May 12, 2021 | General Meeting

Voting

3-0 approving the Consent Agenda, which includes:

• Minutes for April 30th and May 4th special City Council meetings
• Interlocal agreements with Salt Lake County for the County to reimburse corridor preservation funds

3-0 approving the City's tentative budget for fiscal year 2021-2022, which is now available for public review at www.herriman.org/budgets.

Work Meeting

Annexation area/Olympia Hills discussion

During the April 28th City Council work meeting, the City's staff was directed to begin the creation of working groups to engage the Olympia Hills development team to discuss the details of the County-approved development and explore potential annexation into Herriman City.

There have now been four main groups created that include City council members, key City staff members, and designated members from the Olympia Hills team. Those working groups are centered around finance, planning, infrastructure, and a master development agreement (should an agreement become necessary). There is an additional group charged with facilitating all the meetings and ensuring the process is complete and transparent.

The City Council discussed a need and its intent for a high level of transparency during the engagement process among Olympia Hills team members, City council members, and City staff members. The City will create a central web page (www.herriman.org/olympiahills) regarding the meetings and potential annexation process, and will publish summaries of each subcommittee meeting to post on the page. Additionally, the City will provide mail pieces, social media and website posts, and highlighted notices when the topic is on an upcoming City Council meeting. The intent is to make information from the process of potential annexation as available as possible to the public, as Olympia Hills is an issue both sensitive and significant within Herriman City.

Budget discussion

The tentative budget is available for review by the public on herriman.org/budgets. Regarding the budget, the Council discussed the idea of needs versus wants to ensure balance between niceties and funding essential city services that residents depend upon the City for.

Pavement preservation program

A city engineer gave a presentation of the City's pavement maintenance program. Roads are prioritized by condition. The City hired a company to use laser technology to examine all of Herriman's roads for current condition. In general, Herriman roads are in good or fair condition, with a handful in poor condition. The City has been increasing its road maintenance budget in recent years to keep up with maintenance needs. A key point in the presentation was that it's significantly more cost-effective for the City to perform minor preventative maintenance on newer roads than focusing heavily on major maintenance or replacement of roads in poorer condition. The City does its best to balance need and costs to best benefit roads and drivers.

Planning Commission alternate appointments

As appointments for Planning Commissioners are coming due, the Council discussed options to enhance efficiency for applications and projects regarding the participation of alternate Planning Commission members. One option discussed is to invite feedback from alternate, non-voting Commissioners during the meeting to allow for consistent feedback across various meetings on the same project. Another was to encourage the Commission chair to fill voting vacancies with alternate members based on participation in projects on the agenda rather than a simple rotation. The item will come back for further discussion in a future meeting.

General Meeting

Board, committee reports

Councilmember Shields, reporting from the Mosquito Abatement District, noted a recent discussion about questions physicians are raising about methods the MAD uses and whether airborne sprays are safe enough to happen near humans. The MAD emphasizes eliminating mosquitos while they are young, before they reproduce and fly as adults. Councilmember Shields emphasized that the MAD follows all safety procedures and protocols from the EPA and others to ensure maximum safety for the community. This includes not spraying for adult, flying mosquitos unless that group of mosquitos is linked to a particular disease.

Councilmember Shields, reporting from the Association of Municipal Councils, described a recent discussion about city planning as technology advances, such as accounting for autonomous vehicles, which reduces the need for on-site parking at venues. Councilmember Shields also noted some data presented about housing affordability, and that the data suggests that an increase in high-income housing would result in high-income earners moving to that housing and opening up more low- and middle-income housing, of which there is a shortage in Utah.

Councilmember Smith reported on a Salt Lake County biweekly COVID-19 meeting, and that there has recently been a slight increase in cases in our area due to recent outbreaks in local schools.

Other notes

Councilmembers Smith and Shields complimented the Herriman Harmonyx for their recent show "Inn Crowd," a musical comedy held at the city hall.