THE STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELDAt the City Council
In and For Said City
July 28, 2020 Minutes of the Richfield City Council meeting held on Tuesday, July 28, 2020
at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor David C. Ogden presiding.
1. OPENING REMARKS
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
3. ROLL CALL
4. MINUTES APPROVED
5. EXPENDITURES APPROVED
6. PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED ZONING AMENDMENT
7. PUBLIC HEARING FOR ACCESSORY BUILDING USE
8. PROPOSAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELK’S LODGE
9. HANGER GROUND LEASE
10. SEWER LAGOONS PRELIMINARY DESIGNS
11. PERMANENT COMMUNITY IMPACT BOARD
12. AGREEMENT FOR CONSULTING SERVICES.
13. QUARTERLY FINANCIAL STATEMENT
14. CASH RECEIPTING AND DEPOSIT POLICY
15. OTHER BUSINESS
16. MEETING ADJOURNED
1. OPENING REMARKS were offered by Councilmember Gleave.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was led by Councilmember Christensen.
3. ROLL CALL. Present: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson, Mayor David Ogden, Michele Jolley. Excused: Bryan Burrows, Tyson Hansen.
4. MINUTES APPROVED. The Council reviewed the minutes of the meeting held on May 12, 2020. Motion: Approve of the minutes held May 12, 2020, Action: Approved, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
5. PUBLIC HEARING FOR PROPOSED ZONING AMENDMENT. A public hearing to receive comments on a concerning proposed amendment to the General Plan and zoning map affecting parcel no. 1-12-14 was held. The property is located west of South Meadows Subdivision on the south side of the street. The application proposes a change of zone from MD to RR-1. Mayor Ogden opened a public hearing at 7:02 p.m. This is the property that Mr. Day owns next to the subdivision, but was not included in the subdivision. It is currently zoned MD (manufacturing). Mr. Cary Day would like the property to be zoned RR-1, which is what the South Meadow Subdivision is zoned. Mayor Ogden closed the hearing at 7:05 p.m. Mr. Day stated that there is a sewer manhole in the property where the street right of way is, but there is also another manhole a little further south on his property. He was wondering why there needed to be 2 manholes. The City will have someone check into this.
6. PUBLIC HEARING FOR ACCESSORY BUILDING USE. A public hearing to receive comments to consider changing the Zoning Code to allow the construction of garages, barns, and outbuildings that are not accessory to the primary use to the property was held. The change being considered would apply to the RR-1 and RR-5 zones. Mayor Ogden opened a hearing at 7:07 p.m. Mr. Cary Day was the individual that has requested this change. He would like to build a barn and be able to park a tractor in it for now. David Anderson asked what would prevent a commercial use on a property where there is just an accessory building. It would still be zoned residential and they would have to have a business license to have a business there. There would have to be some requirements to make sure there would be room for a home in front of the accessory building. Mayor Ogden closed the hearing at 7:14 p.m.
7. PROPOSAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ELK’S LODGE. Alycia Jensen stated that she and her husband would like to purchase the Elk’s Lodge. The once iconic building is now dilapidated and in ruins. Each year that this building is neglect, it creeps closer and closer to being condemned. She said that she had toured the property and found that it had been broken into and vandalized. She was informed that this is a frequent occurrence. With the abandoned state, vandals find it an easy target. The received permission to tour the building to assess the condition of the building to see if it were something they would like to purchase and restore. While walking through the building they found several windows and doors were broken and several holes knocked in the walls. A lot of damage due to a leaky roof is also evident. There are several spots where the subfloor is warping and separating from the floor joists. The ceilings had been ripped out in several spots due to the water damage. The paint and drywall are peeling off and one area of mold growing on the more damage is to come if something is not done. This building is visible from the freeway and is an eyesore for the City. If someone would be willing to put time and money into this building, then it would be able to be made into something great again. Alycia Jensen stated that if they were allowed to purchase the building and upon approval for rezoning; they would like to restore this Elks Lodge into a multi-family establishment.
They understand that this may present a problem because the City needs to retain access to water lines and golf cart paths that run through the property. They believe that an agreement can be made to allow the City to retain access and possibly ownership of the property.
Mayor Ogden indicated that it is too bad some times that it takes someone interested in acquiring something to get the owners of the property to look at it with a new light and new responsibility. The City has owned this building now for a couple of years and has not done much with it. Part of that is because we did not know what to do with it. The City is hesitant to sell it and he knows that the Council all have an opinion on that.
Councilmember Gleave stated that this is the first time that he has been in the Elks Lodge and he felt that it was a cool old building. He sees a lot of potential in keeping the building and utilizing this property for City purposes. At this time, he would probably lean toward keeping it and maybe trying to come up with a purpose for the City.
Councilmember Nielson brought up the fact that we had been through this process a short time ago with some other people who wanted to do multiple dwellings. The people who own property out in that area have paid quite an expensive price for that property and they do not want multiple dwellings, so the Council did not change the zoning for that reason. She stated that we have always had in the back of our minds that it is a spectacular piece of property in that it has a beautiful view of the mountains and looks down on the golf course. Despite the rough nature of the building as it is now, it could be quite magnificent looking down on the golf course. We do not have a community center. There are a lot of different things that we need as a community that could fit into that building. We do not have the funds to do it right now, but it would be something that would be done over time. Councilmember Nielson felt that if we lose this piece of property, we would not ever have a chance again to have something. We sold property there by the golf course several years ago and it was not a particularly wise decision at the time. We wish now that we would not have done it. We do not want to sell it if we do not have to. We do not want multiple dwellings built there and we would like to be able to conserve it and use it for something for the community.
Councilmember Christensen was in the building two or three years ago when we bought it and she has been wanting to fix it up. She is all in favor of the City keeping it and fixing it up. She felt that this would be a nice building for the golf course tournaments and banquets. She recollected that the roof was checked out when the City purchased the building to make sure that while we were deciding what to do with it that it was not going to get worse.
Councilmember Hansen also indicated that he would be reluctant to see this go to multi-density zoning because he does not feel that it would be a good fit with the rest of the area. He would be more willing to consider it for commercial use there. Councilmember Hansen also stated that the property is too valuable to the City at that location to sell it, with or without the building. That building could be repurposed for other things. He likes to restore old cars, old tractors, and fix up stuff so he would like to see someone do that to this building. He is glad that Ms. Jensen sees potential in the building, but he would not be willing to sell it for the use that she has proposed.
Ms. Jensen noted that their thought was that it is just such an eyesore and it could be repurposed and perhaps the community would be willing to do a multi-family because they would rather that than a dilapidated building.
8. HANGER GROUND LEASE. The Council considered approving a Hanger Ground Lease for Gerald Marsh. He will be purchasing an existing hanger. Motion: Approve a Hanger Ground Lease for Gerald Marsh, Action: Approved, Moved by Todd Gleave, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
9. SEWER LAGOONS PRELIMINARY DESIGNS. Carson DeMille stated that they met with Ellis Brown out on the site to determine the constructability because when it was originally built in 1983, the had construction issues which are why they are built the way they are built. It was too wet and they could not get the equipment out there. They did a few test holes in one of the dry cells and the water table right now is down about 3 feet in the low spots. They feel pretty comfortable that we could get heavy equipment in at least the dry cells that were looked at to excavate them out. The sites have been surveyed with a drone and are collecting some additional points. What needs to be done now, is that they need to run a preliminary design to find out what kind of quantity of materials we are talking about for the City to pursue funding for the project. Just because of the size and the magnitude of that site, it would be difficult to give an accurate estimate for funding purposes. With the predesign, There has been some interest in mechanical treatment and he wondered if this was something the City wanted them to look into. Mr. Mogan would like to stay away from mechanical treatment because that is a whole different ball game. We would have to obtain discharge permits, sampling, and testing and would more than likely require 2 more full-time employees to maintain and operate a mechanical facility.
Mr. DeMille stated that they are currently doing a lagoon project and when they did the preliminary study there was a lot of pressure from several companies to do mechanical treatment facilities because they are typically cheaper upfront to install. In the situation of this client, they had to purchase additional property for new lagoon cells and it was still cheaper in the long run to do lagoons versus mechanical treatment. The City owns all of the property currently, so there are no additional property purchases, so the most economic option is to repair the lagoons rather than install mechanical treatment.
They propose to process the information they have collected and make sure that we have the best possible configuration. The south end of the lagoons is quite a bit higher than the north end. Some of the cells have 3 feet of elevation difference in the bottom of them. They will look at a few different options of maybe it makes sense to keep them the way they are, but they will make sure that the current configuration is the best for those lagoons. They can run some water balances and some designs to make sure they can split up the cells appropriately for future growth and that would also give us some solid numbers as far as quantities and costs that could be used to pursue funding for a project.Motion: Approve the preliminary design for the sewer lagoons, Action: Approved, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Todd Gleave. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
10. PERMANENT COMMUNITY IMPACT BOARD. Mr. DeMille stated that the CIB would do a 50/50 grant match on studies. The problem is that the lagoons are not on the capital improvements list. Right now, we could apply for that. We need to see if we can get the lagoons on our list. Mr. DeMille estimated that the cost for the preliminary design would be $22,000 which would include the design, process the survey data and that would also be or assisting the City in the procurement of funding. The council discussed paying for the survey and using that in our application for the overall project to show that we are willing to put our funds into it.
Councilmember Hansen wanted to go back and look at the mechanical treatment. He asked Mr. DeMille given our situation, our climate, our soil type; what in his opinion would be the best available technology if we start from scratch today. Mr. Demille stated that lagoons are always cheaper if the land is at the right price and there is land available. The mechanical treatment makes sense when there is a water shortage, meaning you re-use the water in a secondary irrigation system, which we do not have, or if there is no land or if you have a high usage nutrient content. In all of the lagoon systems they have done, it has never made sense to do a mechanical treatment. Moroni City has one and they have a shared agreement with the turkey farms and it just does not work well.
Councilmember Gleave asked if there is any difference in the end product like smells and cleanliness. If our sewer lagoons were operating as they should there would not be a lot of smell. This topic will be amended and will be brought back up so the council can make their final decision. Mayor Ogden felt that we should approve the application and then we will have a discussion with the CIB Board members and staff and then make the decision as to whether or not it would be to our advantage to try to get our application pushed up.Motion: Approve an application to the Permanent Community Impact Board for the preliminary design, Action: Approved, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
11. AGREEMENT FOR CONSULTING SERVICES. The Council reviewed the Agreement for Consulting Services with Lewis, Young, Robertson & Burningham for the creation of a Community Reinvestment Agency. Motion: Approve the Agreement for Consulting Services, Action: Approved, Moved by Todd Gleave, Seconded by Connie Nielson. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
12. QUARTERLY FINANCIAL STATEMENT. The Council wanted to table the review of the quarterly financial statement ending June 30, 2020. Motion: Table the financial statement until next meeting, Action: Tabled, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. 13. CASH RECEIPTING AND DEPOSIT POLICY. The Council also felt that this matter should be tabled until our next meeting. Motion: Table the cash receipting and deposit policy, Action: Tabled, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows. 14. OTHER BUSINESS. None. 15. MEETING ADJOURNED. At 8:00 p.m., Motion: Reconvene and adjourn the meeting, Action: Adjourned, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Connie Nielson. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.PASSED and APPROVED this 13 day of October 2020.