It is City Council Tuesday today. You can tell by looking at the agenda that we are getting toward the end of the year, and many Council initiatives, as well as some land use items, are making for long meetings in an effort to wrap up pending items. I won't highlight the entire agenda, but I wanted to mention three items that have been high priorities for the Council and staff that will be addressed today.
I mentioned in an earlier update that recent state law changes have required the City to make some key policy decisions about internal accessory dwelling units (internal ADU's) in Provo. These internal ADU's are frequently attic or basement apartments that are available for rent in an owner occupied residence. The City currently prohibits internal ADU's in many single family zoning districts in the City, and new state law requires the City allow internal ADU's in 33% of the land mass in the City that is zoned as single family. Currently the City allows these internal ADU's in overlay zones or as permitted uses in 22% of its single family zoned land mass. The Council is currently considering several options to get us in compliance. One option would be to designate some single family zones for including internal ADU's as permitted uses to get to or above the 33% figure. Another is to add internal ADU's as a permitted use in all single family zones in the City. There are, as you can imagine, strong feelings around either of these choices. While internal ADU's have the potential to add more affordable rental dwelling units in Provo, thus helping with our housing crisis, they also can disrupt traditional single family neighborhoods if not handled right. This is a tough issue, and one that the Council is carefully thinking through. Today's work meeting is designed to help them find a policy decision which can get a majority vote, and then they will consider implementing legislation for that policy decision at a future meeting.
The Council will also be considering an ordinance this evening to add a new tool to our parking management toolkit to allow paid on-street parking strategies. The ordinance this evening will create the regulatory framework for this paid on-street parking approach, but will not apply that framework to any particular area. Thursday evening, the Council will be holding a town hall meeting to talk about applying this new tool to parts of the Joaquin neighborhood south of the University campus.
Finally, the Council will be discussing some significant changes to the structure and operation of the city's neighborhood program. A council committee has done some intensive work to evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses of the program, and will be sharing their recommendations for changes with the public and the council this afternoon in work meeting. My sense is that their general approach is in the right direction and their proposals will remedy many of the challenges and weaknesses in the current program and poise the program for success moving forward, allowing us to be more responsive to the needs of both the City organization and the city's defined neighborhoods. But, like any change, it is likely to see some controversy.
These are tough issues, and I applaud the Council and its staff, as well as administrative staff, for their willingness to take on controversial issues and move these discussions forward.
UPCOMING CITY EVENTS
Learn It: Medicare 101 I November 16 7:00 pm
Learn It: Gluten Free Cookies I November 17 7:00 pm
Barlow Ballet presents The Nutcracker I November 17 - November 20
Teen Dungeons & Dragons Club I November 18 6:30 pm
Utah Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra presents European Adventure I November 22 7:30 pm
Joshua Creek Christmas I November 29 7:00 pm
Ryan Shupe Christmas I November 30 7:30 pm
Learn It: Zentangle Holidays I December 1 7:00 pm
A Christmas Carol | December 02 - December 20
Light Up Christmas! I December 3 - December 4
Utah Valley Handbell Ringers I December 6 6:00 pm
Learn It: Holiday Menu and Meal Planning I December 7 7:00 pm
Teen Writer's Group I December 9 7:00 pm
Holiday Recipe Swap I December 11 1:00 pm
NEWS YOU CAN USE
- Today is National Fast Food Day. Let's do this.
- Café Rio is opening what will be their flagship location here in Utah and to celebrate, they are giving away "A Year of Free Café Rio" to 10 winners.
- A fun example of paying it forward here in Utah is a group of Afghans who have lived in Utah for a few years and are now turning around to help the new refugees coming to the Beehive State.
- Did you know that Salt Lake City airport has not seen a temperature of 32°F or below since April 12th? SLC's first freeze is forecast to be today, tying the record for latest first freeze on record.
- As American companies grapple with historic labor shortages and supply chain issues, some industries are trying to steer young people away from traditional four-year college programs, while trying to make technical careers more appealing.
YOUR VOICE
Have any exciting news? Birthdays, babies, weddings, fur-babies, graduations? Share about it in the section on the right --> and upload pics below!
TUESDAY TIP
Three common traps to avoid when it comes to one on ones (and one thing to dial up)
One-on-ones right now can be improved by a sincere effort to understand your report's well-being and what's affecting that state, writes Suzi McAlpine. She offers several questions to ask in your next check-in, starting with assessing the person's state of well-being and resolving with "Compared to when you started your role, how would you say your mental health is? What might be behind that?"
FUN STUFF
So, as we are all returning back to the majority of our meetings being in person, I thought this little video might help with the transition. As a practical matter, I think we will still have lots of virtual meetings (I am probably still about 10-20% of my meetings being virtual), but meeting etiquette is still a bit different when we are back together in person and in real time.
Hope you have a great day. I appreciate all you do to make our community's quality of life so terrific for our residents.
Wayne
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