THE STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
At the City Council
In and For Said City
May 27, 2025
Minutes of the Richfield City Council meeting held on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor Bryan L. Burrows presiding.
- CALL TO ORDER
- OPENING REMARKS
- PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE by invitation
- ROLL CALL
- APPOINTMENT to the Planning Commission
- MINUTES APPROVED – Consider a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held on May 13, 2025.
- BUSINESS
a. Consider adopting Ordinance 2025-2, annexing the property owned by Gwen Simmons, Successor Trustee for Poulson Family Trust, located at approximately 900 West and 1300 South.
b. Senior Citizen Board to discuss the Senior Citizens’ Center and to request funding for new stoves.
c. Reconsider the award of the bid for improvements to the Senior Citizens’ building project to Nielsen Contracting with the apparent low bid of $254,220.53.
d. Micklane Farmer to discuss a proposed change to the City’s Construction and Development Standards for the type of curb and gutter that is allowed. - OPENING REMARKS – Police Chief Trent Lloyd
- PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Councilmember Kip Hansen
- ROLL CALL Roll Call. Present: Bryan Burrows (Not voting), Brayden Gardner, Kip Hansen, Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Michele Jolley (Not voting), Rob Jenson (Not voting).
Excused: Tanner Thompson.
Also, Trent Lloyd, Carson DeMille, Keith Mogan, Glade Neilson, Kylee Boyter, Ryan Savage, Laura Birt, Jack Head, Bernice Head, Tim Warren, Jane Reid, Dale Barney, Jenavie Ricksicker, Clyde Holt, Aaron Cleaveland, Gordon Baker, Jim Garman, JoAnn Ballow, Jennifer Dumounde, Davina Fellow, Jeanne Langston, John Newman, Wayne Johnson, Gloria Johnson, Pam Bigelow, Marcee Outten, Faye Dodds, Stan Poulson, Judy Busk, Georgette Harvey, Charlotte Knaphus, David Palmer, Terry Christensen, Russ Brightwell and David Anderson. - APPOINTMENT to the Planning Commission Motion: Appoint May Anderson to the planning commission, Action: Approve, Moved by Kendrick Thomas, Seconded by Brayden Gardner.
Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 4).
Yes: Brayden Gardner, Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Kip Hansen.
Excused: Tanner Thompson. - MINUTES APPROVED – Consider a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting held on May 13, 2025. Motion: Table the minutes until the next regular City Council meeting, Action: Table, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Elaine Street.
Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 4).
Yes: Brayden Gardner, Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Kip Hansen.
Excused: Tanner Thompson. - BUSINESS
a. Reconsider the award of the bid for improvements to the Senior Citizens’ building project to Nielsen Contracting with the apparent low bid of $254,220.53.
Mayor Burrows said some of the councilmembers have requested this item be placed on the agenda in order to reconsider it. Councilmember Hansen stated a packet was put together, but only one bid was submitted. Fortunately, the bid came in under the engineer’s estimate.
Councilmember Thomas stated that there was some discussion about possibly relocating the senior center be moved to a different location. Thomas has met with several of the seniors and they want to facility to stay in its current location. Thomas also said there may have had the appearance of not being awarded previously because of an issue with the contractor, however, that was not the case. Motion: Award of the bid for improvements to the Senior Citizens’ building project to Nielsen Contracting with the apparent low bid of $254,220.53
Action: Approve, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kendrick Thomas.
Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 4).
Yes: Brayden Gardner, Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Kip Hansen.
Excused: Tanner Thompson.
Mayor Burrows was asked by some of those in attendance what is being done to the center. He said it is being remodeled, including a new ceiling, flooring and new mechanical components. He said the project will also include new equipment for the food preparation. He said the services offered out of the facility are valuable. There will need to be an alternative location scheduled for senior events during the remodel process. There will also be commercial grade kitchen equipment for the center. He expressed appreciation for the seniors in attendance.
b. Consider adopting Ordinance 2025-2, annexing the property owned by Gwen Simmons, Successor Trustee for Poulson Family Trust, located at approximately 900 West and 1300 South. Councilmember Gardner declared a conflict of interest.
Ryan Savage addressed the council and outlined the annexation for the council. Savage explained there is a request to split the zoning of the property between RM-11 in the northwest corner of the property, and CG for the remainder of it. Savage said the CG zone is being requested because the future plans for it haven’t been defined. The proposed RM-11 zone is bordered by a road called out in the City’s master transportation plan that will connect College Avenue with a planned southern extension of 800 West to 1300 South. One portion of the land being annexed is a triangular piece that is not well suited to development on its own. There will be at some future point negotiations with the neighboring property to square it off so it can be developed. The entire parcel up for annexation is an island of county property surrounded by the City.
Mayor Burrows asked about the location of an old canal. It has been disused for more than 40 years, Savage said. It would not have to be cleaned up at this point.
Motion: Adopt Ordinance 2025-2, annexing the property owned by Gwen Simmons, Successor Trustee for the Poulson Family Trust with the noted correction of defining the areas zoned RM-11 and CG, Action: Approve, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kendrick Thomas.
Vote: Motion passed (summary: Yes = 3, No = 0, Abstain = 1). Yes: Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Kip Hansen. Abstain: Brayden Gardner. Excused: Tanner Thompson.
c. Micklane Farmer to discuss a proposed change to the City’s Construction and Development Standards for the type of curb and gutter that is allowed. Farmer brought a list of pros and cons as they relate to the use of rolled curb and the current standard of high-back curb for all developments in the City. He said he utilized an AI program to help remain objective.
There are two types of curbs being considered – the typical high-back 6-inch curb and rolled curb. Currently RM-11 zones are allowed to have the rolled curb, which takes the typical 6-inch curb and puts a slope on it so it is traversable by vehicles.
Pros of the high-back curb include creating a separation between the roadway and pedestrians. It creates a curb face that drivers can hit and stop, without going onto the sidewalk.
The direction of water run-off is essentially the same for both types of curb. Another pro to high back curb is that it traps debris so that the street sweeper can more easily pick it up. One draw back on the rolled curb is when the street sweeper is used, instead of trapping debris so it can be swept up, there isn’t a boundary and debris is simply pushed into sidewalks and yards.
Cons for the high back curb is that it is difficult to drive over, and it is costlier to install.
The pros of rolled curb include lower construction costs for developers. However, if the city decides to go to a rolled curb, it would be a good idea to require it to be seven inches thick to avoid cracking and breaking due to vehicles driving on it. In the older sections of town where monolithic curb/sidewalks were employed, they are only four inches thick and are damaged in many instances by vehicles traversing over them.
Mayor Burrows asked if the seven-inch requirement is part of the current standards. Farmer said it’s not, but it should be. He said the standards call for seven-inch thick at any driveway.
It is a clarification that needs to be implemented in the design standards, Farmer said.
Another clarification to consider is requiring all rolled curb to have a six-foot sidewalk, and allow high-back curb to have five-foot sidewalks. This is because vehicles will park on the sidewalk, and the extra 12 inches could give pedestrians more space to walk. Farmer suggested an option would be to allow high back curbs to have five-foot sidewalks. The current standard for the city is six-feet wide on all sidewalks.
Cons for rolled curb include it not being a barrier to keep vehicles off sidewalks. It also is not as familiar of a look. There is also the possibility of reduced water channeling, but that could be minimal, according to Farmer. Some rolled curb will have reduced capacity.
Councilmember Gardner asked about the curb along the north side of 800 South. That curb is monolithic curb and sidewalk, which is a little different from the rolled curb. Monolithic is all poured at once, while rolled curb can be completed in different pours.
Mayor Burrows said he likes the appearance of rolled curb. His primary concern is that park strips be eliminated. Farmer said the current standards have removed park strips.
Farmer said there are benefits to both types. Mayor Burrows said he wants to set a standard and wants everyone to abide by the standard.
City Administrator Jolley asked if the current approach of having the rolled curb allowed in RM-11 and the standard high back curb in other zones is acceptable. She said the reason the rolled curb was adopted was due to the proximity of driveways in an RM-11 development. With a high back curb, it would require difficult and odd curb cuts.
Mayor Burrows said if the standard requires a 7-inch sidewalk, there likely wouldn’t be much savings with the high back curb anyway. He said 7-inches is thicker than most shop floors. Rolled curb in West Valley City seemed to help with visibility and flow. Also, if a semi mounts the curb, it’s not a problem with the rolled curb.
Farmer said the thickness of sidewalks with rolled curb could be reduced in the standard to 6 inches.
Councilmember Gardner said he likes the rolled curb as well. He said he doesn’t think it fits everywhere, such as busier roads. However, it would make sense in residential areas.
Farmer stated the rolled curb also makes it harder to enforce where people are putting driveways because it can be driven over at any point. There are sections where people pull over the rolled curb and have damaged the sidewalks. Farmer said that most communities are requiring six inches thick on all sidewalks, regardless.
Councilmember Gardner asked what Farmer’s bias is in the issue. Farmer said he lived with rolled curb for several years and didn’t like it as it caused damage to his vehicle. Gardner said he likes the idea of exploring it.
Mayor Burrows asked Glade Nielson, who works for Sunrise Engineering, about the curb issue. Nielsen said in his experience high back curbs carry and channel water and slush much better than the rolled curb. Any inertia in the flow is not contained with the rolled curb.
Carson DeMille from Jones and DeMille said he agrees. He said they could reduce the seven-inch thick requirement for everywhere except where the driveways are. Farmer said one of the benefits of the rolled curb is that people can just pull onto it anywhere, and it would fall onto the city to make sure people are cutting into it and thickening it at the driveway entry points.
One thing to look at would be to make the high back curbs only have a five-foot side walk, and the rolled curbs would have to have a six-foot sidewalk, Farmer said.
Councilmember Gardner asked about possibly extending the rolled curb to some of the other zones, such as R1-6 or R1-8.
Councilmember Thomas said the rolled curb people do drive up on the sidewalk. It also makes it hard to determine where to place mailboxes.
Farmer said a lot of the new developments would be required to have cluster boxes instead of individuals, but that determination is made by the postmaster.
The monolithic curb would be more expensive to replace down the road.
Councilmember Gardner said he would like to have the planning commission’s opinion on this issue. The item will be placed on the planning commission’s next agenda to discuss high back vs. rolled curb.
Monroe is also looking at implementing curb and gutter and they are going to use high back curb, according to Administrator Jolley.
- OTHER BUSINESS – Councilmember Gardner asked if the rodeo caused any problems during the past weekend. Police Chief Lloyd said the rodeo and related beer service at it didn’t cause any issues he was aware of. His concern is not that beer was served at the event, it’s that it may open the door for it to be served at other events where it may create issues.
City Administrator Jolley reminded the council that next week is the week to sign up to run for one of two seats on the council as well as the Mayor’s seat.
Carson DeMille said in conjunction with his work on the bike trails, he’s been speaking with the Utah Department of Transportation. He said UDOT is pursuing a policy of disposing of all excess property it can, which could include several parcels along the west side of Richfield that would be advantageous for the city to acquire. He said it may not cost anything, but the City would have the field the proposal. If the City were to own it, it would allow it to avoid certain environmental requirements the property is subject to under UDOT ownership. He said every parcel he is looking at is hillside, and undevelopable.
Councilmember Gardner said one worry is the parcels could go to auction, and be purchased so the City wouldn’t have control of them. Councilmember Hansen said property purchases by private parties in the area could be used as a way to obstruct further trails in the area.
Mayor Burrows said he doesn’t want to get the City into a position where it’s having to pay for property purchases it can’t afford. DeMille said he UDOT seemed open to just signing it over to the city. He said there are eight parcels all together that would make sense for the City to own. Some of the UDOT parcels are already in use by the City, including in the parking lot/staging area for the trails that start near the 300 North underpass.
Kristine Perryman, a resident of Richfield, addressed the council. She said she came to the City office seeing more information about concerns her and others have concerning the pool replacement project. She said the City staff was very accommodating and open with her, and the staff was able to calm her fears about the pool and she appreciated them talking with her, even though she didn’t have an appointment.
- ADJOURNMENT Motion: Adjourn the meeting, Action: Adjourn, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Brayden Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 4).
Yes: Brayden Gardner, Elaine Street, Kendrick Thomas, Kip Hansen.
Excused: Tanner Thompson.