Attending: Phil Carroll; Brooke Adams; Thella Mae Christensen; Jill Van Langeveld; Wayne Green; Steve Mecham; Kat Kivett; Shane McCarthy; R.D. Coleman; Aileen Olsen; Walter Jones; Judith Locke; Trish Orlando; Kelly Quick-Stevens

(Minutes began late)

Eric Jergensen, City Council Report: The City Council is creating a new designation to preserve open space called Naturalized Open Space. The Council voted against disconnect petition for North Salt Lake property. The Memory Grove cleanup saved the city about $50,000. One reason avoided flooding in City Creek was due to that May 14 clean up. The council is discussing raising taxes to hire 15 more police officers. Our sense is we are already the highest taxed city in the state and there ought to be more creative ways to find that money than raising taxes. Work has begun on the Olympic Legacy staircase. Funding for the Fourth Avenue stairs is going through Capital Improvement Projects process and evaluation of soils is being done to ensure the stairs can be rebuilt.

Legislative update: Sen. Scott McCoy and Rep. Ralph Becker attended. Rep. Becker said this is the slow season, not much going on. Revenue coming into state is much higher than expected and discussions are underway about what to do with it - tax cuts, shore up weaknesses, etc. Rep. Becker said several task forces are at work. One to watch: the IHC taskforce, which is examining its operations and tax status; also Tax Reform Task Force. Avenues and Capitol Hill community councils have been working together on what to do with traffic filtering around the Capitol and through these neighborhoods. He said traffic counts are down due to speed bumps, traffic stops and no left turns. A light at 3rd North and Main will be installed this summer. Also there is a proposal for a light on 5th North and Capitol, but is on hold after objections from residents of the neighborhood and Davis County.
McCoy said he is on several interim committees, including ones looking at Health and Human Services; Judiciary committee; and a working group set up by the governor to deal with effectiveness of laws concerning sex offenders.
Becker said it is disappointing that more revenue is coming in but none of it is going to schools, instead it is filtering to roads. Utah remains 50th in per pupil funding. It is very clear the view that the state needs to shrink public education prevails, that we don't need to invest more and instead reduce administration. Education is looked at as a place we can save money.
McCoy said the conservative point of view is competition will raise quality level, though he doesn't believe that to be true.

Open Forum:
Ervin Horrocks, who lives on K Street, said he has lived in his home over 60 years. A year ago the new owner of 675 Eighth Ave. said he planned to build a new garage. Instead a major renovation is taking place and he has been told this is within the law. The law needs to be changed. The homes in the area are around 1,300 square feet. The new home is 5,000 square feet. Neighbors feel the home was snuck in and the City Council failed them by issuing this permit.

Eric Jergensen said the city council didn't issue the permit, but is looking at how this permit was issued. There is a moratorium and compatibility law being discussed. The city may not be able to do something about this particular house but could help ensure integrity of neighborhoods while balancing property rights in the future. This is also a problem in Capitol Hill, Harvard Yale neighborhoods.

One gentleman said he doesn't understand how the house got a permit because it occupies more than 50 percent of the lot, the maximum set in code.

Avenues Street Fair: Walter Jones said the fair will be Sept. 10. It is going to be on South Temple, before Q and P on South Temple. Next month he will be asking for volunteers for certain tasks. His email is walter.jones@library.utah.edu.

Memory Grove Cleanup: Phil Carroll said there were 300 plus people involved. Eric Jergensen, LDS Hospital, Ensign Stake, Federal Express, Smith's, Albertsons and Gastronomy deserves special thanks for providing the lunch.

Wireless Antenna: David Carter, site specialist for Cingular, explained the proposal to erect an antenna on Eagle Gate Apartments, relocating it from another downtown building. The antennas will be painted to match existing penthouse area. They are about 5 feet tall, foot wide and deep, mounted on footing that makes total height about 10 feet. The work would be completed by August/September.

Children's Museum of Utah: George Stutzenberger of the Capitol Hill Community Council was scheduled to discuss proposed uses of the Warm Springs Building, which the museum is vacating as part of its move to Gateway.
Since George was not present, Eric filled in. He said the Children's Museum has not yet met its funding raising goal to make the move, which isn't likely for six months to a year. Even then, the building would continue to have some children's museum activities.
Other suggestions are to turn the building into a senior center or to restore the pool for use by West High or use it as a neighborhood recreation center. Another idea is to make it into a private spa. A $25,000 study is being done to assess seismic stability and feasibility of the ideas. Eric said the building is in very rough shape and the pool is a disaster. It will be cheaper to tear it down and build around the façade.
The city is looking at installing two turning lanes at Second Avenue and State Street to ease backing up there.
One woman asked Eric to get the streets department to clarifying striping on Second Avenue as far as making left and right turns.
Gear arrived later and spoke about plans for the museum. He said he is expressing his own views, but has much support from CHCC. He wants to turn the building into a private enterprise, a roman spa for residents and tourists' use that might attract worldwide renown. It would have a swimming pool, spas, restaurant and other amenities, modeled on Austrian spas. He would involve local children in making hand-painted tiles used in remodeling. Also, he would arrange for carriage service to downtown.
He believes renovation would cost $4 million. He has private investors in line. The development could help clean up and revitalize the area, in step with a proposed project around 5th and 6th North.
So the choice is city or private redevelopment.

Building Codes: Larry Butcher, development review administrator, discussed the problem with the oversize house on Eighth Avenue and K Street. Larry said each zone of the city has different requirements; most of the Avenues is a SR-1 zone, which governs proximity, setbacks, etc. The SR-1 is one of the more unique zoning districts in the city in that front yard set back of an existing house is determined by that setback, even if not in compliance with current zone. Rear yard setback is not something the city makes allowances for; altering that requires special exception permit.

A woman said for the property owner to get the 30-foot setback he has had to cross alley and two private driveways.

Larry said he said "Holy Cow!" when he looked at the building plans, thinking there might be a coverage problem. Both he and Alan Hardman reviewed the plans to check whether they meet coverage criteria.

When we looked at the calculations of this building, it works out. The house takes up 53 percent of the lot, leaving 47 percent open space.

Ralph Becker, who was on the planning commission when the SR-1 adopted, said people are now going completely away from intent of that zoning. The building dept. is doing its job; it is going to take an ordinance to control development that is out of step with neighborhoods.

Larry said the city doesn't physically measure lots; it relies on plans drawn by architects who certify a lot is accurately represented. The city is planning to follow up on whether the lot size was accurately represented on the plans and that plans have been followed on the ground.

As for right-of-ways, if they have been used for extensive number of years, judges have previously ruled the right couldn't be taken away. In this case, the right of way isn't being removed, it is just being used as part of the lot calculation. Larry said that property lines go over the right of way.

Phil Carroll made a motion to encourage City Council to adopt a 180-day moratorium on all in-fill building permits. The motion passed.

Police Civilian Review Board: Ty McCartney, board administrator, explained that he investigates all allegations of physical abuse involving the police department and the board investigates allegations of misconduct. There have been about 10 investigations in past three months. He also, at the mayor's request, is heading a committee looking at use of tasers. Only SWAT officers carry tasers but the chief has put in request for 130 more tasers.
The board has been active since 2003 and is the only board in Utah.