Parks and Trails Committee Update

Room for Planned Open Space?

by Robin M Johnson

On Wednesday, July 12, the Midway City Council spent time in their work meeting discussing applicants for the new Parks and Trails Committee called for in the general plan. They discussed things like how many members the committee would have and the tasks and direction the committee should take.

Last April Midway City posted a newly proposed Master Plan for Valais Park on its website and scheduled a public hearing for comment. The public hearing was held on April 26. Many opinions and suggestions were made in that meeting.Comments made in the meeting were referenced several times in this work meeting. 

One suggestion in the public hearing, made by Doug Jenkins, was for the city to form a committee to plan the city’s parks. Further, to include people on the committee who have had experience in parks and recreation. This suggestion was taken to heart by the city council. Applications for the committee were taken in May and June, with a total of twelve citizens applying to serve on the committee.

Colleen Bonner, mayor, said, “We’re going to talk about our Parks and Trails Committee. Brad (Wilson, city recorder,) sent you those applications. We’ve talked about assigning that committee tonight, it’s on our agenda; however, if we feel like we want to reopen it and look for more applications we can. We had some pretty good applicants.  I just wanted you to all get a chance to look at them. Have you had a chance to look at them?”

Bob Probst, council member, said, “How many are we looking for, Mayor?”

Bonner said, “About seven, I think. Right, Michael, isn’t that what we decided?”

Michael Henke, city planner, said, “Yes, seven is what we decided.”

Bonner suggested that Dennis Poppinga, former Parks and Recreation Director for Evanston, Wyoming, would be a good candidate to facilitate the committee. During the public hearing Poppinga made several important points about planning public parks including: park facilities should be multi-use and not duplicated and planning in this way would promote economic development, operation and maintenance are the most expensive so parks should be designed for the lowest maintenance costs, public and private partnerships can support public parks, and the city can develop a public participation process for parks. In addition Poppinga said open space is at a premium and should be protected. Parks take time to fully develop and over time the needs for parks and recreation can change.

Regarding Poppinga, Bonner said, “When we had our open meeting, he was the gentleman that talked a lot about parks. I have talked to him a couple of times and asked him to be … our facilitator, he’d be a nonvoting member, to kind of get things organized and started and kind of set the parameters, he has agreed to still do that.”

Karl Dodge, council member, said, “Would we have a city council member on that?"

Bonner said, “As a nonvoting member I would think that Lisa would be on that committee, she’s over the parks.”

Kenny Van Wagoner, council member, said, “I think we ought to have two … I really do, I mean, it’s a big issue.”

Kent Kohler, council member, said, “I think we ought to have two.”

Bonner said, “That’s a good suggestion.”

Dodge observed initially that some of the applicants had some good qualifications; however he was concerned that most of the applicants came from one area of the city. “Seven of the twelve were people that live right around Valais, two of them are in Dutch Fields, and then three others.”

Through discussion everyone agreed on the need to have a committee with a broad perspective. To do that would require good representation from all parts of the city to avoid creating a committee with an agenda or a limited focus.

Kohler said, “That’s kind of what we like to do on … planning commission for example; is have them kind of diverse throughout the city and not have just one particular area, have the majority of your members from that area. Probably the same holds true for something like this, too. I would think.”

The council considered opening the application process again in the hope of attracting more candidates from the southwest quarter and other sections of the city. In the end, they chose not to do that since the process would take time. The previous opening was posted for three weeks.

Bonner said, "We had it up on our website, we put it on our facebook page, and we announced it in our meeting. I think once it gets going and ... established, and people start talking about it ... as it goes through the process maybe more people would become involved and say, 'hey, I'd like to serve on that sometime' and we say, 'fill out an application and we'll keep it on file'. I think it's going to be a ball, it's new."

Discussion focused on each application, attention was given to each candidate who had applied: what each brings to the table from their experience, their vision for parks and trails development, and the area where each lives and would represent within the city.

It was noted that two of the candidates are husband and wife. The consensus was to choose one or the other, but not both. Highlights from the applications include an architect who designed parks for a living, financial experience relating to parks and recreation, research on dog parks and children's parks in communities all around the country, desire to be involved, the time to be involved, experience with developing trails, and grant writing experience. 

Midway Lane Bicycle and Walking Trail, photograph taken Fall, 2013
Photo credit: Robin M Johnson (c) 2013

Bonner said the city used to have a trails committee that is no longer functioning. The reemerging committee is adding parks with trails because one of the ideas in the city’s general plan is joining the city parks into a network through interconnecting trails. The vision is to connect all city parks and trails together over a long period of time.

Bonner said, “I think with the growth … it’s going to be really important not just to focus on parks, but to focus on how we can interconnect our parks and our trails. And I think it’s a big project. I think it’s going to take quite a few years, so they can get it all, nothing happens over night, it all takes time.”

Dodge said one candidate specifically mentioned a desire to help shape the Valais Park.

Bonner said, “I think that’s kind of the driving force, is the Valais Park.”

Dodge said, “I recognize that, but I’m worried that that’s all people are going to care about is the Valais Park.”

Bonner said, “Right. That’s why I think if we have Dennis (Poppinga) facilitate it, because his was a broader perspective; to evaluate what we have in the parks … what we can do to improve each park that we have now.”

Dodge said, “What would you suggest he be? Would we give a title?”

Bonner said, “He would be basically the chairman and the facilitator. I think … we need to look at all the parks, and what their uses are. The Valais Park is always going to be the main focus, because it’s always going to be the largest piece of property that’s unfinished, and it was set aside to be a recreational park. But that doesn’t mean that’s where we have all focus. It will be part of the focus.”

Dodge said, “It obviously has to be.”

Once the committee is up and running Bonner suggested Poppinga would use suggestions made in April’s public hearing as a guide for the committee’s work. A short synopsis of public hearing comments follows. Several who commented shared a broader vision of the whole park system in support of Poppinga’s position stated earlier in this article.

However, most of the public comments focused specifically on Valais Park since the master plan was the subject of the public hearing. Some wanted Valais Park to stay just as it is, some asked for better maintenance, others supported some recreational development, and some liked the master plan with its amenities just as proposed. Keeping the focus of the park on families and activities for gatherings was important to several. Many felt Valais Park was not the best location for soccer fields; rather they should be located near the Elementary school. There was much support for pickle ball and little support for Bocce. Parking and increased traffic was a concern to the neighbors of Valais Park. Preserving the wetlands was a high priority for most. Protecting the view corridors created in the park was also valued by quite a number.

Length of terms for committee members was the next item the council and staff discussed in their July 12 work meeting. Terms of two, three, four, and even six years were considered. Staggering terms was also recommended. In the end the idea with the most support came from the city recorder.

Wilson said, “When you set up a city, or a municipality and you have your first election, half of the council serves a two year term, and the other half serves a four year term. But once those initial two year terms are over then everybody is doing four year terms. But it’s staggered at that point.”

Van Wagoner said, “That would be a wise way to do it.”

Lisa Christian, council member, said, “That makes sense.”

After two years those members with two year terms would be replaced with new members who serve four year terms. In this way every two years about half of the committee will complete their term and be replaced. Each member would have the option to serve a second term, but not a third. In the event someone vacates their position early, another citizen can apply and be appointed to complete the remainder of that person’s term and have the option to serve one term of their own.

Next they discussed how to choose which members would serve two years and which would serve four. Bonner said, “That group themselves could maybe decide, or they could even just draw straws to see who gets to be the four year and who gets to be the two year.”

Finally, the council and staff discussed how the council would turn in their specific recommendations to fill the seats on the committee. Bonner suggested each selecting seven candidates that night, but after several minutes of paper shuffling they decided it would be better to take their time and study their applications.

Wilson broke into the paper shuffling and said, “If people are unable to choose now you could always have them submit the seven to staff and we could just punch them in, whoever gets the most.”

Bonner agreed, “That’s true, you can do that, if you’d like to do it that way, that’s not a bad idea. You can just email them to staff.”

Probst said, “Yeah, I don’t know that I can pick all seven tonight or not. I got four or five, but …”

Dodge said, “I would be inclined to each submit a list of seven, if there is a top guy, let the mayor choose.”

Dodge made a motion that each council member submit seven applicants to Michael Henke and copy it to Brad Wilson and Mayor Colleen Bonner. Staff will compile the votes, the top seven will be appointed to the committee. If there is a tie the mayor will decide who should serve. Kohler seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Midway Council Discusses Open Space Committees

Which Committee: Wasatch County, Midway City, or Both?

by Robin M Johnson

Open Space Preservation has taken center stage in the public’s mind in Midway over the last several months due partially to last year's general plan survey result that most residents want to preserve farm and pasture lands in Midway. Another factor is the forming of Pure Midway, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to smart growth and open space preservation. 

After a public hearing on Open Space held on June 28, by the Midway City Council, they decided to consider creating a committee that would work on open space and related issues. A name for the committee has not yet been determined. The matter was placed on the July 12 Work Meeting agenda.

Colleen Bonner, mayor, said she put forming a committee regarding open space on the agenda just as a discussion. 

Bonner said, “We’ve had a lot of interest in open space. I know there is an active group of citizens who are doing … a wonderful job trying to promote, facilitate, and educate on the open space bonding and different avenues” like grants.

“Do we as a city want to form an open space committee? I know Wasatch County is going to come again in two weeks and talk about the committee that they are forming. Do we want to officially form an open space committee, or do we want to just see where it goes as it is right now and just kind of hold off," Bonner asked.

Kenny Van Wagoner, council member, said there are two different open space committees to think about. First he said, “I would be very interested in seeing what the county” proposes.  He said the county wants to invite all the other cities to participate and have one open space committee for the whole county. “That way you could have a broader tax base, and then pick priorities. I’d be interested to see what their pitch is” before forming our own committee. “I’m not saying I’ll agree with it or be interested in it” Second he said, “I definitely think we ought to have an open space committee of the citizens in Midway, absolutely."

Fall in the South Fields, photo taken on South Field Road in the fall of 2013
Photo credit: Robin M Johnson (c) 2013

Focusing on a Midway committee Bonner said, “Well, I think it’s of value. When you look at it there’s a lot of things even with the parks and trails. I think they’d be a good advocate group that we could work with, there again, they’d be just a recommending body; we’d have to set the parameters of what we would want.”

Bonner asked what the purpose of the committee would be, like researching grants, and pointed out that city staff doesn’t have time to do research and other things associated with open space.

Van Wagoner added other things the committee could do such as identify perspective sight or view corridors, check out different types of open space, work on farm preservation, study the need for future parks as the city grows, gather different types of open space information and put it together to be distributed.

 “They could also be looking at the trails and connectivity between open space parks,” Van Wagoner said. “It pays to put them together, because right now it’s helter skelter. You really don’t have a trail that you can walk and get too far. The only one would be Dutch Fields and I strongly would not recommend you to walk on that trail.”

Bonner agreed the Dutch Fields trail on the perimeter of the development on the west side of River Road is in major need of repair. She then asked, “So if we were to officially form this committee, do we want to think about it?”

Van Wagoner reiterated his earlier point, “I think before we form the committee I would like to see what the county presentation is, it’s two weeks to at least hear it. And then after that I think it’s time that we form our committee.”

Bonner said, “Then we can decide what we want to do. I know that part of (Commissioner) Steve Ferrell’s presentation two weeks ago indicated that they would be asking for representatives, a Midway representative.”

Van Wagoner said he wants to see how the county thinks their open space committee will work. He asked two questions, “How’s Midway going to benefit from it? How’s the county going to benefit?

“I just don’t think that we want to be putting a tax burden, that Heber City puts a tax burden, that Midway puts a tax burden, that the county puts a tax burden on the people to try to accomplish the same thing,” Van Wagoner said.

Lisa Christian, council member, said, “This committee would be finding different ways (to preserve open space) it wouldn’t just be to bond for open space."

Christian said she would like to move forward to start forming the committee now. “I think we should start the process because it takes some time. We do want that input whether it’s bonding, or whatever, I think we’re going to end up doing it anyway and still work with the county.”

Christian added she can see the two committees working together, and that it has taken several months to put out applications and review them to put together a new Parks and Trails Committee.

According to Bonner forming a committee before the county forms one could be a problem. “I think that … sometimes if we get ahead of it, then it ends up being detrimental and it looks like we’re competing.” She asked what would be most valuable, to combine large dollars and participate on a county level, or learn from the county committee and bring some of that experience back to Midway.

Bonner said, “I think you can have both.”

Michael Henke, city planner, said having the committee soon could be a real help to staff during the moratorium. “We’re going to be working on our code text amendments during this moratorium, and several of those items really impact our open space ordinance, so they could look at that.”

Van Wagoner said, “It’s not just to fund bonding.”

Bonner said, “No, it’s to help evaluate, to take from the stuff we’ve learned that we are now going to try and incorporate in our” ordinances.  Once again Bonner asked if they should start taking applications or wait.

For the third time Van Wagoner said, “I think we wait until we see what the county pitch is, and that’s only two weeks.”

Further discussion led to directing staff to prepare an application while waiting for the council to hear the county’s presentation. Van Wagoner made a motion to table the matter.

After the motion was made Karl Dodge, city council member, asked, “So we are going to put this off for a month, right?"

Bonner said the council could place an item to discuss creating a committee on open space on their agenda in two weeks following the county’s presentation earlier on the same agenda. 

Van Wagoner said, “They have their presentation and then we discuss and see if that’s the avenue, the direction, we want to go, then if not, we can pursue with ours. So basically, we’re looking at two weeks.” He made that part of his motion which was seconded and passed unanimously.  

Midway's First Traffic Light

Center Street and Main Street

by Robin M Johnson

Work on the first traffic light for Midway began Monday morning, Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) workers began spraying paint to mark the area at Center Street and Main Street. Wes Johnson, city engineer, told the city council at their work meeting held last Wednesday, July 12, to expect that UDOT would begin their project soon. 

Johnson said, "I had a meeting with UDOT yesterday (July 11) concerning the Center Street and Main Street light. I told them that the completion date for the project had to be two weeks before Swiss Days." Johnson wanted the council to know he had authorized the project to begin so they would not be surprised when the work commenced. 

Crews working on the south east corner of the Center Street and Main Street intersections preparing for the
 new traffic light to be completely installed two weeks before the annual Swiss Days on Friday and Saturday
of Labor Day Weekend.  Photo taken Tuesday afternoon July 18, .Photo credit: Robin M Johnson (c) 2017

In an interview Johnson said he did not know exactly when the work would begin but he had specifically asked UDOT that no work be done in the two weeks prior to Swiss Days, this was in order to avoid added congestion on Main Street during preparations for the annual festival and the festival itself. At the same time he also asked  UDOT to move forward as quickly as they could because there is no way the completion date on the project can be pushed back. Johnson was very pleased at UDOT's quick response when the work began on Monday. 

Johnson said he has been meeting with UDOT regularly for about six to nine months on plans for two lights coming to Midway. He said, "UDOT has been very willing to work with Midway, they are very good at notifying local entities about work that is happening in their community in the coming year, and even the next year. The only thing they maybe could have done is call and say, Wes, we're starting work on Monday." 

To be fair Johnson added that typically the state doesn't call with the exact date work will start. "If we owe them anything, we owe UDOT our thanks for being willing to come quickly and work around Swiss Days." They don't have to do that. 

Residents, however, have varying feelings about the traffic lights, some would rather see a round about or a four way stop, anything but a traffic light. Others don't like the growth in their small town but recognize some form of traffic control is needed at the intersection. Still others are grateful something is being done at this intersection that can be very busy at certain times of the day and welcome the added safety, especially to pedestrians. 

A small group of citizens wants to know why the mayor and city council did not inform the public when the light was being installed. According to Johnson the answer lies first in who owns the road, and second in established policy. The fact is Main Street is a state road under the jurisdiction of UDOT, and Center Street going south to Charleston is also a state road. 

Johnson said, "That's their road, they never notify the public when they are about to pave Main Street, or when they are ready to stripe Center Street." It is not UDOT's policy to send out notifications to residents for road work projects. 

Crews were working on the south side of Center Street and Main Street Tuesday afternoon: preparing the
southeast side for a dual arm mast and the required underground work, and preparing the southwest side for
a pedestrian post signal for crossing the street with the light. Photo credit: Robin M Johnson (c) 2017

As for the city, UDOT only informed Johnson the work would begin soon, no date was given. Johnson said he has given reports to the city council in their regular public city council meeting at least half a dozen times in the last several months, one of which resulted in an article in The Wasatch Wave and on this blog. 

Over the years the majority of Midway residents responding to citizen survey's have indicated a strong preference for a round about as a safe and aesthetically pleasing alternative to a traffic light. Johnson said UDOT looked at putting in a round about on Center and Main.

Johnson said UDOT's intent was to complete a traffic control project within their right of way. UDOT said 'we don't have funds for roundabout'. Johnson gave several good arguments for putting in a round about. First, they are an effective way to control  traffic flow by keeping vehicles moving. Second, in the event of an accident a round about is safer for vehicles because accidents occur at an angle and are more likely to hit bumpers, this is called deflected impact. In a regular light controlled intersection accidents are more likely to occur at a 90 degree angle with one vehicle hitting the other on the side. 

Drawbacks to a round about, according to Johnson, include studies have shown they are not safer for pedestrians. Johnson said, "Some people say a roundabout is more aesthetically pleasing, but if four people have died there ... that's a high price to pay for aesthetically pleasing. We place a  high value on pedestrian safety, especially with pedestrian traffic on Main Street during Swiss Days."

Another drawback is a roundabout requires more land than a traffic light. Johnson said double stacked trucks, or semi's pulling a second trailer behind the first, when going through a roundabout need a lot of extra room. Trucks of this size do come through Midway. If UDOT was willing to pay for property outside of their right of way this would put a heavy impact on the properties surrounding the Center and Main intersection.

Johnson said, "Some people say that UDOT should just condemn the property and do the roundabout anyway." Johnson said to do that UDOT would need to meet three criteria: 1. UDOT must show a public need for a roundabout, which they did when they completed a traffic study showing the intersection warrants a traffic light. 2. UDOT must have the money for a project up front to purchase the property and pay the costs of the project, fund raising after deciding to build is not allowed. UDOT does not have funds to purchase the property and wants to build their project within their right of way. 3. UDOT must show there is no other practical alternative, if someone took them to court for condemning property for a roundabout a judge would throw the case out because a traffic light is a practical alternative to a roundabout.      

Johnson said, "After learning this we quickly went away from the idea of a roundabout."

A crew working on the southwest corner of Center Street and Main Street. Workers installing UDOT's
traffic control project will ensure Midway City's first traffic light does not encroach on private property/.
The completed project will be entirely within UDOT's right of way. Photo credit: Robin M Johnson (c) 2017

There are two commercial properties and two residential properties located on the four corners of the intersection. Both residential properties are on the historic registry. Johnson said, "I personally have talked to the business owners multiple times regarding the project's impact to their property. On Monday the 7-11 people told him 'thank you, we are glad, we need something there' while The Midway Adventure Company owner said 'you should have told me it was happening today'.   

All improvements at the intersection are within UDOT's right of way, Johnson said. "UDOT was very willing to take on additional cost to help greatly minimize impact on the two residential properties on the corner. Rather than installing one pole at each corner or four poles with one extending mast for the traffic lights as in a traditional controlled intersection, UDOT is installing two poles with dual masts. One pole will be on the northwest corner where 7-11 is with one mast extending south toward Charleston, and the other mast extending east toward Heber. The second pole will be on the southeast corner with one mast extending north toward Wilson Peak and the other mast extending west toward the Wasatch Mountains. A pedestrian button will be installed on all four corners resulting in minimal impact to the two residential properties.   

As of last Wednesday's meeting Johnson said there is a possibility the signal poles will not be ready in time for the two weeks before Swiss Days deadline. In that event, Johnson told UDOT if they could not meet the deadline because the poles were not ready, to do all the preliminary work. "There’s some curb widening, asphalt installation, conduit, I’m fine with that, do all the underground, get the pedestals ready, get everything ready, and take all of the traffic control off the site. Then, after Swiss Days I’m fine if you physically come and set the pole and get the lights going."

Johnson said there is a good chance the project will be completed in time, but if it's not completed the point he wanted to make is no work on the project should be done in the two week time frame before Swiss Days.  

UPDATE ON RIVER ROAD AND MAIN STREET TRAFFIC LIGHT

River Road (400 East) and Main Street also warrants a traffic light. Johnson said when UDOT first informed the city it was conducting a traffic study on the Center Street and Main Street intersection, he said 'You ought to also do a traffic study on 400 East and Main Street, in my personal opinion that's more busy'. 

Originally UDOT intended to install the second light this summer. However, this spring Johnson told UDOT he was concerned with the road going from three lanes wide, narrowing down to two lanes wide, then going back to three lanes wide, only to narrow down to two lanes again all in a one block space, from about 350 East to 450 East on Main Street. 

UDOT set aside $70,000 for the River Road and Main Street project, but with the additional costs associated with widening the road, UDOT estimates the project at $1 million. They have been trying to raise another $30,000 in order to do the project this summer. 

Johnson told the council at last Wednesday's meeting, "Because of right of way, it won’t happen this year, it will be next summer."

Karl Dodge, city councilman, asked, "Have they got the funding for that yet?

Colleen Bonner, mayor, said, "They're working on it."

Johnson said, "No, that's the problem, is the funding."

UDOT has scheduled the project for next summer. Since they could not raise the funds this year, they can get the additional funds from their 2018 budget. Johnson said when they go out into the field to design the project they may find things that need to be done so that the as the final design comes in the costs could go up. 

Creating a Toolbox for Open Space Preservation

The Council Speaks

by Robin M Johnson

Colleen Bonner, mayor, closed the public hearing held Wednesday, June 28, and turned time for comment over to the city council. Councilman Karl Dodge was excused from the meeting. 

Bonner said, "I think we’re good, tonight, for the public comment time. We will have other opportunities for the public to voice their opinions. I appreciate the turn out tonight. I appreciate the comments that were made, the well thought out things that we’ve heard; a lot of good information for us as a council to go back and to make some decisions. Does the council have any comment?"

Bob Probst, council member, said, "I’ve heard a lot of good comments tonight, but two that stuck out in my mind was Lyle Gertsch and Randy Lundin. (Both spoke on open space.) If you really stop and think about it, we are literally surrounded by open space in this valley. You don’t have to go very far in any direction to find more open space than you can possibly use. You got the river, you got two golf courses, you got the mountains, you really don’t have to go to far. 

"How much open space do you want, really? What is the requirement if you can’t go out of your house and look out the back door and see something, you gotta get on a bike, go on get in your car, drive up and get on a walk. There’s a trail that goes clear around the lake clear to the dam. I mean, there’s open space, galore. And I don’t know that putting a big tax burden on the majority of the citizens for the convenience of a few is quite fair. We live in a place where there’s just endless open space around us, you have to make a little effort to get out and see it. You gotta do more than just look out your window."

"A bond may seem like a good idea, but it’s a long term burden to your taxes, and you’re going to see more bond issues coming up for schools. I think in the not to distant future. How much taxes do we want?"

Lisa Christian, council member, said, "And Midway Elementary is the oldest and so we are going to be affected next."

Probst said, "You’re going to see another High School, I believe, in the next few years."

Bonner said, "I’ve heard talk about that already.{

Probst said, "There’s tax increases  just around the corner beyond what we’re talking about. So I’d say, get out, make a little effort to go see the open spaces around us."

Bonner said, "But I think we’ve been given some good comments to create tool boxes of other ways, of maybe not having to bond, but to be able to, like you say, preserve some of that, maybe in our entry corridors, and different things like that."

Probst said, "I’m a farmer, I like to preserve farmers as much as anybody. Maybe some easements are the right thing, but one thing that might work better than anything is to go back and, I think we really need to look at the density. Reduce the density and certainly the height of the buildings. Something’s going to be built there, sooner or later, we don’t know when or what, but we need to try and make sure it’s the right thing.  Down here."

Bonner asked, "Are you talking about the C-4?"

Probst said, "That's the big issue ... there’s no doubt that someday, at some point, someone’s going to do something with that property. You know, they have property rights like the next guy does. So, I’m not completely sold on the bond idea. But there’s more open space than you can literally shake a stick at. You don’t have to go far to find it."

Kent Kohler, council member, said, "I just have a couple of thoughts. It’s a delicate issue, especially when you talk about property rights, land owners. I’m more ... interested in Pure Midway, for example, if you’ve gone out and you’ve talked to folks. I’m interested in what the Lundins have to say, I mean, I’m interested in what the Probst’s have to say, the Kelly’s have to say, the Van Wagoner’s have to say, the Kohler’s have to say, because they’re the ones still, the majority of our open space that we are talking about. They’re still doing the farming on it."

"When you talk about having a charette, I’m all for that, but I think we need to involve the property owners in this discussion, because they’re the ones that have the open space that we covet at this point. Well if there’s some kind of an incentive, which we’ve come up with the rural preservation,  I know we have an application, I think it’s two of them, I think that’s a great way to help preserve some of this open space. 

"I applaud Steve Ferrell (county councilman) because he’s keeping his piece of ground, he’s farming it, that’s what we’d love to see. Gosh, those of us that have been here for our lives, you know, when we had the small little dairy, Steve had a small little dairy, Bob did, most of the farmers around had these little small dairies. Grant has continued to keep his which is the last one here. But those days are gone. I applaud Grant and I hope he can keep in business, he had to do the cheese and the milk factory to keep the farming alive."

One of Midway's barns still in use today. Photo: (c) Robin M Johnson Taken June 2011

Christian, who is also Grant's sister, said, "Well, and I hope all of you out here, and I’m going to just say in this room, if they get manure on the road, don’t complain, think how grateful we are that he’s here. Don’t call and complain. He’s doing his best."

Bonner said, "It's organic fertilizer."

Kohler added, "It’s the smell of money."

Kohler continued his comments, "The bonding, it’s …, I think we can, hopefully we can use some other methods. We do, someone said we have a lot of means, maybe it was Lyle that said this. A lot of means, we’ve got a lot of money in the valley now. Geez, when I was (growing up) here there was no building going on. Somebody built a house, it was a rarity. We didn’t have people moving in here in the 70’s and the 80’s. Matter of fact our population decreased, I think, in the 70’s. They weren’t here. 

"Now we’re here, we’re building 20,000 square foot homes; I see 25,000 square foot homes in Midway. I never would have thought that. To me, growing up here, I’m like what the heck; if you built a 3,000 square foot home you were doing pretty good. But we do have a lot of means, I think we can get, hopefully we can get, somebody will pony up. I say man up, pony up. Maybe put in a fund and help preserve some of this open space.

"I was talking to George Hansen at the store the other day. He asked me what are the big issues going on in the city, I says well, you’ve heard about the C-4, who knows where that’s going to end up, I said, but we got a meeting Wednesday on bonding for open space. George said, 'Well, I hope you’re going to look at your corridors, your mountain areas, that’s the place you need to focus on.' I’m like, exactly, that’s where you look up to see the open space. I think that’s what we need to focus on, and we’ll talk more about this, I could ramble on. It’s a big issue, and I think we’ll take some time like you said. We’ll pick through it. We don’t make hasty decisions. I know we've been accused of it, but we won’t. I think we’ll take our time, work with the county and work with some other issues and we’ll get it right."

Bonner said, "Yeah, we’ll get it right, that’s what we want to do, we want to get it right when we do it."

Van Wagoner said, "I’ll keep mine short. I’m one of them farmers, also. But unfortunately, because of the growth, the biggest share of my farm was taken by the sewer district so that we could expand the sewer ponds so that the rest of the people that live here now can live in this valley. I still lease quite a bit of property, and I still run cattle. I have mother cows and I love open space. But sometimes our open space comes as a cost to others. Keep that in mind.

"You know I’ve heard a lot of comments about developments and that, I probably would like to make a lot of comments, too. But I have learned that I don’t all the property, I don’t have all of the answers. One thing I think we need to do is I think we need to explore some possibilities. I met with a developer today, and we’re talking about doing an exchange on his development for open space to where almost half of the development will be open space. Whether it will pan out or not, I don’t know. But we’re working on it. 

"I think we all have the same goal.We want to see a rural Midway. I think that we all want to have the luxuries of walking out of our backyard and look up and see the mountains. Bob had a good point. I can get on my Razor, and within two or three minutes I’m in the mountains and I don’t have a soul around me. And I got all the open space that I need, but I still would like to have open space in town.

"We've got to be conscientious about our developments. I think that our density in some areas is to great, I would love to see us back off. A good comment was the wetlands being used as part of the development, I don’t agree with that. I think that that shouldn’t be part of their open space, shouldn’t count. 

'I think that we need to get a committee together and explore opportunities or options. I think that we would be making a great mistake if we thought we could get it on the ballot this fall. I think that if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right, let’s do some studies, let’s look at other areas, and not necessarily Park City. You know, I can’t say that I’ve been impressed with Park City open space and the way they’ve done it, because most of their open space, or a lot of their open space doesn’t have animals. What I’m hearing from you, we like to see the cows. We like to see the horses. We like to see the trails. 

"A good comment was brought up by Mr. Lundin. The trails are in dire need. Once we get all the trails that are planned for Midway the estimated cost for maintenance is $250,000 a year. So we need to start coming up with either a better way of making trails, I have some ideas, I just got back from Europe and I seen some trails over there that I like and I’m going to propose them during this moratorium to the council and see if it’s something they might be interested in. So I think we got a long ways to go, I think we need to get a committee together, we need to look at ways that we can come up with money and not rush into it."

Christian said, "I think tonight was very good, and I think that the biggest thing that we need to do is all work together. I just have to say there’s a fine line, because many of you who stood up tonight live on my farm. All of the people in the Dutch Fields, I cried the day they dug those holes, I hate it, but you’re all here. And those people who have the open space, whose families have been here as long as I have, have kept that open space and it’s been nice for all of us and now we can’t penalize them because they didn’t develop … before, before we came up with trying to keep it all open. So we have to be careful. 

"I really feel strongly, not that we can’t keep it open, but we also have to work with them and they have to be able to have some say because they have those rights, and their families worked that land and, it’s like Kent said, a lot of them had farms there, a lot of them, there were farms on those open spaces that worked hard, and those families worked hard, and I’ll tell you right now, the Dutch Fields is paying for my mom to be taken care of, and those people need to have that same right. So I live it a little differently than most, because I’ve watched that, and I love so many people in the Dutch Fields, love them, glad you’re here. And I have great friends there. Which one was it I’d kick out? Well, you can’t come because we have the open space, I wouldn’t do that. I love you all and you’ve added such great things to our community. 

"I think we need to really consider the best way to keep that feel, and keep it rural. As far as a bond, I’m concerned about the bond, I look at Pure Midway, and they’ve done some great things, and I’m hoping maybe they’ll come up with some ideas to help us, because I don’t think we have time for a bond. If we wait for the next, I don’t think we can get to this election, if we wait to the next election a lot of the ground that we would really want to be open is going to be gone. So, unless we come up with alternate ways, and there’s a whole bunch of smart people out there, and right here, and we ought to be able to come up with some other ways. Maybe there’s grants, maybe there’s, you know, there’s got to be some ways to figure out, to do some things. Besides, I know that we’re really going to work on some of the density, and some of the zoning. And I feel like that’s important. So, thank you guys all for being here and I appreciate all of your comments and that you’re all here and that you love Midway as much as I do and I’ve been here a long time."

Bonner said, "I think the idea of putting together a group of citizens as a committee to look at this and to evaluate, from what I’m hearing tonight, the place we would start is with the farm, which we only have one left, and maybe figure out a way to help so that Grant and Russell can continue to farm and encourage them not to have to sell that off for a development. I think that’s probably a place of great value in the city, would be the farm. Actually, it’s in Wasatch County, so we will have to work with Wasatch County on that."

Christian said, "But a lot of the ground that Grant actually rents and uses and puts cows on are in Midway, and those are going away, Rene was right, they’re going away. And pretty soon he’s not going to have a place (to farm) to hay and to put cows, and we, you know, it’s going to go away."

Bonner said, "I think as far as starting, just from what I’ve heard tonight, that would be the place we would focus on, or that one of the top priorities  ... I would think that the Kohler farm, and maybe between us, and working with Wasatch County somehow that makes it even better for it, you know, that the farm isn’t really in Midway, it’s in Wasatch County but we can work together and maybe our dollars can go further. It definitely needs looked into, there’s definitely a lot of things that we need to do and I think that we need to do it right, we’re only going to get the opportunity to do it once, so we need to make sure we do it right. So, with that, we’ll just keep you posted as to what we’re going to do. I think if forming a committee is something that we’re all kind of in favor of, I think we could ... come up with some guidelines."

Christian said, "What exactly, I mean, I totally agree, but just so if we’re going to put it out there for applications, what is this committee? Is it an open space committee, what is it?"

Bonner said, "Let’s discuss that and we’ll put it on in two weeks for a discussion of where that’s going to be. Okay, sounds good to me. So, alright, thank you for being here."

The council scheduled a work meeting for tonight, Wednesday, July 12, at 5:00 pm, to discuss forming a committee relating to open space. 

Concerns on Bonding for Open Space

 Slow Down Your Speed

by Robin M Johnson

Several citizens expressed concern about borrowing money to buy open space in the Open Space Public Hearing on Wednesday, June 28. They also talked about other needs Midway can consider spending money on before bonding for open space.

Ron Lowry said, “We love Midway like everyone does and obviously the open space that we have and I consider valuable open space is the agricultural open space within our city. And I like what Steve (Ferrell) had to say about that and the county’s thinking.”

“I’m kind of a sensible person and I was listening to this tonight and the presentation. It reminded me of someone who’s found out they’ve lost their job, or the hotel tax, and we go out and buy a nice car with a mortgage on it and, is that sensible? I mean, personally I would never do that if I knew that I just lost my job. That’s all, we need to be sensible and not, I mean, if you drive up and down our streets maybe we need pavement more than we need new parks, and a few things like that. It’s just some thoughts. Thank you.”

Jacklyn Jackson said, “I’m here tonight for someone else who couldn’t come and so I’d like to read a letter that she wrote, it’s from Collette Broadhead.

Broadhead’s letter states: “Over the last few months there’s been a lot of talk about bonding for open space. Although I applaud these efforts and appreciate them, I am concerned about unintended consequences. Let me explain what I mean and I hope that my voice may not be drowned out over the hum and excitement.

“My husband and I moved to Midway 20 years ago. We both grew up in rural Utah. I over the hill in Francis and my husband down the street in Charleston. We picked Midway, believe it or not, because it was the most affordable and it allowed us to be close to where we both worked at the time, The Homestead Resort. At first I was not pleased to be living in Midway, it was too big and I did not know anybody. Over time this changed and I’m happy to say, when asked where I am from, that I’m from Midway, even though I still think it’s too big.

“Many years ago there was no Valais, Dutch Fields, Fox Den, and Sunburst, just to name a few. Everywhere experiences growth, even the small town we grew up in is bigger today than it was when we left 20 years ago. As long as people continue to have children we will have to accommodate growth. We are lucky in all of these subdivisions they are required to have open space with walking trails and the impact fees that allow the city to maintain some amazing parks. This is at the cost of those who want to move here. Midway City has done an excellent job foreseeing that impact and planning for it.

“What would have happened if 20 years ago we had requested a bond for open space? How many of you would have homes today in Midway? We are blessed with some amazing open space. We are surrounded by a National Park, three State Parks, multiple golf courses, and open space without development. And within development there are open spaces that are being maintained by entities that do not impact our property tax. The way I see it, that is how it should be.

“There’s a statement on the Pure Midway webpage that concerns me and I would like to address it. It says “General Obligation bonds require voter approval to increase property taxes in order to generate money for specific projects.” It is still largely getting a line of credit for a project and then making payments to a bank to pay back the money. When I get a line of credit for my household budget, it is usually as a last resort. I don’t believe we have exhausted all of the possibilities privately.

“I supported Bonanza Flats because I do believe we should have open space. I, however, got to decide what amount my household could contribute. When bonding, that decision is taken away from me and I don’t feel that’s the American way. I would love to attend the meeting tonight, but as we are struggling with cost of living in Midway and so I am going back to school to get my degree. I have class tonight that I could not miss. I wanted my voice and concerns to be heard. Please don’t force me out because some believe someone should provide them open space. The way I see it when I moved here we had open space and I believe we still do. Thanks for your time.”

Lyle Gertsch said, “I’ve lived in Midway most of my life, grew up here, and I’d like to go on record as being opposed to the bonding … I have three acres. I can look out my backyard and I’ve got open space, but I paid for it. I’m not in favor of paying for others open space (through bonding). Where would it be? Would it be on the east side? The west side? Where will it be, and that’s the question.

“We have open space. We have Snake Creek. How many people have never driven to the top of Snake Creek? I go up Faucett’s, I understand that that’s a county road, there are signs saying, private property, turn around, go back, no trespassing, and we haven’t done anything to maintain it, we’re so narrow minded about the city, what about the surrounding areas? … I know that’s county area, but we are the county, we are the county.”

“The last thing is on Pine Canyon Road, you know that it’s not a speedway. Do we need a police force instead of open space? We used to have Jay Clayburn as one police officer, but they would sit on Pine Canyon … between 7:00 in the morning and 7:00 at night to see that one third of the cars went by my house (were going) 50 miles an hour. Are there other things we need to do besides open space? There are more things that make it on the docket besides open space and we need to look at (those) before we look at bonding for open space. Thanks.”

Dana Byerly, “I have a lot of sympathy for people all over in this discussion, the developers, the people that are going to be taxed if we raise the property values, and if we raise the taxes and such, you know these things are hard. Running a city is not easy either. You guys lost a ton of money from the resort tax. You’ve got to have the things that the city needs.”

Byerly said he adamantly opposed to high density developments like C-4. 480 apartments bring in “at least 480 cars, probably more like 960.” The commercial part of C-4 would bring “an influx of people that don’t live in this valley permanently, they’re transients. Their love for the valley is limited.” Both of these would greatly impact traffic.

“Along with that, the high density, comes other obligations, like a police department to enforce the law, already we’ve heard comments about people speeding, heck just go down Center Street to about 500 South, they’re not doing 35 when they pass that, they’re doing 60, possibly even 70. My intersection, there’s a cop. He sits out there and he writes tickets and he says, ‘You can’t believe how fast people are going. This is what’s happening in our beautiful little city.”

 I like the comment about our blessing. Living here is a blessing. Well, living here and the blessing includes everything that we love about this valley. There’s got to be ways to do the things that we do, to preserve the sanctity of this spot that we call Midway. We need height limits. We need density limits. We need to move slowly to preserve what Midway is today and what it represents.

“I didn’t move here because I wanted to move to another potential Sandy. I moved here because you can’t breathe in Sandy anymore. Every day they say it’s a voluntary restriction, whose going to volunteer not to drive? Or have a Bar-be-que? Or burn this, or burn that? It just doesn’t happen. If we allow density in Midway to increase, this little valley is going to get polluted a lot faster than the Salt Lake Valley. These are things that I worry about having been there and done that.

“I really appreciate what Brad did with the demonstration and power point presentation on the bonding. … Everything costs money, you can’t just go somewhere and say I’m going to live here free. And if the city’s going to continue to maintain the infrastructure and everything else that goes along with this city, it costs money. So we have to come up with that money.

“ I’m not a rich man, I’m not well to do, but I am willing to pay extra tax to live here because I love this place, and I want to live here, and for the folks that are of means, I love the idea of having a pool (Pure Midway’s idea) that maybe folks that have lived here, and have lived here all their lives, and their kids are living here, and they have to move if they double their property tax, let the pool take care of it.

“There’s been so many good ideas, but the one thing that really impressed me the most tonight was the fact that the mayor said we can’t rush into this, we have to do it slowly, methodically, and intellectually. … I think now, we all have sympathy, and we all understand that this is a complex problem. But let’s not pave paradise and put up a parking lot. There’s other ways to do it.”

"Do it slowly, methodically, and intellectually." Dana Byerly  Photo credit: Slow Down,
by Elizabeth Lloyd, Flickr, link to photo, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydcrew/5297713284/

Bonner said, “Just one comment on the speeding when he talks about people driving and they’re going 70, take a look around, it’s all of us sitting in this room, we’re the drivers on those roads. So we all need to slow down. The ‘they’ is us, sitting here, okay, so everybody remember, tomorrow when you get in the car to check your speed before you go up the road.”

On a light note Randy Lundin said, “The open space thing with the farming I think the people the live here and drive here, they’re going too fast to enjoy any open space, they run over all the old deer, the wild animals, you know, they’re killing them right and left, and it is because of the speed. So there will be signs when you come into Midway that explain, slow down, look at the beauty, enjoy the beauty."

Bonner said, “Kind of like those old farm ones that they used to have when you drove along the highway and they’d have those funny little statements all the way along.”

Lundin said, “We need something, because texting is not rural, when you’re driving, the open space, you have a lot of open space that people can enjoy. On the speeding thing, I say slow down, save the animals, look at your open space you have, because you have a lot of it … with the state park right against you.”

Lundin turned to an infrastructure matter. “Your trails are all falling apart …  the asphalt has to be used or it falls apart within two or three years. I don’t know what the answer to that is but it’s possible that …  doing them like sidewalks, making the trail concrete, there’s got to be some kind of a compromise there because all the trails by my place will get tree roots real high in them, you know, you can’t walk on them. I know it’s more beautiful to go under a tree, but they don’t last, asphalt trails.”  

Byerly said, "Ma’am, I have a question about the speeding, who sets the speed limits on the roads?"

Bonner said, “My understanding of that is in Utah any residential community or area is limited to 25 mph. and that’s like statewide. Is that correct?”

 Van Wagoner said, “They do a traffic study, upon the traffic study it’s determined by how many cars, how close the residents are, and that helps determine the speed. The class of the road also helps determine the speed. If it’s a residential road it’s 25 mph, but if it’s a commuter road, then it increases. If the houses are spread out, 35 mph, then if it’s a main road like Highway 113 that goes to Heber and Charleston that can vary from 35 to 55 mph."

Van Wagoner said the state determines the speed through traffic studies on state highways. On city roads the state recommends a speed. “If it’s in the city and we want to change it from whatever the state recommendation is then we have to do a traffic study and we have to justify, and my experience with traffic studies, more times than not, they increase the speed."

Bonner said, “So you do run the risk that if you do a traffic study, it could increase the speed.”

Byerly asked about the law enforcement of the speed limit.

Van Wagoner said, “I worked for thirty two years for the sheriff’s department, I was the sheriff for twelve of that thirty two years. When I first started our average call rate was ten percent of our time we spent on handling calls. When I retired seven years ago 90 percent of our time was handling calls. And it increased that much, so ten percent of our time was spent enforcing traffic.

“Without increasing the tax burden and everything to hire more officers, you handle the calls that take priority to traffic. Midway City chose several years ago to contract with the Wasatch County; they basically pay the salary of one officer. They used to have their own, but their own officer could only work forty hours a week without getting into overtime. So, by having the county doing it they had twenty four hour coverage, not necessarily an officer here, but they had access to law enforcement coverage twenty four hours a day.

“Now, Midway City, if they want to increase and double their law enforcement budget, they can have a second officer, or eventually they could get up to where they had their own. It’s very, very costly to have your own police department. I will tell you that. Your insurance alone is over $100,000. Then you have to have a judge, then you have to have a vehicle, you have to provide body armor, you have to provide a weapon, you have to provide training, and so it gets very, very costly.

Bonner said Midway could contract for another officer but the budget would need to be raised.

Van Wagoner said part of that contract between Midway and Wasatch County Sherriff’s office is that all fines and forfeitures go to the county.

Bonner said, “We don’t get any of the revenue that comes from a speeding ticket.”

Gertsch said he sees the deputies drive around, but they don’t park to monitor traffic and he would like to see that.

Van Wagoner said, "My last year I wrote 398 citations in Midway, out of 1300 citations I wrote for the year … When we had a petition on River Road … about the speed, eleven out of the twenty two people that signed it we wrote tickets to … the mayor made a good point, we all need to slow down. We need to teach our kids to slow down."

Bonner said, “And encourage your neighbors to slow down.”

Van Wagoner said, “I’d be very much in favor of hiring additional officers for the city if we had the revenue.”

Bonner said, “We will eventually have to do that.”

Van Wagoner said, “It is expensive, an officer is not cheap; time you pay their retirement, time you pay their wages, the vehicles, the gas.”

In summary items these citizens would like considered are: Is it wise to go into debt when you lose the Resort Communities tax? What would have happened if we had bonded for open space twenty or more years ago? How many of you would be here?

Other considerations include: Getting a line of credit for a project to pay back the bank in a household budget is usually a last resort; to find open space funding we haven’t exhausted all the private sources yet. Please don’t force some out because others believe they should pay for their open space, let paying for open space be a choice. Those who want open space can buy their own and maintain it. We have open space all around us in the county and in the state park. A fund or pool to help those who cannot afford increased property taxes. We need to move slowly to preserve what Midway is today and what it represents. We can’t rush into this; we need to do it slowly, methodically, and intellectually.

City needs brought up by citizens that might need attention before open space were: If you drive up and down our streets maybe we need pavement more than we need new parks. Everything costs money; we need to find revenue for more traffic control in Midway, to help the city maintain the infrastructure such as roads, water, and sewer, and to fix the deteriorating asphalt trails that don’t get used because they are falling apart and tree roots are growing through them. Finally, slowing down while driving to avoid further law enforcement costs. 

Support for Preserving Midway Lands

Gather all Tools in the Toolbox

by Robin M Johnson

Colleen Bonner opened the public hearing held Wednesday, June 28, with this statement. "It’s really more of a public town meeting, but I want to handle it like we do our public meetings. I want you to be respectful to one another, none of the clapping and cheering, that takes a lot of time, there’s a lot of people here tonight who want to talk, so I would prefer that we just make your statements. 

"If somebody has already made a statement that you agree with that you really like rather than reiterate that whole thing you could just say I support so and so’s comments on that. I’m hoping we can do this in an hour, but I don’t really want to limit tonight’s time, I feel like this is just important enough that we hear the information. I would like to limit the time on the speakers, if we could limit that to a couple of minutes so that everybody that wants to can make comments."

Public comments on bonding in this article fall in three general categories, those who are all for bonding, those who see bonding as one of many tools that can be used to preserve open space and want to explore all options, and those who prefer looking at other options to preserve open space rather than bonding. Regarding the timing of the bonding there are two camps, some are eager to get the issue on this year's ballot, others prefer taking it slow and educating the public before putting the issue on the ballot. 

Paul Berg, citizen and local engineer, was first to comment. Berg set the tone for the meeting by stating that there are many tools in the toolbox for preserving open space. Berg said, "Twelve to thirteen years ago I served on a land use committee and we tried to come up with solutions for open space. We actually thought this day would never come. It’s great that this is being proposed. As someone who represents most of the developments in Midway, not all, I would welcome the opportunity to have this as an option; I guess in the tool kit, so to speak, of land use to have open space that’s bonded for, that option. I will say one thing about bonding, having helped several school districts in the state with their projects and their bonding process, normally it takes at least six months, and sometimes a year, to really get the word out so that a bond can be successful. I’m a little fearful that his might be too late for this election. And sometimes with bonds you only get one shot; so we ought to keep that in mind too, you really want to get the education process out there and not just have it be a quick thing. In case this bond fails, which I hope it succeeds, but I would like the council to kind of consider two things in regards to open space.

The biggest take away from the public hearing was there are many
tools in the toolbox for preserving open space. Bonding is just one tool.
Photo credit: (not my) toolbox, by Erich Ferdinand, Flickr
link to photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/6788494881/

"One, the best existing tool that you have right now is the planned unit development (PUD) model. Any planned unit development comes with 50 percent open space. However, there have been some slight changes in that ordinance that have made the development of PUD’s a little bit tougher. One is the fact that it has to have at least 40 units in it. The fear is that the home owner’s association won’t work if it’s less than 40, but when you consider a lot of the areas are developed as PUD’s only have two units per acre, or one and a half units per acre, but yet there’s a ten acre minimum, well, you’re only going to have twenty units or fifteen units. And so those properties end up going towards the subdivision that optimally only has fifteen percent open space. I think we need to do more to encourage, or at least not make it so difficult on PUD’s, simply because they come with 50 percent open space."

A few days after the meeting Bonner said the challenge with PUD's under 40 units relates to road maintenance. In a PUD roads are private and maintained by the Home Owners Association (HOA). In city code the road standards are loosened for a PUD, for example the roads are not as wide, there is no curb and gutter, and they generally only last about 15 years, where roads built to city standards and maintained by the city last twenty years or more before they need to be redone. 

Bonner said about fifteen years after PUD's began to be allowed in Midway the smaller PUD's, some with only five or six units, others with about twenty units, the HOA's started asking the city to take over their private roads because they couldn't collect enough money to pay for replacing their roads. The city then decided a PUD needed to have enough units to spread the cost of road maintenance between and lessen the financial burden for home owners. 

Berg suggested a second existing tool for open space. He said the ordinance is still in the code, but the 2009 version is the best. 'The open space requirements may be met by purchasing or providing property, development rights, or conservation easements on other properties deemed of value to the community and approved by the city council on a value for value ratio. Such areas may be hillsides, stream corridors, agricultural lands.' 

"I find this one interesting they had the foresight of this back twelve, thirteen years ago 'fields on Main Street, and other open space areas within the city limits.' Then it goes on to explain 'a density bonus of one unit per acre could be afforded to a project within hills and byes, open space areas that are of value' ... This is largely been neglected, and the few attempts in the city to make this work to preserve areas have just kind of been met with some bureaucratic issues; yet this is a fairly straight forward ordinance that was put in place, or recommended by that committee in case bonding would never happen. So I think we have some other tools, it would be great if bonding was added, but I think we ought to look" at tools already available. 

Nathan Lowry said, "I appreciate the things Paul Berg brought up ... I am a member of Pure Midway. I am a strong proponent of individual property rights, it’s caused me great consternation to talk about all these things, I am not in favor of taking land from people, I am not in favor of forcefully reducing density for property owners. I want to see Midway full of farmers, I don’t care for city parks, I want to see farmers. Open space, to me, is hay fields and cows and horses, so that’s what I hope to get at. I am strongly in favor of the open space bond because, as a proponent of individual property rights, I think this honors that. It fairly compensates those individuals for what they have."

Michelle Todd said, "I agree with the gentleman before, with what really I’m interested in seeing, the hay fields, and the horses, and the cows that there are here, in spite of my hay fever ... Two points I want to make: One, I don’t know if there’s a reason why we couldn’t do this, but whenever there is fund raising for the things that I give money to, there are frequently matching funds and it seems to me that as individuals, some of us are so passionate about it ... I’d give a contribution if somebody could raise that money for these purposes ... that’s what I would like to see happen is some ability for us to contribute outside of our taxes. 

"The other point I want to make is I’ve heard about this resort tax before, and I know that in larger cities, and in the state, frequently when you’re trying to get a certain business you give tax incentives, and I don’t know what the occupancy rate is for Homestead and (Zermatt) … it seems to me ... if there’s a possibility to get another resort here then we should try to do that."

Leslie Miller said, "I think this is a great first step, in discussing whether or not we want to bond for open space and really talking about the value of open space in this community. I think that before you even decide whether you can bond or want to bond that yes, the gentleman earlier said, yes that bonding is a tricky deal. You need time, you need to be persuasive, there’s a lot that goes into bonding. I don’t know if there is enough time before the next election, however, I do think there’s enough time for a charrette, and I do think that that would be a valuable practice for this community is to have like an open house, maybe bring in a few people to, experts on open space, on bonding, the value of it, and talk about some different ideas. Talk about what you want to prioritize, do you want agricultural land, do you want land like corridors, do you want parks, do you want wetlands parks, I mean there is such a range of not just types of open space, but uses for open space. 

"I hope that the council will initiate another opportunity for the community to get together and actually have, sort of a working plan, you know, put together some things and say, this is what we would like as a community, or this isn’t what we would like, but that would be really, really beneficial, I think, in guiding us forward. 

"Even if the community decides to bond, that’s just a leverage; there are so many other opportunities

that are exciting for the community to engage in. Non profits that will contribute, fund raisers that will add to that, so it’s not just the bond, that’s just a piece of the greater puzzle. So I just want to conclude by saying that I think that there are private donors, I think there are opportunities for conservation easements, and if we don’t act soon it’s just going to be too late, you’re just going to lose your beautiful little valley here. I think everybody senses that. And I think this is a great way to preserve the rural character of Midway, our community, and it’s an investment in our future. I am an advocate for open space, I have worked for probably most of my career and my life for open space, and I totally would support an open space bond, but I do think we need to have a charrette, and probably an open space committee needs to be established and start talking about these sort of things."

Regarding bonding Rob Dallas said, "While it may be a good tool, it doesn’t also buy you a lot, there’s no way you can bond for all the open space in the city ... You can get little pieces, and you can get stuff that makes sense, but I think there are other things ... we can do in how we do the planning and ... zoning." 

Dallas said when the master planning was done last year the land use committee he served on talked about other options that may be available; an overlay zone, for example, zoning that overlays other zones in the city designed to protect view corridors. He said coming into Midway on River Road there is open space on Dutch Fields before the round about and at the round about and there’s also Lacey Lane with open space after the round about. 

"You drive through next time and imagine, Lacey Lane on that round about, if those houses were right up next to the road you wouldn’t be able to see Timp like you do today ... but because of how that subdivision was created, ... it still maintains somewhat that rural feel, what I think that many of us are after, we want the views of Timpanogos, we want the views of Snake Creek. We want these things to be maintained, but there’s ways to do it, other than just bonding. 

"I think bonding may be a good tool, but I think there’s a lot of other things that we can look at that long term may have a greater impact. And they were able to create a Lacey Lane the same density they would have if they had a subdivision where all the lots were just one acre … so there’s other tools we can look at and I’d just like to encourage that we do stuff like that. And look into overlay zones and help create some of that, maintain some of that rural feel."

Bonner asked Michael Henke, city planner, "to share just a little bit about how our code works now and some of the incentives that we do have that are in place already as far as preserving open space, in the way the code is today."

Henke said, "Currently in our code we’ve got different types of subdivisions, there’s the Planned Unit Development, when there’s 50 percent open space requirement, the standard subdivision with 15 percent open space, then we have the rural preservation subdivision and we’ve had a few applications for that where there’s one unit every five acres. So that’s really low density. 

"We have a moratorium in place right now to address those specific issues. What can we do with our code to extend setbacks on collector roads, for instance, so we can keep those view corridors ... we are going to work on enhancing our code to lower density and create more open space as we go through this process. So we have a pretty aggressive agenda the rest of this year to address code text amendments."

Bonner said most of the ideas to work on came out of the discussions during the general plan revision. The moratorium gives the city time to implement the things Rob Dallas mentioned. 

Ken said, "I was actively involved with the community that passed the first open space program in the state of Oregon. And it was a fantastic program. And when we did a lot of research prior to moving forward with that I had an opportunity to go to Boulder, Colorado, first city in the nation ... to preserve their green belt area, their forest land. They were concerned about urban sprawl. That was 1967, 1972 Jefferson County, adjacent to Boulder, Colorado, passed an open space program to preserve scenic vistas, agricultural land, and many of the things that they felt was important for their community. 

"We had an opportunity in Ashlynn, Oregon, much like Midway, in that I would attend planning commission meetings, with the planning director, and at every opportunity, every meeting we went to in the late 80’s there was discussion about development. Every one opposed the developments that were being proposed, even though the land use laws allowed that. So a group of us got together and decided: What can we do? How can we change this? How can we preserve open space and still allow development? What we learned from other communities, I think this is a key, is that it involves the community. 

"We held about six different charettes in the community to build support for the open space program. What we looked at, first of all, why do we want to preserve open space? Everyone got together and came up with why it was important to preserve open space in our community. Number two was, what criteria should we use to determine what open space is, ... again that decision was made by the community ... that was sort of our guide, our guiding point. 

"The third thing we did is ... developed an open space map. They determined what properties were the most important to preserve, based upon the criteria ... the community decided on what property was important to preserve, whether it be agricultural, scenic vistas, whatever it is. With that information we were able to organize a group of citizens together and went forth and passed ... an official open space map that designated property that we wanted to move forward to purchase. "

"We also had the opportunity to be the first ones to talk to land owners. If they were on the map we had the opportunity to approach the land owners, they don’t have to sell to us, they don’t have to do anything, but we had the opportunity to talk to them first about the potential of selling the land to the city, donating the land to the city, whatever it may be. 

"Now the rubber meets the road because we had to come up with a funding source ... We looked at all different options, including buying the land, in Ashlynn we passed a five percent food and beverage tax. The only sales tax in the state of Oregon. When you went to Ashlynn you paid five percent on your prepared food and beverage at the restaurant. The reason we could do that, we had over 300,000 tourists that visited our community every year. 

"If you look at every community that’s been successful on an open space program it starts with the grass roots, it starts with citizens like this meeting, moving forward and presenting ideas, getting support from the community, and then move forward and put it on the ballot and so forth. And so as one lady said, I’m a strong advocate, 

"We probably never will get it on the ballot this year, but we will have an opportunity for buy in by the community, support of the community. So that would be my recommendation is that we move forward and outline a process, a public involvement process, to engage the entire community in this very important decision. We should aim high, we should have vision, and I think this is the way we should go about doing it."

Bonner said, "Ken, thank you, and I appreciate the support of doing it in a process that’s not a speedy process, but one that’s very methodical and very thought through. So I appreciate your comments."

Later in the meeting Ken added, "I can say without hesitation we never lost a piece of property that’s on the map, that we went after, to a developer. The reason is because once you have the money, whether it’s bonding, or sales tax ... the most important tool in the tool box is tax free interest. ... because you have the power to do it, you’re a city, you can offer that."

Ken said the second tool  is capital gains tax. If a property owner donates half the property to the city it would greatly reduce the capital gains tax. Developers do not have these tools, in many cases cities can buy land cheaper and provide better benefits to the land owner. First the city must "have the resources to do that. That is the whole key. ... I can honestly say we purchased a lot of beautiful land, hilltop land … we never lost a development because we had the mechanism in place to go forth to do it, and I think that’s a very important point." 

Beth Lawrence said, "I am totally in favor of floating a bond ... As far as raising revenues for this, and as a part of the bond or aside from the bond, I would like to know if the state does buy General Obligation Bonds, of this type, do they buy open land bonds?"

Brad Wilson said, "I have never heard they do. But I could certainly contact organizations like the impact fund board and ask if they do. It would surprise me if they did."

Lawrence said, "Another thing, you know we’re worried about the entertainment, resort community tax going away, well, Midway, if we preserve our open lands and keep it as a place that everyone wants to come to do their recreation, perhaps we should have a really more, a welcoming type of, we would welcome more resorts to come into the valley, that are done well and beautifully, and that would take care of that problem. And it would also alleviate more development and a lot of commercial that we don’t want.

"I guess I would say that I would be happy to have my taxes raised pennies a day to preserve the agriculture, and I want to say, too, that a lot of people are saying, well, we can do this with how we do our zoning, but my point about that would be, yes, I think we need to address that, too; but I know that if a PUD has 50 percent open space I don’t get in the car and go to a subdivision to walk around, personally. I would rather have open space, actually, that I can use and enjoy. So I really think that for me I would rather pay for, to support open lands bonds rather than have my taxes raised anyway because C-4 developments are coming in and more people are coming in and we need more schools, more post office, more everything, and infrastructure that we would have to pay for with our taxes. So thank you, and I’m very encouraged by this tonight."

Amanda Peterson said, “One that I have not heard mentioned or looked at in the code is what’s called TDR, which are Transfer of Density Right, which I think is an excellent tool for once you take the zoning code and you identify your open space, whether it be through linear parks, or the agriculture, whatever, is that then that density that the code allows gets moved to a receiving zone, so you have a sending zone and a receiving zone so that you accept the fact that you are willing to have high density commercial in certain areas, or residential, and that if somebody has that zone they can take that density right and put it over there, but first you have to come up with that map, but that transfer of density right works really well.

“The second thing is I think …  connective linear parks are helpful. I am very concerned about the increase of traffic and children on the roads and bicycles, and how dangerous it has become, so linear parks, or trails can connect open space and get people in a safe, non motorized transportation corridor.  I think through this next six months if you can look carefully at how to manage the density and move it to places where you want it to go and keep the open areas that you like, I think it would be of significant value.”

Bonner asked Wilson if when he talked about buying density was that the idea, to transfer density from one place to another?

Wilson said, “I was talking about buying the density outright.”

Henke said, “In our general plan (it) talks about TDR’s. That’s something we’ve looked at in the past; the county’s looked at it also in the north fields. You have to set up, like Amanda explained, a sending zone and a receiving zone, and so we would identify on a map areas where we want to move density off properties, and relocate that density somewhere else in the city. Usually there is a multiplier that comes into play with this type of a situation because you have to match equal values to make it work, and so overall you’re really increasing density when you use that mechanism. And that’s acceptable sometimes, that’s something to consider, if you want to have open space in some areas of the city.

“There was a large study done on the north fields from out of Washington D. C., I have a copy of that in my office, and really, the end result of that is it’s very difficult to make that work on the north fields. You really have to make density a commodity that is sought after in order for it to work. And so you have to have low density in certain areas so developers will want to buy that density. It’s a difficult thing to make work, it’s not impossible, but it’s something we have discussed, and it’s something we need to consider exploring. There are a lot of tools out there, besides what we’ve talked about tonight, where we can gather open space."

Katie Nobel said, "I am a member of Pure Midway, and I guess I am a bit of a hypocrite because I was all for putting on the brakes on C-4 and when it comes to preserving the open space I just want to put my foot on the gas and say, Let’s go before it’s all gone. So, I wrote a little statement here that I wanted to read."

Nobel's statement, "We’re all here because we love and care about Midway. Whether you live in a condo in The Hamlet, a Watts development, a historic home or on a farm, whether you moved in last week, or your ancestors settled the valley, your love and your voice is equally powerful. Everyone in this room has been working tirelessly to protect Midway’s rural heritage. There are many ways of doing this and a bond can be a powerful tool to preserve open space. It’s just one tool of many. 

Also a bond can be leverage to get agricultural grants and other matching funds. Those dollars can further be leveraged by buying development rights instead of buying land outright. There is also a very high tax write off for developers who donate a portion of their development rights. So the way that we see this done typically is that if the city buys development rights, maybe they buy a hundred development rights, a developer would donate the other hundred and they get a tax write off equal to fifty percent of the gain. If they operate as a farm it’s a hundred percent. The tax stuff is really complicated, it’s confusing, I’m not going to go into it, it’s on our website and it’s worth understanding. As a result the bond dollar can be stretched in triplicate. 

"Plus bond funds can reserve large amounts of contiguous space. Zoning is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t always preserve contiguous open space, which is critical. If you go to Park City there is the ... Swanner Nature Preserve, the area around the White Barn and Round Valley were all purchased, I believe they were all purchased with bond dollars and with a kind of a community collaborative.

"What we don’t want to see is the bonds negatively affect people who are struggling to pay for it. We’d love to explore the opportunity for people of means to put money into a fund where people who can’t afford the bond could apply for a grant to offset, so if they can’t afford the extra hundred dollars, two hundred dollars, however much it is, then that fund would help them afford that because it isn’t fair to make people who can’t pay for the bond, and we’d like to see if that’s a possibility. 

"Open space can make a lot of financial sense for the city … when you look at studies they show that for every dollar spent on open space a city will gain between four to ten dollars on tourism in a year. So that’s a powerful figure to consider. What we really need to be careful of is that we don’t introduce both bonds at the same time because it could end up killing both bonds, so I’d really like to see that we co ordinate with Wasatch County."

Mickey Oksner said in last year's general plan revision meetings most of the things discussed tonight were addressed in favor of preserving open space. "We changed the R-1-23 zone to include 50 percent, which didn’t exist, sensitive areas have been modified, setbacks have been increased, in virtually every committee there was a discussion about how can we preserve open space. A linear park is included, going from Burgi Lane and all the way down to Main Street."

"I want to ask a really quick question, if we agree to bond can we take it out in parcels, do we have to take all ten million or six million at the same time? Or can we take two million out and purchase, and then come back for another two?"

Wilson said, "Could we say bank some of the money for awhile and spend two million, and use another two million later, is that what you’re saying?"

Oksner said, "Yeah, are we obligated for the full six million or ten million from the get go or are we obligated going forward as we purchase?"

Wilson said, "If we get a six million dollar bond, yes, everyone would be obligated to pay that, if we chose to say let’s do a two million dollar one this year, and then maybe another two million dollar bond two or three years later that would be another option."

Oksner served as planning commission chairman until March of this year. He said of all developments that came before the planning commission, he doesn't think there was one that built to the maximum density allowed for their zone. "Almost everyone that came in if they put ten units in they could have put twelve, something along those lines."

In regards to the C-4 zone Oksner said it is an integral part of the general plan. "If we can take six million dollars and buy this land, we can intelligently develop the C-4, get the revenue to offset the lost revenue from the resort zone, and still take six million dollars out and purchase additional property ... This is an all of the above scenario that we need to work with, we need to use the C-4 zone intelligently to develop, maybe include 50 percent open space in C-4. No reason it has to be 55 feet (height limit), it can be 35 feet. But that needs to be done to offset what we may lose ... It’s not just the bond, it’s not just the C-4, it’s all of the above. And I think that the commission and the council worked pretty hard to arrive at a reasonable path going forward. And it is, as one person mentioned, three generations forward, we need to think about that. I do think we need to bond."

Lloyd MacIntosh said, "First of all I’d like to thank city council for allowing this meeting, and to thank the forefathers who did such a good job of setting all this up. Now we’re allowed this blessing, the fact that we’re all here is a blessing that you shouldn’t take lightly."

MacIntosh said he is not against bonding but expressed concern that open space be clearly defined. "We have a little document called wetlands ... they are not buildable," He thinks developers are trying to use the wetlands as their open space on their developments. 

MacIntosh said, "We’re kneeling to the developers. Our forefathers didn’t do that. They ran Midway like they ran Midway. The Bonners, the Kohlers, the Probsts, the VanWagoners, you guys have been here for life, and your families have been here for life, and you know what, they did a great job. So I don’t envy the responsibility you have ... the reason I’m here is because of what your families did. So I’m humbled by that and I don’t want to make light of anything, I think we just need to manage this in a well thought out way, and not let the developers take advantage of what we have, because we don’t get it back, once we give it to them, it’s gone." 

Rene Holm said, "I have lived here for twenty four years and I do not live in a Watts development, I live on a piece of property that I know the farmer was grateful to get rid of, because it’s wet. And he was grateful that I would buy it. 

"We have a group of people, however you feel about Pure Midway, I happen to be on the board, ... you have a group of people who are very willing to do a lot of work, and have already done a lot of work on this, free of charge. I mean, we care about this place and we care about people like, Lisa, your brother who is farming. We want to see him be able to farm. He is losing grazing lands hand over fist. I mean, it feels like it to me." 

Holm said the tools funding would provide could help someone who wants to remain farming. The McAllister Fund multiplies money by providing a grant that requires matching funds. She said, "We hope that the city would say, oh, here, you came up with that money, here we’ll give you some money. And that’s not necessarily true, but if we had that in our toolbox, we had that money in our toolbox we could use it for different things. She said it doesn’t "have to be just for purchasing land ... maybe just a very small portion of it will be used for purchasing actual land."

Going back to her original point Holm said "This is kind of like a war. And we’re willing to help you fight it."

Bonner said, "When we look at it, I think we all have to work together. I think ... you take the concerned citizens and you put together a committee maybe to look in to investigating some of this information and then maybe use the brains of those who’ve done it before, and have some good insight ... "

Holm said, "We can’t do it unless we all work together."

Bonner said, "I really do think that if we are going to do it and get the correct tool box and the correct means, then we need to take our time and do it right so that it’s done with some well thought out experience from others and before we jump into maybe just quick doing a bond, and then wish we’d have done things differently, because all of a sudden we have a bond and then what do we do with that money? I think it’s kind of putting the cart before the horse, maybe, but that’s something that maybe needs to be discussed."

Holm said, "Another way to look at it is you have momentum right now and you have people willing to work very hard, a lot of people to work on this who have already done a lot of the back work on it, and who are willing to go out and inform the community. ... So, you know, we can look at it both ways, maybe we do need to slow down, but maybe we just need to do it. You have a lot of communities if you read on, if you study about other areas that have passed open space bonds, they’re amazed at how quickly it happens. And people jump on board and say, amazing, do it again. Those are the stories we’ve heard."

Bonner said, "Appreciate that. Okay, I think we’re good, tonight, for the public comment time. We will have other opportunities for the public to voice their opinions. I appreciate the turn out tonight. I appreciate the comments that were made, the well thought out things that we’ve heard; a lot of good information for us as a council to go back and to make some decisions." 

Two follow up articles are still coming. One on public comment against bonding. Another on the council's take on what they heard and the direction they think open space preservation should take in Midway City. Also, look for an article on Property Taxes, it has been updated to include public comments made during this public hearing.