The seventh fastest growing county in the nation is gearing up for even more growth.
The Tooele County Planning Commission discussed and took public comment on a proposed addition to the county’s land use ordinances that would create a new zone and approval process for large-scale developments — or planned communities — in unincorporated Tooele County.
“The main purpose of the planned community ordinance is to encourage growth to shift to dispersed centers throughout the unincorporated areas of the county,” said Jeff Miller, Tooele County planning staff.
Planned communities, as described in the proposed ordinance, consist of developments over 200 acres in size and have a mix of components, including a wide range of housing types, density and architectural styles, town centers, a variety of business and education uses, and open space.
The proposed ordinance requires that 20 percent of the gross space in a planned development be common areas and open with space, with half of that area set aside as open space.
The approval process for a planned community would be a multi-step process.
The initial approval would be a plan for the area to be rezoned as a planned community. The plan would include the total land area to be rezoned, a land use table for the area with proposed uses, the number of residential units, and square feet of non residential development.
The next step would be the approval of a community structure plan. The community structure plan would include plans for major roadways, infrastructure, open space networks, and the general location of planned community elements of neighborhoods, villages, town centers, open space and business centers.
Residential densities in a planned community range from an anticipated 4 to 8 units per acre in neighborhoods and over 20 units per acre in town centers.
The initial plan and the community structure plan would be reviewed by county planning staff and approved by the planning commission and Tooele County Commission.
Subsequent project plans and subdivision plats would be approved by the planning commission.
The planning staff would approve individual site plans based on development requirements approved by the planning commission and county commission, according to the proposed ordinance.
The proposed planned community ordinance was written to be in harmony with the 2016 updated county general plan, which calls for the use of dispersed population centers, clustered development and preserved open space, according to Jason Losee, Tooele County planning staff.
“The use of the planned community zone will preserve open space and allow for development of water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure at the dispersed centers,” Losee said.
During the planning commission’s discussion of the proposed ordinance, Cameron Spencer, a planning commission member, suggested several revisions to the proposed ordinance.
Among Spencer’s requested revisions included making sure that the planned community ordinance would not legally bind the county to approval of high density housing projects, and the exclusion of sidewalks and unlandscaped detention ponds from open space.
Speakers during the public hearing were wary of the proposed planned community ordinance.
“This is not what unincorporated Tooele County wants,” said Rob Clausing, Lake Point. “It brings the city to these rural areas. We need to find a way to slow down growth until we address the pinch point on I-80.”
Spencer Crabtree, Stansbury Park, spoke with a planner from South Jordan about their planned community ordinance. Kennecott’s Daybreak planned community is in South Jordan.
“In South Jordan they keep Daybreak from developing into super high density everywhere when they approved a master development plan upfront with the zoning approval,” Crabtree said. “Whatever rezone is approved is trumped by that master development plan.”
Crabtree suggested that Tooele County’s ordinance should require a master plan upfront, not after the fact.
The planning commission asked the planning staff to consider the input of both the commission and the public as received in the meeting and by email and present a revised draft ordinance to the planning commission in its May 2 meeting.
“We’ve had lots of comments tonight,” said Scott Jacobs, planning commission member. “Let’s take time to do it right.”
The proposed planned community zone ordinance may be viewed at the county’s SIRE public access website at tcdms.org/sirepub/meet.aspx. Select the 4/18/2018 Tooele County Planning Commission agenda. A window with the agenda will open. Click on the link for agenda item #6, TCLUO 2018-02.
Comments may be emailed to the planning commission, care of Jason Losee at jlosee@tooeleco.org.