City Council Meeting Minutes 20 July 2010

by Devirl

It was a five-hour meeting but an important one for the Country Club Subdivision.

Appearances

1. Greg Parkinson, member of the Open Space Steering Committee (OSSC), spoke first. There is a new U-Haul storage facility in Highland. – Greg asked the City Council to tell the Planning Commission to verify the information an applicant gives them before approving anything. The picture shown to the PC was nothing like what is actually on the site. The buildings were never built and RV’s, boats etc. are being parked there without permission from the City. There are two problems.
a. No PC member visited the site and therefore the PC made an uniformed decision.
b. Enforcement issue - City is not enforcing its own regulations. NOTE: The City Development Director once told me (EDB) that enforcement wasn’t his (City Hall’s) job. They depend on the residents to point out infractions; reactive, not proactive. That assumes the residents know the law and take the initiative to report the problem. It’s been my experience that even when infractions are reported, the city historically does not respond well. I talked to Councilman Smith about this after the meeting. He’s had the same experience and the Council will move to improve on that. I suspect the new City Administrator, John Park, will get an assignment. By the way John came across in the meeting as quite knowledgeable and is not shy about speaking up.

2. Dave Hall, also a member of the OSSC, spoke in support of the proposed ordinance to allow street legal ATV’s to be operated on the city streets. The CC approved the new ordinance and directed Police Chief Botkin to enforce the ordinance ie pull over the ATV drivers and verify that the vehicle is street legal, the driver is licensed and over sixteen. Objective is get the “five year old ATV drivers” off the residential street. The chief said the police department will respond to calls from citizens.

3. Resident Compliant – Similar situation to #1 above: The City Council recently approved an application for a resident to landscape ten feet into an open space area. The applicant misrepresented the impact on the open space area and the neighbors No one actually went out and looked. Scott Smith took responsibility for the bad decision. The applicant’s neighbors complained to the Open Space Committee Monday and spoke at the CC meeting Tuesday. The approval is being rescinded. “This will not happen again.” said Smith.

At this point we were twenty minutes into a five-hour meeting and this report is on its way to being ten pages long. The rest of the notes will be much more cryptic. The meeting minutes will be on the website in about thirty days for those who want all the detail.

Agenda Items – not taken is sequence by the CC.
6.1 Tree Commission Report – Highland was given the Tree City USA award again for about the 12th year. Mayor Ritchie was very complimentary. We were one of just a couple cities that planted over 400 trees this year. The annual tree planting included 3 Eagle Scout projects, 132 volunteers, 258 volunteer hours, and about $8000 in grant money. I’m guessing the replacement value of the trees planted over the past ten years exceeds $3,000,000. Their value will triple in the next ten years.

7.1 & 7.2 Group Home and Elderly Home Ordinances passed. We, the residents in the Country Club Subdivision, received several complements and expressions of appreciation from the Mayor, three council persons and a couple members of the Planning Commission. Some of the comments were:
a. “You did work that we did not have to do.”
b. “This is a model ordinance for other cities to follow.”
c. “I read the ordinance very carefully and couldn’t find anything I would change.”
Larry Mendenhall of the old regime told me personally that they really thought there was nothing they could do but to approve the Makin application. He voted in favor of the new ordinance and was very happy to do so.

7.3 CC approved a temporary change to the Town Center development plan to limit the number of residences to 162 (Toscana Town Houses). The CC still has a lot of research and debate left concerning the town center development.

The CC had three difficult issues handed to them in January. A legal battle over a rehab facility, a large town house development that nobody wanted and a budget that had to be cut. In addition they have the SR-92 construction and the 4800 West widening going on. The covering of the Murdock Canal and the addition of a major trail have added significantly to their burden. They are working hard (the CC probably 20 hours a week each and mayor Ritchie 40+) and solving tough problems.

7.4 Street legal ATV on Highland streets. Alpine passed a similar ordinance 18 months ago and Chief Botkin said the police have not had an increase in accidents, etc. in Alpine.

7.? The CC discussed a farmer’s market for Highland. There was considerable deliberation. The CC was very careful to word it well. I think it got approved.

9.1 There was a serious safety issue so the CC approved a change to Wendy’s drive through traffic flow. “This is a big improvement.” Councilman Smith said he asked a U-DOT supervisor about putting a light in where Town Center Drive enters SR-92. He was told, “Do even talk to me about that.” Matt Shipp, City Engineer, shrugged his shoulders, bounced his head a couple times and said ”Don’t’ worry about it Scott. He says that to everyone. We’re working on it.”

8.1 Use of Highland City Hall for meetings. Tom Butler championed the reduction in use fee for the residents, pushed for longer hours and more availability. Tom said, the building belongs to the residents of Highland and they should be able to use it. He’s trying to make the building more accessible to the citizens. The new cost will be between $10 and $15 per hour and is open to everything but a religious meeting. Tom checked the insurance liability coverage and it’s not a problem. Councilman Smith wanted to verify Tom’s findings.

9.2 There is $460K earmarked for Beacon Hills Park. This is money that has already been collected from developers and can only be spent on the Beacon Hills park. The only problem is the money was collected and sort of moved around over the last couple years and $0 has been spent up there on grass, trees and facilities. The current CC budgeted some money for this and is collecting the funds. They approved $72K to be spent to finalize the plan and start making park like improvements. This has been dragging on for seven years. The current administration is working long overdue issues.

9.3 The CC approve $35K for sod for the Highland Hills Detention Pond. NOTE: The CC is acting in a fiscally responsible way. They check cash flow before funding budgeted projects. If the cash flow drops off they will delay projects that are in the budget. Remember, they cut 9.9% out of the city budget in order to balance the books going forward and to have a little money for long overdue projects. Matt Shipp is making a serious contribution to the city’s cash position by bringing work in house and cutting his budget.

5.1 The CC eliminated an ordinance pertaining to rock crushing outside the gravel pit. West Rock is crushing rock on site so the CC is acting proactively to eliminate the possibility of someone else coming along and setting us a rock crushing facility some where else in Highland. NOTE: West Rock pays Highland City about $12,000 a month for the rock they pull out of the pit. This will go on for another 5 to 10 years.

5.2 International Building Code was adopted by Highland City Council on a 3 to 2 vote. There were about eight companion codes that were included. One of them is the International Fire Code. NOTE: The only thing not specifically called out in the Group Home ordinance that we wanted was a reference to the IFC. The Group Home ordinance states that ”all applicable building and safety ordinances will apply”. We indirectly got the IFC too!! It can be done.

It was a long and successful night. The new administration is making a few minor mistakes BUT they are taking responsibility for them and moving quickly to rectify those errors and are taking steps to resolve many tough issues inherited from the previous administration.

Make it a point to attend the Planning Commission, Tree Commission, Open Space Steering Committee and/or the City Council meetings some time during the next six months. They are public meetings. They are often tedious but what is talked about affect all Highland residents one way or another. We all can make a difference.