In major bid for more housing, SLC could vastly expand where backyard homes are allowed — with some caveats

You could call this the capstone in Salt Lake City’s increasingly urgent and multiyear drive to encourage more housing that people can afford.

In a major play to entice additional housing types accessible to average residents, Utah’s capital is pursuing plans to allow smaller backyard dwellings on up to three-quarters of existing residential lots citywide.

The latest move to expand housing options could affect more than 40,000 homeowners living in all corners of the city, largely excluding swaths of the downtown core westward to Interstate 15.

The proposal would permit owners of single-family homes on larger lots to add smaller homes, duplexes, triplexes, four-plexes, town homes and other dwellings to their properties by right and without application at City Hall.

The new zoning and design changes — revealed in detail by city planners in a late February pitch to the City Council — would allow backyard homes on footprints as small as 2,000 square feet and at the same height as most buildings in the surrounding neighborhood.

The packages of zoning and design changes would also make easier to understand the city’s rules on setbacks, and how much of an existing home lot these new homes can occupy — all with the aim of enticing more construction.

Planners insist these proposed rules would not do away with single-family zoning, but rather allow more so-called missing middle housing to be built on tens of thousands of the city’s existing home lots, should property owners want to build.

The city’s overall strategy here, planners say, has been modeled in part by zoning changes tried in other cities that have seen lower home prices and wider housing availability as a result.

Word of this latest housing initiative, which comes not long after moves to ease the city’s rules on accessory dwellings, has drawn a mixed initial reaction from the City Council — with some members urging caution and others seeking to forge boldly ahead.

“I love everything that we’re doing here,” said council member Victoria Petro, representing the west side’s District 1. “I actually would like to see us become more assertive in pushing this.”

Targeting SLC’s lower-density neighborhoods

The city’s campaign on expanding housing options also is arguably a culmination of its steady eight-year campaign to use zoning reform to fix its dire housing problems.

So far, though, that push has been mostly aimed on the city’s higher and more medium-density areas — all in the hope of closing a gap in affordable housing, particularly for families, that numbers in thousands of homes.

This latest idea — set in motion last March by the City Council and fleshed out by planners under the direction of Mayor Erin Mendenhall — will now go after lower-density residential and suburban properties that ring the city’s urban center.

The effort appears to dovetail in many ways with efforts at the state level by Gov. Spencer Cox and state lawmakers to encourage thousands of new starter homes.

New data indicates nearly 72% of all Salt Lake City households can’t afford the prevailing median home price, which is now pegged at $615,000.

For renters, that number is as high as 86% of households currently unable to buy. The city’s homeownership rate currently stands at about 44%, according to planners and independent data, while those rates reaches above 69% for Utah as a whole.

In technical terms, this new initiative would affect properties zoned R-1, R-2, SR-1 and SR-1A in Salt Lake City. Those lots account for just over a third of all city land and 77% of all parcels zoned for residences.

Homeowners under the new rules would be required to provide a parking space per new unit — and alley access where it’s available.

In addition to potentially boosting housing, city planners say, the new options could ultimately help enhance walkability in many neighborhoods, while reducing outdoor water consumption amid Utah’s drought conditions by reducing backyard space that may currently get watered.

One big caveat: A top city planner says about two-thirds of the city’s 40,235 properties that could be affected these zoning rules will face other constraints that will likely make them ineligible for new home construction of this kind.

Those conditions might include backyards that would be too small, those unable to meet the requirement that there be one parking stall for every new dwelling, or those lacking emergency-vehicle access.

‘Thousands’ of new homes in the next 10 years

City officials say they are poised to launch a series of public listening sessions in coming months aimed at garnering input, with a view to making sure dwellings permitted under the new rules will meet community needs and be compatible with surrounding homes and neighborhoods.

“We hope people remain engaged and get involved,” said senior planner Andy Hulka. “We do expect to change and update the proposal based on the feedback we receive from the city.”

The new rules will eventually need to make their way to the city’s planning commission for approval, then to the City Council — possibly before year’s end

Planners wouldn’t hazard a guess on how many new homes this is all likely to produce.

One advocacy group for affordable housing, though, estimates the new options could bring thousands of new smaller housing units in the city over the next decade.

“It’s something that is a high priority for us and we’re very supportive,” Turner Bitton, Glendale Community Council chair and executive director of a group called Wasatch Advocates for Livable Communities, said of the proposals.

The city’s approach on this has been modeled to some degree on changes enacted in Durham, North Carolina, which brought a resulting spurt in home construction and drops in median home prices.

Bitton said his group used mapping software to study similar reforms in Houston and Memphis, some of which resulted in moving to 1,400 square-foot backyard lot sizes and three-story dwellings.

Those cities, he said, saw sizable upticks in homes built, particularly for seniors wanting to downsize.

“Families throughout Salt Lake City are all facing rising costs and challenges of keeping kids and grandkids close,” Bitton said. “This kind of proposal is how we solve those problems.”

‘Wait and see’ as other reforms unfold?

Salt Lake City first allowed new accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, in 2018. It has since widened those rules to permit additional types of attached and detached add-on dwellings, also known as mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages.

Some of those reforms drew significant pushback from many homeowners over potential neighborhood impacts. The city has since seen construction of ADUs climb from a handful a year to double digits.

The city has also created major new incentives to property owners and developers to build affordable housing; modified its rules on many of its residential multifamily zones; and streamlined its approach to mixed-use zones to make them simpler, especially for would-be homebuilders.

As city planners sketched out the new plans last week, council member Chris Wharton said he worried the city “might be moving a little quickly” on the latest proposed reforms —before those other changes take full effect.

Wharton, representing the city’s District 3 spanning the Avenues, Guadalupe and Marmalade neighborhoods, said he hoped to “wait and see” on how prior changes play out — while delaying these latest proposed reforms “a couple of years.”

“Some of the ADUs that I’ve seen developed in my district seem like pretty substantial units,” Wharton said. “I want to see if those are helping or hurting.”