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MOUNT OLYMPUS COMMUNITY COUNCIL Meeting Minutes Churchill Jr. High School Library April 3, 2018 – 6:00 p.m. In Attendance: David Baird (chair), Joy Lynne Goddard, Joan haven, John Knoblock, Pasupathi, Chuck Pruitt, Kenneth Smith, Rick Williamson, Kyle Taft, Rita Lund, Jeff Silvestrini, Cheri Jackson, Bev Uipi, Makaloni Prescott, Matthew Rhoades, Todd Zenger, Francis Lilly, Skyler Stratford, Lindsay, Kari Pledge of Allegiance Introduction of Council Members Ratification of Minutes Francis Lilly discussing short term rental zoning ordinance: There have been some problems with short-term rentals, such as Airbnb’s and VRBO’s – for example, the 12,000 square foot home on Abinadi that “sleeps 28” and has never been lived in by its current owner. Redefinition of what it means to be a short-term rental – used for less than 30 days, rather than rented out for less than 30 days. Issue of balancing property rights of owner vs. impact on neighbors. Have the rights of owners been overly protected vs. those of the neighbors? Treatment of these properties under small business laws. Annual license fee ($150). Sales and hotel taxes collected. Also, if these properties are not occupied by owner for a sufficient period of time, property tax should be at the higher non-owner-occupied level. Issues to address: o Requirement of a local manager/rep. (Although is expecting to get someone there in 20 minutes unrealistic?) o Need for off-street parking for these properties. o Noise. o Light spillage. o Trespass into neighboring yards. Question: Are film company rentals cases that need special consideration? Question: Can VRBO or Airbnb listings be used to inform people that they need a business license? Skyler Stratford discussing Millcreek Wildfire Community Preparedness Day (May The preparedness plan will be completed within the next week. Celebration on the preparedness day will include booths and fire engines. Skyler is looking for volunteer homes on the boundaries to use as before and after examples. ---PAGE BREAK--- Might be nice to have a map of homes that are in the “let burn” zone (on cul de sacs, etc.). How to publicize? Door knob hangers? Rhoades delivering UFA report: 85 calls; 17 fire-related HB 38 has been passed and signed into law. Features: o Civil Liability for damages. o Parents responsible for minor children. o Infractions fined at rates up to $1,000. o Maps of restricted zones posted on stalls of fireworks vendors. o Number of permissible fireworks days in July is decreased. o For our area, restricted zone is basically east of Wasatch Blvd. o Note that it is actually fairly hard to catch violators in such a way as to fine them. Budget process is moving forward. Spending priorities carefully monitored at the program manager level. Cost of employment going up 3-4% this year. Future increases may be smaller based on cost of living, but more likely on an annual basis than a larger amount every few years. It’s getting harder to hire for UFA and UPD. And the two units are fighting each other over people. Looking for seasonal guys now for the fire season. Most, if not all of this is covered by the federal government. UPD report: April 28 is the National Prescription Drug Day at the Community Center from 12:00-2:00. Last year resulted in a pretty successful collection of leftover drugs. Only pills – no liquids or syringes. There’s a new sergeant: Chad Egan from Midvale. He will try to come to our next community council meeting. It was related that in a recent incident where 20 or so carloads of kids had congregated at the high school for presumably non-criminal purposes, police officers got a little out- of-control in sending the kids on their way. In one carload of kids, picked out seemingly at random, the five good kids were interrogated, the male driver was handcuffed, and a young woman whose parents couldn’t be reached was threatened with being held overnight. She was traumatized for days afterwards. No arrests were made. Report from Mayor Silvestrini: Mayor has met recently with district ranger Becky Hotze about over use of Millcreek Canyon. A policy has been suggested to not allow events in the canyon that will close all or part of the road, particularly during the summer. There may be a parcel of federal land at the end of Mile High Drive that may be available for purchase as open space. ---PAGE BREAK--- There have been some problems in Neff’s Canyon with fires and graffiti. Some council members felt that graffiti is limited to one spot and not really a problem at this point. Idea of closing the gate to Neff’s Canyon and closing the gate when the canyon is closed. It was suggested that Walt Plumb should be brought into this discussion, since his home is past the gate. Mayor is looking into an administrative system for writing parking tickets, since it’s not a priority for the police. Mayor has been approached by Minnie of the Mountain Accord about the possibility of doing a pilot study of the effectiveness of implementing a shuttle service in Millcreek Canyon during the busy months. Population and usage are growing, while parking and picnic areas are not. Issues to test: level of interest, ridership, extent to which problems are alleviated. The council seemed overall supportive of a pilot study. Mayor has spent some time with on a fire truck/tanker. Nice equipment. Issues regarding police department. o There was some discussion of getting out of the cycle of borrowing to pay for the police funding each year so that resources would be available for other needs going forward. o Not interested in having our own. o We have 57 officers. One officer for 1,000 is the standard. We now have five cars devoted to speeding. o We should be letting people know about our successes in this regard. Boundary issues. o Working on the northern boundary, north of Canyon Rim. o In discussions about possibly getting Brickyard back from SLC. Some recognition from the city that it looks like an instance of theft. o Working on trying to get K-Mart strip center back from Murray. May be possible, since development here is not a Murray priority. Possibility of getting a bit more land from the owner of the parking lot at the north end of the Mount Olympus shopping center (Ned Skanchy) for possible rebuilding and slight expansion of Fire Station 112. It was noted that some grading in the area might help Ned to get out of the FEMA floodplain. Rita Lund’s introduction of Kari and Lindsay from the Promise Program: Kari, in conjunction with United Way, has built the program into one with a $3.2 million annual budget (funding from philanthropic sources, as well as state, local, and federal government). A successful after school program is underway in South SL, working primarily with K- third grade, when students are learning to read (so that they can subsequently read to learn). The organization has 130 partners in South SL, including Westminster College. Those who work in the afternoon program are a combination of volunteer and paid labor. ---PAGE BREAK--- Research shows that student performance is lagging at Millcreek Elementary and Evergreen Junior High. Note that while Evergreen is east side, many students are bussed there. Working with the Mayor and United Way to see what Promise Millcreek might look like. There is a grant possibility coming available. Should Millcreek apply? Data on school success is available, but may be hard to find. Rita may be able to help. Or check out SSLneighbors.com for SSL data. Promise has the support of this community council. Rita Lund on cultural facilities: Working on a grant application for some funds to do a needs assessment regarding cultural facilities in Millcreek. Looking for people who might be interested in helping or drafting a letter of support. Suggested that Rita might contact Jill Spriggs on Hermes Drive. Also Shirley Bailey on Brockbank. At this point we’re just looking at what our needs might be (performance and practice spaces, art display locales, etc.). Addressing those needs would come later. It was noted that the City Hall has a lot of empty walls. Todd Zenger introducing himself: Todd is interested in running for the District 36 seat in the Utah House of Representatives. Todd is an intellectual property attorney who has lived in the area for decades. He has served on the Granite Board of Education. He says he is willing to listen. When asked what is particular interests might be, he stressed the importance of clean air and water and of well-educating our young people. Todd noted that we have more refugee students in Granite School District than in the rest of the state combined.