The Lehi City Council met on September 21, 2026, with the mayor absent and council members leading the discussion. The agenda covered UTA On-Demand service, a hazardous-waste disposal proposal, a Library Board code amendment, and parks capital projects. The available transcript is partial.
UTA On-Demand Zone: UTA staff presented the on-demand service, describing Lehi as one of two initial cities. They said the program is not just a pilot and is here to stay, with no cost to the city and an initial one-year ask. The service is intended to help people without transportation, including students staying for after-hours events. A presenter noted community outreach, co-branding opportunities with the city, and Lehi receiving a benefit through the two-city setup. A council member asked for usage data beyond repeated riders, since regular users might inflate ridership numbers.
Hazardous-Waste Disposal Proposal: The council discussed disposal limits, dump-pass restrictions, additional fees at the landfill, and whether the city tracks types of waste. One participant described the city's cost as a small price to pay to keep hazardous material out of the waste stream. A council member voiced support for approving the proposal with a one-year re-evaluation instead of a two-year extension.
Library Board Code Amendment: The council discussed a potential small code change to align with state law added effective May 14, 2019. That law lets a library board purchase property with city governing body approval and requires the board to provide an annual report on the condition and operation of the library. Library representatives indicated they already keep the city updated on finances and operations.
Parks Capital Projects: Staff presented a parks capital project update focused on a corridor along 700 South, where a fence was built lower than residents expected because the road is roughly two feet higher than the earlier fence line. Staff said the project was completed under budget and noted the estimates did not include right-of-way or right-of-entry agreements with property owners. Staff asked whether to use existing funding toward raising the fence. A council member said they had walked 700 South and talked with multiple residents, and that pylons were a concern. Another member cautioned against changes that make trail users feel less safe, saying people could stop using the route and traffic could return. There was also discussion of rubber parking stops, with one member opposed to repeating that treatment in other neighborhoods because drivers could hit them and the city had already learned from the project.
But we have all the other council members in attendance. Councilmember Newell, Harrison, Stalings, Freeman, and Lockhart. So we are going to start out with an opening comment by Councilmember Harrison. Our dear Father in Heaven, we are grateful to be gathered together as a city council and staff and residents to be able to discuss and figure out the best solutions for our city and help us plan for the future. We are grateful for all of our residents and all the hard work that they put in each day to make our community better. And we asked for a special blessing upon them or for safety and prosperity. And we are grateful for our city staff and the first responders and asked for a special blessing upon them as well. We pray that my spirit may be with us that we'll be guided and directed in making the best decisions for Lehigh. And we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna start out. I'm kind of excited about this. Um item two point one, UTA on-demand zone presentation. Thank you. Um good afternoon, everybody. Um Hal Johnson with Utah Transit Authority. Uh it's a pleasure to be here with you today. I put together just a few slides about our on-demand uh service, but happy to um have a conversation with you as we go through go through. Um I thought just maybe to introduce it really quick. So, what is on-demand transit? It is a um app-based um transit product that UTA operates. Uh we do it in partnership with uh third-party vendors um in our Lehigh um area, our vendor is VIA. Um, and uh the way that you book the trip is through your phone uh through an app. And so there's a couple different uh ways you can enter it. There's um the transit app, which is actually a worldwide um trans trans transit focused app, and I've actually used it as I've navigated other systems all over the world. Uh so it's a really great um app tab on your phone as a starting place. Um and then that links you over to our UTA on-demand app and the on-demand app in that space you can book a ride um with the service. Um and the way we operate it, and you can also um call uh I put the number up there um to book a ride, and you can also call UTM customer service. So if people aren't um using smartphones or navigating the world in that way, we've got a couple other options. Um so the base fare is the same as our bus or trains, so it's two dollars and fifty cents, includes transfers um to other modes on the system. Um the difference on this is it's we don't have any paper uh tickets with it, so it's all everything happens within the app. Um so you can use your transit passes and other um passes uh within the app, and you can also pay with uh credit card. Um so we operate uh five other on-demand zones in our service area. Um so these are just a quick map of those other zones. Um this is our um northern Utah County um zone that we opened up last month. Um so there's some quick stats on there. Uh so um it's a really large geographic area, and uh we're really uh grateful for our partnership with um Utah County and UDOT. Um so they are funding the cost of operating this service uh for five years. So I characterize this as a public public public private partnership. Um so uh really grateful for um the sponsors and then I got this um post from Commissioner Beltrain um the other day. So uh I thought this was a really nice um uh posting that came from uh Eagle, not in Lehigh, but Eagle Mountain residents, so somebody that's in the zone. And so the the service has really offer offered him a lot more independence. Uh so the parents were previously driving him to work and um now he's able to book an on-demand ride. And I've seen this story in our other zones. So this is the transit service for folks primarily. And with the way we operate it, there's priority connections to get to the to and from the front runner stations. And so we've really prioritized getting to and from front runner. We're really early in the operation of this zone. But this map represents origins or destinations that we've seen.