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Board
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GACC
FEBRUARY, 2000 Greater Avenues Community Council Meeting held at the Sweet Library, February 2, 2000, at 7:00 p.m. Conducted by Larry Rigby, as Richard Leonard was out of town. Minutes taken by Jaynie Brown, RBrown7151@aol.com. ANNOUNCEMENTS: We have a Girl Scout, Kristin Sittner, who will be passing around a form to purchase Girl Scout cookies. If you want cookies, please sign up as the form goes around. We also have a group of young men here who are Boy Scouts. They are here for their Town Meeting for Merit badges. On the 3rd. page of our Newsletter we have the announcement of the meeting concerning the Winter Olympics to be held at 7:00 at Washington School at 420 N. 200 W. from 7-9 p.m. Mitt Romney will be the speaker. Please show up to get information and express concerns. REPORTS: POLICE: Officer Duane Baird of the Community Support Division. There was one robbery at Java Joes. In the Café there was an unarmed sheriff who could not make an arrest but provided an excellent witness. We had two auto thefts, which were both. Jeep Cherokees. It is the most stolen car in America. If you buy a Jeep buy a club to put on the steering wheel to keep people from driving it. There were ten robberies, most of which were in the lower Avenues. FINANCIAL REPORT: John Sittner We were short this year about $1400. We need more ads from the monthly Newsletter. John needed more support from the Community Council to talk to prospects to get more ads. We have about $18,000 in the bank at this point. $800 of that money is being held as escrow accounts belonging to other streets for their lighting. JCC: The Jewish Community Center got even a better design as they talked with neighbors and GACC committee members. They will break ground in April. TRAFFIC REPORT: Mary McDonald (top) We heard Tom Rogan discuss ideas he received in a seminar on "Beyond Traffic Calming." Perhaps we can have Tom speak to the whole group at a later date. We are listed to have another meeting in new space, as we did not book the Library in time. Call Mary for the place at 355-328. We are trying for the Shriners Hospital. We talked about ideas about doing our own drive 25-mph signs in the Avenues. We will have more details about what that will be. We want to have citizens share traffic issues in a very caring, sharing way. Call me if you want to come to the Traffic meeting and I will give you the info. QUESTION: Does the Traffic Committee cover the subject of parking concerns, because there is a parking problem on 2nd and 1st Avenues as you get closer to State Street. REPLY: That is not part of our assignment. But the City has looked into residential parking. I can give you the number. Call me. CITY COUNCIL: Tom Rogan: First a plug. For the past two years the Community Council has been mailing the Newsletter to 9000 households. This is a great community effort on the part of many volunteers. It does cost money and each of us can donate money to keep it going. Otherwise it could shrink back to just a few people knowing what goes on in the community council. You can reach me at 355-0461 or email at teefar@aros.net. There are five issues to call to your attention: 1) University line of Light Rail: Look at the Tribune article in today's Tribune. They claim they can't get it ready for the Olympic. I don't know what will happen. Keep your eyes open. 2) The Gateway project just had a few odd things happen. Keep your eyes open. 3) The City Council had our retreat and we set 5 priorities. One was the City Traffic Management program in our neighborhoods, dealing with enforcement, education, and engineering. The Council has some concerns that the traffic committee is spending too much money where it is not necessary. There are some good initiatives that will put the traffic violation fines collection in City controlled instead of going through the State Courts. That will be very good. 4) The Olympic Meeting is going to be a very productive meeting. Mitt Romney will speak and will give us information and we can express our concerns. Mitt Romney is truly remarkable. A very great gentleman. He has a commitment to make the best of this situation. We can explore opportunities to see how we can get involved. We can preemptively deal with some of the concerns. 5) City Budget. I have expressed my concerns and fears about the City Budget Crisis in committee meetings. We are will have an $8 million dollar shortfall this year. We have to learn to say no to things that we like when we have such a big budget shortfall. We hear about issues and proposals, which may be great ideas. But the question is can we afford all the great ideas in our City, because we can't. I will keep you advised of the budgetary projects. LEGISLATURE: Ralph Becker (top) We need to
excuse Dave
Jones and Paula Julander as they had another meeting
and asked
to be excused. We are about one third of the way
through
the Session. I sent out a newsletter and I
welcome hearing
for you. We consider almost 1000 pieces of
legislation.
It can move very fast and it is enormously helpful to
hear from
those who have an interest, so please contact
me. Email:
QUESTION: Is there any focus on the long term Infrastructure? RESPONSE: That is a good question. Almost 1/3 of buildings are +25 years old and 1/3 are 50+ years old. We are not taking care of them. No improvements or building of new State buildings. The Republicans are not going to bond at all for State Buildings. They are proposing taking $25 million and putting it in State Buildings. The Democrats are agreeing with the Building Dept. to float a bond to invest in State Buildings. We are setting up a crisis for ourselves in not taking care of our buildings. It is not so much the age of the buildings but how we take care of them. QUESTION: Where is the money going to come from? I don't want any more taxes. RESPONSE: We are talking about a $6.7 billion budget. We can prioritize things. We used to pay for our highways through gas tax. We propose to move money out of the Centennial Highway Fund and put it in the General Funds. We are going to shift money around and not grab more from the people. QUESTION: There was a poor ruling on the Utah Dramshop by the Utah Supreme Court. Is there any hope to do anything about that? REPLY from Jaynie Brown: We are working with Senator Hillyard on that, and the language will be ready in about a week. It is SB251. SCHOOL BOARD: Karen Derrick (top) We are lobbying up at the Legislature for Education Funds for the kids. Ralph and Paula and Dave represent us very well. They do a great job. The income tax that you pay is dedicated for the education of the children. Uniform School fund pays for the education of the students. We are not proposing any new taxes. The bonds on the mortgage on the roads can be paid back in 15 years and the Legislature has decided to pay it back in 7 years and education is getting shorted. A longer payback would release money for schools. The Applied Technology Center would allow the kids to get training to get a life-sustaining job when they leave High School. This is not a new program. David, Ogden, and Logan have Applied High Technology but we do not have one in Salt Lake. Contact friends to voice concern. The Salt Lake District gave teachers a 3.2 % increase. The State gave them only 2.3%. But we gave the teachers an additional raise by giving them our Airport taxes. GILGAL GARDEN COMMITTEE: MaryLee Peters representing Friends of GilGal Garden and Bob Liss who is V.P. of the Board. The Folk Art Garden is located at 476 E. 500 S. It is the brainchild of Thomas Child. It was created between 1945-1963. It contains 12 statues and 70 engraved stones. The Fetzer Family opens the Garden to the public on Sunday. This is an Open space preservation garden. It is a one-acre piece of land in the middle of the city; if we don't find the money to purchase it, it will be developed. We have raised almost all the money for purchase. The major money is contingent on the City taking ownership of the land. $200,000 is from Private foundations. $400,000 is from the County. The price to purchase the Garden is $700,000. We are asking form your endorsement and support. QUESTION: Is the $700,000 the value of the land or the sculptures. REPLY: It is both. The County will not give us the $400,000 if the City won't take possession of it and maintain it. TOM ROGAN: How can the City take ownership when we don't have the resources to maintain what we have already. REPLY: This is not a generic Garden. We must find a way of saving it. We are only asking the City for maintenance of $8,000 a year. The 3 houses on the property will provide money for the restoration. The City would own the parkland and the friends would sell the houses and use the money for the maintenance. QUESTION: I have seen other gardens given to the City and they did not take care of it very well. Friends of GilGal Garden would like a recommendation. We have moved and seconded that the Chair will write a letter of endorsement to the City to receive the park. All in favor: 41 in favor. Those opposed about 20 - not counted. CAROLINE FILM FILMS LOCATION DEPARTMENT: We try to come to meetings like this to take ideas and comments about the filming. We wanted to meet Richard Leonard, the new President. We feel it is very important to come to these meetings since we live here. We also have represented the Utah Film Commission. QUESTION: Do you have anyone from this Community Council to sit in on your meetings to act as a Liaison. RESPONSE: Not yet. We would welcome a member of your Board to come to our Group Location Meetings. The State Film Commission wants to build some cohesion. QUESTION: I would like a brief understanding how the Avenues benefit from the filming? There are donations made to the GACC. We try not to overuse the Avenues. We actually filmed 23 days in the Avenues. SITTNER: Last year we received $1700 from the Film Company so we could do the Agenda. The greatest benefit comes to the City by increased sales tax, etc. OLYMPICS MEETING: John Sittner The most important meeting is Wednesday Feb. 9. It is our only time to meet with Mitt Romney. I have been asked to chair a committee of community people with SLOC. At the meeting we will discuss what are the problems, what are our opportunities. We need some vehicle of communication so it won't die at the end of the meeting. TRAFFIC: Mary McDonald (top) We have wanted to spend time in civil discussion of what goes on in the Avenues traffic wise. Some of the things I have learned since being on the Traffic Committee. So many people call me and tell me of all the accidents, and we didn't even know about it. QUESTION: How many actually drove 25 mph in the Avenues last month. (Large show of hands.) We are going to have someone tell about his or her traffic experience in the Avenues. Then we want people share a few things. Then I will give you a card to note some of the things you like in your area of the Avenues." And any traffic concerns you have. EVELYN: I live on 7th Avenue and I street. Last year I heard CNN describing a neighborhood that was built by Disneyland and it sounded like our neighborhood in the Avenues. MARY: Are there other traffic comments? CONCERN: I live at 333 - 2nd Avenue. There was a petition sent around that only residents could park on the street. Residents now have to pay $12 to park in front of their houses. (Permit parking.) We don't want to pay $12 to park on the block. REPLY: You can call the City and ask them how to remove permit parking. Ask me for the number after the meeting. CONCERN: Can you ask the City to make a left-hand turn signal at State Street? DRUNK DRIVING: I think we need to band together and ask that our Legislators take action. Jaynie Brown handed out information sheets on how to contact their Legislators. SMITHS: Lynn Morgan We will make a presentation and then ask for a resolution. Smiths was acquired by Krogers so they re-did our planning. We revived their current plans last week. They brought us a set of plans, which were pretty good. They have answered every questions and concern. There were many Avenues residents who wanted to keep the Hardware store and get rid of the red sign. This (showed plans) is the remodel of the existing building. My personal feeling is that they have done a good job. We recommend that we endorse the planning process. They are going to develop 5 tenant spaces connected at the F and E on the lower level and a new Smiths store on the upper level. The liquor store, the Hardware Store, and 3 that have not yet been identified will occupy downstairs. Plans were shown. They will construct a new addition 40 feet wide across the front. The service dock will be at the 6th Avenue side. We are going to build an underground parking level on the under level. You will either park on the 5th Avenue level or the 6th Avenue level. The Smith's store will be 1/5 bigger than the one now. On the lower level the 5 shops will face into the parking with big windows out the back onto 5th Avenue. There is an emergency exit stair well. We are using patterns in the concrete. Up lighting on the parking deck. On the 5th Avenue we will have windows on the back of the shops, have ornamental wrought iron on the stairs. We are proposing a 25-degree cornice and curving it at the upper edge of the store. The planning commission can grant a 15 feet endorsement of the area if the community council approves it. QUESTION: Is Postnet going to remain in the store. They were offered retail space downstairs. As of yet we have not heard from them. The store will be open during construction. We want to be underway by the end of April. What we intend to do is put the Liquor store in the Henri's dry Cleaners and we will tear the Liquor store down and work on the Liquor and Hardware store. When we move them in we will do the rest. We are anticipating about 9 months-total reconstruction time. What will you do if you are not granted the variance. What is wrong with adding a little more grass and trees? We will do our best to make it beautiful around it. The current store is 36,000. We are going to take it to 44,000 sq. feet. QUESTION: Can you use a darker color? < font color="#336633">(top) REPLY: The Stucco looks better in real life than on the artist's drawing. I think you are really going to like it, but we can make it darker. MOTION: It was moved and seconded that we approve their drawings and plans as presented and approve the inline variance. AMENDMENT: There was an amendment made to re-visit the color issue. REPLY: We have done alternative facade studies and allowed you to have input in the process. What we are presenting is a good as it is going to get. VOTE on the amendment. The motion passes. RESPONSE: What I would be willing to do is three months into construction and report to you and we can re-visit that. We can try a few paint swatches on the building as we get closer to that point and let you decide which you like better. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. (top) |