City Council · 2023-10-24

Crazy. Jeff, can you hear us? Really? Yeah, this year they, um, took so much water that it was— we had much prettier colors, variety. They had maybe a few starting Interesting. Yeah, that's what we go for. Well, yeah, initially a lot of people were disappointed. I didn't go for fall foliage. I mean, if it was that great, I went for— well, I did go for scenery, but I went for history, culture, and to be honest, food. Lobster. Hello. I'm out of town at a conference, but I'll send the test.

You two were out of town, so I just said we would deliver it here because you guys were both out of town.

Yes, thank you so much.

We're out delivering it right now.

I could put a big piece of tape and stuck it on your door.

Well, I'm going to a exciting conference in Cleveland, Ohio. So Cleveland, I hope it has decent food. Love to check in hotels and still walk wherever. So how many do you have left? So both my sons are not married, so that's my second daughter. Maddie's young and she's the baby. She's 21. All right, like to get started here and welcome everyone to our work session. Happy October 24th. Typical October 24th day out there, right? Actually, I think it's worse. It's nicer than it was. Exactly, about 2 inches, whatever that is. Okay, our first presentation, item number 1, is the City Council recap of fall events and Lights On overview. That's going to be Kareem. So Jeff's not coming in?

He's on—

I heard him speak.

Jeff's on Zoom.

And then, as far as I know, Jeff, you here?

Coming soon.

I'm here.

All right.

Okay, well, Mayor, Council, thanks for letting Karina and I spend just a few minutes today talking about some of our recent and upcoming city events. I'm gonna let Karina do most of the talking, especially as we look forward to the the new lights on today. But really wanted to just have Karina sort of take us through a couple of the events since she began her position a few months ago. And really just, I think, thank y'all. It's been amazing to have so much council attendance at these events. We've had a blast putting them on. I think the residents as well have experienced the benefit of having so many municipal events and a chance to be together. So I'll have Karina take us through a little bit of what we've done just even this fall?

Yes, thanks for letting me come. Like Frank says, it has been so much fun to help support all of these amazing events that ORM puts on. And I think the most exciting thing about my job is the partnerships that ORM has made throughout the years, and that I continue to be able to develop those relationships, and being able to work with a lot of different city departments, and then as well as just Orem businesses. And so, um, I also wanted to first thank the council for always being in support and coming to all of these events. I really think that when you guys come, it has a sense of unity within the city. And so it's really fun to be able to have you guys, and just thank you and love the support that you bring when you come to these events. Um, so firstly, I just wanted to go over the, um, Orem City supported the Intermountain Orem Community Hospital Annual Harvest Festival. That was kind of a mouthful. This was to promote, like, wellness of health benefits, citywide programs, and bringing community together to educate the community of healthy living. Next, we had the Fire Prevention Night. This is all about fire safety, and this year's theme for fire safety was Cooking Safely Starts With You, where we saw an exploding demonstration of what not to do when there's a gas fire. And then we were also able to meet Torch, who is Orem City's newest peer support dog in training. Okay, then next was the Eclipse Magic Show. So the library department put on a, you know, amazing solar eclipse watching party that we're— the library was able to provide glasses and donuts and solar-inspired activities for the kids, and we were also able to have a fun magic show along with that. This was truly one that I was not expecting the attendance that we got, but it was pretty incredible to see just so many of the community members come out and celebrate the eclipse together. And then we also had, after undergoing some serious TLC, so tender loving care, the Altogether Playground was reopened to the public after being resurfaced. In attendance, we were able to have the 4 women who inspired the event. The Lyles and the Gleasons were such a big part of this project, and it was also just awesome to see them come and be able to cut the ribbon to the new era of the park.

And then just— sorry, what is the length of warranty? I don't know, whatever. I thought the new warranty— I felt like the other one was constantly getting— you know, with the— we have a longer life.

Yeah, I can tell you when we put the turf on our sports fields, it's a 10-year warranty, and it's a very similar product. So we can let Chris jump in and correct us if it's different in a playground application.

But about it, I just felt like that other one was constantly needing Thank you. So this last weekend, we had our annual Truck and Treat event, where we got to celebrate, celebrate the spooky season, but also see all the vehicles that help run the city. Some of those vehicles were the US Coast Guard, prisoner transport, UTA bus, waste management trucks, and the famously loved bucket truck from Rocking Mountain Power. In addition, just a special thanks to our Parks Department. We were able to put on face painters on site and then be able to give out goodies for all the children in attendance. So now I'm excited to talk to you guys about an upcoming event that we have, which is the end of November, just right after Thanksgiving, which is the beloved Lights On ceremony. And I'm going to turn it over to Bryce to kind of talk about the history of this event.

I'll be incredibly brief in my history because y'all have seen it. But I think what we've been tasked with is understanding the things that required us to change Lights On, specifically to the large pit right out here. And but we also— I think Lights On has been a very special Aurum event for a long time. So we didn't want to get away from sort of the heart of the Lights On event. It's always been a very— intimate event, and you're there together, and it has felt very small in a good way. And so I think, you know, you have— you've had the seer there providing the art and the Christmas spirit. We've been able to have, you know, very small crowds. And so, you know, Terry, you and your family could individually hand out the little glow-up, whatever those whirly twirly things were, or, you know, the hot cocoa and all that. It's always had this really small feel to it. And so as we transition to the other side of the block, we get to the City Center Park, we didn't want to completely lose some of that feel. We love Warm Fest for what it is, we love Touch a Truck for being big and expansive, but we tried to build an event that could accommodate more people but still help, uh, hold that small and casual feel to it. So with that impossible task of making the small event bigger but feel smaller, um, here's what we got.

Here's what we got. So this is just kind of a general overview of what we are looking at. This map is ever-changing as as we get more sponsors in, as we get more ideas, and changing it a little bit.

But we—

a couple changes that we have made and add-ons is we're going to keep the program how it has always been with, you know, Mayor Young as our emcee and introducing this Christmas spirit, and then following with a special speaker. And then we'll have the royalty lead us into Santa is coming into town with— As our train is coming in, we're going to have Santa riding on that train. And then we'll flip on the lights for the entire park, which is going to be so magical. A couple other features is that we are going to be having a Christmas market, and so that is what the red is on that side. We'll have the shopping going on, we'll have Santa photo opportunities. Like I said, we'll have the hot cocoa and donuts that were donated to us, and then the train rides, and we'll have the fire truck on the side. lit up in the new Teller, Teller one. So we're excited for that one. Next to— I've been telling people about this event that I really want to make it a Hallmark experience. I wanted to make it feel like you're in a Hallmark movie because that is what I am truly aiming for. And we couldn't make it possible without the partners of Utah Holiday Lighting, which is the lighting company that I hope you saw them working hard right when you were walking in, but they are local brothers who are— we're just hungry, just so excited to be working with us. And one of the things that they were expressing to myself and Tyler were like, this is our home. Orem is where we're from, this is where we want to bring our families to this event, and to, um, we really want to make it a great impact for the community, just you know, because of where we are from too. And then lower is just the general map of the trees that we are planning on lighting up. We will have, you know, the floodlights to the string trees, and then we'll also be lighting up the city center stage as well.

Can I ask the cost based on our Lumberjack people from Alaska?

Are we comparable price-wise?

Are we a little less because they're having to travel? On a per capita basis, on a per tree basis, I think we're probably less expensive overall, because we're transitioning over into the city center markets. It's overall, but within budget. Okay.

I think an emphasis there, we're not going to light every single tree in the city's arboretum. That would be prohibitively expensive. But to create, like Karina said, some moments and some, some photo opportunities in specific places with a really a couple of marquee spots there that will, that We'll focus on.

Yeah, and so we're, you know, in my, in my eyes, I view this as we have Orem Fest in the summer and then we have the Lights On ceremony in the winter. So we have these staple events, we have these hallmark events that Orem puts on yearly, and something that all participants are really excited to come to. And these are just— we'll have the train, the Hakugo, and then some of the sponsors and partnerships that we've been working with And hopefully getting more on board. But that is, that's the lights-on ceremony.

I have a question.

Are you going to, like last year, they made that lighted tree thing for the kids. Are we giving out like something to people, or are we directing that budget to other things?

Like you sponsored before. Yep, sponsored. I think we're focusing our budget on the experience and so, and on the lights. So ideally, this is something that beyond the hour and a half that were there the Monday night of the event, families would be able to come back by for the entire month. And so we felt like we could get repeat excitement and opportunities by doing that.

So we just have to show up and look pretty?

Always.

Always, always. The men might take issue with that one. We have to look our best.

Yes.

Santa's coming.

Santa's coming.

If there's enough holiday cheer, Tom, we can hopefully get Santa. That's up to each of our hearts.

Are you the Grinch or not, right?

Yeah.

Is that how loud the crowd sings?

To Councilmember Spencer's point, though, a lot of this will be centered on the outdoor stage. The lights—

yeah.

And then the tree directly to the southeast will be the marquee sort of focus of some of the most lights, and then the Santa and the fire truck, the mayor's emcee, the sort of the program will center around there.

We're still doing the tree out here.

Yes, yes, yes. And so that one, maybe go back, looks better lit up than that one.

It's hard to see, but it is the only blue one within that.

I'm always concerned at the length of the line to see Santa. And I know, like, my grandkids are like, yeah, we can't wait in that line.

Yeah.

So with the train and other—

I mean, what are we going to do so that it's not just a big long wait line?

Exactly that. You know, when we, when we design events, the goal is to have— we measure throughput. How many stations can have how many children or how many adults in an hour? And so by having the market and Santa and the train and the light photo ops, hopefully it spreads the crowd out to 4 or 5 big spots and the lines feel a 4th or 5th the size.

So Sounds great. What day was this again?

This is November 27th.

November 27th. Yes.

We can— yeah, we would be glad to send out a calendar invitation to the mayor and council once we have that finalized.

Okay, great. I think it's on our calendar already. Any other questions?

It is 5 PM.

I just want to say to you guys, you're doing an amazing job.

I mean, what city has—

I mean, we just had like almost 8 different events, you know, coming up through the fall. And I think those events really make— I mean, it becomes part of Orem's personality, right? And who we are and the excitement and the community and all the rest. And, uh, and then when you say this is a Hallmark event, I mean, my wife is a Hallmark movie watcher, so she'll be here. She needs to go back to her room. Yeah, we'll bring our whole story out. Who's gonna do the kissing? I just want to say you guys have done amazing.

I just thought it was impressive you were trying to blame the Hallmark movies in your home on your wife.

Thank you.

Well, can I say thanks to Councilmember Peterson for the train? Have we said that already? We're excited about that. Yeah, that, that little idea. It was at the Harvest Festival, right?

Didn't we have the train there?

That was not ours.

Yeah, ours will be better.

I love that one too.

But The city's train is going to be pretty neat. Next council meeting, we'll have a chance to really celebrate the train and the debut and all of that.

That one was pretty popular there.

So do we get to ride on it?

There's no way of knowing. There is a way of knowing.

But yes, we'll have an inaugural ride, I think, the next council Yeah, can I ask, where are we going to store that train? Is that going to be a public works, or where is that train going to be? That's a city secret.

No, we're working closely with our fleet department for maintenance, safety, storage, loading, unloading, etc. It's quite the operation to get that train to and from the places, so it'll take our professional fleet to help with that.

And I'm not going to ride on it during the Farm Fest.

Oh, I love that idea.

But will you get your face painted? Problem solved.

He says that till he drives it.

Yeah.

Is it a Ford or a Chevy? Well, it's a Ford, definitely not. Well, thanks, you guys.

Thank you.

All right, next up we've got item number 2, a presentation of proposed ordinance 13-1-11, amending park lighting enclosure. Okay, I'd like to take that.

This is different than what I had prepared, so looks a little bit different.

But it's modern.

This amendment really comes down to the what, the why, and how. Currently, right now, our parks close at 11 PM, and after that point, it is impermissible for individuals to be in the parks. And the why is why we're looking at amending those park hours is to help the recreation department attract, secure regional, national, and international recreation events. We have the new addition of the Lakeside Sports Complex, and there's been interest in having large, larger events at those— at the complex, and recreation department would like to be able to have the Lakeside Sports Complex become a national jewel of a place to hold tournaments and, and be a crowning jewel in Orem's cap.

So does that mean midnight or 1 o'clock?

What's the—

what would attract—

Right now the issue is some of these tournaments, they're afraid that a weather event may cause them to be delayed. And with that, they would want to be able to go into some of the later hours as a, as a kind of a standby to be able to finish it again.

So the problem, Jake, is like a softball game, there's not a time limit, or a baseball game. Correct. So I've been, I've been at our park where they are religiously turning the lights out. You can't find your way to your car because someone's flipping the light off. So that's great. Anyway, so especially some of these tournaments— again, sorry, these are, you know, teams outside of Orem, because my granddaughters are playing on some of those teams.

So this goes hand in hand with the idea of what we've done to improve the Lakeside Park complex is now we want to be able to attract the tournaments, the teams, the tourists and sales tax dollars basically to Orem to, to show people what Orem has. The how is we would be creating a permit process which would be managed by our Recreation Department director, and that's all laid out in this ordinance. So the current language, as I said, is the parks close at 11 PM and then won't reopen until 5 AM. We already have a carve-out provision in that, in that ordinance for the Orem Fest operations. And so now what we would be doing is expanding that carve-out provision to allow the discretion of the department director to temporarily modify the hours at these select parks: the City Center Park, Community Park, Hillcrest Park, Lakeside, and Windsor. And as you notice, one of the common threads would be baseball, softball fields, sporting fields. The way that that would be done is through a permitting process. The applicant would make a permit application to the Recreation Department, and that would be accompanied by the associated and appropriate fees. So as we move forward to make this ordinance, we'd also be looking to amend our consolidated fee schedule to put in a fee amount for this application. The ordinance also lays out the ground— the grounds for which the department director could deny the permit for that event. And we've got the neighbors in mind here. We understand that, you know, going late into the evening, we want to make sure is that we don't unreasonably interfere or create a hardship on the neighboring residents or businesses. And so, as that application comes to the department director, that would be something that Bryce would be evaluating, is would this, would this event cause a hardship on the neighbors to the park? And if it would, then Bryce would deny that application. It also provides conditions on the permitted use. We want to make sure that the event is done and done well. and doesn't ultimately cause damage to the park, littering, doesn't create any sort of hazardous conditions or fights or violence or anything like that. We want to make sure that we have good operators that are holding these events in our parks. We would have city staff be on site for any of these events that would go outside of the normal operating provisions, and part of that reason would be is if an event starts to operate outside of the area where we would deny that permit, or they violate the conditions of their permit, we at that point can revoke that permitted use and close down the event.

So are you thinking law enforcement, or—

So we have a provision in our ordinance that if we believe that it is— there's a safety concern, or there needs to be additional law enforcement there, that we would that they need to identify that in their application so that we can evaluate whether or not we need to appropriate law enforcement staff.

My other question is, I'm assuming our lights are on timers.

Who would be the overriding—

Public Works being people that make sure that particular park wouldn't go dark?

I think there'd be communication between Bryce and Public Works to make sure that those lights remain on for that permitted event. And that's why we would also be doing the permit, is so we can have those conversations prior to the event occurring.

So yes, so just—

I was just going to ask, so basically in our packet, the red line, that's what you're adding, that is outlining all of what Debbie's asking?

All of that's covered in there? Correct.

And that's what we're adding to our code?

Yes. So just a comment on Hillcrest is kind of unique because there's not neighbors. Around the pickleball courts. Most of the other pickleball courts, you've got neighbors or lights, they're going to bug you, you know, half a block away. So we might as a city consider Hillcrest. I think there are a lot of people that would love to go play pickleball at 1 o'clock in the morning. And as far as safety goes for the city, it's probably better to have that park lit than it is to have it dark, where we've got the hammock, you know, the hammock places right next to it where people, you know, instead of having it dark and we don't know what's going on with the hammocks and all that. It's just a suggestion. I think we might find it better. I mean, it's right along University Parkway. Keep it lit. And I'll bet you if we— if that word gets out, we will have a lot of people there. Uh, and why not? I mean, I see the people at Plaza there at 1 o'clock in the morning. It's rocking. Yeah. Okay.

So in essence, that's really what the proposed resolution or proposed ordinance does.

There are many of those parks that are right next to neighbors. Yes.

And they're not going to be excited about this going past.

So Windsor, a bunch of right up against homes. At least here, the city park, you got a street across, but still noise and lights.

So I don't know how you make this mix work. The concern for people who live right next door to the park And I wouldn't want a big event going loud past—

frankly, I wouldn't want it a lot earlier than 11, but past 11 is going to be a problem. So how do we—

what's your thought?

I think Windsor's the only one on here that I see. I didn't get to see all—

that's what I quickly caught it.

Yeah, so City Park.

Okay, where's City Park?

Community Park is near the recreation. Okay, yeah, that one's okay.

Hillcrest, Lisa.

So Windsor, I would have to consult Bryce, any thoughts on the park?

One, one base or 2 baseball fields, right?

That's—

yeah, well, baseball fields are a little farther away from the homes if you look at the map than some of the grass areas. I think to your point, we, we feel heavily that concern. And I know we're talking about code, not intent. The intent would not be to do this regularly. We have no interest in doing this to our neighbors. When we host, we are receiving the applications. And so the application essentially is from these national events for next sports season is that we will work with them. And so I know from at least from an intent perspective, I, you know, we ended up putting the parks that have the lighted ball fields on this list. But if y'all feel strongly about Windsor, I can tell you right now, the national events that are coming in are coming in to Lakeside and to City Center. And in practice, that's where it's going. And so we really wanted, and I appreciate what Jake has done. We wanted a permit process because we have no interest in every park's going till 4 in the morning, and we are bringing a lot of noise and a lot of light, but just trying to attract those events to the right spots.

Yeah, because I probably live 3 blocks from Windsor, and I can hear the softball game tonight. Oh, you're the reason they turned the lights on last year. Yeah, no, I mean, but that's the only one that I share with the concerned with Tom.

I really—

I mean, have we talked to those neighbors? Can we talk to them? Or is it you just don't see that many events? The one side by this school, those would be a little easier to schedule.

And frankly, if we host most of our city, local city leagues at Windsor, we don't mind canceling a local, you know, between 2 warm teams. They can come back the next week. It's when they are traveling in from Logan or St. George. that we don't want to have them come back the next week. That's just not realistic. And so again, if y'all feel that Windsor is the concern, even Community Park, that's an expansive park with a lot of it, but we're talking about the recreation fitness center. Yeah, but we had to list the park. So I guess a lot of what we would say is we would continue to use the discretion of the neighbors constantly in this decision-making process. But if Windsor feels like the outlier, I think I'm comfortable striking it from the list.

Community Park has a road. Between it and the house, but Windsor backs up right to homes. You're still at 11 o'clock at night. So what's your point? Point is, you're not striking Windsor from 11 o'clock. It's past that.

That's where you're striking it.

So yeah, no, we're just pulling it from this amendment that lets them go past 11.

Even within the amendment as it's currently written, we have some parks that we won't turn the tennis courts light on. We don't turn them on at 5 AM for the same reason, even though the code would allow us to go 5 to 11. We work with the neighbors to say what's the right mix for this park, these lights, this tennis court, that pickleball court.

Do you see a demand for Windsor for outdoor— I'm sorry, out-of-area tournaments?

Some of the tournaments are multi-site, they need every ball field they can get. And so right now we can, you know, without Windsor, we can say we can do an 11-field tournament.

With—

if we added Windsor and Community, we could go up to a 15, 17, 18-field tournament for a larger bid.

Can you schedule— can you drop off the last game?

For the tournament, or is it all weather-related?

Honestly, we would only do this for the weather-related exceptions at this point. We basically would say your tournament needs to end at 10. However, should active ground arise, we could be able to still get your event in without sending your teammates home if it's an hour or 2. And that's, that's really what was the impetus for this, was being able to say your rec department will— your host rec department will work with you as a tournament director.

Just how many times, what percentage do you see that happening?

We have— we're working with 22 different tournaments for next year's season. 2 of them have requested this exemption as a national event. And y'all know whether it's— it probably won't happen that often that they aren't able to just work it into the schedule, or it's a local event that we can just reschedule locally easily.

So I would take on—

I wonder if we can essentially incorporate a little bit of adjustment here that maybe keeps the option open, but that puts it at like the lowest priority, almost like a last resort. Like, we look at that list, we look at where we think it's most likely to be needed, and we kind of list the sites in that order. If there is a desire to keep it again open for a last resort, maybe Windsor Park only stays on As the last resort option.

Just throwing that out as a potential middle ground idea. You're just surprised. I've been to Windsor probably 7 or 8 times this summer because that's— my kids are from Lehigh, but they're— it's an accelerated program and they're playing in Windsor. I think there's only been one time there was a weather-related delay because it rained earlier and delayed the game before ours. I think usually they're out of there by 10. I think So that's the only time, and I really have been there, you know, most weeks this summer. So your intent is not to—

We are not— in practice, I hope— I would hope next summer looked identical to this past summer. But to bring that event in for them to sign on the dotted line, they need to know what level of flexibility do we have. And right now, with the current code, I have no flexibility.

It is against city code.

And your intent is Obviously, it's not to go past 11, like for scheduling or this or that. It's really weather-related.

And the permit process would communicate that to say your scheduled stuff needs to end by 10. We have the hour of getting to your cars or extra innings or a couple of things. And in incredible exceptions, this permit allows you, with approval the day of, to say we got weather delayed, we need this, and then we will send a full-time staff over to supervise it.

And to me, that type of exemption where you're only talking about weather-related, and it's— if you've got a tournament going on, you need that or you can't come here, that just makes sense to do it.

And again, we going— I wanted to come back to this slide and just again talk about the permit is under that section, second bullet point. The proposed use would disturb the peace of or cause undue hardship of the neighboring residents. And just knowing how the recreation department has worked with the neighbors to find that balancing point, that's the reason we wanted that type of language in there, so the department director can be responsive to neighbors and, and craft a way to both be flexible to the tournaments, but also be mindful of the neighbors that live near the park.

Right.

One of the things about the community center park with Mountain View right there.

Every single football game all season long goes well close, close to 11 o'clock because I'm only a block and a half from the football field. Thank you for scheduling them, uh, because I follow the kids. I mean, there's a lot— there's that facility in Spanish Fork, unbelievable. You probably couldn't have that. That's our dream facility I'd love to have, but But it's really cool when my grandkids are playing in Orem. I mean, I just love it. And, and people are spending money, you know, they're going to run to the mall, they're going to go out to eat, they've got a doubleheader or whatever. And it's, it's great for the city, I think, to have to establish that we're the recreation place. You want to come for recreation, come here. Well, if they want 18 games or 18 fields, that's, that's a lot of people.

It's a unique pitch.

And so as our partners at the county go out to—

I think we give you the I think you run with it.

Thank you. Thank you, Jake. Yeah, why don't we— this next presentation is going to take us right up the line, so why don't we go ahead and have a prayer, have our code. Heavenly Father, we are grateful to be gathered this day to do business in the city. We ask a blessing on this food that's been prepared for us, that it will nourish, strengthen our bodies. We pray for this community we live in and the country we live in, and we are grateful for God's hand in the work that we do here. And we say this in the holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen.

All right, take a 25-minute break. 25-minute break. Oh, you mean no, no, there's no houses. Yeah, but I mean, you still have your lights sticking out. No, I mean, it's 2 blocks away. Yeah, it's a couple blocks away from the houses. I mean, it's right next to the road.

Why don't you get a film in just to see if we need to adjust it? So 7 is turkey, 8 is club.

I got the club. No, no mustard. I mean, right, the directions are up at the top.

What's that?

The directions are up at the top. They usually win like awards for my student. All right, let's go ahead and reconvene the meeting. We'll move on to proposed city boundary adjustments. And Jason, if you'd like to take care of that. Thanks, Mayor. At the very beginning here, too, we're going to talk about the process, why we're going through this process.

We have 3 locations in the city, 2 of which are kind of staff-driven.

Try to clean up some boundary issues that we have, and I'll show you those too. One is an applicant-driven, which we'll talk about. But first, let's have Gary kind of go over how we go about processing the boundary line adjustments.

Boundary line adjustments are somewhat unusual between communities. And state law allows 2 communities that have adjoining boundaries to adjust their boundaries so that the jurisdictional limits shrink or grow depending on the ultimate resolution of that discussion. So in this case, there's potential for 3 boundary adjustments with Provo City. And as Jason said, 2 were initiated mostly by staff, and one is an applicant-initiated. Now, we don't have a direct process in our code, so we're following the state law with this. And state law, what it requires is for a council to pass a resolution indicating an intent to adjust the municipal boundary. Once you pass that resolution, in not less than 60 days, you hold a public hearing on whether you should adjust the boundary. So by passing the resolution, you are not adjusting the city boundary. You're merely indicating an intent that you might adjust the city boundary. Then, in not less than 60 days from the time that you pass that resolution, you then hold a public hearing. And at that public hearing, you can take public comment and make a determination of whether it furthers the health, safety, welfare interests of the residents of Provo to adjust the boundary. Now, Provo City, a week ago in their council meetings, actually passed a resolution, uh, 3 resolutions, uh, for the areas, uh, for which there could be a possible boundary line adjustment. And Jason will go through each of those areas. Uh, so tonight the intent is to introduce this idea to you, uh, make sure you get your questions answered, listen to the feedback. And then, uh, the soonest we could do this is November 14th at the next council meeting. On your action agenda items, one could be, uh, one item could be the 3 resolutions. And assuming you pass those resolutions, then in not less than 60 days we could hold a public hearing on that item of whether we should or should not pass or adjust our boundaries with Provo City. And in most applications, or in all land use applications, the burden of proof for why should we adjust our boundary here in Orem with Provo City. The burden of proof is on the applicant to persuade you that it is in the best, uh, health, safety, and welfare interest of the residents of Provo to do this.

What?

Residents of Provo? Residents of Orem?

Well, I'm sorry, uh, Orem and Provo are doing it. Provo would do it to make sure it's in the best interest of their residents. Orem does it from the perspective, is it the best interest of the residents of Orem? It's getting a little confusing about with Orem and Provo operating together, so it is a little bit—

What if it just meant like it's not major managing away, but it's neutral?

Yes, and it'll be your determination of should we do this or should we not do it. Does that, does that make sense?

It's—

yeah, I don't know if this council's faced a Boundary line adjustment yet, but that does happen occasionally.

Okay, first item is on 2000 South Columbia Lane, this location here, 2000 South, this location. The city owns a piece of property here. It says there's tension based on some of the street runoff and others collects here. You see the blue line right now on the top is the common boundary between Provo and Orem. So 2000 South right now is in the jurisdiction of Provo. Orem maintains the road, plows the road, and does all the things maintenance-wise for the road. And then you can see that this portion of Orem is now currently in Provo. Provo has agreed to take the boundary line out south along that pink line and make that now the common boundary. Did you say Orem owns the ground there, or is it in the Orem city boundary? Okay, there's a detention basin. Okay.

And that property is in Provo city boundaries.

But we own it.

We own property within the jurisdiction of Provo City.

Okay. But help me understand the road. Do you typically own the full road, or do you split with the— It depends. Some areas in the As you go further west, Provo, down by the gas station on 2000 and Geneva, Provo jurisdiction is the entire road and some areas of 2004 and Longview. So it just depends on the jurisdiction. And then, for example, half is in Logan, half is in Longview. It just depends on jurisdiction. So do you trade off like every other year? Like, we're not going to go directly to that border and that way it can snow? divisions in Provo face inward, right? None of them access that road. So Provo doesn't have access, doesn't use that road. I'm sure they do use it, but as far as maintenance or anything like that, for them, this is all Warren City here. All these roads feed into that, or Warren ties into Columbia Land, which is a Warren— so it just makes sense for them to maintain that, although they didn't— they don't own that. It's not in their jurisdiction. So we're recommending that that boundary just be shifted. So you're shifting it to the south.

So in essence, Jason, we would move it from the north curb line to the south curb line of 2000 South.

So you can see part of it is not necessarily on the curb line, some of it's kind of in the middle of the 90s. So we basically shift that curb line to the south and taking the So in essence, we, I mean, we don't own the road, but we maintain the road.

We, we own a portion of the road, often between communities. The dividing line between communities will be the middle of the road. And that can create maintenance issues. And so you frequently between communities will have an agreement that, oh, in this instance, even though the boundary line between our jurisdictions is the middle of the road, we'll take care of the maintenance of all the road, we'll plow it, we'll do things like that. And then in other circumstances, the other community might maintain the full width of the road. But in this case, As this neighborhood developed, and ironically I live here on Temple. So when this was developed, this was in a subdivision made in Orem or Provo City and then divided Orem, and they had to put in the curb and gutter along here. And the drainage for the curb and gutter sidewalk on this side goes into our detention basin, which we actually own, but which is in Provo City jurisdiction. And we would like to have our detention basin in our jurisdiction. And then since the right-of-way here deals with drainage that comes into our detention basin, it makes sense for us to be able to have this in Orem City jurisdiction so we can deal with all of the drainage issues, and it lessens the amount of contacting Provo to try and deal with those types of issues.

But this is a—

I mean, correct me, we are providing a benefit to Provo residents by having that drainage and detention basin, by taking care of the drainage and having that detention basin. It's Orms drainage.

It's Orms?

Oh, I thought it was the homes that you said were the Provo homes. Does it come from the Provo homes too?

It comes from here too. But as you can see the boundary line here, it does take in drainage from Orem and in other areas from Orem down to a detention basin. Primarily, the vast majority of benefit for that basin goes to Orem city residents.

Right.

So my question though is, is there a benefit to Provo residents too? This, this drain, I don't think it goes. So for whatever reason, the boundary line is— it's just something that we want to fix. Rob agrees, so just fix the intersection. There's really no negative. Where does the drain arrow—

I don't think there's any negative.

This one is quite the issue. I don't know the whole story with that, but there is a lift station in Warremall right here, this triangle. For whatever reason, back in the '70s, '60s, '70s, '80s, something like that, somehow this boundary— so this is Warremall here, the boundary line comes here to take in that and it comes back up. So this part is Provo, this is—

Provo.

That piece right now, the quarry rock climbing queue, that one comes in right now, the battery actually goes to another building.

So it's kind of a weird boundary.

What's that rope that goes over I-15?

Is that I-15 or a railroad?

That's Cardinal.

Excuse me? This is the diagonal.

Cardinal. University Parkway.

Right now we're Closing. We could clean up the boundaries so it's not so weird. So we've looked at these properties, they're already taxed in one, even though they're in trouble. The county has made adjustments. These are taxed currently in trouble. The quarry, which is in a probable development, is actually taxed in trouble. So there's no issues with taxing right now. It's already property tax, sales tax, all that. picture. The lines have just kind of moved up.

So what Norm is—

or excuse me, Provo and Norm agreed to is this yellow line would be the new boundary line. So there'll be a little piece that goes into Provo which finishes that shopping center, and this chunk that you see right here would be into Orem. Instead of having this weird line that just comes up, basically fix that problem. So it's already warm anyway. It takes access to— it's already warm, so it doesn't matter. Warm doesn't benefit at all by changing the line. So this just really cleans it up.

So it does—

this looks better than having some really jagged— The pump station still works.

We're kind of trying both of these as housekeeping things that needed to be done for a long time.

Any other questions? So those are 2 staff-driven ones.

The 2 staff of both cities have been assigned this.

And then during the next 60 days, if the council chooses to do that, we'll work on any agreement. This one's a little bit different. This is the one at the mouth of the canyon, University Avenue, near Pueblo River. This is the development. I'll show you a couple of maps. The applicants are here if you have questions specifically. This currently is the boundary, so Provo 1 boundary. Provo's on this side, Warren's on this side. What they're proposing is to make this now the new boundary, so this would go into Provo. Warren would maintain the property that you see beyond that, so that would be the new property. Where's the commercial part of the Commercial would be north of that. So up here. That's called— that's Orem or Provo? This is Orem.

There's a power station right above there, off the map.

Off the map. Okay.

Okay.

Yep.

Yep.

And that's, that's in Orem stuff?

That's in Provo.

It's in Provo and is already in Provo.

Sorry.

That's why it's a confusing The power plant, where is it again?

Right there.

Yeah, I know what cities it is.

As you go up, so then all the residential would become Provo, but the commercial would stay. Right. So the applicants have provided a couple of maps. I'm just going to go through this really quick. Here's a little layout of This is the development. So what they want to do is take this portion and make this all program, and this will be maintained. So, JC, can you go back? So, so that So on the draw on the map here, you got the bridge. So is—

we're going to change the boundaries to the road that's on the bridge? That's what they're taking?

So you can see this piece right here, this parcel, right? Oh, that's there. Okay, okay. So, so bridge stays in Orange.

So it just cuts—

it just cuts right off.

Is there a proposal? Can they change that? The townhome design, the design of their proposal?

So what we're proposing is that our development agreement was approved by the council to transfer to approval.

I've talked with the attorney for Canyon River Holdco, and that's their project. I've talked with Provo's attorney, and we've discussed doing a 3-way boundary adjustment agreement with Canyon River Holdco, Orem, and Provo. Several of the the issues of concern were, uh, the hospitality center and the commercial area remaining in Provo and being constructed in Orem. Oh, I am so sorry, I'm probably going to mix up Orem and Provo here because it's this project. So that this would remain in, uh, Orem and that we would have some sort of agreement or timeline on which this would be constructed. There are also issues on the bridge and the repair of the bridge and coming up to standard. Then this property going into Provo from Orem, but yet Provo continuing our development agreement with what Canyon River Holdco agreed to when the rezone happened. And then, of course, along the river, there's the river trail improvements that need to be put in and need to be consistent.

So if I understand it, this is keeping all the residential components in one zip code, one school district, instead of having different parts of schools, just to keep it all consistent. At least that's what I remember. So utilities, all that kind of stuff. So Jason, we've gone over this like 3 or 4 times. I've been to that property, I've been in their truck driving around, I've been on 8th and North, I've been to— I've been— so why are we doing this again? So now we just want direction from the Council. We're okay putting it on the agenda. So direction different than the last direction, or So before, we were looking at approving the project, not changing city boundaries.

We thought we might approve city boundaries, and that's what you're saying now.

Right, everything we talked about before was just the project being approved in Orem. So it's been approved in Orem, but now we're talking about an actual boundary change.

I was hearing boundary change before, but maybe we've been talking about that for a while.

Yeah, I've been here. I think, I think the landowner, landowner slash developer never officially tried to apply for a boundary change before, but has now tried to start a process for the cities to consider a boundary change.

But I think it is, it is a little odd that the zone and the, you know, layout of development has all been approved and figured out, right?

And then coming back afterwards to do the boundary change, that is a little odd. But to Gary's point earlier, there is a little bit of ambiguity in terms of what—

how the state— how state law governs this process.

Gary, were you saying that as far as this transaction, 3-way transaction, that we would be timelines on the commercial side of this? So the commercial side doesn't just sit there?

What I was saying is, I know that's a concern. And to what level of a concern that is for the council is part of the reason for this meeting, is to have a discussion about what the council's concerns are, and what, if any, potential terms would go into some sort of boundary adjustment agreement that we could have. One of the issues could be, when is the commercial development going to happen? What's the timeline for those bridge improvements, etc.? And so as we have this discussion, we're looking for direction from the council for a couple of things. One, should we put this on the boundary adjustment concept? To approve a resolution, uh, starting the 60-day time clock for a public hearing. Should we go ahead and put that on the November 14th meeting? Uh, that would start that 60-day clock going. The, the second part of this are what concerns do— does the council have? What questions of the applicant do you have? Uh, what should go in the development agreement. And in talking with, with Provo, they were contemplating a development agreement with the applicant. I've discussed with them, we have a development agreement, they now have a copy of our development agreement, and they're looking at it, and we possibly assign it to them. So those are some of the issues that we still need to work out to make sure legally all of this works. But to get those agreements done today, we're looking for direction of the council's concerns so that we can make sure they are addressed in a development agreement so that at your public hearing in 60 days or so, we can have those items addressed for And I mean, from the conversations that I've had, I think we definitely want some sort of a time frame on the commercial side.

I mean, we feel like this is a kind of an unusual, special sort of thing that we're doing to make this happen, to make this all work for this housing development. And so since we're going to do that, we'd like to see the developer say We're not just going to leave you with, you know, a big blob of the power thing over here. You want to see the commercial side built out, and what's the timeframe? But we already approved the housing development. We've already done that, right?

We're not—

this is just if we want to give the property to Provo. Correct. So they're going to build it either way.

Yeah, we're not stopping housing.

Nothing's stopping the housing. Nothing's stopping that. They have the right to go The developer would like the housing to function in one jurisdiction as a whole, one, one school district, one taxing entity, all of those things.

And so, uh, so Gary, give us the real reason, because before the school district thing, my neighbors go to Tempe View, my other neighbors homeschool, my other neighbors have their kids going to a Provo elementary school. It does work fine in my neighborhood. The other one was it splits a ward, and all of us that are involved with wards have seen where they put one block in one part of the ward, the other blocks in the other part of the ward. So that's— that doesn't matter. I mean, those are not really serious situations. I'd like to know why they want to do this. Was making the sewer up the hill part of the process? Yeah, tell us the real reason. Not because we're worried about the neighbors' kids are going to go to a different school.

Well, the applicant is here.

And can—

I think some of those questions that you would have would be perfect for them to address, so that if we go forward with this, we can get our arms around an agreement and those— get a resolution to those items which are important.

Because I'd say that us as staff share the concerns, right? And, and, or, and, or I'm sure there's concerns that we haven't anticipated.

What is a reasonable timeline? I mean, usually I don't like to force things on a market-driven economy, because a lot of it's based on things, but it's 3 years, 5 years.

I mean, what, we have an idea of timeline?

I don't think that's a great question for the applicant. Um, you know, because as governmental staff, we're not keyed into necessarily market considerations and forces.

Would you want them to come up here and talk to us?

Yeah, I think that would be appropriate in this meeting to have— yeah, you can come up and answer council questions.

Yeah, can we both go up?

Yes.

No, only one.

If you want it factual, we'll let Jamie talk.

That's what you want.

Yeah, well then I should sit down. Okay.

Jamie Chapman, Gemini. We're with Poltercraft.

We are the developer that's been hired by Old Coast to bring this development to fruition.

What they're—

you know, what everything that's been communicated is factual. You know, we have basically a 90/10 scenario, and if the roles were reversed and 90% of our community were in Orem and 10% were in Provo, we'd probably try to switch it back. It does make things easier, you know, from just one community and how it functions, you know, from little things like wayfinding and Amazon delivering to the right Location, you know, residents inviting people over, or what have you. So it is, it does function easier. Same with school districts and boards, as you've mentioned. One of our biggest logistical challenges with developing this property is the reach to water main that goes through here, as well as there is an easement in place because there's another detention basin in this location. What's the name of the other water main? The one that brings in the raw water from Uintah?

They're both Reach Mains.

Okay, okay, there's Reach 2, Reach 2B. But anyway, there's, there's, there's 2 big water mains that come through this. There's also a— if your detention basin overflows, it flows into the Provo River. There's an easement that flows through there, and there's an easement for transmission lines that bring power from up Provo River that run, that are buried, that run through this property as well. So it's, it's very tough to develop this property because we have utility crossings, uh, you know, that— and then that's technically like, that's going to be the toughest part of our site work as we go out there and, you know, very carefully expose, expose the Reach 2 main water line under the purview of Central Utah Water District.

Who owns those water lines?

Are they ours or are they—

They're the Central Utah Water District. of the federal government. So we submit stuff to Central Utah Water District, who then takes it over to the Bureau of Reclamation, and somehow Provo Power is involved with transmission lines. So we, you know, in order to develop anything here, we have to cross those lines, whether it be under or over. And because Provo has deeper sewer, we can gravity flow into Provo and not put in another redundant sewer system pumping sewer uphill into Orem because, you know, we're at the end of the line for both cities, but Orem is more shallow than Provo, so that makes sense.

Orem's connection point is right here, so then the, the grade falls off going south this direction, so we would have to—

we'd have sewer going down here looping, then being pumped right back up to this location.

And so, so it's going to be cheaper engineering.

Engineering for development is just— there's so much There's a lot going on, so literally we're going to dig it up and design-build it as we're going, almost, under the purview of Southern Utah Water District.

Can you ask my question about the commercial?

I mean, I know it's market-driven, but I don't think we want that empty.

We're referring to it as phases, you know, so for us, Phase 1 is the townhomes, Phase 2 is the hospitality that's shown here, Internally, there's a debate on what the hospitality will look like, whether it be, you know, 42 units— what's depicted here is 42 units of— calling it Airbnb, although it's not, but it's short-term vacation rental. You stay, it functions, you know, similar to an Airbnb. There's also a lot of debate on a boutique hotel concept, and we've been looking at another boutique hotel that's functioning Really well, and everybody's really happy with it, but we can't fit both. And so we've been looking at that and soliciting input from, from potential operators, all of whom have an opinion. But, you know, when— what you will see first is development of the townhomes. The next will be the development of the hospitality, and then the restaurant village. So that's kind of phases 1, 2, and 3.

There was a drive-through that we had a big discussion about.

Is that in the restaurant?

The drive-through was in was, yes, that was in Restaurant Village. Hospitality and food service are both permitted uses with the underlying zoning. The one thing that wasn't a permitted use was whether or not you— a drive-through was not allowed in this location. And that was when we looked at it and said, no, we, you know, if we're going to develop a Restaurant Village, we'd like to have the flexibility of a drive-through. You know, one of the things that is kind of, you know, there's one of the things that, as we make some decisions about hospitality, like boutique hotel versus Airbnb, was if you get the boutique hotel, you put a restaurant in it. And so that, you know, that might encroach a little bit more into the restaurant village, but at the same time, you know, we would already, you know, have a restaurant, you know, at least one restaurant concept covered.

So these would both be in Orem, if I'm reading this correctly?

Yes, everything hospitality-related, everything that generates sales tax is in Orem.

So ideally, what's Phase 1 is the next how many years, then Phase 2? Give me your best guess.

Phase 1 is— we're ready to go essentially right now. We'd like to start moving dirt next month. We're very, very close to it. In fact, if Provo didn't have an electronic permit system where somebody forgot to sign off, we would already have a grading permit in Provo. In Orem, we are in plan check, so our— you know, we're in plan check for a grading permit, which will essentially be a stormwater pollution prevention plan.

So you hope to get going, hopefully build over the winter?

Yes, we'd like to build over the winter.

One of the big reasons—

again, this is something else I forgot to mention— there is a— it's the West Union Canal. So there's farmers out west that still use a little bit of water, and then I think Provo has the rights to the rest of the water the rest of the time. But the West Union Canal flows April through October, and we need to reroute this canal, and we're going to do it in the winter. So we don't have to reroute the canal when it's flowing.

So back to my original question, I think it's a— I think it's kind of a big deal to do a boundary change, you know, between cities. I mean, it's just normal. Yeah. And so with that in mind, and I understand Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, but how do we basically guarantee that all 3 phases happen? Because the last thing we want to do is do this nice little housing development and then have have a dirt pile on the other end that never gets finished.

We're well underway on planning Phase 2, and in fact, we were talking to operators when we, you know, when someone came back to us and said, no, no, you're doing it all wrong, you need boutique hotel, which— so we're now kind of taking a step back, like, okay, are we really certain, you know, that this is what we want to do? So Phase 2 is imminent, and I think once we get Phase 2 figured out, You have— right now we have kind of this nebulous boundary between Phase 2 and Phase 3, between the hospitality and restaurant village. And so, you know, we'll roll right into planning the restaurant village, you know, once we, once we figure out the hospitality piece of it.

Any idea what timeframe?

We'll continue hospitality planning, you know, within the next couple of months, you know, we'll be underway on that. And from a construction standpoint, we'd like to roll right from You know, right from Phase 1 into Phase 2 and keep going with that. The restaurant village is going to take a little bit more planning. There's specialty consultants that do that. And one of the other things we want to do is, you don't build spec restaurants. Oftentimes, you, you know, you find the operator, identify them, and it's built to suit.

So you're funding forecast, is your funding in place then? Or you're saying that restaurant could hold up funding because you got to cement those contracts?

It's, uh, it takes a little bit longer to like identify the— but as far as, as far as funding goes, you know, yes, we have the equity is in place, you know, from 50 East. It's a, it's a family office and, you know, but, you know, everyone is subject to the ups and downs of the economy. You know, we've all seen Federal Reserve is working very hard to slow things down. And, you know, I saw that interest rates are 7.895%, you know, here, driving down to 15% this morning. And so that's slowing down loans, but we're pretty confident we can get construction debt and move these things forward.

What would you say— what I'm trying to wrap my arms around is some sort of a target, you know, that we can sink our teeth into and say, But, you know, I mean, what do you think is the worst case to get to the restaurant village and have that part completed?

Restaurant village, I can see us, if we're saying worst case scenario, pursuing permits 3 years out. There's, there's a lot to, there's a lot to build in the meantime.

Yeah, but so is there a way we can have some sort of development agreement that has some kind of a timeline on it, on a worst-case scenario? Just so— I'm fine with worst case, I'm not fine with never.

So I just want to make sure that, you know, it will happen.

Uh, I, I'd like to say, I'd like to say yes, although, uh, you know, most of the time I can come in and answer questions and make decisions on the spot, but in this case it's not my money. So I will, you know, we can definitely talk about that if that's You know, I've done things in the past where we pursue a conditional use permit, and there's a timeline tied to the conditional use permit to where something goes away if you, if you don't exercise it, then you have to come back and pursue entitlements. And that's a motivation for a developer to get something done within a timeframe.

And that's why I'm looking at it and just saying, okay, what's the best case? What's worst case? I'm okay going with the worst case. I just want a case that you guys are tied to. When we We had a meeting with Jason and Ryan and Steve a couple months ago, and one of the suggestions was that we provide some type of agreement regarding the bridge itself, the bridge improvements itself, and tying that to one of these phases. Right.

And so I would suggest also that the bridge improvements further coordinating on what happens at 8 North and 1550 are all benefits to Worm that will be tied to these developments as well.

Right.

And so, you know, we have submitted a memorandum of understanding to the city that agrees to make the bridge improvements with West Orange Village.

And so, you know, we're coordinating with city staff on that, you know, so Yeah, um, we're here to provide benefit to Oregon, right? And I think the bridge is great. Yeah, I think that's really valuable. So, so any of those things that are benefits for them, I'd just like to see in some sort of development agreement where that's laid out.

So the— and the current memorandum of understanding does discuss bridge improvements, uh, prior to developing a restaurant village.

So that way, you know, cart before horse, right? Yeah. So if we had a 5-year must-build by, is that realistic? I mean, I think you want to— you want to service the people, right?

We, we absolutely want to service people. We want to see this get done.

I don't know what the penalty would be if you didn't do it, but I'm confident you're telling us in good faith you're going to do it. Property goes back to normal.

Oh, you don't get a drive-through.

Discuss moving that 60-day period forward.

Okay, that's good.

I mean, so the developer here would be something I'd discuss with the people that have money.

We've already executed a development agreement with—

I mean, a timeline.

Oh, the timeline? 5 years, something.

So I mean, if you give the okay, then we put that in there. Resolution doesn't say that, right? It would be for the public hearing, which is beyond 60 days. Correct.

So the next step is actually have the resolution on a council meeting. The next available one would be November 14th, assuming the council would vote for it. It doesn't change the boundaries at that time. It just begins the 60-day waiting period before we can hold a public hearing. And at that public hearing, you could vote to adjust the boundaries. And in the meantime, we would work with, uh, Holdco and Provo to make sure that development agreement was in place that encapsulates the concerns that the council has expressed today.

So part of the 60-day is we would notify all affected entities and all the property owners that are adjacent to that, and they would have 60 days to basically come in Protest or send something in writing before the council actually—

Are you gonna hold an open house they can come to?

Or are you just gonna— house just be— they would come in and have the ability, and then they would be noticed at the actual public hearing. So they would have that ability to come forward. I mean, Gary, even though something wouldn't need to be finalized after that 60-day period, they would still want to be— work, and you would want to have a good strong draft of something to the next meeting just to show and manage expectations, keep everyone on the same page, show the direction we're heading.

Yes, that would be the goal is to have a good draft. It wouldn't necessarily have to be signable at that time, but we would have a draft. So also the council could take a look at it and say, yes, you've captured all of our concerns. And what I've heard the big concerns are, are utility issues, the bridge, a phasing plan, and putting things in, in it along those lines, and ensuring that the townhome project that was approved by Orem stays in substantial compliance with the development agreement that The council already signed with Holdco originally, and that Provo's willing to accept that development agreement, and everybody complies with the terms of those.

And again, we're trying to get— we're trying to keep moving. We're trying to reroute a canal and get the utilities done. There's no desire here to move this to Provo and put in a condo tower. Like, it's— we're trying very hard to go out there and execute on the plan that was previously Presented to you and that we've shown you today.

You're trying very hard, or you're doing it? We're doing it.

You know, the one thing, the one thing that's tough is if for some reason all of this blows up, we have not designed a lift station and a redundant sewer pumping uphill and gone in and started coordinating that with Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Water District. So that could, that could really blow us up, which is why we're here now saying, you know, we We're really hoping this goes through. We're trying to, we're trying to get moving because the very first thing we're going to do is go out and start digging in Orem and putting in these crossings. The alternative is to leave this in Orem and we submit our site plan to the city of Orem, to engineering staff, you know, get it approved by Planning Commission, and it stays in Orem.

So I mean, it's, you know, and it gets built anyway the way we've The way we designed it.

And so really, it's just a matter of—

it makes sense from an engineering standpoint, from a community standpoint. It's just a lot of work to get it to make it happen.

Is there an estimate on the additional cost?

If it stays the norm, you got to do your pumping station, you got to do—

The lift station was quoted at $300,000, which, you know, in the overall scheme of a 219-unit deal is, it's not huge. It's more of a brain damage factor of just, you know, things need to flow downhill and, you know, some— if there's a big pipe in the way, like, so that it's main— it's just that the coordination effort is worth a lot more than that to us.

Thanks.

Okay, any other questions? We're about out of time. Yeah. We're happy to be with you guys.

Thank you for coming.

Thanks. Okay, let's, uh, space for our committee here. Let's start out with item number 1. Uh, number 2, City Council report. Um, item 3, call to order. Item 4, invocation. And Dave Spencer. All right, so Dave will introduce John and his wife. And we've got item number 6, we've got a presentation from the Heritage Commission on the Veterans Day report. 6.2, we've got another presentation, a donation from the American Legion. Item 6.3, we've got a report from the Recreation Advisory Commission. After that, we'll have personal appearances. Item 8, consent items, just the approval of meeting minutes October 10th. Item 9, uh, scheduled items, we have a public hearing, I think fiscal year '23-'24 budget, and we've got a 9.2, another public hearing. Amending a whole bunch of stuff. That's our ag retainment. Oh, that's Wilkerson Farm. Okay, I just said— okay, uh, item 9.3, uh, the resolution In God We Trust. And then, uh, communication notice on 11th and Van Drive. And then item 12, we'll adjourn to a closed session and then we'll carry on in the closed session. So there's just 30 seconds to make you guys aware, because I'm sure if you haven't seen it on the news, you'll see it tonight. 1220 South State, US Bank caught fire this morning. Multi-jurisdictional fire was up in that attic space. Nobody was injured. The fire was put out. The guys did a really good job. They spent all morning down there pulling the ceiling. all the insulation. So, well, thank you. US Bank, US Bank, across from the mall. So news was down there today, Mayor. It was well handled, very well. Okay, thanks. All right, anything else? Okay, we're adjourned to our next meeting. Thank you. There we go. Yeah, go to the podium.

Yeah.

Is there still time to get on the agenda?

Who do I talk to for that? For this meeting?

Okay.

Test, test.

We'd like to welcome everyone tonight and call this meeting to order. We're going to start out with an invocation from John Valentine. And a Pledge of Allegiance from his wife Karen. And Dave Spencer, you invited John here if you'd like to say something.

Yes, I've known the Valentines for quite a while, and we appreciate your service and your friendship. So I'm glad that you could come tonight and give us the prayer and the pledge.

We appreciate it.

And John, I, I think I might have known you the longest because I met you in Jackson Howard's law firm way, way back in the day.

Yes, I was the managing partner of Howard, Lewis, and Peterson before I left to go into the cabinet of then-Governor Herbert, now Governor Cox. And for those of you in the audience who don't know, I'm presently the Commissioner of Revenue for the state. I head up the Utah State Tax Commission, and I don't need to hear from you until next April.

Can I also add, he used to be the Speaker of the House, I believe, or was it the Senate President?

President of the Senate.

Senate.

Yeah.

So Distinguished career. How long were you in the Senate here at the state?

I was in the Senate 16 years and I was in the House 10.

Yeah, one of our great legislators. We do miss you on the Hill.

Thank you so much, Councilwoman. Our most kind Eternal Father in heaven, we give thanks this evening to be gathered together As members of this community, Father, we're so thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in this land, the freedoms that have been earned. Bless the deliberations of this body, that they may find wisdom, that they may find the ability to best serve all the citizens of our community. We are grateful for each of them, for the efforts, study, and reason that they have to do to be able to serve us, for they truly represent the voice of the people as they are elected representatives. Father, bless this community that we may continue to have the rain and moisture that we need to refill our reservoirs And to make this land prosperous as a rose. We now seal these blessings and ask for them in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you. Karen, if you'd like to lead us in the pledge.

Please repeat with me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Order.

Thank you. We'll move to item number 6. We've got 3 items. Item 6.1 is a presentation by the Heritage Commission on the Veterans Day report, and Pete Wolfley will take care of that.

Thank you.

And Rodney Gardner.

So thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm here to introduce Rodney Gardner, who serves on our Heritage Advisory Commission, and he's going to talk to you about the Veterans Day program that we have planned for November 11th.

Take it away, Rodney.

Yes, we would like to invite you, Mayor, and Council members to be in attendance at our Veterans Day program. We're going to have there Nitzel Rasmussen, who is the American Legion Department of Utah commander, and as far as we know, the first lady commander in the nation. Also the Veterans Day program. will be held at the Orem City Cemetery on November 11th at 11 AM. So you're invited to attend and to bring your neighbors and friends.

Thank you, Rodney. Now item 6.2. We'll have a presentation. This is a donation from the American Legion. Rodney will come back on that.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll ask my American Legionnaires that are here today to come forward, please. And if my finance officer, Bud Byrd, and First Vice Commander Kelly Kirkpatrick, if you would hold the check over here, please. And yeah, and let's hold it so the public can see it.

Yeah, yeah, the other left.

Don't hide your face behind it.

Yeah, yeah, move over. Now look around the check so the camera I can see you.

Okay, we've been—

so, Mayor Young, the American Legion Orem Post 72 presents to the City of Orem a check for $4,000 for the purpose of purchasing the Freedom Tree for the new Freedom Plaza, and a plaque recognizing members of Orem Post 72 for their generous gift. Now, we can't take full credit for this gift, for it's through contributions from many people that made this possible. Over the past several years, Or why our major contributor has been Walker Sanderson Mortuary, who holds an annual auto show, and 100% of the proceeds from that auto show goes to our Orem American Legion Post. We've also had other mortuaries contribute with their Time and facilities and donations, too numerous to mention. We appreciate all those that have donated their time and talents and, and their money to our post to make things like this possible. Not only do we contribute to the city, but also this goes in sending Students to Boys State and Girls State oratorical contests and providing booklets of the Constitution to many students. So with gratitude for our city councilmen and our mayor and for the residents of the city of Orem, we present to you This check for $4,000.

Up front here. Yeah, come out front. That kind of fills the background. Thank you. All right, 1, 2, 3. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Well, thank you. That's awesome.

I do have a question.

Yes.

Um, maybe, you know, Bren, will $4,000 buy a very mature tree, or will this I mean, we certainly want to make sure we get a more—

as mature of a tree as we can, particularly for the New Freedom Tree. In terms of the exact cost of that, I think it's still a little bit TBD, but we'll make sure and have the plaque and recognizing the members of Orem Post 72 with those funds.

I just hope you get a beautiful tree plus a few more.

So for sure.

And I just wanted to mention, I don't know if you noticed, have you seen the, the Gold Star Monument area where they incorporated some poppies? So in that, in the landscape there, and I just thought of you gentlemen because you were handing those out at the Memorial Day program. So, great memories of you. Thank you so much.

Okay, item 6.3. Now we'll have a report from the Advisory Commission. That'll be Bryce Merrill and Alan Rex.

Yeah, Mayor, before— while they're walking up, the chair of the Recreation Commission was Skip McCorder, and he passed away. September 22nd, 2023. So I'd like to read the message that I wrote in the newsletter. A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine, Skip McCorder, passed away suddenly on September 22nd, 2023, and his passing has left me with, with a very heavy heart. Skip was a great man, and many within the community had the opportunity to touch by his influence and contagious smile. I met Skip through Ormuth Baseball. and I'll ever be grateful for the time I was able to spend with him. It was an honor to know him and to be called his friend. Skip was serving our community as the chair of the Orem Recreation Commission, where he had served for over 6 years. The following is an excerpt from his obituary. Skip was an accomplished individual personally and professionally, and his work ethic, work ethic was unmatched. His professional accolades were many, but only a small part of his vibrant life. Skip was passionate about athletics and the outdoors, whether it was baseball coaching, biking, skiing, boating, horses, hunting, or simply spending quality time with his family. He has coached thousands of young people across several sports. He was a dedicated leader of the Orem Youth Baseball Program and coached his children in every sport support imaginable. A defining part of Skip's impact was his kindness on countless individuals, leaving a lasting impact on those he encountered. Skip's influence was especially felt by the youth and young adults. His mentorship and love will be remembered by so many who benefited from his guidance and support. Skip's presence illuminated the lives of all who knew him. His warmth, humor, and unwavering faith were a source of inspiration to many. He leaves a legacy of love, strength, and resilience, and that will continue to guide, inspire, and future— inspire future generations. Skip had an uncanny yet genuine ability to make everyone he felt feel like the most important person in the world. Skip will truly be missed, and I can only hope that we can all follow his example of being kind, genuine, sincere, and respectful to others.

Thank you. Okay, Bryce, you're up.

Mayor, Council, thank you for allowing me to sit by with you, Bryce. I was just gonna say, I'm feeling lonely up here. Alan unfortunately was not able to join us today, and so I'll be making the presentation in his behalf today. But the Recreation Advisory Commission has had a really, really busy 2023, a number of large projects that they've been able to steer and provide guidance to us on. I wanted to provide a quick update and a couple of invitations on those projects today. The first is our Hillcrest Park. We are nearing the completion of this process that has been ongoing for several years. As a council, I know we had a chance to tour that a few months ago, and the Recreation Advisory Commission and Councilmember Spencer was able to join us last week as we prepare some of the final construction phases and prepare that building and that park to be ready for our residents. We'd like to invite each of y'all at our next City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 14th at 3:30 PM to join us as we are able to open up the children's playground and the open green space area in the walking path portion of the park prior to the sort of the end of the 2023 construction season. It should be a really fun event, and we'll also have a chance to celebrate our new train amenity that we'll be able to have at some of our events, and a couple of other things. What's great about the Hillcrest Park is an emphasis on active and outdoor unstructured play, and so you'll see the most impressive playground in Orem City. dare I say, the county that will be here at Hillcrest. We're very excited about that. 4 different types of playgrounds, a nature playground, a dozen swings, several tall 3-story towers with a number of slides that children will be able to participate in. That's, of course, in addition to the splash pad, the 12 pickleball courts, the open green space that we will leave unscheduled for, for drop-in and unstructured play. The nature path, and then of course the entire Hillcrest School, where you'll see all of our programming start up the 1st of January once the building construction is completed. This is a marquee park and will be one of the most beloved recreation facilities that the city will have, joining our senior center, the Sierra Pool, and of course the Orem Family Fitness Center as it is completed. So, our pickleball courts will not be available till spring, and so I didn't want a pickleball rush prior to us being ready for them. But the playground and the green space will be open at our event on November 14th. A report on our Lakeside. We were able to open our Lakeside softball baseball fields this past June, and it has been a wonderful opportunity for increased recreation play for our residents. We had 8 additional events in 2023. And as of today, we've had 22 event requests for those facilities for the next calendar year. So the chance for our residents to be able to play on those weekdays and to have tournaments and events where they won't have to travel to other communities, they'll be able to stay here and, and enjoy our amenities, both our residents and those that will be visitors to Orem eating at our restaurants and staying in our hotels as they're able to participate in events over there. We begin the construction of 2 of the fields changing to artificial turf this November, and the lights that were installed in May have been really well received by our neighbors and by the sports program, so that on days like today where it's beautiful fall weather, we're able to be playing until 10:15 PM. The fitness center, as you remember, suffered a flood, a deluge from our systems back in May. And the Duluth mitigation in earnest wraps up this week as we are painting the new lines on the basketball court. As you remember, many of the wood surfaces suffered water damage, and we're grateful to our facilities team and all who have helped to restore that facility better than new, as we've been able to replace and repair each of those areas and get them back online to our residents soon. We continue to enjoy record membership at the facility. It is well received by our residents. They are able to find fitness and water and all sorts of programs and sports. It's, it's just a gem for the community, and I see many of y'all over there very regularly. You get to see the people that come and enjoy this, this amenity and be together. We were together a year ago as we talked about swim teams, and I just wanted to report back. Orem swim team kids are swimming in Orem. It's a simple phrase, but it was a hard-earned sentence. And we're glad to have that, that those that participate on swim teams from Orem are continually able to participate in our water here with priority. We're grateful for our partnership with the UV Rays, that that's been able to work out for our organization, their organization, and for each of these families. We're excited about the Sierra Pool. If you continue to drive by, you can continue to see improvements, including our brand new splash pad, heated water splash pad area that be online for the 2024 season. We've also worked closely to start to prepare for updates to the locker rooms and to the other physical facilities to prepare for continued use for decades to come over there. And so we'll be working on those projects over the coming years, but our Recreation Advisory Commission has worked closely on the design and preparation of those facilities. We're grateful to our Recreation Advisory Commission and their leadership to To Skip and Dave, to your words for Skip, he was a wonderful leader and friend to our community, and we're grateful to have a very active and involved commission supporting the work we're doing in our department.

Any questions?

I appreciate Bryce and your leadership, and I think you're the reason why we've gone to the next level on our, on our recreation division and where we're at in the city today, so we appreciate you.

Thank you, Dave.

And I'll just second that, that Bryce is doing a phenomenal job taking our recreation and everything to the next level.

Thanks.

Thanks, y'all.

Okay, next up, item number 7, personal appearances. And I'll just read this. It says time has been set aside for the public to express their ideas, concerns, and comments on items not scheduled as public hearings on the agenda. Those who wish to speak are encouraged to show respect for those who serve the city. Comments should focus on issues concerning the city. Those wishing to speak should have signed up before the beginning of the meeting, and please limit your comments to 3 minutes or less. We've got 6 people tonight that have signed up. First on the agenda, we've got Bladen Lautensack.

First, I'd like to express my gratitude for our veterans and for your service.

Thank you, appreciate it.

I had the opportunity to attend the City of Burbank City Council meeting in Southern California About four weeks ago, same time Dave was taking some blows. It's the city where I grew up, and back then it was actually a very conservative community to live in. I watched and observed at this city council meeting as many of the Burbank citizens initiated an effort to recall the mayor, and he was publicly self. Proclaimed as a Marxist and a socialist with a desire to reduce and defund the Burbank Police Department. Made me very sad to see what Burbank has become, but it's made me appreciate where I live now. And so I want to express my gratitude here as I begin, and my appreciation for our Mayor Dave Young, for his leadership, his integrity, and for taking our city in the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, and with that being said, I'm here to address the response I received, um, along with John Barrick and some other petitioners, dated September 22nd, 2023, from the office of Deidre Henderson, who's the Lieutenant Governor for the state of Utah, regarding the legality of the Stronger Together PIC group and their endorsement of Warren City Council candidates John Gale, Chris Kilpatrick, and Jeff Lampson. Uh, her office, in a communication to Erwin Whitlock, Sissy Rasmussen, who are officers of Stronger Together, that was dated August 16, 2023, gave a directive to cease operations and dissolve Stronger Together of PIC. And yet after that directive, Stronger Together mailers continue to go out. 2 months— it's been over 2 months ago— as well as Stronger Together signs that today are still up throughout the city, still seeing them. The Lieutenant Governor further clarified that since there are criminal allegations against the Stronger Together group, her office has no authority to assess or determine criminal liability and has therefore forwarded the complaints along with the documents to the appropriate prosecuting agencies, being the Utah Attorney General's Office, Utah County Attorney, and our Orem City Attorney for their review and charging decisions. So I'm here tonight to ask our City Attorney, where, where are we with handling this? We, we need to know where we're at, especially with elections coming up. As citizens of Orem, We do not want potential Orem City Council members whose legitimacy and trustworthiness are in question. If any of these 3 candidates cannot run on an honest campaign, how can we trust them to represent our wishes instead of our own agendas? Thank you.

Next up, we've got Andrea Byron.

Well, I didn't know that's what that was for.

Okay.

I'm like a first-timer here, so just take that one off. Okay.

All right. Yeah, well, welcome.

Okay. Sorry about that. There's clipboards to go around. You just sign them, right?

My name is Martha Wilkes Harrison. And I'm representing the Cottage People. For those of you old enough, that should be a familiar sound, the Cottage People. But we're the cottages of the fields just off of Geneva Road. And I'm here tonight to talk about a situation that we've got. When it was built, y'all approved a plan, a plot with every house. I think it went so far as to say every tree that was on it, and it hasn't been completed as it was originally planned. The problem arises in one area that a last twin home was to be built. Linda, can you bring me those pictures? And it wasn't built. We've heard a couple reasons why it wasn't built. One of them was that the builder didn't think he could make enough money off of it.

Maybe this is the one.

I will run that one up there to them, or just give them to them as I call them out. Keep them in order. Um, that he didn't think he'd make enough on it. And the next thing was that Skip Dunn has a road, an access road that runs right through the middle of that twin home. if it were there. And we've lived with that, and I suppose we could, but the problem— biggest problem surrounding it is all the mess. And this is the entrance into the cottages. There's just a huge mess with that access road there. There's no landscaping that's been done. And even over to the right of the entrance, same thing. It's like there was a pond there. But all this is built up and it's a big mosquito bed. And so that's a big problem, and I've tried to label those so you can understand what's going on. It's just, it's unsightly, it's ugly, and we can't seem to get anything done about it. And I'm pretty sure that the plan you approved Had all that landscaped and looking really nice. We just wondered, can you exert any pressure on the developer to where we can get this? That's a question.

Yeah, and I would defer that to Brian, who'd probably go to our attorneys.

But yeah, we, we would need to get the, the materials that you have there on the details and then look into what may or may not be in compliance with our nuisance and/or development laws and regulations. Yeah, we're happy to accept the details and have our— probably initially our development services staff take a look at it.

And then the northeast corner of the cottages, the ADA-compliant curbing was never put in on that one corner. And ironically, that's right where we have a man whose only way of getting around is the wheelchair. And he He put out a little ramp in front of his place. 2 cars have run over the ramp and flattened tires on it. So it's not a real good thing. Please excuse my boy. He does have seizures every day.

So sorry.

So that ADA curbing then is another thing we'd like to—

So do you have very many? The reason I ask is, so the limit is 3 minutes that you're allowed talking up comments. And so I'll need you to wrap up, but I think the way we'll deal with this is to work with the city directly, the people who can actually, you know, look into this and fix it.

If you like the person— is that you, Jason?

Yes.

Okay, that's what we needed to know. Okay, I cover it, ladies. We want— we had some HOA questions, but you don't deal with that, do you?

No, that's private. That's within your own organization with Your own lawyers and that sort of thing.

Do you have any interest in the fact that it's never been turned over to the people, so we don't actually have an HOA? The developer is still making all the decisions with all of our money. Yeah, is that an interest to the city at all?

That wouldn't really be the city. That's more of a legal question with the neighborhood. And you would basically unite as neighbors and, and have your attorney and figure that out. So we'll help you however we can. As far as these other things, and thanks for your service.

We appreciate what y'all do.

Okay, thank you. Next we've got— looks like Jordan Christianson. You can correct me if I'm wrong.

Hello.

Yes, my name is Jordan. I live in Vineyard, and I want to talk about the pedestrian fatality that occurred on 400 South, just west of Geneva last week. Specifically, I want to say that as we investigate that, obviously part of that investigation will be potentially to assign blame with that, and, and with that process, I think it's good to have that be a lengthy and thorough process. But in addition to that, if we want to prevent this from happening again, I think we need to take immediate action of acknowledging that road design is very poor and creates situations that are very dangerous very frequently. This has not been the first crash that has happened on this road, and I'm sure if we don't change something that it will won't be the last crash that happens here. I also firmly believe that nobody in this room, nobody in Vineyard accepts that this is a reasonable outcome from our transportation system. Nobody west of that neighborhood is saying it is okay for our children to occasionally die in order for us to get home a little faster. And so with that said, I think there's immediate actions that we can take now with relatively cheap materials to change some characters— characteristics of this road.

I don't—

I'm not intimately familiar with OREM's process for approving traffic calming measures. From what I understand, this road wouldn't fit the usual qualifications there. So if there's any guidance that you could give me or anybody else of what process we should be going through with Orem City to initiate this, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

And Jordan, just so you know, so, so I've been in contact with Mayor Fulmer over there, and they're working on that and we're working on that. And, and so it's gone to our our folks here that are, that are responsible for that. But that's in process. So if you want to give input into that group, that would be the best way to do it. And, and I can direct you to that as far as with Brent. Brent can—

Yeah, we have a multidisciplinary team that looks at all of our traffic issues. And in particular, we're looking at traffic calming measures in, in trouble spots and So this is definitely on our list and we're looking at it, but always open to, you know, suggestions and input.

Thank you very much. I should follow up with you for additional questions then.

You know, I don't see— Ryan, could you pass along Chris Shirkey's contact information to this gentleman? I think the director kind of leads the team.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jordan. Next we've got Tyler Haraldson.

My name is Tyler Haraldson. I'm also a Vineyard resident. I want to talk to you about the same fatality. In case you aren't aware, I'm sure you are, but there was also a child hit about a year ago on the same stretch of road. He was hit by an automobile and he cracked his skull.

Having—

I was involved in city affairs at that point, and I brought it up at a meeting, and I don't know Obviously the road is managed by Orem, not Vineyard, but I don't know what happened, what process took a year and has still not been implemented to make the street safer. But please expedite it, make it faster, make an exception, do something. Halloween is the deadliest night of the year for pedestrians every year nationwide. October is generally the deadliest month. for pedestrians nationwide. The clock is ticking for you, the next victim of, of the dangerous design on this street. But please do something temporary. Obviously, making a million-dollar project, you're not going to do that in a week. That's just gotta go through a slower process. But putting out construction cones or hay bales, or if you don't want to do that or can't do that, Putting out something, something physical that will actually make the street safer. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention, I don't— again, I'm a Vineyard resident, so I'm not super familiar with your procedures and your laws and those sorts of things, but somehow they got you here in the first place. And I would highly encourage that you Take a close look at your procedures. I'm sure you do this on a fairly regular basis, but looking again at how to make your streets safer for pedestrians. I didn't really know— I don't really think it's my place to make a lot of suggestions to you, but I did look at your master transportation plan. I did notice one requirement that I would recommend if you don't know where to start. You would start with, for your traffic calming qualifications, one of the minimum qualifications is that the road has to have an existing speed limit of 25 miles an hour or less. That is a great way to— I'm sure whoever built that is not, uh, did not mean to do this intentionally, but that's a great way to keep your fastest and most dangerous streets for pedestrians still dangerous. Um, if you have to have a fairly slow street to slow it down and make it safer, but a faster street that's even more dangerous has to be slower already. You kind of have a chicken and egg situation where you can't fix anything. So I would encourage you to amend that if you want a place to start. Thanks.

Thank you, Tyler. Next, John Burke.

Mayor and City Council, thank you for your time. I'm here to talk about election interference. As already mentioned, the Lieutenant Governor's Office has referred a criminal complaint to the Utah County Attorney as well as the Orem City Attorney's Office. In the response from Stronger Together to the Lieutenant Governor's Office, I'm going to read to the letter from Stronger Together. It says Stronger Together did not violate any laws. To the claim Stronger Together is acting outside the While the stronger together pick is not within the legal scope of political issue committee by advocating for and promoting political candidates, the stronger together pick knows that it cannot endorse candidates. Notably, stronger together hasn't provided any financial support or spend any money on candidates. Stronger together pick continues to exist to keep warm residents informed about potential school district changes. Now stronger together followed the lieutenant governor's dissolution, and they dissolved. But let me, let me tell you about the 6 emails that Stronger Together sent this year. As you know, Stronger Together finished their ballot proposition last year, so in 2023 they've sent 6 emails. Stronger Together, still working for a better Orem. And a post that endorsed Jeff, Jeff Lamson, Jennifer Gale, and Chris Kilpack. On June 23rd, 2023, a pancake breakfast tomorrow for the same 3 candidates. On August 15th, time to vote for a stronger Orem for 3 candidates. Vote today for change in Orem for 3 candidates. On September 5th, last day to turn in your primary ballots for 3 candidates. And 9/8, victory in the primary for 3 candidates. Now I do have the amended Stronger Together financial statement, which shows that with more than 100 amendments to their finances recommended by the Lieutenant Governor's office. In there, there are a number of charges, all for campaign expenditures. Now, if your, if your ballot proposition is over and you're spending campaign expenditures and you're only mailing out 6 emails for 3 candidates in a municipal election, I would argue that's advocating for candidates. As Stronger Together dissolved, Stronger Orem has the same campaign expenditures from Mailchimp for the same $187.69 starting in September because of the dissolution of Stronger Together PAC. I would argue that Stronger Together and now Stronger Orem— Stronger Orem as a PAC can, Stronger Together violated laws. Stronger Together misled the Lieutenant Governor's Office, which is a felony and an investigation. And I would encourage the mayor and the city council, as all Orem residents, to ask for fair elections to be held in Orem and ask our attorneys to follow up on that. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Last, we've got Martha Harrison. Okay, okay, so we're good. Okay, and then last, um, I think it's important we respond to some of these questions about, uh, Stronger Together in this investigation or whatever. Um, we've gotten a lot of emails. I've gotten probably a dozen over the last 3 weeks, people wanting to know what's going on. Jesse, can you give us just an update? from the city's standpoint as a city council attorney, what's— what the status of this is.

First, thank you very much. Back in 1980— I'm going to go off subject a minute— I was at the American Legion Conference in Phoenix. And if you think 8 or 10 veterans are impressive, wait till you see 50,000 together. And in fact, in the United States, you can't pawn yourself off as a veteran unless you are a veteran, or it's a felony. And only 2 people in the entire United States have been given honorary membership as a veteran. And when I was at their conference in 1990, I had my picture taken with Bob Hope, and he's one of those. So I want to thank the veterans for their service. And many of you know my brother is in the Binion Veteran Home in Payson. He's 100% service-related veteran, and he's in their care.

So we—

our family really appreciates our veterans. So an ultra-Credarian is someone who's ventures outside of their expertise, you literally walk into something you know very little about. I've never been a criminal defense attorney nor a prosecutor. I can tell you what I know is that the Lieutenant Governor received complaints regarding— and I think you've heard some of the allegations here— that there was election interference, there was improper filings, there was improper activities from Stronger Together, and that 3 candidates, Jeff, Lamson, uh, Jen Gale, and Chris Kilpack were involved in Stronger Together. Uh, I can, uh, I can verify that the referral was made to the City of Orem and to the county prosecutor's office. I can verify that the county prosecutor has an open and ongoing criminal investigation. I can verify that one or more subpoenas have been sent out to get additional information. And I can verify that the city is cooperating in every way that this county would ask us to cooperate, mostly by providing information or documents. But other than that, I— the investigation is with the county and not with the city.

Okay, thank you. All right. Let's move on to item number 8. We've got the consent items. Someone like to make a motion on that?

I can make that.

Okay, I move that we approve the meeting minutes on the consent item.

I'll second that.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Jeff, are you here?

Aye.

Thank you. Okay, the consent items pass. Move on to item number 9, our scheduled items. First on that list is a public hearing, and this is amending the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget. Brandon, our finance director, would you like to take that?

You bet.

Thank you, Mayor.

That's about as big as I can make it with it fitting on the screen, so we'll have to just work with that. As you are aware, periodically, approximately quarterly throughout the year, we come before you to make budget amendments as we receive information or have the city's needs, or we receive grants. which are the primary, usually the primary thing that is occurring when we come forth with budget amendments. But this particular time we have some pretty relatively unique things that are coming as far as amongst different funds. And so I'll just kind of touch on some of those. The items listed as in the note in that column, you can see with a 1, any one of those is related to a grant or a donation received by the city. Several of those are related to the police department item, the 5th one down, the $9,500 in police department donations, as well as the $17,500 for the Orem Foundation right below that. And as well as the very first item are related to the canines that the Police Department is trying to get and/or has received one already, as well as Hoku, which I think you've seen, the support animal that we recently received. That is also included within, within those funds. They also receive the ICAC money in relation to the team that helps with internet crimes, as well as Bulletproof vests, and we received funding from the federal government in order for us to buy some level of vests for our police officers. If we scroll down a little, you can see the last item in that first section that's labeled a number 3 related to parks vehicles. As you hopefully were aware, we have had a truck and a new lawnmower that burned up in an accident. This is to replace those 2 vehicles, and then we're using our self-insurance funds to, to do that. The next section under the Road Special Revenue Fund, we are currently trying to do some sander rack modifications to the rack that holds the sanders that go go in the back of the dump trucks. And unfortunately, the cost related to those modifications is a little more than expected, and so we're appropriating reserves from that fund to be able to finish that project. Our Major Crimes Task Force— these are pretty normal. We receive funding periodically from forfeitures and through the federal government, and, and those funds are used by our drug task resource in their operations. As in the water fund, I believe we reported about 6 months ago is when the last time we did this. Obviously, with interest rates being what they are, we continue to receive a significant amount of interest earnings for the bond money, the 2021 water storm sewer and sewer money that we had. So while those funds are being spent, the funds that are still waiting to be spent are earning money, and as you can see, a pretty significant amount. Those dollars will obviously have to be spent as part of those projects, and so we're simply recording those earnings and appropriating those funds towards those, those type of bond-related projects. The street lighting, then the street lighting fund in the next item. Hillcrest Park, the city is doing a lot of the work in relation to the streetlights in that area. And again, this, this was kind of a planned project as those funds became available in the current year, so we're appropriating those funds as well to be able to get that component completed. I already mentioned the vehicles and the self-insurance Fund. This is just the other side of that entry in relation to the, the Self-Insurance Fund, in essence transferring, contributing those dollars to, to the parks, to the general fund, in order to make those purchases of those vehicles that were burned up. And the last item, the Orem Community Foundation Fund, again related to those canine donations that we received that come through the foundation. and then are transferred and contributed to the general fund to purchase those animals. So those are all of the budget amendments we have for this timeframe. Are there any questions about any of those items?

Debbie.

So when someone donates for this Gold Star monument, will that go into our foundation fund, or is that a separate fund?

It is really up to them if they determine they need it run through a 501 organization, not-for-profit organization, then yes, it would have to go through the foundation.

Okay.

If they—

it can still be deducted if it's donated directly to the city. And so if that's the case and they, and they just want to donate directly to the city for that specific purpose, then they can do that as well.

Do we have any idea how much we've raised? Brent, do you have any idea?

For the Gold Star Family Monument and the Freedom Plaza? I mean, we, we received our first check today from the American Legion, but we've had 2 other commitments but haven't actually received the funds, but 2 other commitments from Rocky Mountain Power and Waste Management. So those are, you know, bigger amounts that that they've committed to. And then other than that, really, we've probably only had in terms of small donations in the hundreds of dollars beyond that.

But to that, we haven't really promoted it or pushed it that hard yet. We will do that.

Yeah.

So we've been working with a committee to essentially finalize the plans, and we've worked with Method studio to come up with those plans, and we presented those a month or more ago. And so now that we've got those visuals, we're, we're in the process of turning that into essentially materials that we can use to promote not only the project but of course assisting in donating.

Can you remind me, was it $75,000 we're trying to raise, or what was the amount? Do you know?

Our total funding Our fundraising goal is actually $250,000 because we want it to go towards the whole Freedom Plaza.

Thank you.

Essentially, we're not just doing the Gold Star Family Monument. Obviously, that's a key component to the Freedom Plaza, but we're doing above and beyond the Gold Star Family Monument.

Have we talked to Jim Raffordette? Can he shoot some basketball? Sorry, that seemed to work well.

Haven't reached out to him yet. He's in a 3v3, you know, world tournament, I think representing the US right now, at least last time I checked his Facebook account.

I'm just saying, I don't know how much he helped raise for the Altogether, but it was significant.

Any other questions? Let's go ahead. Nope. Open this up for public hearing if there's any comments on this budget. There's no comments, we'll close the public hearing.

And someone like to— Do you need a motion just approving the amendment?

Right.

Mr. Mayor, I move that the City Council approve the amended fiscal year for the '23-'24 budget. I'll second that.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The amendment passes. Thank you. Thank you, Brandon.

Aye.

Oh, Jeff.

Thank you.

That makes it 7-0. Thank you. Next up, we've got another public hearing. This one is amending a portion of Section 22-2-1 definitions and Appendix A of the ORM City Code by enacting Standard Land Use Code 7313, agretainment, as permitted use in the OS-5 ROS zone. Jason, would you like to present that?

Yes, thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Tonight they are proposing Oh, it's a great picture.

Great picture. Beautiful shot of Hawaii.

Just so you know, this is outside of Orem. This is—

unless you don't like—

if we could just get the beach here, that'd be awesome.

There we go.

Put this boring slide up. So tonight there's a couple amendments we're proposing. We've been working with Books and Farms, and they're here tonight if I can address any questions that they have. But as you've noticed, they've kind of expanded over time. They were— they're continuing to do farming, but they're also doing some entertainment along with that. They're having rides and different things, and right now we don't currently have a land use that would kind of encapsulate that into a land use code. So tonight we're proposing to create what's called agritainment, which is kind of a national or maybe international type thing where you see Corn Bellies, those type of businesses that do things other than agriculture. They also do agriculture, but they do bring people into their facility to help them entertain the youth and different things. So Wilkerson Farms is doing very similar things. And so we're proposing OS-5 ROS zone, which is what they're currently zoned, agrotainment as a permitted use. In addition to that, making a definition of what agrotainment means. So if you pick your own vegetables, festivals, fairs, interactive animal displays, hay, amusement rides, corn maze, which all of those things is what, you know, Wilkerson Farm does currently. Other 3 locations, general locations of the OS5, the majority of that is on the west side. Wilkerson Farms is located 2000 South between the tracks in Geneva road on that farm there. This is the latest picture that I could pull up, kind of what they're doing in their agertainment type. They're building some, you know, new facilities to entertain schoolchildren and adults alike. So what we're proposing is supporting them in creating this land use code so they can continue this in the future, not only their agricultural production but also the agertainment or entertainment type things that Entertain everyone in the fall. So be glad to address any questions you may have.

Any questions?

I don't have any questions, but I've taken my grandchildren here, and as early as 2 years old, so they have quite a wide selection. You mentioned teenagers, but I think it's also the toddler, pre-elementary school. So I think it's super fun and the kids love it and And if I remember correctly, they had live animals that the kids could see— pigs, sheep, whatever— assuming they still do that. And that's kind of fun, up close and personal. So I think it's a great— it fits in line with our Family City USA being a family-friendly event. I think they're quite reasonably priced, and you can buy a pumpkin and take it home. So I couldn't agree more. So thank you.

Any other questions? I'm going to open this up for public hearing, and then I would just ask that Rachel, if you could come up and kind of give us a little bit bigger picture of Wilkerson Farms, and as far as what you generate for the community and the number of people that go through and all that sort of thing.

I get a nice chair.

Thank you. Hi guys. Um, so kind of as Jason said, we started in 2010 as fruits and vegetables, side of the road corn and tomatoes and all that, and it has quickly turned into recreation, which is what the people say they want. We've done pumpkins all the way from the beginning, but it kind of took on a life of its own with, you know, all the rides and all the stuff, and there's animals, and we kind of use that little event in the fall So it's 40 days that we're open to the public to fund our ability to feed people. So last year we donated 110,000 pounds to the local food pantry in American Fork and Spanish Fork, and that is what we love to do. We love to farm, we love to grow fruits and vegetables. So it, it's kind of a heart wrench for us because as fun as the carnival is, that's not what we love to do. We love to, to farm. But it does help to be able to do that, right? That's the part that the public supports so that we can be able to feed people, hopefully for a long time. And so yeah, that's any questions that I can answer, I'm here.

And I got to know Rachel a few months ago when they were working on this, but I was really impressed with what they're doing out there and the impact to the community and the number of people that go through. What was the number of people that went through last year?

About 50,000 a season. Per season we have people come through, and, you know, in that 40-day time period.

So, okay, quite a, quite a chunk.

It is quite a deal. And Rachel and her husband have put their heart and soul into it and made a lot of sacrifices to make this happen. So we're excited for what you're able to do.

Thank you.

Debbie?

I am currently on Tabitha's Way's board, and so I want you to know from the board and Tabitha's Way, you are making a world of difference. We're feeding thousands of people, and fresh produce, I think, not only increases health, I think it's, you know, produce is expensive, so you're really making a difference. You're offsetting a lot of these families' expenses with high interest, and a lot of them are having a hard time making rent. So thank you so much for feeding your community, and I apologize for not remembering that, but thank you so much. Thank you.

Anything else?

Terry? Just a comment about the corn maze. I thought I was going to die in there.

I hate it.

It's not very much fun for me. I could not find my way out. And I, and I think I'm an adult. And it was a, it was a— yeah, I'm tall. I still couldn't, I couldn't see over it. So I'm really grateful I survived and got out of it. And I lived another day.

Yeah, most of the, most of the teenagers, they just blaze their own trails. They just, wherever they can get out, they, they do what they can to survive.

So what's impressive is that her husband designs that every year and makes it. So it's, it's quite impressive, actually.

He cuts it when it's about as tall as your knees with a lawnmower, like, like a lawnmower tractor, and he just kind of eyeballs it and it creates these parallel lines and these perfect designs. It's amazing.

It's amazing.

Is it a certain shape or Personality.

Every year is different, so it's intended to be not necessarily a picture but a puzzle, but he does create roses and wagon wheels and all sorts of cool things.

Yeah, I just want to say I love— I can see you've got a perch down here in the corn maze. That's what my kids would always run to so we could figure out where we were and how to get out. So thanks for that little cheat there.

That's always fun.

Okay, thank you. Any— this is open for public comment. Are there any comments from the public? Okay, I think we're ready to— oh, here you go. Sorry.

I'm Linda Brown. We live right next to the Wilkerson Farm, and I just want to say, as you have, we love it. It's just such a great thing. Our grandkids come from Wyoming to go to the farm, and I I just think anything that can be positive like that and can entertain kids and adults like the farm does is just great.

Thank you. Okay, would someone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion, Mayor. The City Council amend portion of Section 22-2-1 definitions in Appendix A of the Orange City Code by enacting Standard Land Use Code 7313, Agriment, as a permitted use in the OS-5/ROS zone.

Second?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The motion passes. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to item 9.3. This is a resolution, In God We Trust. Jake, would you like to present that?

Mayor and Council, we presented this at our last work session, and so I will briefly go through the same presentation and then just address the resolution itself. As that presentation pulls up, in the agenda packet is the resolution for the Council This resolution is ultimately designed to set the official policy, the intent to have the national motto, In God We Trust, be displayed permanently within the city chambers, the City Hall chambers. As we work to adopt this resolution and put it into practice, we will look at different various options of whether it's adopted as part of the the seal and how it is ultimately going to be presented in the City Hall chambers moving forward. The resolution speaks to the history of the national motto, how it's incorporated at the federal level and at the state level, and now moving forward at the local level. Really, as I, as I prepared this resolution, it was neat to remind myself that this national motto has its origins in the original poem from Francis Scott Key that was then adopted as the Star-Spangled Banner. It was adopted and used throughout the Civil War. The first time it became incorporated into currency was during President Lincoln's administration. It was formally adopted at the National level in 1956 at the end of World War II. It has been specifically codified in the Federal Code as our national motto, In God We Trust. In 2006, the 50th anniversary of that adoption, the U.S. Senate commemorated the national monument, and in 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives did so as well. Some other displays of where the national motto can be found is the dais behind the Speaker of the House in Washington, D.C., plaque entering into the U.S. Senate chambers. Other cities throughout the nation and county commissions have adopted similar approaches in displaying In God We Trust at the dais or at the and the council chambers bench. Utah has adopted that as one of our official state license plate options with the flag and In God We Trust, and it is also codified in the Utah State Code that In God We Trust, the national motto, should be displayed in public schools. So questions as to the legality of of adopting something like this is, just as we had the prayer to start the meeting today, it is a call to solemnize this body's work. It's a call to remind us that we are here to do the public's work. It is a commitment, a, a statement expressing confidence in the future, confidence in our society and our community. The 10th Circuit has upheld this, and as such, as a legal department, we feel confident that we can display this as a national model within our council chambers. And based on that, we would ask— would not ask, but we present the resolution to the council for adoption.

Do we have any questions?

Can I just say one thing?

Go ahead.

I just want to thank Jake for this thorough presentation. Like, you hit every point. Um, I appreciate the history— historical background. Um, you know, I visited Gettysburg, and so I understand that Pennsylvania infantry and just their emotional feelings back then in light of the devastation. that was happening. So this is fantastic. I appreciate your presenting, giving such a thorough presentation.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

Debbie, could you—

making a motion?

Not yet.

I wanted to comment before the motion.

So, um, no, I was just in Boston last week also and walked the Freedom Trail and had a great sense of, you know, patriotism as I did that. So I love that it reflects I believe our citizenry here, that we're very patriotic, because we have the American Legion there. They're some of our finest citizens. I think it reflects our community, so I'm very grateful for your work on this.

Thank you.

My turn.

Thanks.

Thank you very much for your efforts. It's interesting to me, I'm pretty sure this is going to be unanimous vote, as most of our votes have been this evening, and yet the social media platforms so like to focus on our differences. And today I'm grateful that this is going to be one that I think we can all stand side by side and say, of course, it's In God We Trust. So thank you for your work, and I look forward to voting when you're ready, when a motion is made. Thank you.

Anybody else?

She wants to say one thing.

Yeah, I just want to— just because what Tom said there, truly, I have seen things on social media that have been critical of our pamphlet in the library about the Constitution. And to me, this is, this is just like we say, an area, like Tom said, an area where we unite. We're behind our country, behind our countrymen, our veterans, and behind our God. So thank you so much again for doing that.

I'd like to make a motion.

Hang on.

Oh, you want to speak?

Can I?

Sure.

Okay, thank you. Um, no, I just wanted to say where this came up was, um, we were at a meeting, uh, a month or two ago, and there was this booth, and there were these 2 women, and, uh, they were from out of state, and I wasn't sure what their booth was about, but it was, it was decorated in red, white, and blue, and so I went over to talk to them. And as I talked to them, I got kind of intrigued because they had a nonprofit that was based on In God We Trust. And their mission as this nonprofit was to get that message out, to bring that out to our country. And they'd worked with different states, but they only had one city in all of Utah, Duchesne, that had adopted this motto. And I thought that was really interesting. I would have expected differently in Utah. And As we've gone on over the last, you know, year, I've, I've always thought we need to be grounded in 3 things, and one of them is family. And we push family really, really hard, and that's become throughout the city. And then the other one is country, and we've got a lot of things with country. We've got this Freedom Plaza that we're going to be putting together, and then we now we're going to have In God We Trust. And so that gives us God, family, country. And those are really the core values of, I think, the majority of the people in this community. So I'm excited to make this happen.

Mayor, on that note, I'll make a motion by City Council by resolution adopting In God We Trust.

The In God We Trust resolution.

In God We Trust resolution.

I'll second that.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Resolution passes.

Thank you.

All right, last we've got item number 10, communication items. There are not any. Item number 11, city manager information items.

Yeah, just, just a quick couple items. So again, I'll just reemphasize planning to do kind of 3 fun things on, uh, during the, the beginning of the work session on November 14th, where we're opening the east side of Hillcrest Park with the wonderful playground and, and, uh, field area. Um, at that time, we'll be unveiling our new, uh, train, and then, uh, we'll also be, uh, commissioning a new fire engine as well. So that'll be a fun new event that to kind of celebrate and to begin the use of our phenomenal Hillcrest Park. And then just one other thing, you'll see more details coming up in terms of our annual open enrollment where we— where all of our employees have the opportunity to make their elections in regards to benefits.

November 6th.

And then we were able to negotiate savings with our health insurance renewal, and so our insurance premiums won't be going up for our employees this year, and we'll be making sure to set aside those savings to reinvest in future benefit programs for our employees moving forward and be able to protect against potential increases into the future.

And, Brian, those, those savings are significant. Can you share that with us, just the amount of the savings that we'll be able to move into other programs with the— for the employees?

Uh, yeah, we were able to negotiate a $1.2 million savings over the course of the coming calendar year.

That's a lot.

Thank you. Alrighty, I think we've covered everything. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn to our closed session?

Mayor, I move that we adjourn to a closed session to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation, the character or professional competence of an individual, or the purchase or lease of real property.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you.