Attending: Steve Mecham, Phil Carroll, John Sittner, Wayne Green, Denton Taylor, Shane McCarthy, R.D. Coleman, Lon Richardson, Aileen Olsen, Trish Orlando, Walter Jones, Kelly Quick

The secretary arrived at 7:25 p.m. and was graciously updated by several board members.

Steve Mecham, vice chair, conducted the meeting for Jill Van Langveld.

Mayor’s Office: Gwen Springmeyer handed out the monthly calendar. She also talked about the Jazz Festival, which started tonight. Someone asked her whether the city’s proposal for a soccer stadium at the Fairpark is large enough for the crowds the sport is attracting. It would have 23,000 seats; currently about 20,000 people are coming to games.

Police Report: Officer Evans reported that crime is down in the Avenues.

City Council: Eric Jergensen said the city has approved a budget that will add 10 new patrol officers to the police department staff. He also shared overviews of two town meetings he held recently.

Legislature: Rep. Ralph Becker and Sen. Scott McCoy gave an update on renovation of the Capitol. Because of limited parking, it is being proposed that employees park offsite and take shuttles to the office buildings during the legislature.

Street Fair: Walter Jones said Ann Tillson is the booth chair for this year’s event. The council would like vendors offering unique items, not tacky cheap stuff.

Street Lighting Program: John Sittner reviewed how the Avenues street lighting program works. He said matching funds are available and applications can be submitted year round. Neighborhoods make the application.
Because each neighborhood selects its own poles, lamps, etc. there is no uniformity in styles.
A resident asked whether the city has given any consideration to downward reflection lights that minimize interference with amateur astronomers.

CareSource: Gina Coccimiglio, chief clinical officer, reviewed how Medicare is affecting choices for longterm care. Two programs under Medicare: home health – skilled care such as nurses or aides who provide care within the home, paid at 100 percent – and hospice, which also is paid at 100 percent. In Utah, less than 20 percent of those eligible for these programs accessed that benefit last year. She discussed myths about these programs and the state-of-the art CareSource hospice center at 4500 S. Hospice is not about dying, it’s about living well, she said.

City Building Goals: Joel Patterson, asst. director for the city’s Planning Division, discussed building issues in the Avenues, as well as the pending Yalecrest ordinance. He said the city has been looking at compatibility issues for a number of years. Patterson said he has worked with the Yalecrest neighborhood on their proposed ordinance. That area has experienced the teardown phenomenon that is also a concern in the Avenues.

The city council will hold a public hearing on the Yalecrest ordinance next Tuesday, though a decision on it won’t likely be made during the meeting. A house built on Hubbard Street, which extended about 8 feet into the front yard beyond other homes on the street, prompted residents’ concerns. He said balancing needs between preventing incompatibility while still allowing improvements to occur is tough. The ordinance proposed deals with setbacks, roof heights, location and placement of garages, etc. He said the community did extensive research on characteristics of the area. He also said very few homes would be prohibited by the new ordinance, but those built will be more in scale with the neighborhood.
The council has asked the planning staff to review all city building ordinances to address growing concerns about compatibility.
Q.: Would it take that long (4 years) to get a similar ordinance for the Avenues?
A.: Hopefully not. But it does take time to get an ordinance that fits a neighborhood. What would help us is if you would let us know what current issues you have with development in the Avenues.
Q.: Does the Yalecrest ordinance have a teardown replacement square footage limit?
A.: No. Coming up with a standard in a neighborhood like Yalecrest where there is a lot of variation in style and size of homes is tricky. Many options were reviewed to look at that but it proved too difficult to come up with a standard.
Q.: Has there been an issue with people buying two lots to combined into one building lot.
A.: Yalecrest didn’t address that. It certainly is something that could be looked at.
Q.: Do you have any recommendations as a planner for us.
A.: There is a lot of variability in lot sizes and ordinances throughout the Avenues. It is important that any ordinance try to meet what is on the ground. It would be helpful to set up a subcommittee to do the legwork. He said the process needs to go slowly to avoid unintended consequences.
Q.: How would such an ordinance coincide with or overlap with a historic district?
A.: A historic district requires additional reviews and may place more criteria that have to be met.
He said some residents of Yalecrest fear the new ordinance would force them out because they are unable to afford additional reviews and requirements that might be necessary to improve or upgrade their homes. It is tougher than you think to come up with these standards.
Q.: Why can’t someone come out and see how that house on 8th Avenue fits in.
A.: Unfortunately, that house fit all existing ordinances.

He said the historic districts are well taken care of, with existing standards and design reviews already in place.
Q.: If you buy a home in a 100 year old neighborhood, you should have a reasonable expectation of what is going to be around you.
A.: In part I would agree with you. But also, people like that area, the proximity to the foothills, downtown, but home is too small for their current needs. The wants people have are a lot different from when the Avenues was first established.
Q.: Is there some way effect on values of surrounding homes is considered? If a monster home goes in next door, it may diminish the value of my home.
A.: Not in the planning office, but generally appraisals of houses are looking at based on value which includes value of surrounding homes. It could also happen in reverse: someone builds a smaller home next door -- which might draw down your value.
Q.: To me it is so important that we have a community council to look after these issues. There should be some review by the community council. We added a second level to our home and had to get approval of surrounding neighbors.
A.: There are regulations in place. But the city can’t relegate our duties to community councils. On a single family home there is no requirement for community input.
Q.: Aren’t issues addressed in the Yalecrest neighborhood attempts to get things to stay in sync with the neighborhood and property values?
A.: I don’t know that you’ll be able to document an impact on property values. The intent was not to protect those property values.
Q.: This seems like an issue as big as the foothill debate of a few years ago. Is the council going to take it up?
A.: Steve Mecham said it is the intention for the community council to take up the issue, beginning at its next meeting. Tonight’s discussion is the start of the process. Next week, the council will begin to figure out how to launch the process.
Q.: Rep. Becker said that people seem to find ways around whatever regulations are put in place. What approach would you suggest for the Avenues and Capitol Hill to arrive at some proposal in a fairly short time?
A.: Eric Jergensen said last month the sentiment of the community council was that development needed to be stopped to give time to review what was happening. The council is looking at three actions: 1. Establishing a subcommittee to work with planning commission to get a review process going that would consist of Eric, Jill Remington Love and Nancy Saxton 2. Deciding whether to let planning staff handle the process or hire an outside consultant to manage it. 3. Focus of the review will be Gilmore Park, Central City and the Avenues/Capitol Hill.
The hope is the city will come up with something in the next 60 to 90 days.

Utah Heritage Foundation: Kirk Huffaker, asst. director at UHF, said the foundation would like to be a resource on the current debate on teardowns and renovations. It is a preservation issue. He suggested several booklets available at preservation.org on preserving older neighborhoods. The booklets will help spur the kinds of questions that should be looked at. He said the Avenues historic district covers everything south of northside of 6th Avenue.

Request from Michael Kearns to delist his home from historic designation: Joel Patterson said the home is outside the historic district but was one of three homes given landmark status when the district was created. The property is governed by the historic ordinance. Michael Kearns, owner, is trying to sell the property and a potential buyer balked after learning the home is on the historic register. When a property is delisted, it is basically a zoning act. To delist requires getting rid of that overlay zoning. It is a relatively quick process. The request was made June 15. The Historic Landmarks Committee met tonight and voted to deny the request. The Planning Commission will meet July 13 to consider the request and will make a recommendation to the City Council, which will take up the matter on July 14.
Q.: What was unique about this house that caused it to be added to the district?
A.: It was put on the list in 1978. It is a Prairie-style house.

Michael Kearns said no notification given and we believe the house was illegally given landmark status. Linda Snow, who grew up in the house, said there is no paperwork -- it is almost like a taking – and said her father was vehement about never letting the city designate your home as historic.
He said he would not have bought the home if he had known of its designation.

Elizabeth Girow, of the Historic Landmarks Committee, said the committee considered two issues: was it properly designated and does it meet criteria for that designation. There is no record of the correspondence done at the time to show whether it was appropriately notified. As to the second issue, the finding was that it met criteria. We found it is a prime example of Prairie-style architecture and associated with a prominent business family in the city. www.slcgov.com and then go to Planning Division to see the report on the property.