Eagle Mountain City Council, 7 July 2026

In short: A regular council meeting — a work session followed by an evening of votes that ran until 11:43 PM. The council adopted a new zone that opens the door to solar, geothermal, nuclear and natural gas power projects; denied a developer's request for more time on the Eagle Quest East project; rewrote the rules on parking in front yards; funded a citywide speed study; and heard residents argue both for and against the proposed property tax increase.

Present: Mayor Jared Gray, and Councilmembers Melissa Clark, Brett Wright, Craig Whiting, Rich Wood, and Zac Huish. All five councilmembers voted in every roll call taken.

Staff: City Manager (identified in the transcript as "Ben"); City Attorney Marcus Draper; City Recorder Lacie Messerly; Deputy City Manager Steve Mumford; Director of Legislative and Strategic Affairs Evan Berrett; Community Development Director Brandon Larsen; Planner Steven Lehmitz; Assistant City Engineer David Salazar; Neighborhood Improvement officer "Jim"; contract lobbyist David Stewart (Legislative Executive Consulting, LLC); Cameron Carter of Bike Utah; Greg Wall of Landex Development; and Mr. Ostler, landowner for the Eagle Quest East project.

Decisions

#	Agenda ref	Motion	Moved / Seconded	Vote	Result
1	4	Adjourn to closed session under Utah Code 52-4-205 — for pending or imminent litigation, personnel character and competence, real property transactions, a proposed development agreement on state or political-subdivision land, and security deployment	Huish / Wood	5-0	Passed
2	10.A.1	Appoint Jessi Call as Youth City Council advisor through May 31, 2027	Whiting / Clark	5-0	Passed
3	10.A.2	Appoint Angeline Washburn as Youth City Council advisor through May 31, 2027	Whiting / Wood	5-0	Passed
4	13.A, 14.A, 15.A–15.C	Approve consent agenda, removing 15.D and amending the lobbyist agreement (name David Stewart; two meetings per year before the general and interim legislative sessions, plus meetings on council request)	Clark / Wood	5-0	Passed
5	15.D	Deny the Second Amendment to the Eagle Quest East Master Development Agreement	Wood / Whiting	5-0	Passed
6	16.C	Approve ordinance amending Code 17.75.052, accessory recreation buildings	Wood / Whiting	5-0	Passed
7	16.A	Table the Alternative Energy Overlay Zone ordinance	Wright / Wood	2-3 (Yes: Wright, Wood; No: Clark, Whiting, Huish)	Failed
8	16.A	Adopt the Alternative Energy Overlay Zone (Ch. 17.64), replacing administrative appeals with City Council review	Huish / Clark	4-1 (No: Wood)	Passed
9	16.B	Table the Senior Housing Overlay Zone and direct staff to bring it to a work session	Clark / Whiting	5-0	Passed
10	16.D	Approve the sign-code ordinance (political signs only; all seasonal/temporary sign changes struck)	Wood / Clark	5-0	Passed
11	16.E	Adopt the Eagle Mountain City Annexation Policy Plan	Whiting / Huish	5-0	Passed
12	17.A	Approve parking ordinance as amended (strike 10.10.100; broaden 10.10.100(A)(3) to all trailers or other vehicles; allow driveway and garage-side setback)	Wood / Huish	5-0	Passed
13	18.A	Proceed with the citywide speed study, adding Councilmember Wood's locations, funded from money previously allocated to speed tables	Whiting / Wright	4-1 (No: Wood)	Passed
14	22	Adjourn	Clark / Huish	Voice vote	Passed

Meeting map

Elapsed times are measured from the 4:00 PM start of the work session.

Agenda ref	Topic	~Start (elapsed)	One-line note
1.A	Legislative update — lobbyist David Stewart	0:02	Lake Mountain Road transferred to the state system; data-center revenue-sharing bill still a live threat
1.A / 15.A	Lobbyist contract renewal and replacing water lobbyist "Dan"	0:20	Council asks that David Stewart be named personally in the contract
1.B	Land disposal process overview — City Attorney	0:35	State law reversed the hearing sequence; council backs consolidating to one hearing
1.C	Procedural options for the August 2025 land disposal	0:45	Three councilmembers agree in the room to sign a request for reconsideration
1.D	Off-Street Trails Master Plan	0:55	Bike Utah presentation; no action, returning for adoption
1.E	Brylee Farms Phase B, First Amendment	1:25	Council signals it will not relax the 600 sq ft garage requirement
2	City Manager information items	1:52	Wells down, fireworks event praised, staff stretched
3	Agenda review	1:58	15.D pulled from consent for full discussion
15.D	Eagle Quest East, work-session preview	2:02	Developer explains delays; Wood signals renegotiation demand
4	Closed session	2:11	Motion adopted 5-0; council adjourned at 6:11 PM
5–7	Call to order, prayer, pledge, events	3:04	Meeting called to order at 7:04 PM
9.A	Believer City proclamation	3:10	Read by Councilmember Whiting; Eagle Mountain claims to be the first
8.A	Rotary Club of Lehi Mayor's Cup	3:14	Trophy presented to Mayor Gray
10.A	Youth City Council advisor appointments	3:18	Both confirmed 5-0
11	Public comments	3:22	Disc golf course, property tax opposition, parking-enforcement support
12	City Council / Mayor items	3:32	Extended remarks on the proposed property tax increase
Consent	Consent agenda	3:50	Approved with 15.D removed and 15.A amended
15.D	Eagle Quest East Second Amendment	3:53	Denied 5-0
16.A	Alternative Energy Overlay Zone	4:14 (paused), 4:32 (resumed)	Longest and most contentious item; adopted 4-1
16.C	Accessory recreation buildings	4:20	Taken out of order during technical difficulties; passed 5-0
16.B	Senior Housing Overlay Zone	5:52	Tabled to work session without taking public comment
16.D	Political, temporary, and seasonal signs	5:58	Political-sign changes adopted; seasonal signs sent back
16.E	Annexation Policy Plan	6:33	New "Area 7" added for mineral resources near Utah Lake
17.A	Residential parking code	6:40	Simplified from the dais over three attempted motions
18.A	Citywide speed management study	7:00	Approved 4-1 after a sharp exchange over speed tables
19.A	Legislative priorities update	7:28	Bitcoin payments not currently possible; concrete fence forms
20	Liaison reports	7:33	Senior center events, Youth Council, American Legion request
22	Adjournment	7:43	Adjourned at 11:43 PM

Discussed but NOT on the agenda: a resident's proposal for a championship-level disc golf course in the power corridor; the proposed property tax increase and the August 6 Truth in Taxation hearing; whether the city can accept cryptocurrency payments; a custom poured-concrete fence form program; a $1,500 memorandum of understanding with the American Legion; enforcement against habitable RVs rented on residential lots and commercial fleet trucks parked in residential zones; an introduction to Rotary International from a Saratoga Springs resident.

On agenda but little/no discussion: 13.A (Parkway Fields Phase B, Plat 2 bond release), 14.A (June 16, 2026 minutes), 15.B (medium park in Overland Village 2 Phase B), 15.C (White Hills Water Company tank reimbursement amendment), 21.A (financial report), and 21.B (upcoming agenda items) — all of which passed inside the consent agenda or were never taken up on the record.

What was discussed

1.A — Legislative Update (and 15.A, Lobbyist Agreement Renewal)

Contract lobbyist David Stewart came to report on the legislative session just concluded. Because his firm's contract renewal sat on the night's consent agenda as item 15.A, the Mayor deliberately pulled that item forward so both could be handled while Stewart was in the room. Stewart's headline was the transfer of Lake Mountain Road from the local road system to the state system. (The transcript shows everyone still struggling to name that corridor — it is called "Mid Valley," "Crown Ridge," and "the Lake Mountain Corridor" at various points.)

He framed the transfer as the "first domino": as a local road, he said, "the cost of that would prohibit us from probably ever building it," but as a state road it enters the state's funding queue. He walked the council through what comes next — one to two years of state alignment study, then an environmental impact statement over another couple of years, during which corridor preservation can begin, and only then funding and construction — estimating the city "potentially could be building in the next 5 to 6 years." When the Mayor interjected "10 years?", Stewart did not dispute that the timeline could stretch.

Councilmember Huish pressed on legislation that would divert data-center revenue away from host cities and toward statewide purposes, calling it "super concerning." Stewart's read was that the proposal survives but lacks a champion in leadership, and that its very breadth — it reaches beyond data centers to any large capital-infrastructure investment — has created enough opposition among rural and developing communities to stall it. "If it were just fixated on data centers, that would make me more scared, honestly," he said, while cautioning that "it's still there. It's still a threat."

He also described defeating a bill that would have reversed the Utah Supreme Court's Gardner decision on billed-versus-paid medical damages, an outcome he tied directly to the city's self-insured exposure.

On the contract itself, Councilmember Wood set the tone bluntly: "I'd like your name on it. If we're going to pay for it, I want to know you're the one up there doing it personally." Councilmember Whiting noted that Exhibit A, Section 2 required two meetings without saying how often, and asked for two per year. Wood pushed further, asking that they be timed to fall immediately before the general and interim legislative sessions so the council can give direction on priorities. Stewart agreed readily to all of it.

Separately, the council learned that "Dan," the specialist the city had hired for water lobbying, has resigned to go in-house. Stewart offered a recommendation for a replacement he described as "the best on water in the state" but declined to name him publicly before that person had spoken to his own employer. Councilmember Wood's response captured the room: "we're going after the person, not the organization." Councilmember Wright agreed the city should keep "our foot on the gas pedal" on water and reuse water, and the Mayor directed that a new contract be prepared for August.

1.B — Land Disposal Process Overview

City Attorney Marcus Draper brought this item because recent changes in state law flipped the order Eagle Mountain has traditionally followed when it sells or gives away city land. The old practice was to notice a public hearing before authorizing a disposal, then bring the resulting contract back for approval at a regular public meeting. State code now requires the public hearing before approval of the contract, while the city's own ordinance still requires one before authorization.

Rather than run duplicate hearings, Draper asked whether the council would accept an ordinance amendment consolidating to the single hearing state law requires. Councilmember Wright asked, "Is there anybody who doesn't think that's a good idea?", and Councilmember Clark backed it on cost grounds — "there's expense involved when we're noticing things" — as long as the process stays open.

The second half of the discussion concerned significant versus insignificant parcels. Draper explained that work begun before Todd Black's death, with staff, the Mayor, and two councilmembers, had been assembling a list of small parcels the city might want to shed. His proposal was to add those to the insignificant-parcel list so the council could consider them once rather than piecemeal.

Councilmember Wood's only reservation was that some parcels carry negotiating value and might warrant a size threshold. Draper noted the state already imposes one, in that any parcel with a fair market value of half a million dollars or more is automatically a significant disposal. Wood accepted that, observing "we're still going to have a discussion about it either way." Councilmember Wright, who had taken part in the earlier effort alongside former Councilmember Burnham, said "there's a lot of little pieces that really need to be cleaned up." Staff was given direction to prepare a map and return.

1.C — Procedural Options for the Land Disposal Approved August 19, 2025

This item asked the council to unstick a disposal it approved nearly a year earlier to resolve encroachments and line up lot lines with existing fences behind a row of homes. The August 2025 approval selected "option two," moving the entire lot line back, but conditioned it on unanimity among the affected property owners and attached a six-month sunset; if option two failed, it would revert to "option one," simply straightening the lot line.

Staff has been unable to get one owner of roughly sixteen to commit. The Mayor said he had given that owner until June 18 to answer yes or no and never heard back, and cleared up a persistent misunderstanding: the owner is not a California landlord but lives in Eagle Mountain. Meanwhile the application itself expired in February, and staff turnover meant, in the Mayor's words, "it definitely went to the wayside."

Draper laid out the procedural paths. The applicants could file a new application and start over. Or, under the city code, any three councilmembers may submit a written request that the matter be reconsidered — a lower bar than the two-majority-voters rule that governs reconsideration within the same meeting — after which the council could formally remove the sunset clause, the unanimity requirement, or both. Draper recommended the reconsideration route to avoid restarting.

The question that unlocked the room was whether fifteen or sixteen owners could proceed while the holdout stays put: "is there a possibility to have the 15 move forward and leave the 1 and not let the great be the enemy of good?" Councilmember Wright volunteered on the spot — "somebody on the staff write that and I'll sign it" — and Councilmembers Whiting and Clark immediately said they would sign as well, giving the three signatures required. Recorder Lacie Messerly will draft the letter and the item will return on an upcoming agenda.

1.D — Off-Street Trails Master Plan

Deputy City Manager Steve Mumford introduced the plan, funded by a Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Technical Planning Assistance Grant of roughly $50,000 against a city match of about $2,000. Todd Black had been the project manager before his death, after which Mumford volunteered to take it over; the committee also included Brad Hickman, staff member Zach Hilton, and Andrew Knowlton, with Bike Utah and Shapeshift Terrain Parks as consultants. Councilmember Wright interrupted the transition to the next item specifically to ask who had paid for the work and then to "send a public thank you" to UDOT — a small moment that the Mayor good-naturedly undercut by mentioning the city's matching share would appear in a coming budget amendment ("Steve, you ruined it").

Cameron Carter of Bike Utah presented four chapters. The trail network assessment builds a database of every trail across five regions, layering Strava usership, difficulty, and Trailforks ratings against land-ownership, development, and environmental conflicts. The ownership numbers are stark: 44% of trail miles sit on land held by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), 24% on city land, 21% private, and 11% Bureau of Land Management (BLM) — and only 12% of the SITLA trails within city boundaries have an active agreement, which Carter said "makes it very difficult for the city to manage those trails and illegal for people to access them." Development conflicts are equally severe in Lower and Upper Hidden Valley, where many trails will be built over.

The Mountain Ranch Bike Park chapter is the most immediately actionable: a redesign replacing the current spider-web of informal trails with a single dedicated climbing route, a clear green-blue-black progression, a beginner skills area, and an asphalt jump line, at a total construction estimate of roughly $0.9 million to $1.5 million (the jump line alone accounting for perhaps $400,000 to $700,000). The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) middle- and high-school race course is largely doomed in place — most of it is slated for development and it crosses the Lake Mountain Corridor in five locations — leaving relocation southeast toward BLM land or a new course near Firefly as the two options.

Council response was warm and specific. Councilmember Wood, who had researched grade-separated crossings, put underpasses at roughly $8 to $10 million each and asked whether the city should push the state to design crossings into the road rather than build them itself, or instead shift the affected trails to one side of the corridor. He also asked for a "bunny hill" for young children below the skills area, and floated Recreation, Arts and Parks (RAP) tax revenue and park fee-in-lieu money as funding. Councilmember Wright praised the report while urging pragmatism — "we're not going to preserve all of these trails. I know the mountain bike community doesn't want to hear that" — and cautioned Mumford in his SITLA negotiations to "make sure we're not giving away the farm."

Councilmember Clark called the database "a huge asset" and endorsed a parking lot in the power corridor near Ranches Parkway with beginner skills features and a pump track. Councilmember Huish, who once lived beside the bike park and confessed to "having PTSD remembering an experience I had going off one of those ramps," supported using RAP tax or unused utility-sale proceeds. Councilmember Whiting raised volunteerism, recalling a West Jordan park built largely by residents and donated materials.

The Mayor asked that the private citizens who originally built the wooden features — Mumford identified them as Cougar Hall and Darren Garrett — be approached before anything is torn out. Three corrections were requested for the document: renaming Mid Valley Road to the Lake Mountain Corridor, fixing a steering-committee roster that lists Zach Hilton twice, and restoring Todd Black's name. No action was taken; the plan returns for adoption.

1.E — First Amendment to the Brylee Farms Phase B Development Agreement

Landex Development, which bought the last two plats of the Towns at Brylee Farms after discovering the original developer's development agreement had lapsed, asked to reduce a negotiated requirement that at least 40 townhome units carry garages of at least 600 square feet. Twenty such units — three-story buildings whose 719-square-foot garages occupy the entire ground floor — have been built.

Greg Wall of Landex explained that the market has favored the two-story product, which was redesigned mid-project to add a 520-square-foot unfinished basement once soil conditions allowed. His argument was that 947 square feet of combined basement and garage storage in the two-story exceeds the 719 in the three-story, that total square footage is nearly identical (2,412 versus 2,475), that the two-story sells for about $15,000 less, and that buyers prefer conditioned basement storage. He also disclosed that deepening the lots from 38 to 42.25 feet would consume about 2,984 square feet of open space while still leaving the project 0.82 acres above requirement.

The council did not buy it, and the reason had nothing to do with storage. Councilmember Wood, who said he "was one of the people that fought for the 600 square feet," explained that the requirement exists so that two vehicles actually fit and occupants can open their doors: "if they pull in the garage in the wintertime, can they get out of the car, or does everybody in the car have to get out in the snow?" He noted the city commissioned a study of the dimensions of vehicles Eagle Mountain residents actually drive — trucks and SUVs — and cited the same fight being waged at the Legislature.

Councilmember Wright described the two-car garage that is really a one-car garage once a staircase intrudes, a condition he has seen in his own daughter's townhome, and warned that entry-level buyers "come in, they expect a 2-car garage to facilitate their needs of 2 cars, and regularly it doesn't." Councilmember Clark connected garage utility to neighborhood stability: "people only live there for 2, 3, 4 years and then they're gone... they lose the pride in their neighborhood." Wood also reminded the room that the 600-square-foot provision was what the city got in return when it agreed to revive the expired agreement — "they're renegotiating the trade-off that we gave to them because they didn't do their due diligence."

Mayor Gray tried a middle path, asking whether the buildings could be shifted two feet further into the open-space buffer to deepen the garages; Wall responded that reaching 600 square feet would mean 6.25 feet total, requiring the new trail to be ripped out and the detention basin regraded.

A second, separate request fared much better. Section 4.4 requires all open space, parks, and trails in Plat 4 to be complete before the first certificate of occupancy, which Wall said would force roughly nine buildings to be constructed at the same time since forklifts and scaffolding must pass behind them. The Mayor suggested a bond instead, Councilmember Clark called it "a total reasonable request," and Wood agreed. Councilmember Whiting stepped back from further comment after disclosing a small consulting project for the applicant a year earlier and a prior real estate transaction. No action was taken; Wall left saying "we'll look and see what the options could potentially be."

15.D — Second Amendment to the Eagle Quest East Master Development Agreement

Pulled from the consent agenda during work-session review at Councilmember Wood's request and taken up again in the policy session, this item asked to extend the preliminary-plat deadline to July 24, 2029 and the agreement's overall expiration to 2033.

Mr. Ostler, the landowner (a former mayor of Highland), gave three reasons for the delay, all of them outside his control: Sunset Flats, the adjacent development whose roads Eagle Quest East needs for access, went into bankruptcy and then receivership, after which the bank holding it went through a merger; and the required Aviator Avenue connection is blocked because Ivory and SITLA will not sign off until the city resolves the bypass road. "So there's things we don't control that is stopping us from being able to move forward," he said. He emphasized that he is a landowner, not a developer, that Pulte Homes had been under contract and in fact initiated the first amendment, and that he has since talked to Century, D.R. Horton, and Lennar.

Councilmember Wood was unmoved, and pressed the point of principle: "I would assume that if you're going to come in and get an entitlement, that you have a plan to go that doesn't depend on somebody else doing their stuff." Draper offered a lawyer's correction — the agreement never actually made Eagle Quest East contingent on Sunset Flats' roads; that was a practical decision by the developer.

Wood reminded the room he was "pretty instrumental in writing the MDA code for that very reason, is to make sure that we no longer became a city that was full of land brokers" (the MDA is the master development agreement). His condition for any extension was renegotiation: current code, current road standards, and architectural standards consistent with the emerging downtown, so that "when people come... it looks like we intentionally did this." (Wood corrected himself mid-discussion, acknowledging the parcel sits adjacent to, not inside, the town center.) The Mayor added historical context, recalling that he had asked for "third, third, and third" across the three residential zones and that the project landed mostly R-3 by land mass rather than lot size — an outcome he said reflected his own imprecision.

Councilmembers Whiting and Wright both leaned toward tabling for two weeks of negotiation before the agreement's July 24 expiry, with Wright noting he is "not overly disappointed in the lot sizes" — the smallest are 8,000 square feet — but troubled that the airport road alignment with SITLA "should be figured out in my mind." Councilmember Clark defended the applicant's good faith, distinguishing him from "the ones that show up right before their thing expires and they haven't done a thing on it."

Wood then asked the decisive question — whether anyone would support the extension as written, and no one said yes. Draper clarified that letting the deadline pass would not expire the agreement (which runs to 2029) but would place the developer in breach, exposing him to contract remedies and allowing the city to withhold approvals. Wood's response: "Let them go into breach then." The council denied the amendment 5-0.

16.A — Alternative Energy Overlay Zone (Chapter 17.64)

Evan Berrett presented the culmination of roughly two years of work: an overlay zone that would set standards for solar, geothermal, nuclear, and natural gas generation, deliberately leaving out wind, hydro, and coal as incompatible with the valley. Crucially, the zone is not being applied to any property; it would be requested by an applicant, which Berrett argued adds an inherent layer of review, since a rezone, a development agreement, and building permits would each follow.

He framed the purpose as economic development and "outcome control" — arguing that if the city does not create a pathway, generation gets sited just outside the boundary where Eagle Mountain has no say and no guarantee of receiving the power. He noted that residential development in Eagle Mountain costs more to service than it returns in property tax, while data centers are "the opposite of that," and that a 6% municipal energy tax plus property tax on facilities worth hundreds of millions or billions represents substantial revenue.

The most striking disclosure was that Berrett met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Advanced Reactors in Washington, and that as far as anyone involved is aware this is the first time the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has ever reviewed a local zoning ordinance for nuclear siting. The NRC found one incompatibility — the city's definition of "microreactor," a term the federal government has not itself defined. On the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, Berrett reported the NRC's position that local governments may not interfere with the federal licensing process, but keep full authority to approve or deny under their own zoning: "the NRC will do what the NRC does. But we still have every right to deny an energy project according to our own ordinances." He added that the NRC weighs demonstrated local support when licensing.

The ordinance caps nuclear at 3 gigawatts and natural gas at 2 gigawatts, restricts nuclear to fourth-generation "walkaway safe" low-water designs while excluding pressurized, boiling, and light water reactors, requires proof that water has been procured before permitting, and explicitly disclaims any city obligation to sell water.

Councilmember Wood delivered a long, itemized objection: name the specific small modular reactor technologies the city wants (he favored liquid metal fast reactors and molten salt reactors, partly because their byproducts could support a royalty agreement); strip geothermal out entirely until the council has been educated on injection and seismic risk; remove every administrative approval, including site plans and final plats, so that elected officials keep the decision; delete the provision allowing a water use assessment to be waived; add weed mitigation obligations during grading; escalate decommissioning bonds with inflation; and understand hazardous materials storage rather than merely cross-referencing federal codes.

Councilmember Whiting, who found four spelling errors, argued the wider net is tolerable precisely because "we can shoot anything down" at the development agreement stage. Councilmember Clark repeatedly asked what specifically remained: "Right now we're unprotected. We have nothing."

The exchange then turned sharp. The Mayor pushed to move on to other noticed public hearings; Wood objected that this dismissed the council's questions. The City Manager argued that "passing something and having it in place is one step towards making it better," comparing the situation to general plans and impact fee plans the city has failed to adopt while chasing perfection.

Wood took visible offense — "we're not going to hurry through this because it's inconvenient for the staff. I'm sorry, maybe that makes me an a-hole, but for me, I'm going to be an a-hole on this one" — and told the Mayor the general-plan reference was "kind of a low blow." Councilmember Wright twice tried to broker a line-by-line walkthrough of Wood's list, saying "I want to intervene between 2 of my friends," but the discussion collapsed and he moved to table. That motion failed 2-3. Councilmember Huish then moved adoption with a single amendment — administrative appeals replaced by City Council review — and it passed 4-1 over Wood's objection. Wright immediately asked staff to bring back the remaining items as amendments, and Whiting and Clark agreed. The council then closed with unprompted praise for Berrett; the Mayor acknowledged that "he's been beat up and thrown to the wolves because we haven't been good to him on this."

16.B — Senior Housing Overlay Zone

Councilmember Whiting opened by asking to table the item outright, warning that the discussion would run at least thirty minutes and that it "is new" enough that he needed to hear the whole council's thinking rather than simply hand staff a list of edits. Councilmember Wright then revealed how far the gap runs: "My preference would be to remove most of this, to go to just a zone for senior housing, and to keep it specific to the product types that I'd like to see happen... this is nowhere near where I think it ought to be."

Draper advised that if wholesale changes are on the table, the cleaner path is a work session followed by re-noticing, rather than opening and continuing the hearing. Councilmember Clark agreed, adding that she did not want the public commenting on a draft about to be rewritten: "I think the public should get to comment on the most advanced version of what the code will be." The public hearing was never opened. The item was tabled 5-0 with direction to return in a work session.

16.C — Accessory Recreation Buildings

Taken out of order while staff wrestled with a projector failure, this ordinance sets special use standards for recreation buildings attached to religious or cultural meeting halls. It drew no presentation, no public comment, and almost no debate. Councilmember Whiting said he was "grateful that there was some creativity in this solution." Councilmember Wood praised the drafting — "it's concise, it's to the point" — and framed its value as consistency: it "creates a path for any other religious organization that is looking to do a culture hall... that will enable them to have the same rights." The public hearing was opened and closed at 8:28 PM with no speakers, and the ordinance passed 5-0.

16.D — Political, Temporary, and Seasonal Signs

Planner Steven Lehmitz brought two unrelated changes bundled into one ordinance. The political-sign half was required by state code: the city must now permit political signs in park strips (subject to the adjacent owner's consent and maintenance), must extend the removal deadline from five days after canvassing to fourteen, and must designate a storage location for signs it removes — proposed as the Neighborhood Improvement Office, with a five-business-day pickup window after reasonable contact efforts.

Lehmitz chose not to adopt the state-authorized fee for retrieval because collecting it would create disproportionate staff work; Councilmember Wright agreed the city could revisit it if abuse emerged. The council did correct the proposed three-square-foot size limit, noting from campaign experience that standard yard signs are 18 by 24 inches.

The temporary and seasonal sign half fell apart on scrutiny. It grew from a real problem: a farm stand operating in the Holiday gas station parking lot in The Ranches must apply for a two-week permit every time it wants signage, an issue Councilmembers Clark and Whiting had both been approached about. But the draft allowed a 32-square-foot (4-by-8-foot) on-premises sign. Councilmember Wood objected that a sheet of plywood that size becomes "like a sail" in Eagle Mountain wind, and argued for solving the actual complaint instead: "let's solve the problem that was actually the problem instead of writing a code that a specific user is asking for that could have far-reaching ramifications." Councilmember Clark separately worried that tying signage to any business license would let permanent businesses declare a five-month "summer sale."

The resolution, worked out together, was to leave the sign-code sections alone and instead add a line to the seasonal business license application — which already runs up to four months and specifies a location — requiring the applicant to identify its signage, with staff approving an appropriate size. The motion required three restatements before the recorder and staff confirmed they understood it; the Mayor asked the council to check the minutes next time to verify the motion was captured. It passed 5-0.

16.E — Annexation Policy Plan

Community Development Director Brandon Larsen began with a correction supplied by the City Attorney: an annexation policy plan cannot be amended, only enacted anew. Since the council adopted a six-area plan in December 2025, "strategic resources" — mineral rights — were identified in an area near Utah Lake, prompting a full restart of the statutory process to add an "Area 7." Staff noticed all affected entities, including special service districts, school districts, cities, and the county, held a special Planning Commission meeting for entity comment and a separate Planning Commission public hearing, and received no feedback from anyone. The Planning Commission recommended approval.

Larsen was candid about Area 7's drawbacks: it is far from the city center and "our infrastructure's miles north of this area." The offsetting benefit is that mineral rights owners interested in developing those rights become "a potential partner who could help us with the costs of developing the infrastructure to that area" — infrastructure that would also serve the Area 1 transportation corridor toward Redwood Road and the lake. He flagged environmental caution given the proximity to Utah Lake.

Councilmember Clark raised a practical complication: the area falls partly in Nebo School District rather than Alpine, and children there currently attend Goshen Elementary, which she warned would make any future redevelopment agreement "super messy" by requiring an interlocal with two districts. The public hearing opened and closed at 10:36 PM with no speakers, and the plan was adopted 5-0.

17.A — Residential Parking

Senior Planner David Stroud's item — argued mostly by the Neighborhood Improvement officer identified as Jim — proposed cutting the on-street parking time limit from 72 to 48 hours and prohibiting unlicensed vehicles, trailers, recreational vehicles, and agricultural vehicles from being visible in front yards. It was one of only two items to draw supportive public comment. Councilmember Wood immediately signaled discomfort with the breadth: "I think we start getting into these places where we tell them they can't park anything on there, and we're adding additional cost to these people's monthly bills," describing residents paying $300 a month for storage on top of a mortgage.

The productive turn came when Jim was asked what he actually wanted. His answer was narrow: keep vehicles and trailers off the grass in front of the front window and off the walkway, and confine them to the driveway or side yard. From there the council took the draft apart. The licensed-versus-unlicensed distinction was discarded as unenforceable — Wood pointed out an officer standing on private property cannot see a plate on a backed-in trailer — and Councilmember Wright added that if you restrict parking to the driveway and side yard, "what do you care if it's licensed or not licensed?"

Councilmember Clark defended the underlying need with a neighborhood example: "I have this literally across the street from my house... they have it out there for 4 months while they're getting ready to go to the dump." Larsen noted agricultural vehicles are often exempt from licensing anyway. Wood's suggestion to specify the garage-side setback, rather than "side yard" generally, resolved the corner-lot and house-side problems in one stroke. Three motions were attempted; the first was rescinded when discussion reopened, the second died for lack of a second, and the third — striking 10.10.100, broadening subsection (A)(3) to cover all trailers or other vehicles, and permitting parking on the driveway and garage-side setback — passed 5-0. The 48-hour street limit survived as part of the motion.

18.A — Citywide Speed Management Study

Assistant City Engineer David Salazar asked for authorization for a study, not to exceed $50,000, covering thirty identified locations. A consultant would collect 85th-percentile speeds, vehicle classifications, peak conditions, road geometry, and crash history, then return a decision matrix with planning-level cost estimates and a prioritized ranking.

Salazar was careful to say speeding "is a tricky animal... there's no magic silver bullet," and noted the study can double as a check on the 2025 traffic impact study projecting roughly 20,000 vehicles per day from a Scenic Mountain connection to Saratoga Springs. Councilmember Wood asked to add the segment of Silver Creek Way running north over the wash to Willow Walk, where a downhill blind curve produces high speeds; Whiting corrected a street name and asked that a Valley Drive counter be moved further east, mentioning motorcycles reportedly clocked at 80 miles per hour.

The item then became the second flashpoint of the night. Councilmember Wood, noting the council had already voted to fund speed tables in school zones and set aside utility-sale proceeds precisely to avoid procedural delay, demanded to know "why is it not in process?" and invoked a crossing guard who had been struck: "Do we wait until a kid's hit and killed and then it becomes a priority?" The City Manager responded that installing a table not justified by a study exposes the city to liability under the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standards. Wood rejected that flatly, saying he had called Horrocks Engineering and been told designing a speed table "takes like 15 minutes," and asked the City Attorney to back up the liability claim: "If we're going to make statements like that, it ought to be substantiated instead of just throwing that out on the dais."

The compromise that emerged used the study's speed as its justification. Salazar estimated two to four weeks for results, and the council agreed to fund the study from money already allocated to speed tables — avoiding a budget amendment — with the expectation of replenishing that account in September. Councilmember Huish said he was supportive "but I'm also — once we have that study, like the next day. I would love to see some action being taken in Silver Lake."

Councilmember Clark, who argued the Silver Lake Elementary crossing may ultimately need a pedestrian tunnel rather than any table, asked that sheriff's deputies conduct enforcement at crossing times when school resumes. The City Manager cautioned that a table before the August 15 school start "is absolutely unrealistic." The motion passed 4-1; Wood voted no, and Huish voted yes while announcing "but I still want a speed table."

8.A and 9.A — Mayor's Cup and the Believer City Proclamation

The Mayor reordered these two recognitions to consolidate photographs. Councilmember Whiting read the proclamation designating Eagle Mountain a "Believer City," associated with the Show Me a Sign organization, committing the city to promote "encouragement, connection, and hope," to explore making belief visible in public settings, and to foster a culture reminding individuals that they are valued.

The initiative's founder, identified in the transcript only as Ben, described starting with a personal sign and long resisting sharing it — "I didn't want the attention" — and said he intends to raise money for roadside signs of belief around the city. Bill Brimley of the Rotary Club of Lehi then presented the Mayor with the Mayor's Cup, won at the club's golf tournament, and invited him to defend the title. The Mayor tied the two recognitions together through Rotary's motto, which he cited as "service above self."

11 — Public Comments

Three residents signed up and a fourth spoke without a form. McCaden Hanson of Parkway Fields, following up on a January meeting with the Mayor, Councilmember Clark, and Parks and Recreation, advocated for a championship-level disc golf course on unusable land in the power corridor north of the bike park, arguing it would draw tournament players statewide while the existing Pioneer Park course serves beginners. He said the QTS data center and Mountland Supply Co. have both expressed interest in donating and that the adjacent Utah Transit Authority (UTA) park-and-ride removes the need for a parking lot.

Bronwyn Richardson, a full-time student and stay-at-home mother of nearly ten years' residence, opposed what she described as a 220% increase in the city's property tax rate. She anchored her argument in Alpine School District's Title I designations — two Title I elementary schools and a Title I preschool in Eagle Mountain — as evidence that "not every family in Eagle Mountain is thriving financially," and noted that while median household income is $113,000, average rents exceed $2,000. She asked for a line-by-line accounting, pointing out a tension between the Truth in Taxation notice stating 100% of the $6.9 million would go to public safety and public statements discussing employee compensation. She closed with Edmund Burke: "Overtaxation cost England her 13 American colonies."

Jeff Ruth of The Landing spoke in support of the parking ordinance, describing neighbors accumulating cars — "the farthest one there hasn't moved in probably a year" — and alleys where "everybody just puts their junk back there." He praised Neighborhood Improvement for bringing dumpsters and admitted to filling one himself. On the tax, he took the opposite position from Richardson: "If it's all going towards law enforcement and fire, I fully support it. I mean, from somebody that struggles month to month, there's been many times I've called officers out and I never saw them."

Notable moments

• A developer's extension request was denied outright rather than tabled. After two councilmembers signaled a willingness to table the Eagle Quest East amendment for two weeks of negotiation, Councilmember Wood asked whether anyone would support the extension as written and got silence. He then asked what could realistically be negotiated in two weeks, concluded "I don't believe that he has the ability to move forward," and moved denial. The City Attorney's clarification — that denial leaves the developer in breach rather than expiring the agreement — did not soften the outcome; Wood's answer was "Let them go into breach then." The vote was 5-0.

• The council's most consequential ordinance passed over its most prepared critic. Councilmember Wood read out roughly a dozen specific objections to the Alternative Energy Overlay Zone, from naming permitted reactor technologies to removing the water-assessment waiver to adding weed mitigation during grading. When the Mayor urged moving on to other noticed hearings and the City Manager compared the delay to the city's chronically unadopted general plan, Wood took it as a rebuke: "we're not going to hurry through this because it's inconvenient for the staff." His motion to table failed 2-3; the ordinance then passed 4-1 with only one of his amendments incorporated, though the three colleagues who voted against him immediately asked staff to bring the rest back as amendments.

• A first-of-its-kind federal review. Evan Berrett reported that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Office of Advanced Reactors reviewed Eagle Mountain's draft zoning ordinance and, as far as anyone involved knows, has never done so for a local government before. The only incompatibility they found was the city's definition of "microreactor" — a term the NRC has not yet defined itself. Berrett also relayed the NRC's reading of the Atomic Energy Act: local governments cannot interfere with licensing, but retain full authority to deny a project under their own zoning.

• Two residents took opposite sides of the same tax. Bronwyn Richardson called a 220% property tax rate increase incompatible with a city that has two Title I elementary schools, and asked for a line-by-line accounting given that officials had described the money as both public safety and employee compensation. Minutes later, Jeff Ruth — who described himself as "somebody that struggles month to month" — said "If it's all going towards law enforcement and fire, I fully support it," citing calls to which officers never came.

• The council spent nearly half an hour on the tax before voting on anything. Councilmember Wood publicly apologized to Richardson, saying "I realized from your comment today that... you're not hearing what we're saying," and delivered the sharpest available formulation of the council's position: "we've been running cheaply, not conservatively." Councilmember Wright disclosed that the $6.9 million funds the sheriff's contract, of which only about $2.8 million has historically come from property tax, with the shortfall drawn from sales tax and fees — which, he said, "means your parks haven't been taken care of."

• A garage requirement became an argument about neighborhood permanence. Landex offered a well-constructed case that its two-story townhomes give buyers more total storage than the three-story units with 719-square-foot garages. The council rejected it anyway, because the requirement was never about storage. Councilmember Wright described entry-level buyers who "expect a 2-car garage to facilitate their needs of 2 cars, and regularly it doesn't," and Councilmember Clark tied it to turnover: "people only live there for 2, 3, 4 years and then they're gone... they lose the pride in their neighborhood."

• Three councilmembers agreed to sign a reconsideration letter in real time. Faced with a stalled land disposal in which one of sixteen owners would not commit, Councilmember Wright said "somebody on the staff write that and I'll sign it," and Councilmembers Whiting and Clark said they would too — supplying, on the spot, exactly the three signatures the code requires to bring the matter back.

• An off-agenda ask for a disc golf course arrived fully financed. McCaden Hanson proposed a tournament-caliber course on otherwise unusable land in the power corridor, naming QTS Data Center and Mountland Supply Co. as interested donors, pointing to RAP tax and the Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant, and noting that the adjacent UTA park-and-ride eliminates the need to fund parking.

• A three-motion struggle over parking ended by asking the enforcement officer what he wanted. After Councilmember Wood rescinded one motion and watched a second die for lack of a second, someone finally asked Jim of Neighborhood Improvement to state the actual problem. His answer — keep vehicles off the grass in front of the front window, put them on the driveway or the garage side — became the ordinance. Councilmember Wood's framing: "I want to make this easy for you, not more complicated."

About this transcript

Proper nouns are the least reliable part of this transcript. Councilmember Zac Huish's surname comes out as "Hewish," "Huebsch," "Hughes," and "Heresh," though roll-call surnames are otherwise reliable; a separate city staff member, Zach Hilton of parks and recreation, appears in the trails discussion and is a different person. Councilmember Brett Wright is once addressed as "Brad" during his own remarks, almost certainly a mishearing, and Evan Berrett is once called "Edmund" and once "Evan Barrett." Brylee Farms appears as "Briley," "Reilly," and "Brylee"; planner Steven Lehmitz surfaces as "Steven Lempse."

Legislative names are badly mangled: Representative Stephanie Gricius appears as "Grecious," "Griechus," "Gresham," and "Grishus"; Senator Kirk Cullimore as "Curt Cullimore" and "Kohlmore"; Representative Doug Fiefia as "Fiafia"; Senator McCay as "McKay"; and "Senator Brooks" late in the legislative update is likely a garble of an earlier-named senator. MIDA is transcribed as "MITRE," "MIDA," and "MITA." SITLA appears as "Sitla," "Citla," "Sitland," and "Citlin." The NICA course is sometimes "Neeka." The RAP tax appears once as "WRAP tax," and proceeds from a utility sale are consistently rendered as "utility cell." The Eagle Quest East agreement is misspoken as "Eagle Crest East" inside the motion that denied it.

Speaker attribution is imperfect in a specific and recurring way. The speaker labels are stable per voice, but several presenters share a label with a councilmember, so passages where a staff presenter and a councilmember trade remarks quickly — particularly the trails presentation, the Brylee Farms discussion, and the parking item — cannot be pinned to a speaker with certainty. This summary names a speaker only where the transcript names them, where a councilmember is addressed by name, or where roll-call context settles the question. The Mayor's voice and Deputy City Manager Steve Mumford's voice appear under a common label, as do City Attorney Marcus Draper, Councilmember Huish, and Bike Utah's Cameron Carter. The transcript also uses the first name "Ben" both for the City Manager delivering information items and for the founder of the Believer City sign initiative; it is not clear from the audio whether these are the same person.

Several passages are audibly incomplete. Mr. Ostler's reference to "the Bureau of Open Water" changing his water situation is unintelligible as transcribed. A late remark about the person delivering legislative items — "any legislative items from John Magnus" — does not match any name established elsewhere. The lot count in item 1.C is corrected three times on the record, moving from eleven to fifteen to sixteen, and the final figure is stated with visible uncertainty. The bike park construction estimate is given as "$0.9 million to $1.5 million" in the presentation and "$0.9 million to $1.4 million" a few minutes later. Garage dimensions in the Brylee Farms discussion are repeatedly estimated aloud rather than read from a plan, and the applicant's own figures shift between "about 425," "427," and "$425."