SHCC Meeting Minutes – October 2005

From Sugar House

Attendance

Trustees present

Janice Anderl, Suanna Armitage, Philip Carlson, Sarah Carlson, Dolores Donohoo, Barbara Green, Art Haddow, Mark Holland, Michael G. Kavanagh, Scott Kisling, Andrea Moesser, Tina Otteson, Derek Payne, Ruth Price, Ray Pugsley, Judi Short, Rex Sears, Grace Sperry, Steve Wilson, Rawlins Young

Trustees excused

Lynne Olson, Cabot Nelson, Susie Petheram, Helen Peters, Emil Kmet, David Lawver

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order

7:07 pm meeting called to order

Approval of Minutes and Amendments

Ruth Price, Derek Payne and Steve Wilson attended the September meeting and asked that the minutes be corrected to reflect that. Ray Pugsley made a motion to approve the minutes as amended, and Sarah Carlson seconded the motion. The motion passed, 13-0-1.

Petition Renewals

Michael G. Kavanagh submitted his petition to renew his petition for the community council in the Westminster area, and the petition was approved by acclimation.

Elections

Sue Armitage, Elections Committee chair, asked candidates to speak in the order they appear on the ballot.

Candidates for Chair: Phil Carlson, Mark Holland. Candidates for vice chair (vote for three) Susie Petheram, L. Rex Sears, Art Haddow, Dave Lawver and Sarah Carlson (Tina Ottesen withdrew as a candidate). Dave Lawver was absent so did not speak. Cabot Nelson agreed to run for secretary and Mark Holland read his statement. Dolores Donohoo agreed to run for treasurer. Ballots were distributed to trustees, it was announced that the polls would remain open until 8:30 p.m.

Treasurer’s report

Dolores reported balance of $5017.87, water sales of $32, expenses of summer party $27.99, ending balance 5,021.88.

Public Input

Linda Hull 1327 South 9th East, formerly of the SHCC: the alley that runs from 9th East to Lincoln, and then N and S to Browning is in disrepair; the potholes are terrible. She has filled out a capital improvement application and sought SHCC support. Points: 1) The city should stand up to the responsibility of maintaining the alleys. 2) Overlay would cost about $19,000. Judi Short made a motion to write a letter, which was seconded. Rawlins did a survey of all the alleys in SH and the city is very reluctant to maintain alleys, so if they decide to keep them they should be maintaining them. The motion passed 16-0-2. Later in the meeting, Mark Holland signed Mrs. Hull’s letter.

Scott Kisling announced that the City Council was holding a meeting on October 11 at 7 p.m. on the third floor of city hall to discuss the different types of department stores, affecting Walmart’s use of its property at Parley’s Way.

Crime Report

Reported by Jason Hathaway, SLPD. In this area, primarily the SW part of SH, pay attention to what doesn’t look right, be sure to notify police, do not start your car when it is cold and leave it running. Thieves look for a running car, as it only takes 5 seconds to steal. 1985 to 2000 year Honda’s seem to be the favorite right now. If it is not running, it depends on the car and what might be in it, how attractive the contents are.

Set up a neighborhood watch. The “Club” is great, if you use it. Someone asked about the Club Karumba 1049 East 2100 South. The city gave them a license based on the # of parking stalls the previous owner had. The music is loud, and too many cars for the parking spaces available. A neighbor asked what to do to about it and Jason said you should call, call, call, so if you can hear the music call them, let the officers come to your house and hear what you hear, the music from your house. That gives them data to take action. Call 799-3000 to report an incident, call when it is happening.

Mayor’s Office Report

Reported by Annette Daley. This weekend 5-8 Great SL book festival: “Charlotte’s Rose”, “Unfinished Life” and “Refuge” are the featured books. Freedom Forum on Oct 12 at 7 p.m. Exhibits by Sebastio from October 1 to Dec 14. There will be a community dialog about the exhibit. Used book sale at the library, October 22-27. Oct 22 is Make a Difference Day. New person in Community Affairs: Salt Lake native Duncan Moench, Director of Communicationsis Duncan.moench@slcgov,com

City Council update

Reported by Dale Lambert. The Council has been working on an infill ordinance aimed at preventing “McMansions.” Council will meet again with the Planning Department with a public hearing on October 25 to gather pubic input on the proposed ordinance. Council would like to have the ordinance enacted by the end of the year. A home built on its existing foundation will be an over-the-counter process. We have done a good job of identifying what the problem is. Most of the problems that have happened have been with over-the-counter permits. In a new home, there will be a design review process, but we have not yet come up with what the criteria are. The biggest complaint we receive is from front-yard setbacks, side yards, and location of garages. Most of the big houses now put the garage in the front; this ordinance is trying to be compatible with the existing neighborhood where garages are usually in the back. This would be a citywide ordinance, and then go to the neighborhoods to define it further. Things vary by neighborhood, such as size of lots, architectural style, we’d like to have a general approach because we won’t get around to doing a neighborhood by neighborhood ordinance immediately so need something in place. For the most part, with older homes families insist on remodels. Scott K said if we limit that, we will drive families out, but we have examples of people who build homes who destroy the rest of the neighborhood because the home they build is bigger in scale. If you have strong feelings, attend open house Oct 25th. Ask this group to identify neighborhoods that are at greater risk, if there are neighborhoods where a lot of big houses have been built. Are there areas of Sugar House where we don’t need this? Before you could remodel, or do a tear down and rebuild, or on vacant lots where you want to build a new home. The Planning Department says we can’t come up with solutions for neighborhoods, so they will do a citywide ordnance, then later do the neighborhoods.

Scott Kisling asked about Walmart and non-conforming buildings. He asked if you adopt a zoning ordinance and an existing structure becomes non-conforming, if they make significant changes they would have to comply with the new ordinance. The CB zone only allows 15,000 SF for retail, why wouldn’t that exclude another person coming in, that would require a variance. If we change zoning might have a takings problem because current owner thinks they have a right to a certain use. Rawlins talked about SH Park areas, each subdivision was built differently might look at the subdivisions to subdivide When they were built the subdivisions had standard setbacks

Candidates for City Council District 7

Five minutes for each candidate to talk. Danny Walz said he was six votes away from Gordon, that Soren is #1 and Gordon #2. He said he spoke last time, so the others can have the time tonight. Gordon Poulson said he would be knocking on doors. Public safety is a big concern, also would like more activities for our seniors. He has a business in property management, and appreciates our support. Email is gordon@ poulson.net.

Soren Simonson said that he is a strong supporter of local business, not in favor of short term quick fixes, long time involved in parley’s trail coalition, SLC historic landmarks commission. Neighborhood preservation issues – we recently heard that city wide historic preservation plan is staring to move forward. Many neighborhoods would like to regulate better than they can now. Many older neighborhoods, might also look at historic neighborhood preservation, might give them an incentive to improve their homes. He would like to work to lobby legislature to open it up to businesses that are historical. Keep community prosperous, beautiful, how the decisions we make affect the long term sustainability, walkable community etc. vote4soren@2comcast.net

Unit Legalization

Pete Kearns of 2704 Chadwick. Property was flagged as an illegal duplex. He tore down one car garage, and then went for a permit for a two-car garage, and he couldn’t get a permit. He is living in main part of house; there is another section that he could rent out. The garage is complete, property has been used since 1940’s as a duplex, has approval of all the abutting neighbors. Most of the street is duplexes on his side of the street. Ruth motion that we approve the petition with the condition that all your neighbors have approved. Grace seconded the motion. Call the question on the motion. Yes to end discussion 12-1-1. Ruth restated the motion. It passed, 9-5-0.

Sugar House Merchants Association

Reported by Barbara Green. The merchants will sponsor trick or treat Oct 31 4-6 p.m. Posters will be on the stores that will be participating. November there will be a turkey trot aquatic center, and turkey days, Santa will return Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Salt Lake Master Gardeners

Charlene Holgen attended to speak for Salt Lake Master Gardeners, they provide volunteers to provide county extension agent to do their job. Volunteers do mainly cultural programs, program here since late 80’s, training has been 40 hours of hands on training, hope to change and make sure that people we train give back to their communities. Help with things like Gilgal gardens, now taking on Hidden Hollow. Volunteers help train community in landscaping, we don’t endorse any products. Helping Ty Harrison with his cleanup next Thursday, help groups/people learn how to prune, plant at the right time, help with wildflowers. New program applications 10/28 classes begin Jan 25 Wednesday and Friday 130-330. Classes limited to 40 people. Cost is $125, which includes a reference manual. Program is all new and has just been re-written. Won’t have evening classes this year. Take the program I the county you live in. Weber does, Logan, etc.

Westminster Park

Reported by Dell Cook presented the first plan to demolish the park, then street concrete removed; swings will be installed 1700 south 10th east. Tables and benches will be added. Dale is happy to come again and present this again next monthly so the neighbors know.

Westminster College Update

Steve Morgan, EVP Westminster, and Ty Harrison, faculty at Westminster, on the impacts to Emigration Creek from building projects. The master plan showed a health and wellness building (finished in one month), nursing school, swimming pool (already finished and set to open in January), and an elevated playing field with parking underneath. Derek Payne is lead architect on these projects. When they started designing, they were impacting Emigration Creek. He showed the landscaping that they plan to do around the creek, so there won’t be any impact at all on the creek. Takes care of some drainage issues, allows us opportunity to fix a dangerous trail, landscape with plant materials that are native to the area. Will be able to walk all the way around the campus on the trail. They will create an amphitheater, a place for classes and events. There is a comprehensive landscape plan for entire campus. Will be doing some really interesting some of the new landscaping, water conservation, different type of plantings, Derek will send the plans to the yahoo group so we can see the details. Said if we Google Ty Harrison we get to his website which will detail for us all about the teaching that is done using the creek along the campus. Dedication will be in January, please come and see what an asset this is to the campus.

Land Use and Zoning Report

Report by Scott Kisling. There is still confusion about zoning the Kmart properties CB does not permit department stores, nothing over 15,000 square feet, parking in front. Scott concerned that the value and definition of a CB might be diluted if the Kmart property were allowed to expand, allowing something bigger, and then the remaining CB zones along 21st South Parleys could be allowed to put a more intense use on their properties if the precedent is set. When it was originally built Kmart legally fit the zone, but the city rezoned the property in 1995 to community business. If someone buys it now, they should be smart enough to know what is allowed in a CB zone. Walmart now owns the property. A Walmart could still build a department store in existing Kmart store. He had concerns about the height of the Foothill Place development.

Election results

Treasurer Dolores Donohoo, Secretary Cabot Nelson, and Vice Chairs: 1st Rex, 2nd Sarah, 3rd tie between Art and Susie. Art won a Coin toss. Mark Holland remains the chair.

Parliamentary post-mortem

Ray Pugsley presented a chart from Utah Society of Parliamentarians. The chart listed what you want to do and the action you can take. He then talked about some actions we did tonight and how they fit into the chart, to help guide us at future meetings.

Sugar House Small Business Presentations

Grace Sperry said Sugar House Glass would be the merchant featured next month Art would like to sponsor Brookside builder as the community business.

Adjourn

A unamious motion to adjourn at 9 p.m.