City Council · 2025-01-28

So she'll be here to help me answer any questions you guys might have concerning the program. So our landscape incentive program has 2 aspects to it. It's a residential and commercial landscape conversion program. I believe we've presented to you guys about this program before. But we have 2 different types of projects that are kind of bundled within this program. So there's a lawn replacement program, and then there's also an irrigation conversion project that people can apply for. And then with those, we have a tree bait add-on that we've added last year. We've been noticing that tree canopy and tree coverage is a really important part of the communities, and it's one concern when people are doing landscape conversion projects. And so we wanted to make sure we were also incentivizing people to put in trees in their landscape, put them in the correct way. And so we started offering this add-on to our program last year. So we wanted to talk with you guys today about offering a pilot program within your city. If you give us permission to start running this program, we would open it up this spring. We would not require that you adopt any sort of water-efficient landscape ordinance. The only aspect to that is that we would only be offering Central's funding portion. So previously when we presented, we talked about the program and one of its funding partners being the Division of Water Resources. And in order to access that funding, cities have to adopt water-efficient landscape ordinances. So originally, we were requiring cities to adopt that ordinance to participate in the program at all. But as we've been meeting with cities, and we've spoken with the mayor and Bren and Chris, we wanted to make Orem City our pilot. And we figured with proximity and also our partnership with Orem, we felt like it would be a good opportunity to try to just offer our funding. without the ordinance adoption. And this would also be eligible for residential and commercial properties. So what that would look like for Orem is we would be offering $1.50 per square foot to your residents to remove lawn or replace lawn in their landscapes with water-efficient landscaping. And $50— or 50 cents a square foot.

I wish $50—

50 cents a square foot for irrigation conversion projects. So those would be projects where people were swapping out their overhead spray irrigation and existing planting beds to low-drop irrigation. And then the tree bait would be $50 per tree, up to 5 trees for residential projects and up to 10 trees for commercial. So in the past, when we've offered programs to Orem residents, we saw some great participation. We had 81 applications in 2022. And throughout that year, we were able to pay about $55,000 in incentives to Orem city residents. So we've already seen that we had some really great response to our program, and we did offer it here initially. We want to clarify what our program is not. So we would not be paying out for projects that are all concrete or that don't have plants within their project. So our main goal is really to— I mean, it's really water conservation, but we want to have a holistic approach to our program. So we're not just looking at water conservation. We also want it to be aesthetically pleasing. We want it to be easy to maintain for the public, and we want it to be nice for your community. So we don't want to come in and operate a program that's, you know, not something that you want within your community.

Are those found in Orem?

They are. These are both Orem properties that we found. So that's another aspect is we really want to work with the city to collaborate on ordinances of what, you know, what you do allow, what's against your city ordinance. So the more we can collaborate and communicate, the more we can educate our participants on what is actually allowed in Orem. So ineligible projects and materials are something that we often hear called xeriscapes. And so that's just a landscape that may have artificial turf in it, or it's just rocks. It really doesn't have any living plant material. So we don't allow those types of projects in our program. We also don't allow artificial turf. If it's in the project area, or if it's outside the project area, we don't usually say anything, but we do not incentivize it unless we know that a city Like, I know you guys have some limitations on allowing artificial turf in the yard. So, if we know that we've been collaborating with the city, we can definitely educate our participants on the areas where artificial isn't allowed, period. So, for instance, if it wasn't allowed at the park strip and we knew that, then, and we saw a project come through and someone had artificial turf in their project or in their landscape design, we would let them know that not only will we not pay for it, but it's also not Eligible for Orem City, doesn't meet Orem City codes. We also don't incentivize water features or impervious hardscapes.

What's it—

what's that last one?

Concrete. So any hardscape that's not permeable. So these are some projects that we have paid out. The one on the left is in Orem. And so you can see, even though it's small and it's a new landscape, we did require a lot of plants. So I believe that matches your city code of requiring 50% plant coverage. Here are just some other projects that have been really well done within our program. If people want to leave grass, we allow them to leave grass, but we do a lot of education and work on trying to teach the public on where the proper placement of grass is. And so we're really trying to get people to eliminate areas that are what we consider nonfunctional grass areas. So they can have it if they want to leave it in the, in the project. But if they don't want to, we're also fine with that too. So just some basic landscape incentive requirements are 50% plant coverage at maturity. We do require that they install a drip irrigation system. So we're hoping that that's helping them maintain their landscape to continue to look nice. 3 to 4 inches of mulch. That's another— that too, that we've incorporated. So just some basic landscape incentive requirements are 50% plant cover.

In case you didn't catch that first part.

So another one of our requirements is the 3 to 4 inch mulch requirement, and that is to help with weed maintenance and Again, just to kind of help ensure the longevity of these projects so that they're looking nice. And then if someone does want to leave lawn in the landscape, we require that any of the remaining lawn is not narrower than 8 feet. So commercial properties that we've done. So one example that I'm going to show you is our Deshaun Field Office. We removed 19,000 square feet of lawn, and it has an estimated water savings of 510,000 gallons of water annually. And just as an example, this project would have received $29,400 if it was an OREM participant that had done this project. So this is what it looked like before. You can see a lot of grass, commercial property.

Just to clarify, with that $29,000 that we received, would that be with the previous program or with the new pilot program?

With the new pilot program. So that's just with $1.50 a square foot.

Okay, cool.

It's pretty nice incentive.

Yeah.

So this was just a commercial property example where we have a lot of grass. It wasn't being used. That's what happens frequently on commercial properties. And so we replace it with this water-wise landscape that's really lush and attractive. And this is what we're trying to get people to install. Here's another example. This was a city roundabout in Cedar Hills. It was 6,000 square feet of lawn being replaced. An estimated water savings of 165,000 gallons of water annually. And with this example project, the city would have received $9,051. Here's a good before photo. You can see the grass is kind of struggling, and there's a lot of areas like this where the grass just doesn't do well in these environments. And so as you're thinking about adopting this program, I'm sure people already have some ideas in their heads of some good places in Orem that could be replaced. And this is what that looked like after. It was a really fun project for our staff because as they were out measuring, some residents had stopped by and thanked them for the project. They were really happy with the way it turned out. And then just some other programs that you guys are— your residents are already eligible for. There's a statewide residential smart controller rebate program, and then Central also has a commercial smart controller rebate program that your parks would be— are already eligible for. We've done more than 17,000 smart controllers that we've helped replace already within our service area.

We replaced all of ours, all of ours with your assistance.

Oh, perfect. I'm so glad you're taking advantage of it.

We done did it. Good.

In all of our parks, right?

All of them, all of our controllers are swapped out.

That's great. And then we also have a toilet rebate program. There's a residential version that is eligible statewide, and then We also offer a commercial toilet rebate program through our website, and the properties just must be built before 1994 to be eligible, and devices that are being replaced have to currently have 1.6 gallons per flush or more to be eligible for the incentive.

What kind of incentive do they get for that?

For the commercial or the residential?

I was going to say residential toilet replacement.

It's $150, and they can do up to 2 toilets per property.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Trees every year, so I have to buy trees to pay for the new toilet.

Yep.

And that's 5 trees.

That's 5 trees per project for residential projects, and then 10 per project for commercial. But if somebody was doing a front yard project one year, they can get 5 trees. They do their backyard the next year, another 2 projects.

Is that a calendar year, or is that a year since they did it?

Just per project. So if they get— if they do multiple projects within a year, they would be eligible for 5 trees to each of those projects.

You just have to reapply in a different form?

Well, just a different area of the landscape.

Yeah, front yard, back yard.

Yep. Yes, exactly. And then just as an additional resource, we also offer 30+ classes per year at our headquarters. It's not far from here. We teach on a variety of topics, a lot of them relating to the landscape or anything that's trying to promote our programs. We want to educate people as far as doing our programs really well and being successful. And then we're also willing to customize any courses if the city's ever interested in collaborating to teach classes here. Our staff's always happy to come help and collaborate on any efforts that you might be interested in. That's everything.

I'll just say that I really appreciate the desire to coordinate with the city, coordinate even with our NIT or code enforcement. I really appreciate you listening to the idea of trying to be purely incentive-based and rather than sort of forced or punitive-based. So it's really, I think, just full improvement and incorporation of some of the feedback. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I think you guys have done a great job. We met up at Jordan Hill. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure how that worked, but anyway, we met up there and we started talking and we talked about the program and I told you that we liked the program, but we wanted it to be incentive-based as opposed to punitive-based.

Yeah.

And then you took the challenge and you went back and You come back with a great program, I think, because this— I'd gotten some feedback from residents who said, we want to be part of the program. We're saying, well, we— the program doesn't really work for all of our citizens. But what you've got now is those citizens who want to take advantage of this. They've got the right to. They get the benefit of it. And it's— I just want to congratulate you for thinking outside the box and doing this pilot program.

Thank you so much. We're happy that you were willing to listen to our, you know, our approach too, and hopefully it works really well for your city.

So thank you. Well done.

Thank, thank you so much.

Chris, anything else about the, the city's connection with Central Utah Water? Why, why did we meet up with them at the Jordan Dam?

Yeah, yeah, so there was—

Mayor, it was no surprise That she met me that day.

We wanted to connect you 2 and the council and engage in that conversation. They've since pivoted and reacted, and I think very favorably to what we desire.

And it's, it's a great relationship that we have with San Jose Regional Water, and we've had it forever, and we will continue to have that on many different levels, from water treatment, groundwater studies, to water conservation. Everything associated with Jordan L Water, we contract with them for a quarter of our water that we use annually. So our relationship is critical to our success as a city into the future. I did also want to recognize Mr. Liebling. He's an assistant general manager at Central Utah Water Conservancy District as well.

So—

Well, and Amanda was super nice. I mean, I remember that you came up to me and the mayor and said, Let's work together, you know, we want to work together, and I— this is a win-win, definitely. Great, thank you so much.

With your blessing, then we'll work with Pete on advertising this and making this known to the public, and then we'll have startup dates probably this spring, I think is what I'm hearing from you. We're eligible to take this into development. Do you have a dollar amount set aside? So once that money's gone, It's done for the year, and then you reset for the following year.

I do.

You're like, I think once Pete gets the word out, we exhaust our resources.

We have gotten close to filling out our budget again. We would love to.

That's a good problem.

Challenge.

We would love to have that.

And, and maybe Public Works could be the pilot project.

That won't take a lot of money.

I'm offering this. Okay, thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having us.

Oh, it's a So, Chris, when do you anticipate this going live?

This spring.

So, your application—

Typically we open, we do a soft opening in around March, but then it's formally open April 15th.

Okay. All right, nice.

I think it looks good.

Okay, well, thank you. Let's move to item number 3. Uh, this is a proposed resolution to allow Alpine School District to sell a CTE property in Oroville. And Aaron, if you want to walk through that.

Mayor, City Council, um, uh, I'm here to present this, uh, resolution that is before you regarding the sale of CTE property belonging to Alpine School District. Um, CTE stands for Career Technical Education, and, um, it's a program that Alpine School District runs where they teach students technical and career skills, often in more blue-collar context, you know, welding, auto repair, construction, that sort of a thing. And as part of that program, they build 2 houses every year with the students.

Aaron, one quick interjection. Chief Sanderson, we had a CT— our ambulance paramedics had a CTE relationship, I think, with School district and teaching EMT.

Yeah, our cadet program.

I'm out.

Oh, now you should be able to go in. I'm not sure how to extend my screen.

And we're just in that second, uh, semester, second class essentially.

So we'll do a graduation when that comes in by the mayor, council, exec staff. I think we didn't do last semester.

Graduating class. So, sorry, Aaron, my interjection apparently ruined the technology.

No, I have struggled with it before that. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, so, so they do these, these great programs. One of them is that they build homes. Uh, 2, 2 homes each school year. Um, they run those programs out of Kippenogus High School, one of them, and the other one out of, I believe, Lehigh High School. And, um, they build homes in those general areas. This is the home in question tonight. It's at, uh, 765 South 800 West here in Orem. And, uh, this home was built, uh, there Are some photos there that you can see. It was built by the students, uh, in Alpine School District, uh, with supervision from the teachers, of course, and everything, um, for the 2023-2024 school year. Um, and every year after they build the home, they then, uh, sell it and then use that money to purchase new properties and pay for materials and whatnot to, to build the home the next year with the students. Um, so this is, uh, this is the one that was built in our area, um, last year. Uh, it, it took them a while to find a buyer, and they now have one, and it's under contract. However, because of the school district split that's going on, uh, state law requires that for any real property to be disposed in any of inside the— that's owned by the old school district, all of the city councils of municipalities that belong to the new school district have to approve that sale. So in this case, uh, in order for Alpine to be able to sell this home, um, they need the consent of Lyndon, Vineyard, Pleasant Grove, and Orem city councils. So all 4 of them. Um, it's our understanding that the other 3— Lyndon, Pleasant Grove, And Vineyard city councils have all— have already passed resolutions consenting to the sale. We're up tonight to give our consent on this. The proceeds from the sale will go back into the CTE program, and then they'll use those funds in order to build this year's house. It's actually already under construction. This year's house, there's one in Lehigh, and then there's another one that they're working on right now in Orem. There were also 2 lots in Pleasant Grove that are currently purchased and owned by Alpine School District that are slated to be used in this program. Obviously, at least one of them won't be used in that way because Alpine— well, not by Alpine anyway, because it'll cease to exist before they get around to it.

But anyway, I—

in the packets, the resolution— what's that?

One clarification, Aaron.

Yeah.

The business administrator, Jason Sundberg, said that the Lehigh— in Lehigh, in that CTE program, they've already sold property there, and that will be reinvested into that CTE program. And similarly, this one will be reinvested into the CTE program that runs out of Timmermans High School.

And so, thank you, Brent, for that clarification. In the packet, there's a copy of the resolution. We've made some tweaks to it since it went out. And the main part that was changed here were these 3 paragraphs here that emphasizes that, um, the proceeds from the sale will go into the CTE program, uh, here at Timpanogos— that's run out of Timpanogos— and, uh, will, will benefit the students building a home here in Orem. And, um, at least the plan is in Pleasant Grove eventually as well. Uh, we wanted to be sure that, that everyone felt comfortable with the idea of of selling property that is going to go in our future school district. Um, and, and having spoken with Alpine School District, they, they have indicated that this, this money will go back into that program.

I thought the information you— they sent out with our packets explained it very well. I think you added a little icing on the cake. Fine, I'm happy to move to approve this rolling on the—

just out of curiosity, um, not that this affects anything, I'm just curious, but do you know if they, on this program, if they're doing this completely with cash or if they're— if they put debt against the properties when they roll them?

I'm just curious.

I asked them that. They, they don't put debt towards it.

It's all Cash flow.

So it's rolling the cash.

Yeah.

Okay, nice.

Any, any other questions or concerns we can address?

Thanks for doing that.

Yeah, thanks.

Okay, we'll, uh, present that and go over it then during the, um, during the regular session.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Actually, you're up next, right?

Yes, I am.

Yeah, we've got an American 250 resolution if you'd like to tell us about that.

Sure, I'll tell you a little bit about it, and, um, I think we'll, uh, may be able to help answer questions as well. The America 250 resolution is just a resolution that essentially creates a committee in the city as a subgroup of the city council that will work on the celebrations for the United States 250th anniversary that'll happen next—

2026.

Yes, next year. And the state legislature passed a bill, I believe it was last year, creating a state commission that will work on celebrating America's 250th anniversary. And as part of that, they're trying to bring in municipalities and other groups to help coordinate local events and celebrations in order to In order to make that a special year. Among those things, they want to do educational activities and, and other things that will help us unify as we celebrate that big landmark. Anything else you want to add, Pete?

No, that covered it. We have some people on our Events Commission that are very excited to participate in this, and then I think June Gale was assigned at the retreat to kind of be the liaison on the City Council side, so I think we're pretty good to go. They just won't give us the next—

we can't take the next step until we form this committee. So that's kind of why we're here.

This will— this actually happened July 2026?

Yeah, all, all of 2026.

There'll be a lot of things leading up to it. We're going to add extra patriotic elements to all the events we already do, uh, plus it'll be a lot like the Centennial where we just kind of do go a little bit bigger, a little bit more focus on patriotic themes, and then we may have one special event as well.

Okay.

Yeah, so grateful.

I almost brought my charm bracelet.

You should have brought it.

That I got in 1976 from the Freedom Train that drove and went across the US. I don't know who's old enough to remember that, but I bought a little charm bracelet.

I'll bring it sometime, you guys.

That'd be great.

I was so excited.

So, Lynnae, you were saying this was 50 years ago?

Well, yeah, you do the math.

There you go.

I won't tell you how old I was.

It was only 49 years.

Okay, is that where you stopped?

Make it easier.

All right, any other questions or concerns about this one? It's pretty straightforward.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Okay, great.

Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Uh, real short presentation. Excuse me, Geneva Road nighttime construction exemption.

Okay, last time we were here, talked about 1600 North and working at night for UDOT. This time we're here talking about Geneva Road and working at night on another UDOT project. Bill Hunter is here representing UDOT and can tell you briefly about the project. And, uh, can answer any questions, but it's, it's basically the exact same thing that we discussed last time. You can, uh, under state law, move forward, uh, with working at night. This is a way to come in and, uh, let the, uh, council know what's happening. So those questions come to you. Or if there are any particular concerns that you may have about working at night, then we can raise those here. And then later on the agenda, there's a resolution similar to last time.

Similar limitations as far as saw cutting and heavy— the big noise stuff.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

It's the exact same restrictions as you saw last time.

Thank you.

Typically, we're doing it to minimize traffic impacts. We recognize that that creates an impact to residents often. What we would likely see, and we don't have a contractor hired yet, but what we'd likely see is if they need to do a full crossing for like drainage or sewer water, to do it at night with a closure is a lot easier and it's a lot safer. Both of the crews working out there and the traveling public just come in and do it at night. Our crews, our contractors hate to work at night. They don't like that. It's not as— they're not as productive. It's not as easy. They're not at home with their families. And so, They try to avoid it, but when we get a contractor on board, we can come back to an update and say we anticipate them working this many nights.

To that point, this is a project that it's kind of become— it's building a lot of momentum right now. Do you have just high-level milestones or timeline that you can share with us?

Yeah, I don't for like full-scale construction, but we're working towards advertisement here in the next few weeks. So we hope to have a contractor on board in about 6 to 8 weeks. And then depending on what their schedule is, see, the other thing with night work is it helps us get a better price. You know, if we can't do night work, we typically pay more for it for them to get that work in, in halves or in like maybe a 3rd of the road, a 3rd and a 3rd. We're hoping to get a good bid. We've been getting good bids and we hope to have a contractor on board in the next month or 2, roughly. Once we have a contractor on board, we can come back and kind of share what their schedule looks like. The other way to get good bids is to not dictate. You know, we think depending on when they start this year, it's about a season and a half type of project. And then just to give you context, so it'll be from University Parkway South. We don't have any work like in the intersection per se. It starts on the very south— I don't know. Intersection and goes just south of the Temple property with the widening. So you have a consistent 5-lane cross-section, um, working south through University Park Parkway just past the temple, and it takes us quite a while to get those 5 lanes back down to 2. So you'll see work an additional about half mile, maybe 3/4 of a mile south of there, but it's not improvements. It's just a taper in and out of the 5-lane section. The future will be a Lakeview Parkway intersection somewhere in that vicinity, and so we're trying to do as minimal work south of the temple as we can. so we don't have a whole bunch to throw away when that Lakeview Parkway intersection comes. Did that answer your question? I kind of danced around. We don't have the exact schedule, but we'll come back and update the council when we do.

So in other words, this is a bit of a proactive effort to ensure the best price and the shortest timeline?

Yes. And what we see— so in our advertisement package, we have to let the contractor know if they can work at night, if they can look towards that, because then they'll bid it. Um, and it's easier to do that now and get a better price if we get approval. State code and state law requires that we go to the local authority, the local agency, which in this case is Orem. Some places it's county. In Utah County, it's the city typically, unless it's unincorporated, then we would go to the county for this request. So we're doing this all over the valley, and I like it at the county level. I do work— or sorry, I like at the city level. I do have places where it's the county level. County approves it, and then we come do night work, and the city's like, wait, what happened? This model is good because we want you to know that, you know, we, we intend to work. Again, I don't see a lot of need for night work here, but there'll probably be an occasion, you know, along the way that they would incorporate it to get some crossings. They might pave, they might stripe. There's just a few things that they can do a little easier when they can just restrict the traffic.

I appreciate hearing the comparison to county. Usually we compare really well to Provo, but we compare really well.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, in Salt Lake, it's a county-level approval, and so they'll say, yes, you can do this, and then the city's like, we don't want this. And so I, I like this, the way Utah County's done it. We've come to the local authority, which in this case is the warden, and we ask, are you okay if we work at night? So Any other questions about the project? This has been in the works for a long time. We're really excited to get in and get it done.

I think we're pretty educated just because we did the whole 1600 North.

So yeah, yeah.

And, and the restrictions are exactly the same that you saw on that project, right?

And, uh, as they go along, as both said, uh, we'd love to come back and have them update you about when this is going to happen. start in the timeline and what people can expect. It's a much-needed project out there on Geneva Road.

I assume they probably shared with you, you know, like, we'll have a hotline that runs 24/7. So if there is a night noise issue, they should call us. Sometimes they'll call you guys, but we'll share with you what that number and email are. We'll also be proactive. We're not going to go work at night in your residential area without outreach or notification. We go door to door with door hanger. We would knock doors that are directly adjacent to that work. Like, we're going to try to be very proactive so they're not blindsided. And again, I mean, I've worked on a lot of interchanges like Bangor Highway. That's brutal. Like, we work all night long because it's the only time they can work with all the traffic. This is not that kind of project. This is going to— you're going to see limited pockets of that night work here. And we would do outreach, be proactive. We'd send information to the city to make sure you guys know. And we would do information outreach on site. There aren't in that work zone on the very northern end. Obviously, there are some residential properties directly adjacent, but for the most part of this, it's kind of more agriculture at the moment. I assume you guys are going to see development happening in this area, but for now, it's not heavy dense residential for the whole duration of construction. You've got the temple property. That's a big part of our widening area, and then north of there. On the east side, we see quite a few residents, but the HOAs, we're already in contact. We've been working with them on the right-of-way. And so for us, it's a pretty easy notification process because we're already communicating with them.

And forgive me if you already said this, um, but what's the website like that you have where you can look up particular projects?

You—

there is a state website that's hard to navigate. Okay, I will email our specific hotline and email for this project that they can push out through the council. That's helpful. Please, it's a long one, like utah.edu.gov/GenevaRoad, but I'll send it out.

Because I've seen those before. If you can get to the right place, yeah, it's pretty informative.

Yeah, and we'll have a hotline, and we'll like be proactively pushing that information through your channels that you have. Door-to-door, we'll do a mailer prior to construction. There'll be a lot of outreach happening so that You will— someone will be surprised by the night work if and when it happens. But generally speaking, we have pretty good reach, and most of the people that would complain would know how to get a hold of us or already are talking to us now prior to construction. Good question. Any others? Any other thing that I could answer about the project? This is not the last time we'll be talking. I know that.

I—

and it's different than 1600. I'm not working on that project, but that's a heavy residential corridor, heavy traffic. Like, it's a whole different approach there. And so I hope you're getting fewer complaints on our projects, but we'll be talking, I'm sure, more about this. So sounds good. Okay. Yeah, keep going.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for letting me come.

Thank you. All right, let's just keep going here.

Um, we'll start—

well, for now, Dave Spencer, are you ready to do some reports on your commissions? Okay, so you're next up.

So I'm, uh, I'm over the Planning Commission. Um, we've had one meeting since But the beginning of the year, um, also the Recreation Commission meeting, haven't met yet. Uh, CARE is meeting in, in March. Um, UCCU board member, I don't know when we're meeting.

Yeah, ask Lenee, she's— whose place you're taking on that.

And then, uh, Sleepy Ridge, uh, committee.

So Not—

we haven't met, so I don't really have anything to say other than, uh, during the Planning Commission, I think the Planning Commission members were a little bewildered from our last City Council meeting. So it might be good to maybe some people reach out and talk to them.

They were not happy.

That's all I got.

Okay. All right. Um, and you should, uh, yeah, just talk to Lene as far as the UCCU board, and then talk to Jeff as far as Sleepy Ridge, just as far as what you were doing.

And I don't think they've met yet, right?

You were just sort of—

which one? Sleepy Ridge? No, they hadn't met for a long time. I was just trying to get that ball going. So yeah, they're— so I think they're— but do I just give it— things are ready to go, they're ready to meet.

And I'm—

So it's Golden Hole then, Kishirki, or Yeah, right here. Yeah, we're coordinating with Golden on a meeting time for probably next week. Okay, we'll reach out to— sounds good. David, Mayor, if I may, to the point that David was just talking about, his assignments— we did get new assignments, and you did a great job of letting us know, but if you could have them reach out to us and let us know where our meetings are, because if we've got new assignments Like David said, I don't know when they're meeting.

And it'd be great if I found that out.

So those that are within the city, yeah, they've all been contacted and given the names of their council members.

So they'll include this on an email inviting us, etc.

They should all know. It's the ones that are outside, I believe, have their contact information.

For example, so the different commissions you sent this out to, you told them all of the internal ones.

Care, Planning Commission, Art Council, I've sent them each who their new council members are. Well, if they're the same, I've let them know that it will be the same.

Do they know that they need to reach out to council members?

Recreation, we meet this Thursday.

Any of them that may be sort of outside organizations, we'll get with them, make sure that they're also reaching out.

Yeah, so Jeff is getting an email from the Youth Council. I think I was supposed to—

no, you got, you got a new assignment.

Okay, what's this sheet?

You're—

that's 2024. You have to go to the next tab.

Oh, I just opened it up. Sorry.

So go to the next tab.

There's 2024.

I just opened up the first one.

Okay, because you took out a different one and Jeff took out a different one.

So anyway, have them contact me.

Go to me.

Have fun.

Are we good?

Good.

Sorry, Mayor.

Oh, you're good.

Confusion.

Okay, uh, just running through this agenda. We'll have a call to order, we'll have an invocation, uh, we've got Jim Hacks or Jim Fox and Madeline Coleman. Who invited them to speak?

Spencer, he said, who—

you invited Jim Hawks and Madeline Coleman?

Yes.

Okay, so you just want to introduce them?

Yeah, I can introduce.

Okay. And then we've got mayor's report items referred by the council. Uh, we've got item 6.1, a donation— excuse me, donation from Chubby's Restaurant for the Gold Star Memorial. And will I just call them up at Chubby's? So the same way, coordinate that.

Gotta be careful how you award that.

They're very proud of them.

Debbie DeNico will be the one that will be speaking about it and then introducing them to you.

So invite Debbie up.

Should I invite Debbie up? And we've got 6.2, a discussion of legislative priorities, and we'll just invite Kevin Stratton out.

Yep, got Kevin Stratton coming today, and then, um, I have, uh, Representative Nelson Abbott penciled in for next time. So took that, uh, council area focus serious.

I'm coming to Okay, is he Zooming or is he coming?

I think Kevin's coming in, in person.

Then I have 6.3, a presentation on the City Council 2025 Areas of Focus, and that'll be Pete.

I noticed we have new pads of paper with the focus on. It's kind of nice to see.

I cheated, walked up front.

Yeah, that's just—

that's the whole speech.

You did a great job.

We'll have our personal appearances, and then we've got item number 8, consent items.

Uh, so can I ask, may I ask, I have not had a chance to even look through the minutes. Do you guys mind if we just move that to our next meeting?

I'd read through them, but I don't know if I'm— that's fine. I really—

either way, doesn't matter.

It's not a big deal.

Okay, so I'll just make a motion that we Move it to the next meeting.

Move it to the next meeting.

Okay, which is—

we're just taking off consent items, move it to the next meeting, right?

Yeah. Okay, so you—

Um, and then item 8.2 on the consent items is the resolution that we just talked about, Geneva Road nighttime construction exemption. We'll go to item 9, scheduled items. and a resolution consenting to the sale of certain parts of the ASD, the property we talked about. So we'll have that presentation and a short discussion.

And, and none of these look like they're public.

No, just residents.

No, no public testimony.

We've got item 9.2, another resolution supporting March 350 with And then communication items, which is nothing ever. And item 11, city manager information items, which is Brent. And we'll have a motion to adjourn.

And so Chief Adams is not here. Who's holding what bets?

Doesn't he take his place? Doing what?

The bet when the meeting ends?

Yes, Chief Adams would always beat Dave Spencer in a bet on how long the council meeting was going to go. And I really don't see anything that's going to make this go along.

So you don't know who signed up.

Well, let's, uh, we'll adjourn this meeting and then, uh, we have somebody offer a booth time.

Bless me on the booth.

I'll do it.

Sure.

Our beloved Father in heaven, we're grateful for the opportunity we have to gather together today and to discuss the business of our great city. We pray at this time for special blessing upon the food that we're about to partake, that it will give us the nourishment and strength that we need, that we can use that strength in serving the individuals around us. So grateful for the many blessings that we have, and we pray for these things in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And then the, uh, All right, we'd like to call this City Council meeting to, to order and welcome all of you tonight. We'll start out with an invocation. Uh, from Jim Hawks and then a Pledge of Allegiance from Madeline Coleman. And Dave Spencer asked them to do this for us, so if you'd like to introduce—

Yeah, so, uh, Jim Hawks and, and Madeline Coleman, they serve on the Planning Commission, and Madeline is our, our chair of the Planning Commission. So I invited them to say the prayer and the pledge. So appreciate your service.

Thank you. Our dear Father in heaven, as we meet this evening as citizens of this wonderful community of Orem, We express our gratitude for the many blessings that thou hast bestowed upon us. We're grateful for the peace and security and safety that we enjoy in this, in this city. We are grateful for those who serve, those who are employed by the city, and those who are elected. We pray that thou will bless and watch over them. We're grateful to live in this great land of America. And we pray that those who have been chosen to guide the affairs of this country will be wise in the decisions they make. We pray that our nation will be blessed with peace and with prosperity. We pray for those who are suffering because of disasters. We pray that their issues can be resolved. We Pray for those who serve this country in protecting us from threats. We pray that thou will bless them. Again, we are grateful for our blessings. We pray this evening that the proceedings of this night will be acceptable unto thee, that the decisions that are made will be wise decisions. And we pray that there will be no contention. And we say these things in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Jim. Madeline, will the audience please rise?

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.

Thank you.

We'll start out with item 6.1. a donation, uh, from Chubby's Restaurant for the Gold Star Memorial. And Debbie Amico, if you'd like to come up and present that.

Thank you so much for the introduction, esteemed mayor and council members. We truly appreciate the time tonight that you're giving us to go ahead and introduce the owners of Chubby's Restaurant in Orem. This is Will and Aaron Moak, and they have generously Held a fundraiser on December 10th at their restaurant, and they took 10% of all their proceeds to donate to the Gold Star Family Memorial. So super grateful for their generosity and collaboration in this, and I'll go ahead and turn over the time to them to say a few words.

Thank you very much. First of all, I want to share our appreciation for letting Chubby's Cafe be a part of the, the Orem city community. We are very grateful grateful for the opportunity, and we're grateful to be here. So we would like to present a check to Orem City on behalf of the Gold Star Family Memorial in the amount of $1,000. And we are very grateful for the dedication that, um, Orem City has to such a great foundation.

So thank you very much.

1, 2, 3.

Thank you.

Sure.

Okay, I just want to say something really quick. I went to our Orem Business Alliance lunch and we talked about the Gold Star Memorial and that if every— we have over 3,000 businesses in Orem— if every business gave $100, we'd have our money for our memorial. So thank you, Chubbies, for, you know, making up the difference for some of these other businesses and getting us on a good start.

Thank you.

Okay, next up we've got, um, item 6.2, a discussion of our legislative priorities by, uh, Representative Kevin Stratton.

Senator.

Senator, you switched on me. Come on up.

Thank you, Mayor, and wonderful city council members, staff, and all the great capacity there, which wonderful brain trust capacity trust we have here in the city of Orem. Mayor, how would you like me to proceed?

If you just like to give us, um, kind of probably an update on, uh, what you see as, as the most important bills, and then specifically the ones that might affect Orem. Okay, and probably just since you're in the thick of it, just— I'll let you go where you want to go.

Let me do this. May I? Uh, yes, thank you. I'm going to pass out, uh, you a, a document, Blueprint for 2025 and, uh, Powering Utah's Future. It's, uh, it has the priorities and what we're working on here in the state of Utah, at least from the Senate side, the majority caucus there. I would like to first say, as we look at every level of government I'm often asked— we oftentimes, we don't focus on anything but what the problems are. And we certainly have challenges, gratefully so. You've got to have wind to, uh, be in the sails to get the ship where it needs to go, and that's a blessing. But I've often said— I'll just share as a segue— that I've really often said, if we Many, many, many of the problems would be resolved if we would align constitutionally, ask the question, if we're gonna govern, who should govern? And then stay in those lanes. Do you know the people are the sovereign really? And we are all servants of the people and we serve at their pleasure. And there's these great documents that we have. We have the wonderful blessing, the Declaration of Independence talks about the unalienable rights from our Divine Creator: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. We have the wonderful blessing of the Constitution. And really, uh, Washington's Farewell Address, he talked about the importance of the pillars Morality and religion to really support. We, we know that there's not laws or armies strong enough to control immoral people. So there's a real sense there. And so as we talk about that constitutional alignment, uh, is so important. And I think we— maybe some of the questions you have, I'll refer back to that alignment. We have a federal government that has very limited powers. We have then the state broad, and we have the powers within the state of the political subdivisions, the counties and the cities, and specific codified and constitutional responsibilities with each.

The—

alignment, constitutional alignment, and then I'll often say aligned with the spirit of those foundational documents, love of God and love of neighbor, would really solve a lot of the problems we have today. And that's, uh, I'll just offer that as, as a segue in. I think the state of Utah is a lot like Orem. There's so many good things taking place. You'll see on the back of that, uh, some of the recognitions. And, and I, I'm, I'm, and I, and I've reviewed the success and the efforts of this wonderful council and staff and, and the, the great story that's told here. But it's similar at the state level. Number 1 state overall is why for 2 years in a row in the U.S. News and World Report, number 1 economic outlook, number 1 for social mobility. Number 1 for starting business, best job environment, best state to move to, most affordable state, most independent state, hottest job market, number 2 state for education, number 2 for small business, highest volunteer rate.

Yep.

Uh, then you look at the, uh, you know, as you look at education, uh, recently, recent studies show, uh, Our 8th grade reading scores are top in the nation, ACT scores number one in the nation. So there's a lot of key indicators, a lot, a lot to be positive. And I, and I know, I think it's important as we put, uh, our work gloves on and, and our— and get our shovels out that we remember all the good that we have to start from. And there is so much good. I was— another interesting statistic is, uh, number 3 overall in child well-being. We talked about 8th grade, 3rd highest scores in the nation on math scores for 8th graders, 4th for reading scores for 8th graders, best return on investment, number 1 and 2 nationwide in concurrent enrollment. So there's a lot of, a lot of positives. But as we all know, As we talk to, uh, the— all, all those who are involved in this, there's challenges that come with it as well. And so addressing those challenges, we've identified positioning ourselves as a new energy frontier in the state of Utah as a top priority. Education, water, fiscal responsible tax cut. We'd like to see— this will impact a lot of our citizens here— a removal of the tax on Social Security, for example. Innovation, economic prosperity, quality of life, transportation, affordable housing, and public lands. So those would be our focus. I have assignment in the Senate. I chair the Social Service Appropriations Committee, which represents about a third of the state budget, right about $9 billion. We're in the jaws of that right now, getting our base budget set. We seek to have a base budget set the first 3 weeks of the session, so that will go in effect if, if we can't agree on the, the building blocks. So that's a very helpful aspect to keep care of the fiscal stewardship. We have several pieces of, of legislation dealing with policy, and then of course oversight. Those are the 3 pillars of our— at the state level. You're going to probably ask me questions about zoning and where are 35,000 homes going to go and all that. I don't— you know, there's pillars we have, and again, you know, constitutional alignment and all those things are something that we need to remember and keep before us. Some 2 or 3-piece legislation that, uh, that been working on directly impact the city here. The— had a couple of bills today. One was the Provo Canyon Resource Management Plan, how we're going to manage Provo Canyon to keep it what it can be and help it be its best version. We're— that there's a study that started several years ago and that continues. So we're going to continue that, hopefully have that wrapped up in, in 2 years, uh, first day of the session. We moved out of the Senate our resource management plan amendments.

There's—

that's a remarkable document. State of Utah and all the counties in Utah put together a resource management plan. How are we going to take care of our water, our air, our natural resources, all the things that we have? As you know, at the national level, if there's, for example, there's a national park, there's a resource management plan for that national park. Or if there's a Monument designation. There's a— we're going to put together a resource. How are we going to manage this resource? And a resource management plan is a key, key issue. And we have gone through the process over the last 10 years of creating those resource management plans county by county. All 29 counties have that in place now. State has one for the state. And it is interesting to note, as we interact with our federal counterparts, our parts that the federal law states that if there is a resource management plan in place, a local resource management plan in place, the national federal agency is required to align with that plan. And so you have a lot of discussions on, okay, we're not being consistent, we're not staying on our lane. So a lot of federalism issues. I have chaired, and I'm the past chair of the State, uh, our Federalism Commission, a lot of federalism issues we're working with. Have several pieces of legislation related to that. We really, I think, have an opportunity, uh, before us, maybe a generational opportunity to do some unique and wonderful things in that way, given the challenges. We saw last night announcement of a freeze on funding. That's a concern. We need to understand what that means. My Social service budget is about 42% of it's impacted. I would note that as the state of Utah, the amount of tax revenue collected federally from the state of Utah and the amount of spending federally in the state of Utah is equal. So we're about equal. A lot of states give a lot less than they receive, obviously, because we have a You know, what is it, $35, $36 trillion? Can you imagine that? It was $12 trillion when I started my service in legislature. It's tripled. It's just remarkably stunning to see what's and how that's going to impact us. So a lot of the challenges I think we at the state level and the city, the local level need to be aware of is impacts of national policy. Really, if we just stayed in our lane, we would be a lot better off. We take the landscape that we have and do the best we can and be wise stewards and be a light and example for the rest of the nation. That's really— it's— I think there's so much here in Orem to be pleased with and grateful for, starting with the goodness of the people and what happens in the homes and in the communities. So with that segue, I'll just turn it to you. I don't want to tell you what I'm— what my goals are, because my goals are to serve you. So how can I be of help?

Say, Brent, have you, have you got the legislative priorities list that we made?

Yes. Yeah, I could share that.

Okay.

I just thought that might be useful to share that.

Yep.

To give that framework. And then did you want to say something? Yeah.

Senator, when you were in the House, you were a water expert.

Yes.

Are you, are you doing any of that in the Senate? Because Utah Lake's a major issue, and I know you have expertise there.

Yes.

Could you tell us a little bit about that?

Let me—

I didn't—

I kind of touched on my assignments. One of my assignments is serve on the Water Development.

Okay, I missed that.

So to continue that— well, I didn't say it, so thank you for asking. My fault, not, not your miss. And then I have that assignment, a federalism assignment, natural resources. I'm, I'm on that. And then my 2 appropriation assignments are I chair the Social Services and I'm the past chair of the Transportation Committee. That was what I was last couple years with the Transportation Committee. I'm on that committee. So those are the areas. Water, I'll give you just a quick report. Water right now, we're 73% of normal. One of the nice things is our groundwater is a little higher than that. It's a little higher. It's not in the 80s, but it's in the high 70s of normal. Remember when we went into that drought year, we were we had the lowest soil content— well, I don't know if you remember this, this isn't the detail, but I pay attention to— had the lowest moisture in our soil than we've ever had historically. But so we're there, our reservoirs statewide are 20% above normal, but it would be well for us, like the general in the Bulge instructed his troops to pray for good weather, that we pray for snow in the next couple of So that's—

was that—

that's a little bit— but is there a specific question?

No, I have a follow-on. As you know, I have employment there, but also many of our students are employed at Utah Valley University, and there's talk about major higher ed cuts. And Utah Valley University does not get the same bang per student, dollar per student, as the other universities in the state. I hope you'll work to protect that so we have students— our children go to school there.

Well, UVU is, you know, it's remarkable. You look at our, our little area here with 2 universities and, and the, the capacity, the muscle of the business expertise, and the— I talk about trust, you know, the intellectual trust and the capacity trust, and it's remarkable. Really, this area leads our state in so many ways, and our state leads the nation. It's remarkable. So be careful, don't mess it up, guys. We all need to be wise stewards. But the good story about UVU is that the bang for the dollar has been so effective and awesome, and it's a great story to tell. And I know that there's some higher ed rumblings here and there, but we are— we have— you need to recognize the dynamics and who we have where we have some really good, uh, voices for UVU in, in important places, and as you know, so that's— thank you for— but the best thing is, is we, we don't have to apologize for the stewardship in that sphere. It's very positive.

So, Mayor and Council, just first, I want to acknowledge publicly that Senator Stratton was really helpful to us last year and helped us get some appropriations to go towards future widening of Center Street between Geneva Road and I-15, especially as it crosses that railroad spur there. So thank you for that.

Thank you. That was, uh, you're very kind. Well, it was— here's the thing, we just need to tell our story, and it's a good, solid, principle-based story. And when we do that and tell it effectively, it prevails. So thank you. That was— and I'd just say, let me just say, uh, Council and Mayor, and I love our staff. I love our first responders. Our, you know, I, I— our, uh, we are so blessed. We're blessed, you know, with a wonderful city manager as well. Thank you.

In terms of, uh, Senator Stratton, in terms of kind of the city's, um, major priorities, like priorities. One that's of concern is growth management and hopefully keeping the ability for local mayor and councils to help manage growth. And I'll share with you a brochure we have that kind of shows how Orem has already been doing what the state is hoping that other cities will do. And so there's some good data in here that I'll share with—

that I'll leave with you to I would say this, some of us have been— I was looking at the board and I recognized it was a tender experience, recognize all those who have served before. And there used to be a time when there was a great rivalry between Orem and Provo. We had Orem Tigers and Provo Bulldogs, you know, and honestly, we'd have the football games, we'd have them in BYU Stadium and the basketball games would be in the old Smithfield House. And then we would have a in the Marriott Center. I mean, it was a big deal. So there's a lot of— but I would say for me, I represent— I have Deer Creek and Wallsburg and Sundance, and I come down like 2000 North Norm, east side of State Street, down to like Desert Industries, and then it follows the river out and then back all of Provo. So I have a different perspective than a lot of the the, the members of legislature, and I, I can say, look, I represent— I represent political subdivisions are getting it right and have pulled their weight and doing what they need to do. And so we need to make sure we keep the lines of communication open. If you're seeing something, you have great— you know, League of Cities and Towns does a good job. Just, we need to be able to tell that story. But thank you for that. That'll be helpful.

And that was going to be my comment, was just I just want to tell you thank you, because I have, as a representative, and now I'm sure as a senator, you have really, you really understand and you support and you're a warrior for keeping the decisions close to the people. Right. Government needs to be close to the people so we can then, you know, represent absolutely. So thank you.

Yeah. Sound principle. Government closest to the people is best for the people. And that's important. I would say I would also— I just had the thought that I'd like to say is that as we tell that story, as we show the things we're doing here, it's some great models to follow as well. It's fun to be able to just tell the good stories and what's taking place. And but, you know, there's things, unintended consequences that come along. We'll get them corrected. But nobody's perfect. But you could, if you're worried about growth, You look at all these awards. If you're worried about growth, you don't— what you don't want to do is not be who you are. But you have to realize part of the problem is who you are, because you're Sedan Good and everyone wants to live here. So what do you do with that? So that's part of the challenge. But again, very good, uh, helpful information. Thank you.

So I've got a question, Kevin. So I appreciate your service. I've known you for a long time, and I think you serve the citizens very well, which you represent. But the question is, you know, Governor Cox is, you know, let's build all these homes. And what you said is stay in your lane. I agree with that 100% because we build all these thousands and thousands of homes, but do we have the resources to back it up? Like you said, the water. And that's where I think we need to be very careful that we have the necessities of resources instead of saying, hey, we're just going to build these homes. Where are you going to come up with the water? You know, that's the question. So I just think we need to make sure that— don't take the power away from the cities because we know what's best for our city, and one glove doesn't fit all. And hopefully you can take that message back to your colleagues and say, we need to stay in your lane even though you're developers or or whatever, they need to stay in their lane and back off a little bit. So it's just been a pet peeve of mine since day one.

But the same analogy that we use in working our federal counterpart is, is the same. We can easily say it, you know, what's good for one is good all the way. It's good. It's a principle that's good at every level. And so excellent point. Thank you, Councilmember Spencer, and thank you for the reminder, but it's, it's an easy narrative to— they hear me talk a lot about it, the state and federal, and so it's an easy narrative to recognize and see. But I would say that it's— we need to rec— we, we do need to acknowledge we do have a challenge across the state, but we're— we need to allow healthy tension in the discussions, but we are all on the same team. It's not It's not only the home, but it's the sewer, it's the infrastructure, the sidewalks, it's the schools. It's all that— also, I was hoping not to say that word school tonight. We might get into some interesting discussion. But the schools, it's all— it's all those things are so, so important. So that's—

Well, I think too, I mean, if you look at Norman, we are 95% built out. So, right, what's good for us, or what the state's trying to do, it doesn't work for us. So maybe in Fairview where the governor lives, maybe he can build high density. I don't know, but it needs to— we've already got our percentage of high density and we need to keep it. And maybe Alpine or somebody else can pick up the slack and bring the high density there.

An interesting ask. Thank you. That's true. The interesting aspect is you look at a statistic, we talk about that a lot about our public lands, what do we do with our public lands is so important because our quality of life and recreation and all that's there. But we need to realize that we have inside our cities and towns, inside the county of Utah County, we have 29,000 acres inside the city limits of federally managed public lands. And one of the challenges with Orem is, you know, we were, we're the saturation, as you said, it's there. And so how do we do that? But as we have the opportunity in the areas that are opening, we need to be careful not to inappropriately crowd our lifestyle. But there's room. But there's not room really in Provo and Orem. That's what I was trying to, you know, try to say.

And so So let's—

we have some good templates to follow and good planning, and let's learn the lessons and apply them in the appropriate place.

In terms of a few other priorities that the city's kind of keeping an eye on, on the state level, are sort of transportation-related. In our kind of southwest area over by the Orem Temple, There's a desire to work with the state and UDOT to do a jurisdictional transfer of property for the continuation of what's called the Lakeview Corridor. So I was an Orem Tiger, but that road is going to go down by the new, you know, Provo High School and the Provo Airport. And we've aligned well with Provo City and Mayor Cafusi in trying to—

Mayor?

essentially help finish and complete that connection. And so hoping to work with the state well on that.

Let me work with you on that. But let me just say and ask, do you— do we have all the right-of-way acquired?

Not all of it, but we do have a schedule of funding that's already kind of been identified with MAG. And so we think that it's most It's got a lot of momentum behind it already to get it accomplished.

Good.

One of the issues we are concerned about is corridor funding and making sure we have the resources put in place, and we're looking at that as a budget item. So thank you for being aware of that, for articulating that.

Another thing is just trails, and we're hoping to apply for some state grants for improving trails in the city, whether it be to start to look at West— the West Union Canal and turning that into a trail, or a grade-separated bridge crossing over the Murdoch Canal Trail up as it crosses 1600 North there. So if we could, we'd love to have help with some of our state representatives to—

You want to have a bridge go over the road? You have the tunnel. You don't— is— are we thinking different place? No, that's, that's 8th. You're talking— I've I'm right, okay, I'm right with you. So yeah, the Union Canal, I know the footprints of all these canals because of my agrarian background and just swam in a lot of them. But that Union Canal would be just spectacular. That would be a real, yeah, that'd be wonderful.

And we know there's a competitive process for those grants, but we'd love to work with you to make sure that our application process is competitive.

Thank you. I sit on the Appropriations Committee that oversees that, as well as the Standing Committee. So let's, let's have that. And there's some— and there's a real desire to have those alternative means of getting from A to B. You know, there's— we're working on— I guess you could start in Orem and go up the canyon all the way up into into Park City and back down, you know, on some wonderful trails and opportunities. But we need to remember those that are right here in the— in our dense populations. An interesting fact, Wasatch Front is one of the most densely populated areas in the United States. I don't know if you're aware of that. It's really interesting because of the— what we have with the, you know, the mountains and the lake and, and what we have. So we've got to thank you for that. What, what others are you working on?

And we're just going to say, you know, those are the best, uh, choices, those 2. I mean, just, you know, we're just going to really push for that right now and let you know, let's get those applications to the top of the pile, right, Bren?

There's no question, right? But I, I will say that we don't have a lot of excess funding, but we have put historically— last year in our transportation committee, we put $100 million aside, you know, for that and an ongoing source. So we'll see how that comes together. But yeah, thank you.

Um, another priority is we're keeping an eye on the short-term rental, uh, that we've heard of a bill or two that may be in the works in, in that's intended to kind of set some guardrails. So we're just interested in, in honestly receiving kind of state feedback input, essentially boundaries to how to regulate short-term rentals. So that's of interest to us.

I mean, I think I've been asked to be the Senate sponsor on a piece of legislation from our neighbor Provo, concern of not a lot of tools that the municipalities have for bad faith landlords. And so let's visit about that. Make sure you're— we're being helpful and not unintended consequences. So thank you.

The final thing I, uh, that we've talked about as a council— mayor and council— is, um, uh, we want to keep an eye on, uh, the potential legislation related to a utility transportation fee and, and how that might pan out as well. And want— at least want the ability to be able to kind of look into it and see what may make sense or not for, for the City of Orem in that regard.

Thank you. I need your help. You're going to see things that we have.

I—

it's crazy, we have over 300 education bills filed. I think that's just absurd. Can you imagine being in the business and having to— I just, I just— but my point is, I haven't heard of that. So do you have any Information on specific legislation, who sponsors are?

I, um, what would probably be best—

offline. Okay.

Yeah, I'll share some talking points from the Utah League of Cities.

Perfect. That's perfect. Thank you.

The last thing I'll say is you shared all the wonderful accomplishments. We've recently put together all of our accomplishments and areas of focus and had a retreat, so I'm going to share that with you too.

Thank you.

So that we can show that we're aligned with you and the state in making our, our community great.

We are so blessed, aren't we? Really. I just, I sat there with my sweetheart, just to be able to sit with my wife and pray together and stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance together. There's so many things that happen that are so remarkable. The people of— we stand on shoulders of sacrifice and But we need to ever be watchful. It only takes one generation to forget. And one of the most satisfying and I think helpful pieces of legislation I worked on is to create Founders and Constitutional Month in September. We forget who we are and we forget the— and we have to be careful that we ever watch what— Thank you. Yes, I wanted to point that out. I was just trying to say Utah's doing some good things. things too, trying to follow your example. How's that? Thank you so much.

Do we have any, any other questions?

Did you have—

I just want to say, along with everyone else, thank you for what you're doing, Kevin. Um, Senator, Appreciate it.

Don't call me late for dinner.

Yeah, I know that. Just appreciate your service and your strength and your confidence and, and your willingness to listen and to consider our concerns. It's great knowing that you're there and that you understand the challenges that we face here in Orem because you've been here. You've been here with us, and I just appreciate your Representation.

Well, you know, thank you. I, I know where the rubber hits the road. And, you know, we talk about life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That's more profoundly and intimately impacted what takes place right here than anywhere else, any other form of government. And so we are in this together. I'm grateful for the relationships I have with all of you. I feel like I have, uh, we're all on speed dial. And, uh, I— the thing I'd like to say, and I, I, I I, I'm— thank you for not asking about education and school district and everything. That's fine. We'd be glad to talk about it. But we— that is an example. If you, you've got to get it right, it's let's get it right.

And I—

the Senator Grover, I'm— I sit 5 feet from him on the Senate floor, and he is absolutely committed. to listen and take all the input. And we expect a piece of legislation out next week, but now is the time, if, as you're reviewing it, if you have any questions, just make sure— let's— breakdown of communication is a breakdown of good results. And so let's keep those communications. And I'm grateful, uh, Councilman, great for the association, the opportunity that we've had to, uh, work together. And let's continue that process.

Thank you.

You make it easy to represent. You know, it's like UVU. I love telling the UVU story. You know, it's— you make it easy, so keep it up. So, and, you know, just acknowledge we do have the wind, so let's set the sails so that we use the wind to help and improve versus the other. So.

I just want to echo that, Kevin. I appreciate my relationship with you and the time we've gone over a lot of different things and just all the good work that you do. It's great to have advocates up there at legislature for us, and we really appreciate that.

Don't be afraid. I tell, you know, if you think you want to say something to me you don't think I want to hear, that's when I really need to hear it. So just let's just stay in touch. Okay, thank you.

Sounds good.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming tonight. We really appreciate it.

Keep up the good work.

We will. Okay, next up we've got item 6.3, uh, a presentation of the Sea Council 2025 areas of focus with Pete Wolfley.

All right, thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh, on there at the dash, you'll find a, uh, kind of a nice copy of the thing that we Gave you at the retreat that goes— just goes through the 2024 accomplishments, um, and the things that were done last year. But today we're here to talk about what we're going to do in 2025. And as you were all at the retreat, you were there, you set the goals. And so really what the purpose of this presentation is, just letting you know that we heard you and we're, uh, taking ownership of the vision and the goals that you gave us. And we're actually really excited to get started. So you'll also find, uh, a notepad. that you can use throughout the year that keeps all the goals and the areas of focus right there handy on the left-hand side. My dad always said that a goal not written down is just a dream, and so that's, uh, that's why we wrote it down so that it's always top of mind. So just for the public record, we want to put out the areas of focus and then highlight a few goals from this year. So the first goal that's led us kind of the last couple years is aligning the City Council, city employees, and citizens. And just, you know, we talked about working on our communication, both as staff and council, making sure that we're all aligned and on the same team. Remember that we're all Team Orem. We're going to expand service opportunities, and we're going to improve communication with you on significant issues so that you're well prepped on any issues facing the city. The next area of focus is safe, livable, connected, and engaged neighborhoods. And we— some of the goals we set this year are more community outreach through events and partnerships, short-term rental regulation, preserving neighborhood character, and then updates to the general plan. So big things happening in this area of focus, uh, just to make Orem an even better community. Next one is the thriving and balanced business environment. Um, here we're— we had great success last year with the Orem Business Alliance, lots of growth. We want to keep that going. We want to connect with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this year and really focus on those minority-owned businesses, uh, revamp our relationship and the way things are operating at the Business Resource Center, and then of course streamline the business licensing process so that Orem remains one of the top cities in the nation for starting a business. For dependable infrastructure, we have the State Street beautification, work on our trail system, the active transit plan, and for Dave Spencer, I put 950 North, and it's on here too, so we won't forget.

So it's written down, but you know what that means sometimes.

So for the community focus and effective government, legislator outreach, which we just witnessed, I thought that was a great connection to make with Senator Stratton. Continue the UVU dialogue. We have a great partnership with them. Just keep that going in the right direction. And then this year, really get serious about the Orem Community Foundation. We have some great things going, so we just want to keep the momentum. And then the final area of focus is continue— it's the skilled and talented workforce, focusing on our employees. Continue employee relationship building. More cross-training and career growth opportunities. And I had to use the picture of Jim Yeoman from last council meeting because he was just looking so sharp. And he honestly is a great example of what we all strive to be— someone who's well-trained, dedicated, and leads by example. So I thought it was fitting to include him. But we just want you to know, um, that we take it very seriously, the goals and the vision you set for us, and we're all in. And we look forward to making it happen and reporting back this time next year that We got her done.

Thank you, Pete. We appreciate that. We've definitely got our map laid out for us this year. We'll move on to item 7, personal appearances, and we have 2, uh, residents on the, on the list tonight. Uh, and I'll just invite you to come up and share your thoughts with us. First, we've got Derek Phelps.

Thank you so much. Um, my name is Derek Phelps, and I've been a resident here of Orem City for over 2 years now. Uh, I own 2 properties within the city, and my wife and I have I'm here to speak, um, against short-term rental regulation that's currently being considered by the city council. And before I dig into that, I want to thank each of you for your hard work and dedication and everything you do for this amazing city in what I'm sure at times can be a thankless job.

Thank you.

this job. Um, but, uh, I, I hope you know that we appreciate you and everything you do. I, uh, want to illustrate through my remarks that the immense benefit that short-term rentals can bring to our community, um, and why regulation is not only unnecessary but potentially harmful. Uh, a couple years ago, my wife and I purchased a lot here, uh, in, uh, in Orem just right here on Centre Street, a few blocks away, and we had the intent to build a short-term rental on it. We put our entire life savings into this investment, and our funds allowed the builder to build 2 other homes on that adjacent to ours that were later sold, resulting in development of over half an acre of what had previously been barren land right here in the center of our city. That many neighbors commented on the inconvenience, the eyesore, and the annoyance that that land was. We hired a local Orem business to do our landscaping for the property. We bought a full Bullfrog Spas hot tub just right here on State Street, just a few blocks away. We bought furniture from several different local stores all here in Orem, and in total invested over $100,000, uh, in local businesses for this investment. Uh, our, uh, we're now able to support local cleaners, uh, during our operations, and none of this would have been possible if, uh, we— if the short-term rent— if a short-term rental wasn't an option here in Orem. Since listing our property, we welcome many guests to our home. The vast majority of those guests are welcome— we welcome are people coming to visit family. I imagine many of you have family out of town who, when they come to visit, would love to be in a well-appointed home rather than in separate rooms in a hotel or, you know, other, you know, less desirable accommodations. These To a lesser extent, we also welcome tourists who bring, uh, uh, uh, who bring spending to our community, uh, and, uh, more, uh, benefits to our economy. We also have people traveling on business, um, that, uh, also participate in our community. I know there are many voices, um, against short-term rentals, uh, and they point to the goat house. They point to rising housing and affordability. However, these are, um, are, are false claims. Um, the— there is such a tiny fraction in Orem of short-term rentals. There's only 200 that are, uh, full-time active short-term rentals, which is less of just over half a percent of the housing units in Orem. Uh, we can safely assume that this isn't contributing to housing and affordability. There There's also a study I'd love to send you from Oxford Economics proving this. Existing regulation was able to solve issues with the goat house and other problem short-term rentals in our community. Further regulation isn't needed to address some of these issues. And I know I'm past time. I'll end there. I had other things that I'd like to say, but I would just urge you in closing to consider my story and the many others of the rising generation.

Thank you.

struggling to find opportunity in this, uh, difficult housing environment. And, um, short-term rentals can be a very creative option for us to still, um, make it and attain the ever more unattainable dream of home— homeownership. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Uh, next up we got Jackson Rollins.

Hello, Mayor Young and esteemed council members. Thank you for your time. I am here, same with Derek, to talk about the short-term rental regulations. I own a home on Main Street, and it is an owner-operated Airbnb at this point. We've had a number of guests come through, mostly reuniting with family members that are in Utah. Either they used to live here or they're coming to visit kids that are here for college, and everyone leaves a great review about how they enjoyed the stay. We refer them to local businesses, event centers, hospitals, things like that. So there's business that's coming here. And, you know, it's been a really good time, and I would love to see it continue the way that it is. I think there's a lot of growth potential there still. But ultimately, I'm here to piggyback off a lot of what Derek said, so I'm gonna keep it short and sweet. Thank you for your time again, and thank you for all you're doing for the city. Thank you.

All right, thank you for those comments. We'll move on to consent items. Item number 8. We've got item 8.1, approval of meeting minutes, and item 8.2, a resolution on the Denebrough Road nighttime construction exemption.

So, Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to table to the next city council meeting item 8.1, the approval of the meeting minutes for January 14th. Second.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

That's Chris. Chris is on the mic there.

So I'd now like to make a motion that we approve the consent item 8.2 resolution on the Geneva Road nighttime construction.

Second.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Okay, thank you. Both those pass. We'll move to item 9, uh, 9.1, a resolution concerning the sale of certain property owned by Alpine School District that is located within the boundary of the reorganized school district. Eric McKnight, uh, our assistant city attorney, will present that.

Thank you. Good evening, City Council. Um, so, uh, we, we discussed this in the, uh, work meeting, and I'll, I'll I'll be a little bit more brief. If you'd like to discuss a certain issue, feel free to bring it up and we can discuss it in more detail. But this is a resolution before you where Alpine School District is asking for our consent, for your consent, I should say, the city council's, to sell property that is owned by Alpine School District, but that Belongs in what will be the new school district that we belong to. Um, this property is— was built by— it was a— it's a home, a residential home that was built by students as part of the career and technical education program run out of Timpanogos High School. Um, the proceeds from the sale of this home will go back into the CTE, career and technical education program. Being run out of Timpanogos High School. Currently, they're building another home here in Orem that, that the students are working on and, and that they'll be looking to sell at the end of this school year as well. Under state law, because of the school district split, consent is required from all of the city councils that belong to the new school district in which the property is found. It is our understanding that Lynden, Vineyard, and Pleasant Grove City Councils have all approved the sale and given their consent. And so this is before us for our chance to give our input on that. And that's, that's what this item is. Any questions?

Thank you, Aaron. I think we're pretty up to speed just because we've gone through this and that. in the work meeting, but would someone like to make a—

Would you accept a motion, Mayor?

Yes.

I move that the City Council approve by resolution the consent to the sale of certain property owned by Alpine School District that is located within the boundary of the new reorganized school district consisting of the cities of Linden, Pleasant Grove, Orem, and Vineyard.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you. The resolution passes. Thank you, Aaron.

Thank you.

We've also got— I'm not sure if you're going to help on this next one, uh, but Pete, are you going to come up and introduce this? And then Aaron was involved last time too.

Yeah, so for the America 250 celebration, it's just celebrating 250 years since the founding of the United States. And we're joining with the state and the organization that they've set up to celebrate the anniversary. And so by adopting this resolution, we'll be able to form the committee, get kind of the playbook from the state group, and then get started on planning our events for 2026.

Do we have any questions?

I think I'm excited about this.

Yeah, it's going to be great.

Why don't you make the motion? Okay, you're so excited.

I move That by resolution, we are supporting America 250 Utah and recognizing and approving the Orem Utah 250 Community Committee.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Sorry, couldn't get off mute.

Aye.

Okay, thank you, Chris. Okay, the resolution passes. Thank you for that presentation.

Mayor, it's 250 years since The declaration. So that's just forming information.

Okay, thank you. Oh, thank you for that. Okay, um, last item on our agenda, relatively short agenda tonight. We've just got city manager item 11, city manager information items. Bren?

Yes, really quick. I handed you all the housing brochure that you saw that I shared with Senator Grover. So that's— this is the finalized version, both for you, but also to share with those on state legislature or state staff that— or opinion leaders, if you want to share that. And then we had, if not the biggest, definitely one of the biggest youth council attendance at the Day at the Legislature last Wednesday. So that was really wonderful to see. So our Youth Council is anxiously and energetically engaged. And then just want to make note to take a look at your calendars. We've got our annual Fire Department Awards Banquet on next Thursday, February 6th, and it'll be at the UVU Ballroom this year. That's all I have.

Okay, thank you, Brent. I just want to reinforce this brochure. As far as this is not just a brochure, another brochure to look at and throw away. Now, this brochure is a big deal because this basically explains where Orem's at in the housing situation and all of the things that we've done, and basically how we're 10 years ahead of everyone else in this program. So we want to get that messaging out. Thank you for putting that together. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn?

I will make a motion that we adjourn.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned. Thank you.