Candidate Question – Open Space

cedarvalleysentinel.com sent a survey to each of the City Council and Mayor Candidates for the 2017 election. The questions included ones about roads, education, city issues, city strengths, as well as a few to get to know the candidates on a more personal level. Over the next few weeks, those answers will be published on cedarvalleysentinel.com. If you have missed any, want to catch up, or just review them again, you can do so by visiting the Cedar Valley Sentinel (formerly i84005) Election Center at http://cedarvalleysentinel.com/elections/. Feel free to share these articles on social media. Lets get the word out and increase voter participation in this election cycle. Eagle Mountain is a great city, and it can be made even greater by our elected officials, but they need input from the residents. Question: Many residents like the open feel of Eagle Mountain. Do you feel we have enough open space, too much open space, or too little open space? What policies will you try to implement to support that view? Donna Burnham – City Council Candidate

While I served on the council, the city completely revitalized our parks and open spaces plan, making park and open space a priority and better defining park amenities and their value. I welcomed the changes but would also like to take another look at our policy of allowing developers to pay a fee in lieu of paying for parks. In other words, instead of building a park in their development, they dedicate money toward other parks, either nearby or regional parks. Sometimes, if the development is very small, this action makes sense, but I believe that families should be able to walk to a park in their neighborhood.

Jared Gray – City Council Candidate

We need to make sure we protect our open space. Each development is required to have open space, and we must abide by that and protect that. And we also must be able to maintain it as well, to make it the most and best use. Open space is important, and should be usable or maintained to a standard.

Melissa Clark – City Council Candidate

I love that our natural features like the mountains will always be a place of beauty and in general our policies and code support that. There is a certain amount of growth that has to happen to preserve anything and to pay for the basics, but I support that when we walk out of city hall, we see natural desert grasses, and that we have paved trails that wind through the natural desert grasses. In my role on the Parks and Recreation board, I have worked with fellow board members and our city staff to maintain that open space feel; specifically, we have approved improvements to our parks through the Neighborhood Match Grant. I have spearheaded a project to have signs created for each park so that when an issue arises that needs maintenance; residents know who maintains that specific park and whom to call. For very little cost, this will help both the city and the residents keep our parks beautiful and in good repair, and, if needed, hold accountable the other parties who should be maintaining the parks.

Stephanie Gricius – Part Time Mayor Candidate

I like open space, and in Eagle Mountain our outdoor options are one of the things that make us unique. We do need to make sure that we are properly maintaining our open space. If we’re going to have it, it should be appropriately cared for. As for more, less, or staying the same, a lot of that has already been decided through existing master development agreements. We need to make sure that those obligations are fulfilled.

Matt Visser – City Council Candidate

Open space is going away fast. The issue is most of this space is private property. The developers are waiting for their opportunity to cash in. I love the open space. I love that our city backs BLM land and that open space. I believe in property rights. Developers will continue to come and build to make the most money possible. What we can do as a city is to protect our open space while protecting our property rights is take a look at the density of the projects we see coming. If we don’t we’ll end up with nothing but multi family housing and homes built on the smallest lots allowed. That policy doesn’t promote open space.

Jonathan Vail – Mayor Candidate

I feel like Eagle Mountain right now has a vast amount of open space. This feeling will most likely decline once City Center starts to fill in more and more. That is why it is important to properly zone areas and ensure developments have open space included within them. My policy on this would be to get input from the community, City Council, and the Development Committee on how they best see land uses throughout the city.

Drew Curley – City Council Candidate

I am a firm believer that one thing that makes our city unique is the open space. We have large amounts of federal land on our boundaries, communities with larger lots, parks scattered throughout our city, and individuals who actually use the open space regularly. In order to preserve our open space, I believe we must limit development that would crowd many homes, whether they be multi-unit housing or single family homes, into dense areas. We should encourage developers to offer homes that complement the need for open space not only for an entire subdivision, but for the individual owner as well.

Debbie Hooge – Full Time Mayor Candidate

I love open space. It was something I felt very passionate about during the incorporation of the City. That is why open space was written to be protected within the development and building codes. Unfortunately, open space criteria has been changed and under-prioritized a bit since then. We all must remember that as citizens, we grant to the developer the rights to develop. We do that in the development code, in the approval process, and in the zoning. Once you have granted those rights to the developer, you cannot take them back. The City needs to do a better job of granting rights and privileges to developers. Make no mistake, I think developers can be amazing and without them we simply would not have a city of Eagle Mountain. But, like anyone else, they are in the business to make money. There needs to be good chemistry with our developers, while at the same time intelligent controls on what they do. Developers will always want higher densities and smaller lots. If our code allows it, we have to let them have it. We need create a code that limits what they can do. If we do, they can decide ahead of time whether or not it is a good idea for them financially to develop in Eagle Mountain.

Jan Preece – City Council Candidate

Open Spaces do not only include parks and trails; open spaces also include our agriculture and our wildlife areas. I would like to make sure that our agricultural areas stay protected if there are people who want to pursue it. I want to keep some wild open spaces so that our children will be able to see hawks and eagles fly above our city, to see antelope and to hear coyotes at night. Some people say it’s inevitable that things will change, but I feel with careful planning we can protect this valuable part of our city.

Tyler Shimakonis – City Council Candidate

To me our open spaces is one of the best things about our city. We have a lot of parks and areas that children, families, and citizens can and do use frequently. There will be growth that encroaches on some of the space. However by putting into place the right policies that encourage developers to utilizes these spaces in their designs and incorporate the open space feel into their growth we preserve our identify and reason that many residents come here in the first place. I encourage everyone to review the Eagle Mountain City Parks and Open Space Parks and Open Space Master Plan. Some of guiding principles that were written into this document in 2009 include the following which I maintain are all still excellent principals: • Diverse park amenities are necessary to service the needs of an entire community. • Varying scales of parks and trail systems with their accompanying accessible distance make a user-friendly and diverse open space system. • Preservation, enhancement and development combined provide a rich and layered experience in open space. I would also maintain that the goals and objectives written in 2009 are still valid and obtainable and I support each of these: • Retain the “small town” feel and openness of the current Eagle Mountain landscape. • Provide recreation for all ages and user groups. • Provide connections between residents, parks and trails. • Provide Eagle Mountain City with the guidelines for furthering their information base, acquiring funding and implementing the Master Plan. For those who have not seen Eagle Mountain’s 2009 Open Space Master Plan I invite you to do so http://eaglemountaincity.org/home/showdocument?id=1336