Holladay voter guide 2023

City Council

District 4

Drew B. Quinn

Occupation: Attorney (retired)

If elected, what would you do to provide more affordable housing options to your residents? Would you support higher-density housing?

If elected, I will continue searching for ways to provide more affordable housing options to Holladay residents. Holladay has little land within the city that has not already been built on. During my first term, I voted for an ordinance that allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and will continue to investigate other ways of increasing housing options within the city. I will also keep looking for a way to add affordable housing units to the city.

What is your city’s responsibility in addressing homelessness, and what would you do within the boundaries of your community to unhoused Utahns?

Holladay does not have a large homeless population, likely because the city is not on a major transit corridor. Holladay pays into the Shelter Cities Mitigation Fund, and I support food pantries in our local high schools that provide food and other support for students in need and their families.

Besides affordable housing or homelessness, what is the biggest challenge your city faces, and how would you address it?

Our most pressing problem right now in Holladay is balancing the old and the new, and figuring out how to pay for it. Holladay was settled in 1848. Many of our streets are narrow and without sidewalks, and the infrastructure beneath them needs to be updated. Residents want to preserve the historical feel of the city, but get frustrated when traffic through downtown comes to a standstill. During the past two years, the city bonded for funding for paving streets and updating infrastructure, but more needs to be done for the safety of everyone who drives, walks or cycles through our city. In addition, City Hall, a remodeled elementary school built in the 1930s, needs a seismic upgrade. My challenge will be to prioritize and fund these and other pressing projects without financially burdening our residents.

What is a fun or unique fact about you?

I am a weaver. I love creating scarves, blankets, towels and other things on my loom.

Matthew Collin Tracy

Occupation: Architectural design professional.

If elected, what would you do to provide more affordable housing options to your residents? Would you support higher-density housing?

My 35-plus years of experience in the architecture and planning profession bring a skill set currently lacking from the Holladay City Council that will assist in addressing our affordable housing crisis. While I support efforts to provide more affordable housing units, it is important these solutions respect our city’s existing suburban and pastoral character. While I oppose construction of dense, concentrated multifamily units, I do support ordinances requiring developers to set aside modest numbers of affordable housing units to the public and then thoughtfully distribute them throughout our community. I also support measures to lessen the financial burden placed upon average Holladay homeowners by placing money back into the pockets of average residents via voluntary financial incentives enabling homeowners to weatherize and upgrade the insulation in their homes. These incentives will enable homeowners to spend less on unnecessary energy bills.

What is your city’s responsibility in addressing homelessness, and what would you do within the boundaries of your community to help unhoused Utahns?

While I do not believe it is reasonable to expect the residents of Holladay to solve our state’s homelessness crisis, I also believe it is vital the residents of Holladay be mindful of our own abundance and ensure we are part of the solution and not just part of the problem. If elected to the City Council, I will use community celebrations to not only mark our own successes but also raise money to support and lift the unsheltered of Salt Lake Valley. I will also create programs limiting the size of local deer populations, which have grown beyond the carrying capacity of local ecosystems and then use the excess deer meat to feed the hungry and unsheltered.

Besides affordable housing or homelessness, what is the biggest challenge your city faces, and how would you address it?

The biggest challenge facing my city is local public school closures. While the residents of my city are often blessed with tremendous financial abundance, we also have a rapidly aging senior population and many new arrivals who typically do not have as many children as their predecessors. Therefore, there are simply not enough in-boundary students to keep our own public schools open. Springlane Elementary, for example, was recently closed, and if we are not proactive, Morningside could be next. To date I have met with every single principal in my district along with the superintendent of Granite School District, and then have crafted a plan ensuring not one more local public school is closed. My plan invests residents in the health of our own schools while also actively recruiting and supporting out-of-boundary students, which is detailed on my webpage at www.electmatthewtracy.com.

What is a fun or unique fact about yourself?

I paid my own way through Brown University working on fishing boats in Prince William Sound, Alaska, for six years.