Lehi City Council Meeting – September 23, 2025
Lehi City Council Meeting – September 23, 2025
The Lehi City Council met on September 23, 2025, for a pre-council session at 6:00 PM and a regular session at 7:00 PM. The meeting covered parking solutions at Lehi High School, participation in a solar and battery storage project, approval of several resolutions, and a public hearing on a general plan amendment. Key outcomes included tabling the Water's Edge development with a directive to negotiate a development agreement, and approval of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan.
Consent Calendar
- Purchase Orders and Meeting Minutes: The council approved the consent agenda, including purchase orders (e.g., Olympus Precast, Mountainland Supply, Skye Substation Engineering) and the meeting minutes from September 2, 2025. (Unanimous approval)
Public Comments & Testimony
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20‑Minute Citizen Input: Multiple residents spoke on various topics:
- David Speed (419 S. 1430 W.) expressed concern about drainage and elevation from a new subdivision behind his home.
- Paige (Skyridge student) asked about Alpine School District elementary boundary changes and the new Cold Springs Elementary.
- Corgan Reeves requested traffic enforcement on Traverse Mountain due to speeding.
- Lily Leighton inquired about the completion date of the Lehi Public Library (expected December 2025).
- Macy Meyer asked about congestion relief on I-15 and Main Street.
- Jose Zuriga (carpenters union rep) urged the city to consider certified union apprentices for the Alpine High School project.
- A Skyridge student asked whether the Parks Master Plan addresses walkability and social infrastructure.
- Anna Van Orman asked about water preparedness for growth; staff noted proactive water procurement.
- James Harrison asked about access to Ozure Park and later spoke about the 2300 West project.
- Another student asked about construction on 2600 N.; staff explained it was a gas line replacement project.
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Public Hearing on Parks Master Plan (Item 10): Several residents spoke in favor of amending the plan to prioritize a park at the “Bermuda Triangle” (land near Belmont Elementary). Speakers included Laura A., Amy Welsh, Judith, Dan Fix, Jenna Cauver, Rachel Freeman, Casey Thomas, Kevin and Sheila Upchurch, and Monica Davis. They requested a neighborhood park with playground, shade, trails, and restrooms, citing a park gap in the Traverse Mountain/Belmont area. Some asked for a quiet, natural park to preserve neighbor peace. Rachel Freeman also raised concerns about inadequate baseball fields on the east side and a potential recreation center partnership with the YMCA.
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Public Hearing on Water’s Edge (Item 14): Rachel Freeman also commented on this item, expressing concerns about traffic, fire access, and high density in the area.
Discussion Items
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Parking at Lehi High School (Pre‑Council): Staff presented options to add student parking: (1) changing municipal code to allow parking on 500 E., 300 N., and along the post office, totaling about 46 potential stalls; (2) accepting a UDOT‑deeded grassy area north of 300 N. on 500 E. for a 66‑stall parking lot to be leased to the school district. The council noted that the school district had lost 178 church parking stalls and that the city had previously tried to solve the school’s parking problem. The council preferred to pursue the UDOT property option before modifying the code. They directed staff to pursue the land transfer and lease with the school district.
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UAMPS Fremont Solar and Battery Storage Project (Pre‑Council): Staff presented a power purchase agreement for 49.5 MW of solar with 4‑hour battery storage (198 MWh). The projected energy cost is $35/MWh (solar) plus $13.50/kW‑month (battery), blending to about $73/MWh. Staff noted that the project would not add upward pressure on rates and would help stabilize energy supply. The council asked about transmission constraints and the need to start construction by July 2026 to capture federal tax incentives. Staff will provide an executive summary before a formal vote in late October.
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Water Revenue Bonds (Items 5 & 6): A public hearing was held for the issuance of water revenue bonds to fund a storage building at the public works yard and expansion of a pressurized irrigation reservoir. No public comments were made. The council then approved Resolution #2025‑67 authorizing the bond issuance (1% loan from the state). (Vote: 4‑0)
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Hydro Vac Excavation Contract (Item 7): The council approved Resolution #2025‑73, a three‑year contract with Hydro Vac Excavation for installation of pressurized irrigation meters. The contract is the lowest of six bids; about 10,000 meters have been installed, with 4,500 remaining. (Vote: 4‑0)
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Real Estate Purchase (Item 9): The council approved Resolution #2025‑68 authorizing the purchase of 2.57 acres at 530 W. 300 N. The city plans to potentially lease the existing building on the property to Strata for one to two years until their Main Street project is complete. (Vote: 4‑0)
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Parks and Recreation Master Plan (Item 10): After extensive public comment, the council approved Resolution #2025‑69 adopting the 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Staff noted that the plan is a guide and that the city is already internally designing a park at the “Bermuda Triangle” site, with funding to be requested in the February budget. (Vote: 4‑0)
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Bicycle Skills Park (Item 11): The council approved Resolution #2025‑70, an agreement with Avid Trails for design and construction of a bicycle skills park at Shadow Ridge (Phase 2). (Vote: 4‑0)
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Power Engineers Agreement (Item 12): The council approved Resolution #2025‑72, a three‑year general services agreement with Power Engineers for technical engineering services, including work on the Skye substation. (Vote: 4‑0)
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2300 West Roadway Widening (Item 13): The council approved Resolution #2025‑71, a second amended interlocal agreement with Utah County to extend the contract for striping work to be completed in spring 2026. (Vote: 4‑0)
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Water’s Edge General Plan Amendment (Item 14): The applicant, Bob Perdue, requested changing the land use designation from Transit Oriented Development (TOD) to Mixed‑Use on 13.02 acres near 1300 E. 175 S. The proposal included up to 330 residential units, a hotel, for‑sale townhomes, and a pedestrian bridge. Concerns were raised about traffic, infrastructure capacity, loss of commercial land, and nuisance issues. After discussion, the council voted to table the ordinance and direct staff to negotiate a development agreement that would require: a high‑end hotel, at least 30% owner‑occupied for‑sale housing, necessary infrastructure studies (traffic, sewer, water, power), a public pedestrian bridge, road connectivity to Woodbury and Walmart, and measures to address transient nuisance. The ultimate zoning change (to Mixed‑Use or staying Commercial) will be determined when the development agreement returns. (Vote to table: 4‑0)
Key Outcomes
- Approved: Consent agenda, water bond resolution (4‑0), Hydro Vac contract (4‑0), real estate purchase (4‑0), Parks Master Plan (4‑0), bicycle skills park agreement (4‑0), Power Engineers agreement (4‑0), 2300 West interlocal amendment (4‑0).
- Tabled: Water’s Edge General Plan Amendment; staff directed to craft a development agreement with specific parameters.
- Directed: Staff to pursue UDOT land transfer for Lehi High School parking and to negotiate a lease with the school district.
- Upcoming: Formal vote on UAMPS solar project expected in late October 2025; budget request for the Belmont area park in February 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Like actually professionally rides scheduled and they bailed seven hours before and I was like, oh crap. Sorry, we're a little bit late here. We had a previous meeting and a real quick dinner after it. It is 6.07 and tonight is September 23rd. Well, excuse me, the date is September 23rd, 2025. This is the pre-council session. I'd like to welcome everybody here. We'd like to start this off with an opening prayer, and I've asked Michelle if she would take care of that for us today. Our father in heaven, we are grateful for this great city that we live in. And now we have the opportunity to work through issues and um do good things for the residents who live here. Bless bless uh councilmember conde who's not here and bless his family at this time um with the things that are going through. Uh we ask you to bless um our residents, our staff, our first responders, all those who make Lehigh such a great place to live that they can have peace in their lives and be uh safe and protected. Um we ask you to bless our community at this time with the recent tragedy that um the community, the residents, the people could come together with greater love towards one another, and these things we pray for in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you. Okay, we have two presentations tonight. Uh uh first one is item two point one. That's the discussion of the parking at Lehigh City or Lehigh High School, and item two point two is discussion participating in the UAM's Fremont Solar and Battery Storage Project. And I'm not sure who's going to be discussing the one on the school. Is that you, Luke? Yeah. Okay, come on up. I I can at least kick off the discussion. I know I've not been the only one uh looking at this. But here is our municipal code. Um, and this is the portion that talks about residential permit parking. So here's Lehigh High School, and the area to the east in red is permit parking only. So residents in that neighborhood can get two parking permits to park on the street and one guest parking permit, so a total of three for each each home. But students are not allowed to park there. And the area in yellow is no parking at all during school hours. So from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. no one's allowed to park in the place places in yellow. The changes we're looking at is 500 east is wide enough for parking on both sides of the road. Um also on 300 north here between uh 400 east and 300 east. There's no homes fronting on on the south side, and then also along the post office here. There's obviously no homes fronting, and there's potential for some to open that up to students for parking. So here's it's probably kind of hard to see, but here's 500 east. The blue lines are site triangles I've laid out for intersections and major driveways. And the white boxes are where we could add potential student parking places or open parking places for anyone during school hours. Um again, they total 23. Um, the east side, but there are a few on the west side. So that that's an option that we could look at to add a few more student parking. Um at junior highs and elementary schools, we've often had problems with park people parking on the far side from the school and setting their kids across the road. But I think with and we may have that problem here too. We but that's something we could we could evaluate and look at and maybe change if we do have a problem with students parking here and then running across the road to school. I know at um at Sky Ridge, we have that that's happening now here on 3200 north. We have students parking on the north side of the road. There hasn't been an issue with with that with students darting across the road here, but that's something to keep in mind. 300 north, this is the area, none of these homes front here. This is a garage.
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