The View of the Data for all the Maps

So I promised everyone that I'd show all the data that supported the maps I've created. I used the parcel information provided by the county for each city. Then I added that to the layer I created for each individual rooftop then I manually entered in the data for each particular neighborhood.

Here you can see the information such as garbage day, elementary school, voting district, etc.

Thank you all for reading my blog. It was a pleasure to share my experience with you. Have a great Holiday Season!!!

City Council and Planning Commission Presentations

There were several instances where I was called upon to create presentations for the City Council and Planning Commissions. Eagle Mountain is in the beginning stages of updating its general plan and I had to present the beginning stages and purposes for having a general plan. I also had to create presentations for other small code changes. Below are some of the slide shots from a presentation about changing the coding for wind and solar energy systems in Eagle Mountain.

Only those lots that are a 1/2 acre or larger can have small windmill energy systems. I had to create these maps using ArcMap to demonstrate the number of affected houses.



After showing which houses would be affected by the coding changes we had to show where possible locations for the windmills could be in their yards. They had to be a certain distance away from any housing units in order to ensure safety.

Speed Limits

In Eagle Mountain there have been several new roads added and many older roads had their speed limits changed. I addressed those changes and created a map depicting the the speed limits of each piece of road in Eagle Mountain (even the dirt roads). I also marked in bright red the school zones. New elementary schools were being built in the area so I felt that it was important to show these areas of high importance.

Resume Help

The other day I stopped by the Career Services department at BYU to receive help with my resume. This actually was the perfect time to stop in there because I am trying to apply to various jobs in Arizona because we will be there in little over a month. They were able to provide with the "do's and do not's" of resume writing. I walked out of there with confidence knowing that my resume will be able to compete with other strong applicants for jobs. Now let's just hope we can find a job in this economy.

Eagle Mountain Needs A Grocery Store

Getting approval to building a commercial complex can be quite complicated. First a developer must submit a concept plan. This i just a very rough sketch of the buildings and maybe types of businesses that will eventually occupy the development. After the concept plan, other designs need to be submitted and they can include some of the recommendations made by the city staff. These revisions are called a preliminary plat and a final plat. Depending on the city the preliminary plat needs to be approved by the Planning Commission and the Final Plat needs to be approved by the City Council. The designs that are submitted need to meet the city codes. This first picture below is the plan submitted by a developer. During these first couple meetings with the developers we also met with real estate agents to see if the location is a good spot to bring in some bigger name stores. Eagle Mountain still does not have any grocery stores so this plan was submitted to bring in a more well known store.

The plan they submitted did not meet various parts of the city code so the Planning Director and I drew up some plans that would help it meet code. For example, there cannot be any parking spaces between the road and a building. And one part of the development must be a main corner entrance for the area. We made a few corrections and limited the number of parking spaces (grocery stores always have empty spots). Here is the drawing we submitted back to the developer.

I need to vent!!!!

I'm about as big as a suns fan around. I love them dearly and have watched for as long as I can remember and I'm not so sure I can continue to have my heart broken again and again. The first heart break came in the 1993 NBA Finals against the Chicago Bulls. Why, oh why did John Paxon have to make that shot...

Another heart break came when Robert "Cheap Shot" Horry checked Steve nash into the scorers table which caused Amar'e Stoudemire and Boris Diaw to get ejected because they stepped on the court.

Last year when Ron Artest got the rebound and threw up the ugliest shot known to man to win game 5 of the Western Conference Finals was another shot to the heart.

Now to watch this years team is truly frustrating. Hedo Turkoglu is a waste and is taking up way to much cap space. I'm not too pleased with the front office's decisions to bring on 18 different small forwards because now we have no presence down low in the post. The Suns will now struggle to have a winning record and make the playoffs for the next couple years and it pains me to see the careers of Steve Nash and Grant Hill end in such fashion. Someone please give me a glimmer of hope so I won't continue to suffer.

P.S. Living in Utah with all these Jazz fans has about killed me. It's definitely time to leave this state... AZ here we come!!!

Future Transportation Plans

Long range planning is extremely interesting to me. For this project we met with several different developers, private sector planners, MAG (Mountainland Association of Governments), and many others to help show the future needs of the city. With the rapid growth of Eagle Mountain and other surrounding cities there are few acceptable roads in and out of the city. Future plans will bring 2 or 3 new freeways into the valley where Eagle Mountain is located. 2 passes over the mountain towards Utah Lake and even a potential tunnel. There is still a large debate about building a bridge over Utah Lake. The majority of the population in Utah County is on the East side of the lake. But with the growing population on the West side of the lake there is a large need for easier access to the county center (Provo). Many are concerned about the wetlands and the destruction that will be caused to them. Others are concerned with traffic congestion and ease of access to Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. Below is a map of the future roads in Eagle Mountain. It is still a small community but with rapid growth, new, main roads need to be constructed.

Voting Districts

I don't know about everyone else but isn't it a hassle trying to find what voting district you're in. I came up with the idea to help the citizens out by placing clear and easy to read maps on the internet. Each household's address was also uploaded into the data base so eventually they can go to the city's website, type in their address, and immediately find out what district they're a part of. We would like to eventually get to the point where a person can hover over their neighborhood with a mouse and all the information they needed would pop up. But that will have to wait till the city buys new servers to support the data... and that is probably not going to happen soon due to budget constraints.

Career Fair

Towards the end of September I attended a career fair at BYU. The atmosphere inside the room is electric because of the number and quality of the businesses that show up to recruit. For 2010, BYU was ranked #11 for recruitment. It was amazing to be apart of such a quality university that draws in top businesses from around the country.

I went there mainly looking for government jobs (which there weren't any) but I was able to speak to a couple recruiters that would allow me to exercise my urban planning skills and future MPA skills. I love going to job fairs and it gives me a chance to look into my future to see what all this schooling will actually help me do.

Bug Problems

The area surrounding Eagle Mountain had a major bug problem that they haven't seen in over 50 years. Millions of crickets and other bugs have nestled into the brush that is located throughout the town. Many residents are calling for the city to cut down this brush so the bugs would leave but cutting down the brush would only cause the insects to go into people's yards and houses. If you take away the bug's home they have to go somewhere. This caused some major frustration with the citizens but there wasn't a whole lot the city could do to rid the city of bugs. It was just a phenomenon that happens every 50 years or so. Next year they shouldn't see nearly as many around town.

Snow Removal Priority

These maps were not only used for residents but the public service/maintainance workers as well. These help display the order in which the roads are plowed. Obviously, priority goes to the main roads.

Flood in Eagle Mountain

This flood caused great damage to several homes in Eagle Mountain. The problem was that there were two separate 200 year storms within 4 days of each other. Several residents complained to the city that it was the city's fault that their houses were flooded. They said their houses were not built to code and because of that their houses were ruined. They were expecting the city's insurance to pay for the damages. This is an argument that I do not agree with. No matter how well your house is built, if there are 2 separate 200 year storms within 4 days of each other then your house is going to be flooded. There isn't anything you can do about that. There were several heated debates at city council and town hall meetings where citizens were furious. Take a look at the flooding in these next couple videos.





The local NBC news station covered the storm and show some pretty amazing images of what happened. Take a look at these links to read the news stories and videos. The both storms dropped about 2.5 inches of rain in just 15 minutes. This storm was extremely strong.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11808415

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11886051

Fire in north Eagle Mountain

In July there was a wildfire that came close to several homes within Eagle Mountain. The fire started on Camp Williams and slowly mades its way over the hills towards the city when both Camp Williams Solidiers and Eagle Mountain Fire Department contained the fire. Several residents were frustrated wishing the city would have done more to protect their homes. But everyone came out safe and all homes were saved.

Garbage Pick Up Dates

Here are some more GIS maps depicting the different sections for garbage pick-up. Again, all the residents will be able to find this map online or they will eventually be able to type in their address into the city's website and find what day their pick-up is.

More GIS

Here are more maps I created using GIS. These maps display the days and weeks for recycle pick up around the city. Some people have asked how I was able to obtain the information and create these maps. I'll create a special post on this with a picture showing the back-end data I collected.

Our Baby Came!!!

Thanksgiving Day was an eventful one. Prior to Thursday, my wife did not sleep for 3 nights because of contractions. They were too close to let her get any sleep but far enough apart where we couldn't go into the doctor. Finally, Thursday morning came and her blood pressure was a little elevated so we decided to go into the doctor. They hooked her up to the monitor and decided to admit us. While waiting for her to be dilated enough to start pushing, my in-laws brought in Thanksgiving dinner for me to enjoy. Finally around 8:00 PM it was time to start pushing and my wife did great. She pushed for about 2.5 hours until she was no longer making progress. The doctor came in and used a vacuum and after a couple more contractions the baby came out. It was a beautiful little boy. We named him Graham Evans Turner and he weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20.5 inches long. We sure do love him.

Another GIS Project

My goal here was to demonstrate the school boundaries on the map. I also found a way to insert the school boundary information into each address in the city. That way any citizen can go to the city's website, type in their address, and find out what elementary school boundary they belong too. I also showed the location of each school in the city. FYI there aren't any public junior high or high schools in the city as of yet because the population is so young. Here are how the maps turned out. (Click to make the images larger.)

Subdivision Plat Drawing

This by far was my favorite project to work on. Along with the Planning Director at Eagle Mountain City, I met with several developers who were trying to submit designs for new neighborhoods. In the particular instance we were discussing the potential to build on a strange part of land. You can see two dotted lines going through the middle of the piece of land. These two lines represent an easement where houses are not permitted to be built on. The dotted lines on the top of the picture also represent another easement. The diagonal lines throughout the sketch represents potential open space. We had to find a way to build cluster homes on the piece of land and we needed to come up with suggestions to give to the developer. Using an engineering scale we had to abide by certain length restrictions due to the city's code and find a way to have the most possible units on the small piece of land. The dark colored in rectangles represent rear-entry shared drive ways. This design allows for more open space. After a day or two of going through multiple drafts this was the final design that I submitted to the developer. It is still going through approval with the Planning Commission and City Council but there is a possibility that the developer will stick with design and begin the building process soon. Lets cross our fingers. (Click on the image to make it larger.)

Our Baby Needs to Come Soon...

Today is the 39th week of the pregnancy with no signs of the baby coming any time soon. The due date is on November 25th (Thanksgiving Day) but our doctors says we should plan on December 2nd. They are guessing that they will have to induce labor and they will not induce until a week after the due date. We're excited for our little boy to come and we hope he doesn't freeze in this crazy Utah weather.

Wake-Up Call

I hate waking up to this... I can't move back to Arizona soon enough. I do not handle the white stuff well. What's even worse is that I have a rear-wheel, two wheel drive truck that doesn't handle ice very well. I have to put in several hundred pounds of sand bags in the bed to even have a chance of not dying on the road. I miss having 70 degree Christmas' and will have to wait for a while to have one. We will be moving back to Arizona in January so there is end in sight.

Planning and Geographic Information Systems

My internship gave me experience in two separate fields. Since the city is still pretty small, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and planning are closely related. When I started my internship in May 2010 I had a long list of GIS projects to complete. My duties as a GIS Intern were to create a city atlas to be put online as well as create a database to insert information that is important to the city residents. Information such as school boundaries, voting districts, garbage and recycle pick-up, speed limits, address, lot number, open space information, etc. I need to first create a map to belong in the city atlas and then insert the information gained from each map and insert into the database. I will inlcude screen shots in the next couple posts of the database to demonstrate what the information I collected looks like. Below I have inserted pictures of the maps created to demonstrate the available open space. Each map explains who owns the open space and who is in charge of maintaining the space (either the HOA or Eagle Mountain City). Hopefully the maps turn out large enough.

The map above shows the community around the city center. This community is located in the center of the city boundaries.

The map above is the community that is located on the northern most boundary of Eagle Mountain.

A Little Bit About Eagle Mountain

Eagle Mountain is located just West of Utah Lake and Lake Moutain which are also located west of Provo, Utah. It is also about 40 minutes Southwest of Salt Lake City. The city is very new and has grown rapidly over its short existence. It was incorporated in 1996 and by the year 2000 it had just over 2100 inhabitants. But by 2008 there about 22,000 people living in the city and the estimates to the current date are around 25,000. By land mass the city is the 3rd largest in the state of Utah with over 54 square miles. There is plenty of room to grown as only a small percentage of the land has been used. The city is made up of two different communities. "The Ranches" subdivision is located to the North while the city center area is located in a central location. One would almost think that these two areas are two completely different cities. About 2/3 of the population is located within "The Ranches" HOA and the rest live in the city center.

I began as the City Planning and GIS intern on May 10, 2010. It was a great experience as it allowed me to put to use what I studied at BYU. GIS wasn't really my area of expertise but luckily I took three classes on GIS and I tried to incorporate what I learned in those classes to help finish projects in my planning classes. I look forward creating future posts to show the projects I worked on.

About Steven Turner

Hello Everyone, my name is Steven Turner and I'm currently enrolled in the MPA - Urban Management Program. I was born and raised in the East Valley area and attended Dobson High School. After high school I did a year of schooling at Mesa Community College then I served a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Peru. Nearly 22 months of the two years I was located in the northern part of Peru next to the border of Ecuador. After my mission, I finished my two year program at Mesa Community College then transfered up to Brigham Young University. While attending school at BYU, I met my wife and we were married in November 2008. We are now expecting a baby boy around thanksgiving and we couldn't be more excited. I graduated from BYU in April 2010 with a Bachelors of Science in Geography: Urban, Rural, and Environmental Planning. After I graduated, I started working for Eagle Mountain City, Utah as their City Planning and GIS intern. I worked there for about 4 months and that brings us to this date. I love the field I've chosen. I have a strong passion for community affairs and it is my belief that in order to help our nation change we must first change our communities. Wherever I work in the public sector my goal is to create safe communities for families. A solid family is the rock of our society. After my MPA program at ASU I hope to continue my career in city planning with the eventual goal of being a city administrator. I love sports of all types but mostly basketball, golf, volleyball, and football. I love life and I'm excited for another new beginning back in my home state of Arizona and attending ASU!