He then discussed what amenities were being planned for the park. These include:
   
   • Sandy beach
   • Grass between trail and beach
   • 10 ft. trail on the northwest
   • Five – 12x12 Pavilions with picnic tables
   • 2 restroom – one with a fish cleaning station
   • Fixed pier with launch
   • Gravel non-motorized boat ramp.
   • 1 floating dock
   • 1 fixed pier
   • 4 ft trail (along the southeast side)
   • Fence with man-gates (along the southeast side)
   • 2 dumpsters
   • 10 trash receptacles
   • 12 benches around the lake
   • Parking inside the park for 200 cars
   • Parking for another 85 cars along the road.
   • Rock inlet channel
   • Splash water feature (for aeration & fun)
   The advisory committee will continue to meet solicit input from impacted neighbors.
   

2. Library Expansion – Janae Wahnschaffe, Library Director. Roger Dixon, the library board chair introduced the topic and will followed by Donna Morris, the State Librarian, spoke and made complimentary remarks about our library and indicated she supported the proposed expansion. Janae then reviewed progress that the library has made over the last couple of years and then discussed the library’s vision for how the multi-purpose could be used to expand the services it offers to the community (click here to open the presentation). Here is short list of the “more” in “Ready 4 More”:

   • Quiet Space
   • Study Areas
   • Books – The additional space would allow the library to add enough books for Highland to be a full member of the North Utah County Library Coalition (NUCLC)
   • Programs
   • Sensory Play
   • Educational Space
   • Community Connections
   
   
   
   The library plans on setting the room up so that, if needed, shelving and other items could be moved to allow the multi-purpose room to be used by residents or city staff for meetings. An example of who it might be the room is Just For Kids of Utah County,  a non profit organization whose mission is to promote opportunity & independence for children and adults with disabilities. They use the Community Center from 2 to 4 pm one day each week. Occasionally, they move to the multi-purpose room to accommodate a group that needs the Community Center. The council, including me, is supportive of the initiative. However, I just want to be sure that the multi-purpose room will be available the space is needed for non-library purposes.
   

APPEARANCES

• Tim Ball: Expressed concern that Dry Creek Park was inevitable and the we had no say in the matter. In my view he is both right and wrong. Correct in that the 21.5 reservoir will almost certainly be created and the park will also most likely be built. However, Highland (staff and residents) has participated in the advisory committee and Lehi and NCWC have been willing to work with us to mitigate concerns. I am glad people are paying attention to this issue as it brings additional information to the forefront.
• Stacy Creer: Expressed support for the library.
   

CONSENT

All consent items were unanimously approved as part of a single motion.

3. MOTION: Approval of Meeting Minutes for the City Council Regular Session – August 1, 2017  Click here to view the minutes.

4. MOTION: Approval of Meeting Minutes for the City Council Special Session – Election Canvass – August 29, 2017 Click here to view background info from the agenda.

5. RESOLUTION: Interlocal Agreement with Utah County – 4800 West Construction. Click here to view background info from the agenda. The estimated cost of the construction of a right hand turn lane on southbound 4800 at SR92 is $327K. MAG (Mountainland Association of Governments) will pick up $306K of the cost. This leave about $22K which Highland and Alpine will split. An interlocal agreement between Utah County, Highland, and Alpine will be required to facilitate this arrangement.

6. MOTION: Ratifying the Mayor’s Appointment of Councilman Rod Mann to the Lone Peak Public Safety Board. Click here to view background info from the agenda.

ACTION ITEMS

7. PUBLIC HEARING/RESOLUTION: Designation of Open Space Property for Disposal – Highland Hills Subdivision. Click here to view background info from the agenda. The council unanimously approved the sale of the open space property show below to the owners of the home on the west side of the property, Aaron & Liz Swalberg. Liz commented that she found getting signatures from her neighbors to be a valuable experience.
   
   

8. ORDINANCE: Amendment to the Highland City Municipal Code, Enacting Regulations for Private Helicopters. Click here to view background info from the agenda. After discussion on the issue which includes comments from several residents in attendance Brian made a motion to revise our current code to include the following:

   • “Private Helicopter” means a helicopter not used for legitimate emergency
   • services.
     It shall be unlawful for any person to land or park a private helicopter on a street or public place within the City.
   • Any violation of these provisions shall be deemed a class “B” misdemeanor,
     punishable as provided by state law, and grounds for the City to revoke any permit issued hereunder.
   And to deter any decision on residential helipads until staff does additional research.
   

9. MOTION: Issuance of building permits for pools in a “No Build Zone” – Country French. Click here to view background info from the agenda. We again discussed the issue of allowing pools within the designated 80 ft. No Build area. It was pointe out that the planning commission in 2008 approved the concept of allowing pools within the no-build area. However, the recommendation never reached the city council and so no change to policy was implemented. There was some back and forth the an attorney representing Matt Bowman. In the end Brian Braithwaite asked for additional time to sort through the question and come to a determination as to what was best for the everyone concerned. We agreed to with one dissenting vote (Dennis LeBaron) to continue this to the next council meeting.

10. ORDINANCE: Amending the Highland City Municipal Code Section 12.32.040 - Disposal of Open Space Property. Click here to view background info from the agenda. A proposal was made to clarify the signature requirements for disposing of Open Space property in large subdivisions. The following language was proposed.
    
    For subdivisions over _________ lots, the petition shall require only the requisite signatures of (1) the property owners for the plat in which the open space lies, or (2) where the open space shares a border with more than one plat in a subdivision, the plats to which the open space is contiguous, or (3) where a trail system is part of or is affected by the open space, the plats
    wherein the trail system is located.
    
    The council discussion was centered on the number of number of lots. In the end 200 lots was proposed and adopted. (Yes: Brian Braithwaite, Dennis LeBaron, Rod Mann; No: Ed Dennis, Tim Irwin). 
    

11. ORDINANCE: Amending the Highland City Municipal Code Section 2.44.040 - Disposal of Personal Public Property. Click here to view background info from the agenda. To simplify the disposal of low cost personal public property staff recommended that city council approval not be required for individual items with a value of less than $300. Currently city council  approval is required for all items. This motion was unanimously approved with the stipulation that the name of the individuals purchasing surplus be recorded and that staff give city council notice all items being put up for surplus.
    

MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL & STAFF COMMUNICATION ITEMS

• Development Review Process – Nathan Crane, City Administrator. We were informed that staff is reviewing our Development Code to ensure that it complies with State Law. He also wanted to gauge our willingness to revise the approval process. He would be sending an email with more details asking for feedback. Ed expressed a reluctance to delegate these kind of decisions. Tim thought there may certain issues where planning commission approval was sufficient. I would tend to side with Ed on this issue but am willing to look at any recommendations for staff.
• Electronic Sign – Justin Parduhn, O&M Director. Justin looked into the cost of purchasing portable electronic signs like the ones we used to promote the Road Fee/Tax meeting earlier this year. The rental cost is $120 per day. The purchase cost was $14,500 to $17,000. Council indicated it was friendly to the notion of purchasing one since they would get frequent use (roadwork notification and community events) especially as we begin major road projects next year.  We would need to amend the current budget to purchase one this year.
  
• Gravel Pit Discussion – Mark Thompson, Mayor. The city currently owns a “C” shaped piece of land adjacent to the gravel pit. The mayor indicated that the gravel pit owners may be interested in a land swap where we would end up owning a more rectangular piece of ground. The council indicated we were amenable to pursuing a dialog with the owners on this matter. The land with the red boarder is currently owned by the city.
  
  

Links:

• Council agenda with my rough notes
• Staff presentation 
• Dry Creek Lake presentation by Lehi City Engineer
• North Utah County Water Conservancy District Website 
• Dry Creek Citizen Advisory Committee Facebook Page
• Dry Creek Lake, Lehi, Utah Public Information Packet 
• Library Ready 4 More presentation
• Just for Kids, Utah County Facebook Page