With a new ordinance spelling out the approval process for planned communities, Tooele County is prepared for inevitable growth, according to Tooele County Planner Jeff Miller.
Tooele County was designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as the seventh fastest growing county in the nation in 2017. That growth is expected to continue with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah forecasting that Tooele County will grow by 112- percent over the next 50 years.
To prepare for growth the Tooele County Commission approved the addition of Chapter 31, Planned Community Zone, to Tooele County’s Land Use Ordinance during its Tuesday night meeting.
“This ordinance allows the county to plan proactively for growth,” said Miller. “The ordinance will protect the interests and rights of both the county and developers. Currently we have no ordinance in place that anticipates large-scale developments.”
The county’s planned unit development ordinance has been used in the past for large developments, but Miller calls the county’s P.U.D. ordinance inadequate in its protections for the county when it comes to large developments.
“The P.U.D. ordinance is dated,” he said. “It has no provision for controlling density, requirements for open space, or lists of permitted and conditional uses.”
Planned communities, as described in the new ordinance, consist of developments over 150 acres in size and consist of a mix of components, including a wide range of housing types, density and architectural styles. They also have town centers, a variety of business and education uses and open space.
The ordinance requires that 25 percent of the gross space in a planned development be common areas with 15 percent of the development’s gross area to be designated 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 rezone request must include the total land area to be rezoned, a land use table for the area with proposed uses, the total number of residential units, the square feet of non residential development, and a preliminary outline of the location of land use districts within the planned community.
The rezone would be reviewed by the planning commission, which would send an recommendation for approval or denial to the county commission, following a public hearing. The county commission will make a final decision on the zone change.
With the zone change approved, 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. The ordinance spells out what is allowed in each of these elements, including maximum residential density.
The community structure plan would be reviewed by county planning staff and approved by both the planning commission and 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 the development requirements approved by the planning commission and county commission, according to the 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 Miller.
Prior to approval by the county commission on Tuesday night, the planned community ordinance was reviewed by the planning commission at three meetings, including one public hearing, Miller said.
“With or without the ordinance, people will submit their plans,” Miller said. “The ordinance allows for orderly steps for review and approval.”