Council Meeting - July 21, 2015

Work Session

We discussed items for the City Council meeting. My notes are with each item below.

Council Meeting

Public Comment

Nobody signed up.

Consent Agenda

The minutes from the June 16^th Council meeting were approved. The following poll workers were approved for the municipal election: Nicholas Banks, Glenn Dodge, Roberta Dodge.

City Reports
David Bunker - No TSSD meeting this month. Staff met with Principal Bromley to see how we can work together on programs for the youth. Looking at things like chess and robotics. Also talked about having sports teams offer summer classes for the youth in the community. Teen flag football starting this fall. Elementary flag football will also be starting. Soccer sign-ups are still open. Worked out agreement with Stars United to use Mesquite Park. They will do some service for us and will pay a fee.

CM Rees - I'm still working on the State of the City. I sent an email last week to the Council with all of the suggested topics and requested feedback. Asked Council to let me know if there are other items we should address. Cultural Arts Committee sent their org chart and budget for FY2016 and I've sent that to the Council as well. It includes a date night event in September, a Winterfest in January, the Arts Festival in June, a community theater production, the annual summer concert series, and supplies.

Mayor Gygi - MAG won't be meeting until August. None of his other committees have met, other than Golf Course Finance Committee. These meetings will be noticed and open. Next one will be August 6th at 8pm.

CM Geddes - Utah Valley Dispatch opened bids for new building. All bids were much higher than expected. Committee will meet on August 13th to discuss potential cost cutting options. They may have to ask cities for more money and we will have to make a decision then. Parks & Trails committee discussing roundabout beautification and Bayhill Park. Community breakfast will be August 15th at 9:00am.

CM Crawley - Golf Course Committee appointed Rick Stewart as chair. Will look at ways to improve golf course and then look at alternatives to see if anything compares to continuing as is.

Review/Action on Intent to Boundary Adjust Wilson & Day Properties

The city has received two requests to initiate an Adjustment of a Common Municipal Boundary forms; Brent & Neva Wilson, and Gina & Scott Day. The Day property is located at 4495 N 900 W; and the Wilson property is located at 4547 N 900 W. The Day’s and Wilson’s are requesting that their properties be transferred from the municipal jurisdiction of Pleasant Grove City to the City of Cedar Hills. The Day’s and Wilson’s have also completed and filed a request to initiate with Pleasant Grove City.

Both families are on a septic system and want to boundary adjust to have access to our sewer system. The Day's had a septic tank failure and had to connect to a sewer line. We allowed her to connect to the Cedar Hills line with the understanding she would request an adjustment into Cedar Hills. Pleasant Grove will have to approve this as well as Cedar Hills. Staff will contact the City Manager of PG to see where they are in this process. This was approved.

Review/Action on Fireworks East of Canyon Road

Due to fire conditions as assessed by the Lone Peak Public Safety District under the jurisdiction of the Fire Chief Brad Freeman, the fire marshal Ben Bailey has issued fireworks and open fire restrictions for all areas east of Canyon Road within the city limits of Cedar Hills. A resolution has been prepared in accordance with the recommendations of the Lone Peak Fire Chief that fireworks of all types including aerial and non-aerial and open fires of any type shall be prohibited east of Canyon Road within the city limits of Cedar Hills. Also, this year during the 4th of July celebrations and also last year the City identified one location for residents who live in restricted areas to gather to celebrate with legal fireworks. The location selected has been Mesquite Park. Recently the city received a complaint regarding this location from a neighbor regarding the concentrated use of the park for fireworks. City staff including the public works department, recreation department, and fire chief met to discuss the continued use of the park as a location for fireworks display. For the remainder of the fireworks season, it is the recommendation from the various departments that the park continue to be used as a location for the discharge of fireworks. However, modifications to the areas used in the park will be addressed. Public works will designate a safe zone a minimum of 125 feet north of the southern fence line where firework discharge will not be allowed. This safe zone will be identified with signage and cones. Following the evening, public works will clean up any remaining debris from the park and will offer this service to any home that abuts the park. Public Works staff will be made available for clean-up on Saturday. The resident who complained has been made aware of this suggestion. I asked that we evaluate how the buffer zone works and if it doesn't, we may need to re-evaluate whether or not we can designate an area for fireworks. This was approved.

Discussion on Restricted Access at Heiselt’s Hollow and Bayhill

As discussed in the June 16, 2015 city council meeting, modifications to Heiselts Hollow Drive and Bayhill Drive have been installed to limit access beyond the end of pavement of the public roadway. Access still exists at the end of Bayhill Drive for the contractor who will be installing public improvements to install said improvements. The contractor is now starting construction on that project. Heiselts Hollow access is restricted with a gate which allows public safety personnel, water district personnel and municipal access in addition to authorized entry. Several concerns have been identified with continued public access to the terminated street. In addition to the efforts to curb illegal firearms discharge within city limits, fire dangers associated with firearms discharge, and the proliferation of garbage in the area, public works has identified several other concerns including storm water issues, traffic issues, damage to facilities, etc. Here is the list of concerns Public Works identified:

A) Collection of City street storm water on Heiselt’s Hollow Drive carries silt into the inlet boxes and eventually into the North Avanyu retention basin. This dirt is carried onto the street by vehicles accessing the dirt road above the gate. This has been an ongoing problem and violates the City Storm Water Management Plan. The City expends additional equipment hours and manpower to maintain the street and storm sewer system. 

B) Residents living on Heiselt’s Hollow Drive have complained multiple times about the mud tracked onto the street and then into their driveways. According to city ordinance 6-1-3 "It shall be unlawful to place or spill without immediately cleaning up any material or debris on a public street or sidewalk. It shall also be unlawful for the driver of any vehicle to track mud or dirt onto a public street."

C) Residences complain about the speed of traffic accessing the hill side.

D) Vehicles using the water tank access road have caused excessive erosion to the road. Staff has provided some measure of restoration and received contractor bids to complete a more extensive repair.

E) Erosion of the access road has caused storm water to flow away from the natural drainage and poses potential flooding of homes in the area. Technicians have been called by concerned residents and they have performed work to divert the water onto Heiselt’s Hollow and into the storm drain. Again, this places mud on the street and silt into the drain system.

F) PW Technicians have been assigned repeatedly to remove trash dumped on the hillside. Those illegally dumping have been using the access on Heiselt’s Hollow.

G) People using the access on Heiselt’s Hollow have been building fires in areas of extreme fire hazard.

H) Vehicle access has damaged the City Bonneville Shore Line Trail.

I) Vehicle access has potentially compromised the aqueduct paralleling the Bonneville shoreline trail.

J) Citizen complaints concerning shooting firearms in the City limits.

K) Complaints concerning the limited parking, on Heiselt’s Hollow, to access the Bonneville shoreline trail.

L) Complaints from S.L. Metro water that the City permits vehicle access to the aqueduct access road.

M) Discussions with the Forest Service requesting that we do not permit vehicle access in the undeveloped part of the City. This access hinders their efforts to protect the forest service property from vehicle damage.

Jeff Maag (Public Works Director) presented this info. The gate at Heiselt's Hollow allows for ATV and motorcycle access. The gate was provided and installed by Metropolitan Water Association. They don't want access on the shoreline trail that could damage the aqueduct. Stated that anyone going through the private property is considered trespassing.  

Discussion on Traffic Control at 4600 West and Harvey Blvd

Public Comment:
Mr. Curtis - Appreciates time of Mr. Bunker and Mayor Gygi in discussing options. They made a proposal for alterations of fence and a possible chicane. Preferred option is less cost to taxpayers, which is a four-way stop. Realizes this is a collector road; however, until street goes further west across North County Blvd, feels a four-way stop will work and will be a solution until road goes through to Highland. Feels four-way stop is more cost-effective and fixes safety concerns. Will work with the city on whatever decision is made.

Due to concerns residents have raised regarding traffic safety at the intersection of 4600 West and

Harvey Blvd, specifically sight distance and safety concerns, the City has considered various alternatives to modify the intersection. Hales Engineering presented an option for a roundabout installation earlier this year. However, the costs were deemed prohibitive. Mr. Hales also discussed the viability of a four way stop. Due to the disproportionate flow of current traffic volumes through the intersection from east to west, the projected average daily traffic demands, intersection traffic control via a four way stop was considered ill-advised and would not meet the design objectives of the collector roadway. Another option recently discussed would be to modify the location of the stop sign, reduce the height of the fence in the Temple Ridge development to increase sight distance and install a traffic calming device to reduce speeds on Harvey Blvd. The preferred traffic calming device for this location is proposed to be a chicane or also known as a choker. Residents from Temple Ridge have been involved with the City in preliminary discussions and have been invited to participate in a discussion with the city council.

Here is an example of what it would look like:

Here are the anticipated costs:

Mr. Bunker has spoken with residents from Temple Shadows about reducing height of their fence. At this time they also discussed the chicane as a way to reduce speed on Harvey. An advantage for these residents is that it also gives them a pedestrian access point right across from the chapel they utilize, instead of going to the intersection and coming back. Preference of those at Temple Shadows is a four-way stop at the intersection. I asked why staff prefers the chicane and Mr. Bunker stated that statistics show that four-way stops on roads like this aren't as safe. Drivers tend to not stop as they recognize there isn't a lot of traffic coming from opposite direction and also speed up to make up time for stopping. Feels it will cause a backlog for traffic going to Deerfield. Mr. Curtis isn't convinced that there will be a backlog of traffic or that people won't stop at the sign. He drives this every day. Because the city will bear the cost of the chicane and also agreed to replace the fence of Temple Shadows to fix visibility issues, the residents of Temple Shadows feel the four-way stop makes more sense because of cost. CM Geddes understands the concerns as he lives near that area. Hasn't heard of accidents or other issues at the intersection. There are other ways for residents in that area outside of Temple Shadows to get out of the neighborhoods going west instead of that intersection. Suggested we try a 6-month period of a four-way stop to see how it works. CM Augustus feels we need to trust the professionals as we don't know traffic. Having a trial period means drivers are having to be re-trained on using the intersection if it doesn't work. 

Discussion on Signs at Roundabout

Staff has been asked to prepare a discussion on signage in the public right-of-ways. Currently, staff uses the round-a-bout located at 4600 N Cedar Hills Dr to inform residents of the various programs, activities, and events that are happening throughout the community. There was a period when staff was asked to not place signage in the round-a-bout, as a result, recreational activities saw 15-30% declines in participation rates. This decrease in participation revenue totaled over $9,000. Any proposed change to the sign ordinance would need to go through the Planning Commission for review/recommendation as it is in Title 10 of City Code and is considered a land use issue.

Mr. Goodwin presented. Stated 10-25-4b gives an exemption for government use. Code states "Exempt: Signage dedicated for government use including traffic signs, traffic lights, street signs, directional signs, public safety signs and related signage shall be exempt from the prohibition against signage in any public right of way." City uses public land as a way to get the word out regarding city events. He met with Greg Gordon (Community Services Director) to discuss impact of not having signs at roundabout. For a year we did move the signs to the sides of the roundabout and saw a decrease in participation in recreation events. Wants feedback from Council on where to go. 

Mr. Shaw (legal counsel) states that the current ordinance does not allow for recreation and festival type signage. It could be fixed, but we are currently not in compliance with our ordinance. CM Geddes would like to see a more uniform sign so that sleeves stay in the roundabout and the sign can just change. Staff is discussing if there is a way to make signs nicer looking. CM Crawley disagrees that there is a problem with the signs. 

There are several options to consider. Looking at other locations (Heritage Park, Canyon Road, fire dept, etc.) but staff feels these areas aren't as noticeable as the roundabout. I suggested finding a compromise of some sort, whether that be limiting the number events per year or the time frame with a required period of time in between with no signs. This has to go the Planning Commission. A public hearing will be held during the August Planning Commission meeting. They will make a recommendation to the Council.

Discussion on St. Andrews Estates Property

A discussion regarding the current and possible future zoning of St. Andrews Estates would be beneficial for planning purposes. Currently the proposed 22 lot residential subdivision is zoned H-1 residential. Future uses could include residential or possibly commercial aspects. If the Council has interest to investigate the use of the property for commercial purposes, it is recommended that a preliminary plan be developed that would address zoning and land use.  The process to explore possible change of use and re-zoning would include appropriate council discussion and planning commission involvement.

Mayor Gygi feels we should talk with real estate professionals about what the best use of the land is. I am opposed to commercial development here. Our General Plan clearly indicates that we intended for the commercial zone to be in a central location, where it currently exists. This area was reconfigured with the intent of residential lots and is surrounded by residential communities. I feel our current plan keeps the small town feel of having commercial concentrated in one location.

Discussion on Roles and Duties of Mayor, City Council, and City Manager

Councilmember Crawley has asked that a discussion be held regarding the roles and duties of the

Mayor, City Council and City Manager. Mr. Shaw presented. Cedar Hills has a six-member Council form of government. In state code, the Mayor serves as the CEO of the city. In city code, the city manager is the Chief Administrative Officer. Mayor chairs meetings, sets the agenda of the meetings, and responsible for hiring and firing of city manager with advice and consent of the City Council. City Manager reports to the Mayor, but to do those things approved by the City Council. Day to day administrative functions fall to the city manager. He directs staff. City code gives specific responsibilities to the city manager. City Council is responsible for setting broad policies, ordinances, resolution, and anything regulatory in nature. Should not get involved in the management of day-to-day affairs. Council should give direction through the mayor, which then goes to the city manager. Feels the analysis given by Eric Johnson aligns with what Kirton McConkie is presenting. Council may want to enact some protocols for how these things are handled to avoid chaos.