Draper yanks 4 neighborhood councils

DRAPER — City officials pulled the plug on Draper's neighborhood associations this week, repealing a 10-year-old ordinance granting limited authority to four citizen councils.

City leaders said the associations had lapsed in recent years, with only one — Corner Canyon — holding regular meetings and reviewing city planning applications.

But members of the Corner Canyon Association say they are outraged by the "underhanded tactic" of the city to curtail citizen input, member Matt Haines said. The decision to nix the groups comes after the Corner Canyon association actively opposed several City Council decisions this fall.

"I think from the city's perspective we were too effective," Haines said. "I think that because we were so active here in our area and we were able to bring citizens together, our city councilors and mayor were intimidated by that."

City Manager Eric Keck, however, said the city only wanted to curb inefficiencies in the community council system. Two of the groups stopped functioning more than a year ago, and the third became inactive in September after the city first considered eliminating the groups.

"The council members believe that with the growth of the community and with the maturation that we've gone through, the days for the need of the neighborhood association are gone," Keck said.

Although the Corner Canyon group was the only active association, Haines said allowing it to continue as a city-sanctioned council would not have hurt anyone. Now, he added, there is much less obligation for city officials to inform citizens of upcoming decisions.

The neighborhood associations were first created in 1996 for "the purpose of encouraging and enhancing organized citizen input regarding city planning and administrative services." The groups received minimal funding and enjoyed immunity from lawsuits as city volunteers.

Recommendations on development projects and applications from the neighborhood associations were also required to be included as part of the city's staff report to both the Planning Commission and the City Council.

"Our city is growing so fast right now; this is not the time to be tearing away our right to participate," Haines said. "This ordinance was around a long time before these five guys. Who are they to just come in and shut us down?"

Without the government support, Corner Canyon Association chairwoman Summer Pugh said residents will be vulnerable to "sue-happy" developers that have threatened to sue when citizen groups opposed their projects. The groups also will not receive permit applications from the city, will not have the right to meet with developers about their plans and will not have the authority to ask the city to postpone a decision for 30 days.