In Attendance: Richard M. Battison, Dennis Spackman, Verdon Walker, Tom Hopkins, Liz Yeomans, Kane Loader, Ray Limb, Bob Ainslie, Mike Rodner, Kristen Thelen

Sharon Steel Updates

Liz Yeomans- Noticed that the trailer is gone from the site. It was taken today.

Kane Loader - He has had about 5 talks w/ Mr. Magelson this week. There are currently three lawsuits on the property. One lawsuit is the fee owners of property suing Mr. Magelson. Mr. Magelson is countersuing them, for something relating to breech of contract. The attorney for the fee owners is being sued over something to do with his getting part ownership on the project. The site will probably be tied up in legal battles for awhile. The city is preparing a letter to Mr. Magelson. He is on the clock with the agreement he made with the city. The RDA says that they need to have something on the site by August or the RDA goes away and they have to start over. The city is trying to get them motivated to get the project going.

Question: Does Mr. Magelson want to be involved with the development?
Answer: He has a developer that wants to step in and take over. They are negotiating a contract, provided he
can work out differences with the other owners.

Question: Can they still move on, despite the legal issues?
Answer: The city is requesting that they set their differences aside enough to get the right of way for the Bingham Junction road. The construction for the road would meet the building requirement of the RDA. They have 21 months to get something built. Kane wanted to make it clear that Mr. Magelson is not being hostile towards the city.

Question: It was indicated that the north side (OU1) of Bingham Junction will have all the roads in pretty quick. When is UDOT thinking of starting Bingham Junction Blvd?
Answer: They wanted to build the road all as one project at one time. First they need a dedicated right of way given to the city. Then UDOT will go out to bid with engineering firms to get bids. They wanted to get the road started by spring of 2007.

Question: Has an EIS been done?
Answer: Most of the environmental work has been done on both sites. Tom - said they might still need to do further environment studies. Kane - City is trying to circumvent some of that. They want to see if instead of full blown environmental study, they can just do an assessment.

Kane has gotten a good feel from Magelson about getting a deed. He has already meet with engineers. The road has been pretty much designed on his part of the project. They just need the fee owners to dedicate it over. Hopefully the letter the city is sending will modivate them to deed it over.

Liz- The Jordan River rose on March 23 (3 feet overnight). A few weeks ago she took photographs of the river and the flooding. These will be included in the February report that she is almost finished with. You will be able to look and compare levels. She will continue to monitor it, and when water goes down, will take more pictures. There are several erosion areas that they need to keep an eye on.

Midvale Slag Updates

A letter has been written and mailed to Max Dodson. In the letter it was suggested for the next phase to remain with EPA as there has been good working relationship with them and they don't want further delays. CSFM is expecting an acknowledgment that they received the letter.

Liz - said she is surprised that CSFM is stating a position on something that hasn't been made public yet, and asked how the information got to CSFM.
Rick - The information came after questions were raised about the riparian zone. CSFM is concerned that there will be enough money left to go to the riparian zone. With a changing of the lead - time and money could become an issue. CSFM is concerned that it is taking more time than it should. Hopefully by the middle of next month they will be done with planting the vegetation. CSFM is worried that it phase two cannot be moved on if this isn't resolved.

The city has the same concerns. The city brought up with the EPA that they don't want to do something along the bank (trail, etc), and then have to tear it out. This issue may also impact a potential developer. Another worry is about bank stablization. Question: What about the pump station? Answer: they have moved the lift station further east, off the landfill, up in the green space area that they are going to dedicate to the wetlands.

The builders want to put basements in the south-east corner of the open space.

They want to put a trailhead in the old land fill space. That will be part of the open space. If they have to do bank stabilization, they may have to take out the trail if it's already in. Question: Will bank stabization affect the wet lands? Answer: the trail doesn't go that far. At that point, the trail goes through project, not down river bank. However, from 7200 South to 7800 South they want to put the trail by the river.

Bob Ainslie - They have been dealing with wind storms. They have had a 10,000 water truck, and now have a 20,000 and 40,000 truck and a water tank. They have not received rights to pump the river. They have been watering everything with the water trucks. If you look stuff is starting to come up. They think it's going to work with the water trucks. By the end of this week the whole south side should be seeded and strawed. That is a good 100 acres. By the end of next week everything should be seeded north of the tracks. They should be done bringing in dirt by end of next month.

Question: It looks like there is a big ditch / plastic on the side. What is it?
Answer: That comes from other side of the street - it is just a storm drain. Not much coming out of it right now. As the property is developed, the city will require the storm drain system to be repiped.

Midvale City Updates

Ray Limb - Some reports have been done that say the river won't go down until Aug. It just depends on the kind of summer we have, and how hot. The river is really rapid. A lot of the work that has been done on the riparian zone is under water. The bank has been cut back quite a bit by the trestle. There are a lot of problems with bank stabilization on the west side. There are some places where it is really close to the path.

The crimping of the straw into the soil looks good. They have placed a tactifier on top of the straw. Bob - After you water it a few times the tactifier is gone, but the straw is still there. They put down the straw, and then a machine crimps it into the soil. Question: how do you water it? Answer: They run water trucks over it to water it. They are hoping that once the vegetation comes up that nature will take over, and they won't have to continue watering it.

Once EPA does a site inspection and says the expectations have been met, the 1 year warranty begins.

There is a developer that is interested in the property. In the newspaper it said that a group has a contract to purchase the property - the 216 acres (OU2). Mercer who owns the property on the north side of 7200 had a first right of refusal or bid. They were outbid by this other company. Mercer is still feeling they will counter - offer this offer. The city feels that the buyer has the ability to do this big of a project. (They have done other large projects, including Gateway). The buyer is not sure what they are going to do with the property yet. They want to know what the city's vision is. The city wants the 3 sites to be compatible developments so that they are not competing against each other. Only a certain amount of retail can be built on the site. The company is going to start a master plan. They are going to come back with bubble diagram of it. They have 12 months to do their due diligence. The city has visioned the property as a true mixed use.

The governor's office is interested in looking at the site as a possible location for a research park. That would fit in well with the city's vision. It would feed commercial retail/housing.

The city remains open for suggestions on what they want to bring into the site. There are options that could bring up to 8,000 jobs to that area. This site has risen to top of everyone's list. There is good transportation to it (Light Rail, next to the freeway, etc), and it has fiber optics and a federally funding road going through it. The governor's office is also looking at other sites, including daybreak, but connectivity with the University of Utah would be important, and this site has that.

Question: Are there any commitments with a Mercer developer?
Answer: They are meeting with a potential buyer. They are doing their due diligence. They thought Mercer wanted to do all the retail, but it looks like they are willing to sell some. There is a short time frame for the potential buyer to do their offer for the retail, otherwise Mercer will move forward. They are close to signing contracts on the residential area. The residential area will be all high and medium density.
Question: On OU2 are there any requirements for the number of single family dwellings or apartments.
Answer: There is mixed use on the residential. It won't all be high density. The high density will probably be more condos than apartments, although there could be some apartment type units. They are anticipating more owner occupied than rental units.

Murray is building a new street. Midvale City is trying to convince them to built it so it can connect to Bingham Junction to help improve traffic.

Other

Mike Rodner with transport authority attended the meeting to see if we had any information to pass onto UDOT.

Question: From Rick Battison - he heard that they were planning on doing an overhead crossing over 7800. It will either be 2 or 3 rails depending on what deal they make with railroad. Wouldn't it be cheaper to do an at grade crossing? It would also give a better view of Gardner village.

Answer: By virtue of the grade their ability to come down at 7800 South may be limited. Freight traffic can only handle a 2% grade. The light rail can handle a steeper grade. (There is a 7% grade up by the University of Utah.), but they can't do grades like that with the freight. The station will be at grade. They try to do everything at grade when they can, as they don't want to spend more money than they have to on structures. Building structures is expensive.

Next Meeting: June 7, 2006