Implementing code that meets updated state requirements before a deadline, West Bountiful’s city council passed two ordinances to better accommodate new moderate-income housing projects during their meeting on June 18.

“West Bountiful has a history of having moderate income housing,” City Administrator Duane Huffman said. “This has always been a place where families have been able to come and build a community together. It’s changed a lot over time. Our proximity to Salt Lake, just increasing land values has really changed that, but it’s always been a part of West Bountiful’s identity to try to find a place for everyone.”

Labeled ordinances 489-24 and 491-24, the changes focused on facility impact fees and off-street parking. Both proposals were drafted by community planning consultants at Citi Design, and were revised by the planning commission. 

The code changes were made in response to new mandates set by the department of workforce services. In an effort to decrease real estate costs across Utah, the state has requested for cities to make specialized code changes that better create possibilities for moderate income housing developments by Aug. 1. Failure to comply will result in a $250 daily fee for the city, which will raise to $500 if the code is not compliant during the following year.  

“When the state passes something down like this, we always feel a little bit of a time crunch,” 12-year planning commission member Laura Mitchell said. “It’s kind of a dance to try and figure out ‘how do we comply with what the state wants and what’s best for our citizens while affecting positive change in a way that it will benefit the most people?’”

Most of the recommendations revised current code – especially clauses that state the number of spaces businesses and apartment complexes are required to have in their parking lots. Mitchell says that changes like these provide developers with opportunities to use less land to operate – leading to additional space for potential moderate-income housing.

“In other locations in our city, it would be [that] they’ve got to have one parking spot [per resident],” Mitchell said about requirements for apartment complex developers. “If we’re close enough to where people are viably using TRAX or FrontRunner, their bicycles, whatever it is, if it’s a walkable community, then we are I guess hedging our bets – guessing that ‘hey, maybe only eight of the 10 residents will actually have cars and the other two will use mass transit.’”

While both the state and Citi Design have offered various other suggestions on how to better bring moderate-income housing developments to West Bountiful, both the counsel and planning commission have said that they will seek to make minimal changes to ensure that they don’t have to re-write code for Utah’s next set of mandates.

“We really like the autonomy that we have to make laws that work for our citizens and our city,” Mitchell said. “Recent past has shown that the legislature is leaning more toward telling us what is best for our city instead of letting us choose ourselves, and so we’re taking cautious steps forward knowing that if our intention is to meet them a half-a-mile down the road and we meet them a half-a-mile down the road this year, what’s to stop them from saying ‘great, now we need you to come further’?”

While the possibility of having to re-write revised code is a concern, Mitchell says that the city factors in maintaining the small-town ambiance that West Bountiful is known for into their decisions.

“Most of our citizenry doesn’t want high-rise apartments. They don’t want multi-family homes,” Mitchell said. “Not that we think that there’s anything wrong with them, but it would change the feel of our city. We’re very conscientious about where we will allow that sort of housing and how we can encourage that growth in areas of the city that have the infrastructure to support it.”