Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Salt Lake City proposes expanding housing options to address affordability issues.
- Plan would allow smaller homes and multi-unit dwellings in residential zones.
- Planners believe it could make housing more attainable as they seek more public comment.
SALT LAKE CITY — The median price of a home in Salt Lake City remains at almost $565,500, which is a relatively steady figure since a peak in 2022, but a 73% increase from 2017, according to Zillow.
Utah's capital city estimates that a household would need to make more than $150,000 to secure a mortgage — double the city's median residential salary. This, city planners say, is likely a factor in why the city's homeownership rate of approximately 43.5% is far below the statewide average of 69%, and why many families have settled elsewhere.
"(It's causing) a gap between what people can afford and what the market is providing," said Alicia Seeley, a principal planner for Salt Lake City, as she presented a potential solution to a small group of residents on Tuesday.
Members of the Salt Lake City City Council last month initiated a proposed text amendment to zoning language in its primary residential neighborhoods to allow for more housing types. The city hopes that it can bolster housing stock and cut housing costs.
Adjusting the code
Utah's capital city has, historically, allowed one or two single-family homes on large lots within its six primary residential zones: R-1, R-2, SR-1 and SR-1A, and two subsections of these.
Approximately 33,000 properties conforming to these six zones still exist across more than a third of the city's land, and account for three-fourths of all residentially-zoned land in the city. A map shows these stretches from Rose Park to Sugar House, and many neighborhoods in between.
What Salt Lake City is proposing, referred to as "Expanding Housing Options," is an adjustment to building sizes and types allowed within the six zones. It essentially allows for landowners to build small single-family dwellings, along with duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and four-unit townhomes, on smaller lots, said Andy Hulka, senior planner for the city.
The proposal wouldn't eliminate single-family zoning, nor would it prohibit the construction of new large single-family homes within any of the districts, he added. It would not remove any historic overlay protections, and it would not rezone anything, either.
But it calls for modifying lot dimensions, setbacks, building heights and lot coverage allowances and other development standards for different housing types. Building height would be slightly increased, remaining at 30 feet or less in all cases.
One parking space would be required per unit, akin to accessory dwelling unit standards. Building on lots behind a lot without direct street frontage, known as flag lots, would also be permitted, with driveway width and lot size adjustments to make the option more accessible.
All of this is expected to increase housing stock within neighborhoods across the city without building large apartment buildings, as has been the case in the city's core.
"The primary goal of this whole proposal is to enable small, infill housing that is compatible with existing, established neighborhoods and attainable to buy or rent," Seeley explained when she presented it to the Salt Lake City Planning Commission last month.
Can it fix affordability?
The quest follows other zoning measures the city has enacted to address its housing shortage in more high-density areas, while also drawing inspiration from other cities.
Most of what Salt Lake City is seeking to do is revert to the 1920s-era code that allowed for many different housing types, before the codes were changed to curb heights and density.
These types of zoning measures were passed all over the country, which partially factored in a nationwide housing shortage of 4 million to 7 million by 2025, Alex Horowitz, director of the nonpartisan Housing Policy Initiative for Pew Charitable Trusts, told KSL last year.
"People are simply priced out because housing is just so scarce," he said at the time.
Salt Lake City has gained more than 36,000 residents since 2000, but its child population has dropped by nearly 10,000 in that time, indicating fewer people having children or more families moving out, likely over cost, Hulka said.
Rents have also skyrocketed in recent years, and the city estimates that nearly 9 out of every 10 renters are priced out of homeownership. Salt Lake City's share of households with someone over 60 is also lower than the state average, suggesting troubles with aging in place to boot.
Our hope is that those who may be currently priced out of certain neighborhoods will be able to live in those neighborhoods if this works out as intended.
–Andy Hulka, Salt Lake City senior planner
However, he points out that cities like Durham, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon, have allowed smaller homes and middle housing unit development, which helped reduce costs by $250,000 to $300,000 than the median home prices in those cities.
That's ultimately what Utah's capital city would like to replicate.
The city's proposal is more of a "lowercase affordability" option, as Seeley puts it, since it makes it easier to build the types of housing that are generally more affordable. Condominiums, townhomes and twin homes are already typically $150,000 less than a single-family home in the region, according to University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute data.
The next steps
While planners say it would fit new water and walkability plans, some city planning commissioners were skeptical of parking requirements over existing vehicle trends. They also questioned potential land value impacts, which Hulka says are difficult to predict.
"But we do hope that the new forms of housing ... will be those within a more attainable price range," he told KSL. "Our hope is that those who may be currently priced out of certain neighborhoods will be able to live in those neighborhoods if this works out as intended."
This measure, in particular, would promote more options for families seeking to reside in residential zones, which would be "big" for the city, he added.
Planners are still seeking feedback on the plan, including which types of housing residents would like to see more of, since it would affect a large chunk of the city. A website was set up to provide more information and submit feedback, and one last open house will be held at the Neighborhood Hive, 2065 E. 2100 South, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, April 13.
"Nothing is set in stone," Hulka said. "We're soliciting feedback from residents for a reason. If there are major concerns, then we can change the code or propose different options for maybe the planning commission or City Council to consider."
The proposal will also go through a public process before potentially going into code. It's expected to reach the planning commission for a recommendation this summer, before going to the City Council for final approval sometime after that.
