The motivation for this discussion is the Governor's Housing mission to tackle the state's severe housing shortage by facilitating the construction of 150,000 new homes by 2028, including 35,000 starter homes, through supply-side solutions, zoning reform, incentivizing diverse housing types, and support programs, with the goal of increasing affordability and homeownership for all Utahns. The City Council discussed the following: 1) creating an Affordable Housing Overlay Zone; 2) High Density Residential (HDR) Land Use working on High Density Land Use and related zones and to look at setbacks, whether or not garages are required and to be prepared for whatever SITLA or other developers might come in with or be interested in; 3) Planned Development Overlay District (PD); 4) Lot Size Averaging; 5) review all Multifamily zones to determine whether their current standards are still appropriate. Review townhome and multifamily construction requirements to ensure new projects are not boxy or out of character with the community. Consider adding mansion-style multifamily design standards and possibly new zones or an overlay to encourage multi-unit buildings that maintain a single-family appearance and scale; 6) Resort Mixed Use (RMU); 7) Resort Commercial (RC); 8) eliminate Commercial Neighborhood Land Use and Commercial Neighborhood Zone on City maps and in City Code; 9) Add Buffer Requirements to City Code; 10) Perimeter Walls – for new development along residential and minor collector streets, should the code prohibit continuous perimeter walls and instead require homes front or side onto the street and driveway access be provided from the street or rear alleys? Alternatively should this be an encouraged guideline rather than a requirement?; 11) Revisit Home Occupation Standards to reestablish home occupation business requirements. Without clear current standards, staff and residents lack guidance on what qualifies as an acceptable home based business; 12) Review and Clarify Enforcement of Real Estate Sign Code – review Ivins City Code to ensure Ivins policies and practices are clear and consistently applied; 13) Short-Term Rental (STR) Code Gaps – Ivins City allows STRs in overlay areas and in the RC and RMU zones Ivins detailed standards apply only to the STR overlay, which leaves STRs in RC and RMU without any operating requirements. There are STRs in neighborhoods that are not allowed and steps can be taken under House Bill 256; 14) Civil Penalties for Violating City Code – The City needs to review and update its civil penalty provisions to remove confusion. The City should consider establishing different penalty levels for homeowners versus commercial entities since the current amounts may be unnecessarily steep for individual residents while potentially too low to deter commercial violations.
Of these items, the Mayor and City Council prioritized A, B, and C to address over the next several months. The first “A” priority is the High Density Land Use zone, as anything relating to affordability or attainability should be the priority. It was suggested that the priorities of A, B, and C are “Attainability”, “Buffering” and “Community” as the three (3) categories and priorities. Ordinances already exist in other municipalities that the City can use as a pattern. There should be a way for Ivins to accomplish these objectives in a way that is not destructive to the community. The Planning Commission was in attendance for this discussion has direction based on the discussion.
The discussion may be accessed at time stamp 00:00:52.