City Council Announcements
April 4, 2002
I. Decisions, Feedback & Information needed by staff
A. Alley Policy: Last December, the Council adopted revisions to the Council's alley policy and requested that an ordinance be drafted. The Council's action was based on recommendations from a Council subcommittee established to address issues that had been raised relating to the process for closure and/or vacation of existing alleys and the subsequent disposition of the property.
Key elements included:
a. a. Shift the focus to consideration of a proposed request with demonstrated public benefit rather than supporting closure/vacation whenever possible.
b. b. Require an evaluation and documented demonstration of public interest versus private interest. The standard should be to demonstrate an over-riding public purpose, rather than an over-riding private interest.
c. c. Re-assess current options for disposition of the city's property interest in alleys.
d. d. Re-evaluate the current procedure and include neighborhood and community council review and comment as part of the public process prior to the Administration formalizing their recommendation to the City Council.
The City Attorney's office provided a draft ordinance for Council Member review. Please see attached draft. The ordinance addresses areas of the adopted policy that deals with legal requirements including policy considerations and petition/application processes. Would Council Members like to schedule this ordinance for formal action on an upcoming agenda?
Council requested a briefing on the current policy and proposed policy changes.
The Council also requested that the Administration not process any new alley vacation/closure requests until the Council finalized their policy review. Would Council Members like to indicate their preference for the Administration to resume processing alley applications?
B. Utah Transit Authority Excursion to Los Angeles
A UTA representative has contacted some Council Members to invite them to go on an excursion to look at the light rail and commuter rail systems in Los Angeles and San Diego. The excursion also would include a visit to the intermodal hub at San Diego. The excursion is scheduled tentatively for May 2 and 3. According to the representative, UTA officials would like the entire City Council to go on the excursion because UTA thinks it would be helpful to see how light rail and commuter rail systems interconnect and relate to each other. UTA would pay for the excursion, the representative said. The excursion would be part of an overall UTA program to take public officials from municipalities involved in commuter rail and light rail projects to locations where commuter rail and light rail systems already operate. The representative said that those who would go on the excursion would fly from Salt Lake City the afternoon of May 2, arrive in Los Angeles and stay the night. The morning of May 3 excursion participants would take a commuter train into Los Angeles and transfer to a light rail train. After that, they would take a commuter train from Los Angeles to San Diego and inspect the San Diego intermodal hub. They then would go back to Los Angeles and return to Salt Lake City that evening (May 3). The UTA representative plans to contact every City Council Member and may have a brief itinerary by the end of the week. Are City Council Members interested in going on the excursion? Also, Council staff did not ask the representative if anyone from Council staff should go on the excursion because that is a City Council decision. Should someone from the City Council staff go with City Council Members if they go on the excursion?
Council indicated they would be interested in participating in the excursion, but paying their own way. Suggestions were made to include the SRO’s in San Diego with this excursion. They also indicated
they would like a Council staff member to accompany them.
C. Housing Authority Annual Report: Attached is the Annual Report to the Council from the Housing Authority. Would Council Members like to schedule a briefing?
Not discussed.
II. Council Office Policies
Cindy Gust-Jensen reminded Council they were not to give away their Conference tickets.
III. For Your Information
A. Airport: Council staff has attached hard copies of a presentation Salt Lake City Department of Airports Marketing Director Buzz Hunt made to the Airport Board at its meeting on March 20. Staff also has an electronic version for Council Members who may want it. In addition to the presentation, Mr. Hunt made the following points:
· After the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center the majority of airplanes that Delta Air Lines grounded were from routes along the East Coast.
· Salt Lake City is no longer Delta Air Lines' least profitable hub.
· Delta Air Lines' continues to work to redefine Salt Lake City's role as a hub. Part of the redefinition appears to involve an increase in Delta's market share of east-west traffic and increasing Delta's east-west market flow through Salt Lake City.
· Delta Air Lines' will continue to increase its reliance on regional jets to serve passengers. Even so, Salt Lake City still has non-stop service 38 of the top 50 markets in the United States including non-stop service to the top 28 U.S. markets.
· Ultimately, although the number of standard-sized jets may continue to decline in the future, the number of seats available for passengers is expected to grow. Ms. Gust-Jensen asked Council to review the information on the Airport included in their packets.
IV. Meetings