The Lehi City Council convened on January 27, 2026, at approximately 7:00 PM in the Lehi City Hall council chambers. All five council members were present: Councilmembers Newell, Harrison, Freeman, Stallings, and Lockhart, along with Mayor Benz. The meeting addressed a range of items including public comments on bike lane infrastructure, a public hearing on transportation impact fees, approvals for a substation construction and a development agreement amendment, a zoning change to allow short-term rentals in Cold Springs Ranch, a controversial concept plan for a 219-unit development that was denied, a code amendment adding adult daycare as a home occupation, and two resolutions on local land use authority and transportation funding—one approved and two tabled.
Here in the Lehigh City Hall in our council chambers. All council members are accounted for tonight. Councilmember Newell, Councilmember Harrison, Councilmember Freeman, Councilmember Stallings, and Councilmember Lockhart. We welcome all guests and we also welcome all staff who are here with us this evening. To start, we will stand, and I've asked uh Councilmember Lockhart to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge Elliot. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Individual with liberty and justice current. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lockhart. First item tonight is presentations reports. I don't believe we have any. So we're good there. So we're gonna open it up. We'll gonna go first to our citizens' comments. Um let me give you kind of the rules of the lands here. We we welcome you all if you'd like to come and make comment. If you see that you have an item that's on our agenda tonight, there are some items that will we will open reopen it for public comment. Uh so we'd ask that you would uh keep those comments to the root to the to the items on the agenda as we go. However, we'd love to hear from you, so we'll open it um for public comment when you come. We'd ask that you'd state your first your name, your whole name. Uh you'll have three minutes uh to share what's on your mind, and uh so we'll we'll start public comment. Mr. Mayor and uh members of the city council, thank you for this public comment time. My name is Chris Rollins. I've been a homeowner in Lehigh for 11 years, over 11 years. During the last City Council work session, there was a discussion regarding the 700 South bike lanes, and I would like to add my voice as a Lehigh homeowner to this discussion. I love the protected bike lanes called a cycle track on the master transportation plan. Me and my family use them every week. I use them to commute to work, and my family uses the bike lane on 500 West to commute to church on Sunday, not commute to bike to church on Sunday. In my experience, the cycle track or protected bike lane has a number of important advantages for all riders and joggers and others, but especially for biking with younger riders and his families on more common bike lanes where there are parked cars, then the bike lane, then moving traffic, people on bikes are riding between fast moving traffic on one side and coming up behind parked cars who aren't looking for you on the other. At every moment, there's the risk of moving cars swerving or taking up your bike lane space, or drivers in parked cars open their doors into you. On the other hand, the cycle track or protected bike lane uses cars that are parked on city streets to create a physical barrier between moving cars and children on bicycles. Having biked individually and with my wife and children quite a bit all over Lehigh on both kinds of streets and all types of bike lanes, it is clear to me that this design is much safer and does promote active transportation and the advantages that come with that. Of course, that does not mean that there aren't still places where there is risk, including at intersections. And yes, cars and bikers, all users need to learn and follow traffic laws, but that applies to all bike infrastructure and road design. I don't see how putting young riders closer to moving traffic would make them safer. I understand that some residents really don't like them, and I can support exploring solutions to address concerns, curbing instead of the white poles, maybe adjust the width of the lanes, better signage at intersections, or going to a split track where there are single direction lanes on either side of the road. But I strongly encourage and request that you keep them as a cycle track or protected bike lanes with a physical barrier between moving traffic and children on bicycles, as has been on the masters, the city master transportation plan for over 10 years. I was watching the meeting earlier with the Y2K survey results in the vein of quality of life and all of that. I'd like to say that the bike lanes, these bike lanes, and some of the other improvements that were made with the money that was originally designated for these bike lanes are some of the best and most direct ways that the city has improved the quality of life for me and my family since we've lived here. And I asked my wife if that was hyperbolic, and she said absolutely not. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Rollins. Hello, my name is Lynette McKenna. I am a representative of the Ruth and Nathan Hale Theater that is in Pleasant Grove. And just wanted to take this opportunity to make the citizens aware, the community aware of Lehigh that the Ruth is highlighting Lehigh City this upcoming week week, February 2nd through February 7th. Tickets are available for the two shows that are playing.