Salt Lake City Council adopts new transportation plan and receives Mayor Mendenhall’s budget recommendations. 

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Mayor Erin Mendenhall presented her recommended budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year at the Salt Lake City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 7. The Council also held a public hearing on and adopted the Connect SLC citywide transportation plan.

Mayor’s Budget
Mayor Mendenhall presented her recommended budget for the 2025 fiscal year at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting. Her budget allocates $475 million to the general fund, which funds public services, police and fire departments and other non-departmental projects. If adopted, Mendenhall’s recommendations would represent a 5.9% increase from last year’s general fund budget.

“This year’s proposal is anchored by a commitment to executing our vision to support families, residents and the incredibly bright future of Salt Lake City,” Mendenhall said.

The budget allocates $2.6 million to affordable housing. This allocation is on top of $17.7 million that the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake approved for affordable housing in March. With these funds, the City hopes to help construct 1,500 affordable units.

“Affordable housing isn't just an annual budget priority, it's a year-round funding priority that continues to yield powerful results,” Mendenhall said.

The budget also recommends doubling the City’s Rapid Intervention Team designed to connect unsheltered individuals in Salt Lake to important resources. It would also fund outreach to City Justice Court defendants experiencing homelessness in hopes of reducing housing barriers these individuals face.

Mendenhall also allocated $57,000 to create a new fee schedule for the city’s athletic facilities. This new schedule includes discounted rental rates for the city’s youth sports leagues. She also announced that the city will reimburse youth leagues for the difference between the new and old fees these organizations have paid in the last two years.

“It’s a small price to pay to ensure families won’t be priced out of youth recreational opportunities because of the cost of renting our athletic fields,” Mendenhall explained.

This addition to the Mayor’s budget comes after efforts led by August Watcher, president of the Foothill Youth Baseball Association, to increase awareness about the high fees and poor maintenance of the City’s athletic fields.

“Mayor Mendenhall, City Council members, thank you for rolling back the fee schedule for youth sports,” Watcher said later during the general comments portion of the meeting. “Your actions today pave the way to make youth sports affordable for all families in our city.”

The budget also allocates funds to expand UTA’s On-Demand services on the West Side, funds a new position in the Mayor’s Office to oversee projects like the Green Loop and the sports and entertainment district downtown and distributes funds for repairing city sidewalks.

Now that the Mayor’s budget has been presented, the City Council and Mayor will work to fine-tune and adjust the budget for the next two months. The Council must adopt a new budget by June 30.

“Over the next couple months we invite members of the public to tune into our budget briefings and, of course, to share your feedback on all these important issues,” Councilmember Darin Mano said following Mendenhall’s presentation.

Public hearings for the new budget will be held at City Council meetings on May 21 and June 4.

The Mayor’s speech is available to watch on the SLC Live Meetings YouTube channel, and more budget details can be found at the Mayor’s Office webpage of slc.gov or at tinyurl.com/SLCFY25.

Transportation Plan
The City Council voted unanimously to adopt Connect SLC, a new city-wide transportation plan aimed to create “equitable, affordable and reliable transportation choices that support safety, health and sustainability,” the plan’s draft states.

Constituents continued to generally speak in support of the plan at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I first want to express my gratitude to the Council and to the Mayor for all the city has done to bring the Rio Grande plan forward from being just a citizen proposal to being something that is talked about more and more often with it becoming a reality with the Connect SLC plan,” said Frederick Jenny.

The Rio Grande Plan is a citizen-led proposal to bury the Frontrunner and Union Pacific rail lines in a “train box” on 500 West, roughly between 900 South and 300 North. The plan would also relocate passenger rail services from Salt Lake Central Station to the historic Rio Grande Depot. The plan aims to help bridge the gap between Salt Lake’s East and West sides.

As the Connect SLC plans move forward, Jenny requested that the Council include volunteers with the Rio Grande plan in discussions on its implementation.

“That way we're all continuing to move forward together rather than the community doing one thing and the Council doing another,” Jenny explained.

Following the public hearing, Councilmember Dan Dugan took a moment to comment on the feedback the plan has received.

“I just want to say I appreciate everybody's comments and feedback over the last two sessions and the pushback and the push to do more on this transit connect plan,” Dugan said. "This is a plan. No plan is perfect, but this is solid bones that we can make some adjustments to as we move forward, as necessary."

Dugan also addressed a comment from the plan’s previous public hearing on April 16, claiming that the city has not done enough to create more protected bike lanes. Dugan pointed to projects on 900 East, 700 East, 300 West and others that have created bike lanes for Salt Lake residents.

“The City is moving forward as fast as the money and the staff can allow,” Dugan explained.

West Side Zoning
The Council voted 6-1 to approve a rezone located on 2200 West from an agricultural district to a light manufacturing district with various conditions. Councilmember Eva Lopez Chavez voted against the rezone.

“I still have concerns about the environmental--the impacts that will be produced in different emissions so I will vote to reflect my concerns today,” Lopez Chavez shared.

Councilmember Victoria Petro thanked Dugan for his help in constructing conditions for the rezone that aims to mitigate harmful impacts. These conditions include setbacks from the Reclamation Canal and nearby residential dwellings and require that developments on the properties protect nearby sensitive lands.

“We are going to have to be vigilant and enforce and make sure that these things come to pass,” Petro said. “But thank you Councilmember Dugan for helping us get to a really high precedent so that anyone who’s going to take on attempting to do something in this area now has really big shoes to step into and we have the ability to protect constituents and environment alike out there.”

The Council also voted to approve legislative action that would initiate research and a draft for a new ordinance on historic building reconstruction. The ordinance would require reconstructed historic buildings be protected for 50 years instead of the current 25.