Nov. 3, 2010 City Council Meeting

Highland City Council Meeting

November 3, 2010 7:00 PM - ???



I attended the session from7:00 PM until 9:50 PM at which time the City Council and Mayor went into Executive Session. They were expected to be 1 hour, at which point I came home.



Community Issues:



Mary Lowe - Highland Citizen, addressed the Council. She indicated her backyard bordered a major road and asked that consideration be given whereby she could build a 6’ high privacy fence. Request being considered.



Kent Gibson – Highland Citizen, addressed the Council. He made the identical same request as Mary Lowe above. Request being considered.



Michael Smith – Highland Citizen and student at Lone Peak addressed the Council. He indicated the curb has been painted red on the road that loops behind the high school and wanted to know if he would be ticketed if he parked curbside. It was decided that the curb had been painted red in error and that he could park curbside without fear of a ticket. The City will sandblast the red paint off the curb.



Minutes:



October 19, 2010 – City Council Work Session. After some discussion and correction to the written record the minutes were approved.



October 19, 2010 – Regular City Council Meeting. After some discussion and correction to the written record the minutes were approved.



Scheduled Items:



Motion:

Chris Lee and wife – Future Potential Highland Residents have placed an offer on Lot 8 in the Hyde Estates. This is on a court. There is an existing trail that goes right thru the middle of the court. The City wanted the garage placed (side entry garage) such that it would force the residents to drive out of their driveway instead of backing out of the driveway. According to the City this would be safer for the pedestrians using the trail. Councilman (CM) Braithwaite said public safety was king and the stipulation should not be waived. Tom Butler said we have been surrendering our freedoms for 10 years now, private property was king, and that the side entry garage stipulation should be waived. Hikers should have enough common sense to look both ways before crossing the court and that if they were struck by an auto driven by the Lee family then that is what insurance is for. Butler gets my vote in the future. The council waived the stipulation.



Motion:

The site plan and architectural plan for a new Walgreens retail store complete with a drive-thru located on Lot 6 (northwest corner of SR92 and the Alpine Highway) was approved by the Council.







Ordinance:

Amending Section 3-612, Fences, Walls and Hedges, relating to fencing requirements for property adjacent to arterial, collector streets, and open space areas, fencing between different uses, and fencing design requirements.



Current fencing regulations have led to several concerns from property owners with homes that abut open spaces and are either adjacent to or in close proximity to a public street or active open space area. The concerns expressed have focused on privacy and security issues. The Open Space Committee is recommending that the fencing requirements be changed to allow 6’ opaque fences adjacent to main transportation corridors and open space areas greater than fifty feet in width.



The police chief was not in favor indicating such a fence, which blocks the view of the back of the Barbecoa Fast Food Franchise made it easy for that particular establishment to recently be burglarized. CM Braithwaite felt a 4’ high fence with another 2’ of open fencing would be sufficient for property owners and that that would allow police and other neighbors to monitor each other’s property. He also felt that this kind of a fence would result in safer trails, where open spaces were fenced on both sides. He argued that open spaces fenced on both sides were not safe as they became alleyways and no one from the outside could see in and monitor the well being of pedestrians. CM Tom Butler than spoke his piece. He again said private property is king. If the owner wanted a 6’ opaque fence for privacy issues than he should be able to have it. CM Butler said crime concerns in the “alleyways” could be controlled if more residents got their conceal carry permits or even open carried their weapons. He said people that wanted to leave their private property and travel the public trails should accept some responsibility for their own safety and well-being. CM Smith indicated 50 feet was a lot of real estate and that that should be brought down to 40 feet.



The fencing regulation as proposed two paragraphs above was adopted except that the 50 feet will be changed to 40’.



Motion:

Adopting a new Open Space Agreement & Application for Improvement of open space. An open space agreement allows a resident, in certain circumstances, the ability to landscape a portion of the City owned open space…this would typically appear as the extension of someone’s back yard. A moratorium was placed on additional open space agreements on August 3, 2010 until it could be reviewed and possibly amended.



There was a lot of discussion led by CM Smith. He was in favor of waiving the $240 annual fee as the resident who did the landscaping would then take care of it, reducing the burden on the City, who wouldn’t do as good a job of keeping it up as the private resident probably would do. It was decided by the rest of the council however that there wasn’t enough data collected to make that determination. The new Open Space Agreement is going to be adopted. The annual fees will remain in place until enough data is collected to allow a logical determination as to whether it should be waived at some time in the future or not.



Jim S.