What's Up? - 6 April 2017

Today I'm hanging out at the Utah League of Cities and Towns Conference. I participated as a panelist in the session this morning talking about active transportation. It was helpful to see how other communities are trying to address this issue. A county health official on the panel made an interesting point that our #1 killers use to be communicable diseases, but now it is chronic diseases. The best way to prevent chronic diseases is through healthy lifestyles. We have done such a good job engineering convenience into our lives that we have effectively engineered activity out of our lives. We have designed our communities and lives so that people have to actively seek exercise rather than allowing it to be an organic part of our lives.

Anyway, the rest of the conferences has been good so far. The quiet evening in the hotel room made for a great time to get ready for this coming Tuesday's meetings. Below is my preview of the Work and Council Meetings.

As always, instructions for accessing all of the documents can be found here. This is especially helpful if the documents are updated (which breaks the links). The black text below comes from the agendas. I wrote the blue text, dark blue tonight, light blue previously. The brown text comes from the support documents.

What's Coming Up?

COUNCIL WORK MEETING

2:00 PM, Tuesday, April 11th, City Conference Room, 351 West Center

1. An introduction to the future City Recorder
   Janene Weiss is retiring at the end of the year. ONBASE will be replacing SIRE as our document workflow system as Provo 360 is implemented. ONBASE will be administered by the City Recorder in the future. After an extensive search, Amanda Ercanbrack is being recommended to take over as City Recorder at the start of 2018. The plan is for her to shadow Ms. Weiss for the rest of the year to learn the Recorder's duties while heading up the transition to ONBASE.
2. A request for a resolution appropriating $1,040,000 in the General Fund for acquisition of 4.15 acres of property generally located at 320 North Geneva Road.
   I am thrilled for this item. I love the Provo River Trail, but there are a few sections that are difficult or dangerous to navigate. With this acquisition, Provo City will be able to eliminate one of these sections and turn it into one of the best stretches of the trail. The KOA campground has come up for sale. It lies between a park and the river and is adjacent to Geneva Road. The park will be able to be expanded and the trail will be able to follow the river rather than the current alignment which is narrow and has sharp turns as it goes around the campground.
3. A discussion on recommendations from the DAPR Committee regarding land use agenda noticing
   This is a very wonky item, but it happens to be one that has been most rewarding to work on. It is not often when all sides will benefit. And simply from improvements to the process. The public will get more thorough and longer-lead noticing of land use issues coming before the Council. Developers will routinely experience a (40%) shorter to (80%) much shorter turn around time between Planning Commission recommendations and City Council decisions. The public will get two opportunities to address the Council on controversial proposals. The Council will get a couple weeks to consider public input at the first hearing. The Planning Commission will be basing their recommendations on proposed language that is closer to the form that the Council will consider. I am seeing very little downside to these changes and immense upside.  How is this possible? Check out the details here. I appreciate the work and contributions of everyone on the DAPR Committee, especially the leadership of the Chair, Dave Sewell.
4. A discussion on the Ice Sheet Authority
   On March 23, 2017 the City was served with a Notice of Termination. . .from the Utah County Commission Chair, William C. Lee, which stated that the County would like to exercise its dissolution rights under section 15(c) of the 5th Amended Interlocal Cooperation Agreement by and between Utah County, Utah and Provo City, Utah
   These news articles summarize all the he-said-she-said.
5. A discussion on an ordinance amending Provo City Code to adopt minimum dwelling unit sizes in the DT1, DT2, and ITOD Zones.
   This is the second consecutive Work Meeting where we have discussed this item. My rant after the last discussion still serves as a good reflection of my thinking on it: It is clear to me that the Council will be reinstating some sort of minimum dwelling unit size. This is an example of what I personally feel has been one of the Provo Municipal Council's biggest weaknesses over the years. I've been paying attention long enough that I remember with the DT1 and DT2 zones were put into place. I remember the discussion on the role of minimum dwelling unit size in the zoning code. Later, I was in the room when the Council decided to remove the minimum dwelling unit provisions. Remove, mind you, not reduce, not tweak, but remove. It was at the request of the applicant for the very first development to be proposed after the new zones were in place. If I remember correctly, it was a proposal for developing land that had been acquired by Provo's Redevelopment Agency. So you had an associated agency also advocating for the change so that they could maximize the return on the investment (of tax-payers money). I was disappointed at the time. I wasn't necessarily opposed to the proposal, but I didn't feel that the Council explored the request deeply enough. "Why were these provisions put in in the first place?" "Has our thinking/vision changed so much since this zone was created?" "What are the possible unintended consequences of making this change?" Perhaps these questions were asked outside of the Work Meeting and Council Meeting, but from what I saw, the only question that seemed to matter was, "What do we need to do to make this development happen?" Here we are a few years later ready to reinstate a minimum. So I have to ask, "Why was the minimum previously removed?" "Has our thinking/vision changes so much since then?" "What are the possible unintended consequences of making this change?" I'm not necessarily opposed to the proposal, but I want the reasoning to be sufficiently developed that the next time a developer dangles a pretty proposal in front of the Council that we won't continue oscillating back and forth. I'm all for being nimble and flexible, but I don't think that large shifts in public policy, accommodating the desires of the latest petitioner, is good governance.
   Right now the question is what structure with the minimums have, and how high will they be set.
6. A discussion on an ordinance amending Provo City Code with regard to development and subdivision plan application submittal requirements and expiration deadlines.
   This item appears to be identical to item 12 in the last Work Meeting. I thought we decided to wait until we had a recommendation from the DAPR (Development Approval Process Review) Committee. I missed the last DAPR Committee meeting while I was battling Strep Throat, but I didn't think they voted this item. I'll be interested to find out.
7. A discussion on budget appropriations for Public Works
   This request covers the Stadium Ave reconstruction and the City's over-budget spending on road salt for our above-normal winter weather this year. I have noticed that the City is generally over-conservative in putting together the budget projections each year. Our revenues are generally better than projected and our expenditure's are generally lower than projected. This allows the City to appropriate more money during the year as things come up without necessarily running a deficit (i.e. reducing the fund balance). You might have noticed that there are multiple discussions on appropriations going on right now.
8. A presentation from the Water Division
   Round 3. 
   During the February 21st, 2017 Work Meeting, the Council moved that the Public Works department provide presentations on the Water Division over the next several months. The Council and the Budget Committee provided Public Works with a list of three high-level questions and a longer list of detailed questions. Dave Decker and the Public Works department have discretion to address the questions how they see fit.
   The first two presentations occurred during the work meetings on March 7th and March 21st. This upcoming presentation will be the third in the series and will focus on the financial picture of the water utility and rate structure/increases planned in the coming fiscal year and in coming years. 
9. A presentation on the Airport Master Plan
   In light of the Westside Planning Committee’s forthcoming recommendations, various Council members have expressed interest in understanding more about present and future plans for the Provo Airport.  
   Steve Gleason, Provo Airport Manager, will advise the Council on what is likely to happen in the near future and what the long term plans for the airport are.  
10. Closed Meeting

COUNCIL MEETING

5:30 PM, Tuesday, April 11th, Council Chambers, 351 West Center

Public Comment

2. A report from the Elected Officials Compensation Commission
   The Staff Memo does a great job outlining the process (except that I believe it happens every four years, rather than every year). This Commission reviews the research conducted by the HR department and recommends the compensation level for the Mayor and Council Members starting at the beginning of the following year.
3. An ordinance granting MCIMetro a nonexclusive franchise in order for it to operate a telecommunications network in Provo City, Utah.
   It's been a few months since we've seen one of these, but they are completely routine and use a boilerplate contract.
4. A resolution on a 2017 Utah County Recreational Municipal Grant
   This was item 6 in the last Work Meeting.
5. A resolution appropriating $1,040,000 in the General Fund for acquisition of 4.15 acres of property generally located at 320 North Geneva Road.
   This is item 2 in the earlier Work Meeting (see above).
6. An ordinance amending Provo City Code to change yard requirements in the one-family residential zone.
   This is item 9 in the last Work Meeting.
7. An ordinance amending Provo City Code to adopt minimum dwelling unit sizes in the DT1, DT2, and ITOD Zones.
   This is item 5 in the earlier Work Meeting (see above).
8. An ordinance amending Provo City Code with regard to development and subdivision plan application submittal requirements and expiration deadlines.
   This is item 6 in the earlier Work Meeting (see above).