OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Sandy City Council Meeting: Housing Workshop on Identifying and Prioritizing Key Issues - September 2, 2025

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, September 2, 2025
BodySandy, Utah
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, September 2, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:22:24

Transcript — Verbatim
2:09

Okay, everybody we're gonna have to get started.

2:12

So I'm okay to see.

2:16

All right.

2:17

We are going to start tonight's city council meeting.

2:19

Today is Tuesday, September 2nd.

2:22

Uh we are conducting this meeting as a um housing workshop, one of the installations in our housing workshop.

2:28

We will do public comment at the end of this works workshop session.

2:34

And so if you're in person and would like to make public comment, there are some blue cards on the back table back here.

2:40

Please fill one out and bring them up to um Dustin or Justin here in the back.

2:46

Uh if you're online, then we will um take public comment um after we take in-room comment, should there be any.

2:53

And Lynn Pays is going to be facilitating this meeting, and so I'm gonna turn this over to you now, Lynn.

2:59

Thank you.

3:00

Um good to be with you.

3:03

Um I'm actually excited about our meeting tonight because uh this is the participatory part of the discussion where council members officials get to uh uh weigh in on uh your priorities.

3:17

And that's our focus tonight.

3:19

Look, before we get into the details of this, I wanted to have gonna give Dustin some time to walk through these rests that I assume you've all been sent.

3:28

You all received these.

3:30

Okay.

3:30

Um as you know, the first two meetings we had were educational, we got information from various experts, etc.

3:38

etc.

3:38

Based upon that those briefings that we had in our first two meetings.

3:42

Uh a questionnaire was prepared.

3:45

That questionnaire was then sent out to all of the all eight of the elected officials.

3:50

And uh because of the way that was set up, it is impossible to determine which response came to so we don't know you don't.

4:00

So they really are eight anonymous uh responses.

4:04

We track these responses both in terms of how many votes certain items got.

4:10

And because everyone was asked to pick their top ten items.

4:15

And then of those top ten to prioritize them.

4:19

So on these charts, you will see, and Justin's going to walk through these, but you'll see that we track how many votes an item received.

4:27

And then we also tracked how those uh items were prioritized by those who voted for it.

4:34

So you want to look not just at how many votes they got, but how high a priority was it.

4:39

And that's reflected in the bar graph.

4:41

So um, so I'm gonna let Dustin walk through that.

4:44

And then what I want to do with our with our um following his introduction and explanation of the of the data points that we have.

4:53

And thank you all for throwing those out.

4:55

We appreciate you taking the time to read through this and I hope provides response.

5:02

Then I want to then I want to take some time with all of you to walk through and sort of talk about what we can learn from your responses.

5:12

That makes sense.

5:12

But Dustin, why don't you go ahead, sure?

5:16

Thanks, Lynn.

5:17

Uh so I I'm you guys all saw the six graphs we put together, and then I sent out the kind of raw data sheet as well, which is a little bit more complicated to look at.

5:30

Taking that data, I think it's turning it into something that's easy to read.

5:34

And so I'm just gonna walk through those to make sure that everybody understands uh what they say and um how to read them.

5:41

So there are six graphs.

5:43

Uh the first one that we're on here.

5:45

Uh let me walk through it.

5:47

So a couple commonalities you'll see between the first three graphs.

5:52

We have not included any of the issues, and the issues are on here A1 through K1.

5:59

And if you reference the uh uh reference sheet that we provided in the packet, uh you'll be able to see which issue is A1, which issue is K1, and everything in between.

6:14

But a couple commonalities.

6:16

We did not include anything in this graphs that received zero selections from an elected official.

6:22

So for example, if uh A1 had received instead of one elected official picking it had received none, it would not be on any of the graphs.

6:32

Another commonality that you'll see between all six of the graphs is they're color coded by the category.

6:38

So each uh of these issues is categorized into these categories A through K, and they're color coded here, and it's the same color coding all the way through to make it a little bit easier to read.

6:50

So for example, category A is severe housing shortage, right?

6:54

Okay, it has uh particular issues in it, A1 through uh A6, which you can open the uh questionnaire record sheet in order to understand what those are.

7:06

So this first graph uh it covers how many selections, how many elected officials selected each of the issues.

7:18

Uh and so for example, we'll use A3.

7:22

A3, three of you said, hey, this is one of my top ten most important issues.

7:29

Uh, if you look at G4, six of you said this is one of the most important issues to me.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Affordable Housing█████████████████████████████████████████████54%
Land Use and Zoning█████████████████████25%
Public Engagement███████8%
Procedural████5%
Public Works███3%
Sustainable Development██2%
Parks and Recreation█1%
Education█1%
Arts And Culture█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Sandy City Council Meeting: Housing Workshop on Identifying and Prioritizing Key Issues - September 2, 2025

The Sandy City Council held a meeting on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at 5:15 PM in the Third Floor Multipurpose Room at City Hall. The primary focus was the third workshop in the Community Housing Workshop Series, titled "Building our Future: Identifying and Prioritizing Key Issues." The meeting also included public comment, standing reports, council member business, the mayor's report, and the CAO's report. The council worked to narrow down housing priorities and provide directional guidance to staff.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Perry Harrison encouraged the council to explore deed restrictions, subsidies, and RDA funds to address housing affordability. He cautioned that market-based solutions tend to incentivize self-interest and urged the council to prioritize residents' interests over developers'.

Work Session – Community Housing Workshop Series

  • The workshop was facilitated by City Attorney Lynn Pace. Dustin Fratto, Council Director, presented survey results from a questionnaire sent to all eight elected officials. The survey asked each to select and rank their top ten housing issues from a list. The results were compiled into six graphs showing both the number of selections and weighted rankings.
  • Key findings from the graphs: Issues in Category D (limited housing options, obstacles to middle housing, appearance and neighborhood integration, housing for seniors, lack of affordable options for first-time home buyers, housing diversity for a wide range of demographics, and minimal construction of smaller homes) received the highest number of selections and weighted priority. Other topics with notable support included owner-occupied housing tools (G4), zoning and land use regulations (F), and a combination of categories A, C, and E (severe housing shortage, impact of renting, and housing cost issues).
  • Lynn Pace identified three top priorities: (1) a larger variety of housing, (2) more housing (greater density/volume), and (3) owner-occupied housing. Secondary priorities included lower cost housing (starter/smaller homes) and integrating a variety of housing types into existing neighborhoods.
  • Council Member Zach Robinson saw four broad buckets: D, F, G, and a mix of A, C, and E. He emphasized the need for a multifaceted approach.
  • Council Member Marci Houseman stressed the importance of removing obstacles to middle housing and creating tools to enforce owner occupancy. She noted that addressing missing middle housing would also help seniors and first-time home buyers.
  • Council Member Alison Stroud expressed a need for data on current housing stock composition to set numeric goals (e.g., percentage of senior housing).
  • Mayor Monica Zoltanski highlighted home ownership, new housing options adjacent to transit, senior housing, redevelopment of older homes, and the need to add value for existing residents through parks and trails. She argued for preserving established single-family neighborhoods while concentrating density in areas like the Cairns district.
  • Council Member Cyndi Sharkey supported the focus on housing variety and owner occupancy, while Council Member Aaron Dekeyzer raised concerns about private property rights and the nuances of market-driven outcomes.
  • On the topic of affordability, the council discussed indirect (building more supply) versus direct (price controls) approaches. A majority of council members expressed support for an indirect approach, favoring smaller lots and smaller homes as a path to affordability.
  • The council crafted a draft goal statement: "Our goals to encourage housing for residents across all life stations. We want to encourage and allow a larger variety of housing, including housing for seniors, first-time home buyers, and middle housing, more housing in the right locations, and we want the housing to be owner-occupied." Later, terms like "sustainable" and "balanced" were suggested by Zach Robinson and Brooke D'Sousa, and the council agreed to include those concepts.
  • Six council members gave a thumbs-up and two gave a sideways thumb, which was accepted as broad consensus for directional guidance.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal vote was taken; the meeting was a discussion and direction-setting session.
  • The council provided staff with a goal statement highlighting: housing for all life stages, a larger variety of housing (including seniors, first-time home buyers, and middle housing), more housing in appropriate locations, and a preference for owner-occupied units. Affordability was to be addressed indirectly through increased supply and smaller units.
  • The next housing workshop is tentatively scheduled for October 7, 2025, though the date may be adjusted to allow staff time to research tools and incorporate insights from the League Conference (October 1-2).
  • Staff (Community Development) will use the council's direction to develop a range of tools and tactics for council review at the next workshop.

Standing Reports

  • Dustin Fratto reviewed the upcoming agenda: a report on the Salt Lake County Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan, a proposed council award named after Don Verde, and a potential RFP for a management study in Public Utilities.

Council Member Business

  • Marci Houseman praised River Oaks Golf Club, attended a Sandy Amphitheater concert, and thanked Community Development staff for responsiveness to a resident.
  • Cyndi Sharkey also attended an amphitheater concert, volunteered at the Arts Guild production of Shrek, and noted the quality of the venue and volunteers.
  • Zach Robinson shared that a resident's issue with a short-term rental was resolved due to recent code amendments, demonstrating the effectiveness of the council's work.
  • Alison Stroud attended the Police-Fire softball game.

Mayor's Report

  • Mayor Zoltanski attended the open house for the new Trans Jordan Transfer Station, which will provide convenient waste disposal for residents starting October 1.
  • She visited Altara Elementary and Edgemont Middle School; noted Edgemont reopened after asbestos mitigation.
  • Congratulated Sandra Hawk (historic committee volunteer) for being named a Fox 13 Super Senior.
  • Mentioned the Teddy Swims concert at the RSL Plaza, which drew about 12,000 attendees.

CAO Report

  • Shane Pace invited the council to a first responder ceremony on September 6 at 9 AM at City Hall, followed by a service project at Alta High School (blood drive and hygiene kit assembly). Flags will be set up around City Hall on September 9 and removed on September 15.

Adjournment

The council unanimously agreed to adjourn at 7:36 PM.

Meeting Transcript

Okay, everybody we're gonna have to get started. So I'm okay to see. All right. We are going to start tonight's city council meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 2nd. Uh we are conducting this meeting as a um housing workshop, one of the installations in our housing workshop. We will do public comment at the end of this works workshop session. And so if you're in person and would like to make public comment, there are some blue cards on the back table back here. Please fill one out and bring them up to um Dustin or Justin here in the back. Uh if you're online, then we will um take public comment um after we take in-room comment, should there be any. And Lynn Pays is going to be facilitating this meeting, and so I'm gonna turn this over to you now, Lynn. Thank you. Um good to be with you. Um I'm actually excited about our meeting tonight because uh this is the participatory part of the discussion where council members officials get to uh uh weigh in on uh your priorities. And that's our focus tonight. Look, before we get into the details of this, I wanted to have gonna give Dustin some time to walk through these rests that I assume you've all been sent. You all received these. Okay. Um as you know, the first two meetings we had were educational, we got information from various experts, etc. etc. Based upon that those briefings that we had in our first two meetings. Uh a questionnaire was prepared. That questionnaire was then sent out to all of the all eight of the elected officials. And uh because of the way that was set up, it is impossible to determine which response came to so we don't know you don't. So they really are eight anonymous uh responses. We track these responses both in terms of how many votes certain items got. And because everyone was asked to pick their top ten items. And then of those top ten to prioritize them. So on these charts, you will see, and Justin's going to walk through these, but you'll see that we track how many votes an item received. And then we also tracked how those uh items were prioritized by those who voted for it. So you want to look not just at how many votes they got, but how high a priority was it. And that's reflected in the bar graph. So um, so I'm gonna let Dustin walk through that. And then what I want to do with our with our um following his introduction and explanation of the of the data points that we have. And thank you all for throwing those out. We appreciate you taking the time to read through this and I hope provides response. Then I want to then I want to take some time with all of you to walk through and sort of talk about what we can learn from your responses. That makes sense. But Dustin, why don't you go ahead, sure? Thanks, Lynn. Uh so I I'm you guys all saw the six graphs we put together, and then I sent out the kind of raw data sheet as well, which is a little bit more complicated to look at. Taking that data, I think it's turning it into something that's easy to read. And so I'm just gonna walk through those to make sure that everybody understands uh what they say and um how to read them. So there are six graphs. Uh the first one that we're on here. Uh let me walk through it. So a couple commonalities you'll see between the first three graphs. We have not included any of the issues, and the issues are on here A1 through K1. And if you reference the uh uh reference sheet that we provided in the packet, uh you'll be able to see which issue is A1, which issue is K1, and everything in between. But a couple commonalities.

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