Ogden City Council Work Session Report

9.6.07 Mt. Ogden Community Plan Discussion Session

By Dan S.

Here's a report on last night's City Council work session.

All council members were in attendance, plus three council staff, planner Greg Montgomery, and CAO John Patterson (listening from the bleachers). Also in the bleachers were ace reporter Scott Schwebke, council candidate Jim Freed, wcforum contributor David Smith, two women I didn't recognize, and myself. Not bad attendance for a work session.

The main agenda item was the Mt. Ogden Community Plan. The council has already had two work sessions to discuss the plan, and have suggested various possible amendments to their staff. Councilman Safsten had submitted a copy of the draft plan with about a dozen changes, of his own suggestion, incorporated. So most of the time was spent going through his suggestions one by one, and discussing a few of the others' suggestions along the way. In all cases, any suggested changes to the plan will be presented at an upcoming community meeting for public feedback. This meeting was tentatively scheduled for September 25 at Mt. Ogden Middle School.

Some of the more interesting issues were:

Gated neighborhoods: The draft plan states that no more gated neighborhoods should be permitted in the Mt. Ogden Community. Safsten suggested removing this provision and instead taking a comprehensive city-wide look at the gated community issue. Councilman Stephenson argued that there's nothing wrong with gated communities and the real issue for people is presumably access to trails and open space. Mr. Montgomery replied that actually that wasn't the citizens' main concern; rather, they wanted to preserve opportunities for interaction among neighbors. He also pointed out that this debate is occurring all over the country. Finally, Chair Garcia suggested that the council move on to the next issue, and remember that the existing draft of the plan reflects the community's wishes.

Height restrictions on homes: The current draft plan states that new homes should be limited to a height of 2 stories. Safsten and Stephenson expressed a preference for a less rigid provision.

Development on open space above 27th Street (Behnken property): The existing draft plan states that any new development in this area should be clustered along the western edge of the property and not encroach on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Safsten suggested removing this restriction but after others explained its purpose, he agreed that it should stay. The council also agreed that a provision for preserving trail access from 27th Street should probably be added.

Increased density along Harrison: The draft plan suggests that it would be appropriate for a developer to replace the existing single-family homes (mostly rentals) along Harrison between 30th and 32nd Streets with townhomes and some very limited commercial development, with vehicle access by an alley rather than from driveways on Harrison. All agreed that the current situation is undesirable, but there seems to be an intrinsic dislike of higher densities among the council. After much debate that went nowhere, councilmember Jeske finally said that we should do what the residents want (i.e., leave the draft plan alone).

Accessory Dwelling Units: The draft plan suggests that in the neighborhood near WSU the city should permit renting an accessory unit (basement, cottage, etc.) so long as the home is owner-occupied. Again, several council members seemed to have an intrinsic dislike of any increase in density. However, after a lengthy discussion, most agreed that this provision could be beneficial because it would encourage home ownership.

Widening 36th Street. The draft plan contains a provision suggesting that 36th Street should be widened. (Note: I don't really know how this provision got in there because I don't think there was ever a consensus among residents in favor of this.) Montgomery defended this provision but the entire council, led by Safsten, felt that it should be removed.

Mt. Ogden Park: The draft plan contains an objective of retaining the entire Mt. Ogden Park complex as open space. There was a suggestion that this objective be strengthened to indicate that the land should also remain publicly owned. The council quickly agreed to support this change.

Clubhouse relocation: The draft plan contains a paragraph about the possible benefits of relocating the golf course clubhouse to the top of 36th Street. The council agreed that this paragraph should be deleted.

Parking on Taylor Avenue: The draft plan suggests that Mt. Ogden Park users should be allowed to park only along the east side of Taylor, with parking on the west side restricted to residents who would be given permits. This would help with the safety problem of children running across the street to and from the park. Safsten objected to this proposal for various reasons, but Montgomery explained that among all the ideas considered, this one was probably the most feasible. Safsten finally agreed.

Trail enhancement: The draft plan states that trails should be "enhanced", but all agreed that this word is ambiguous and that some "enhancements" could be detrimental to the trails; a better word would be simply "maintain".

Impact fees: The draft plan suggests that impact fees should be imposed on any new developments, in order to offset impacts to infrastructure. Safsten argued that impact fees are not always possible and don't always achieve the desired purpose. Most of the council agreed that this provision should be revised to reflect these uncertainties.

That's about it. All in all, I was quite impressed by the way the council and staff worked together to reach consensus on these various details of the Mt. Ogden Community Plan. It was refreshing to hear a discussion that wasn't adversarial--where everyone treated each other with respect.

So again, the plan seems to be for the council to hold a public hearing on the plan at Mt. Ogden Middle School on September 25th. This meeting will also include some sort of presentation on the plan by Montgomery and perhaps council staff member Alan Franke. They don't intend to actually adopt the plan at that meeting; they will hear comments and then allow time for one more round of changes before they bring the plan up for adoption.

The remainder of the meeting was mostly devoted to a discussion of the Water Horizons process and associated communications with residents by means of mail, email, the council web pages, and public meetings. During this discussion it was mentioned that the city's webmaster has left and the position is currently vacant.

Council communications specialist Chad Phares also reviewed some of the recent news coverage of the water rate issue. For some reason he didn't mention the September 2 Salt Lake Tribune article in which Mayor Godfrey blamed the City Council for delays in repairing the city's water infrastructure.