Zoning reform is hot once again at Salt Lake City Hall.

On Tuesday, members of the Salt Lake City Council heard a briefing on the Expanding Housing Options effort, which would allow for smaller homes to be built on smaller lots throughout the city’s single-family zones, which would impact residential zones including all R-1, R-2, SR-1, and SR-1A zones. Those zones make up around 77% of the city’s residentially-zoned land. 

On Wednesday, the planning commission is expected to give a positive or negative recommendation on the proposal to the city council.

As of now, the proposal would allow small single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes of up to four units to be built on smaller lots of up to 2,000 square feet. Homes of up to 1,200 square feet could be built as part of the EHO small-lot dwellings effort. The maximum footprint per unit would range from 850 to 1,000 square feet. One parking space would be required per unit. 

The fight has been raging for months now, as some community councils are openly advocating against the proposed changes. Other local groups are in favor of the changes, which are aimed at making housing more affordable in Salt Lake City. 

Ahead of the Tuesday council meeting, local groups told Building Salt Lake what they support and what they oppose about the effort. 

Rachel Day, chair of the Yalecrest Neighborhood Council, a group that has been vocally opposed to the EHO effort, told BSL that members of the neighborhood worry about how it could change the area. She said that while people in Yalecrest would be open to having more affordable homes in the neighborhood, as well as drawing more families with children into the neighborhood, she questioned whether the EHO effort could make homes in the neighborhood more attainable, given the Yalecrest neighborhood’s steep entry point to buy a home. 

“How do the numbers scale when you have really high land values and then building costs are so high,” she told BSL. “How is that going to translate to affordable housing?”

Day added there could be an opportunity for those in Yalecrest to support the EHO proposal. She said if there was a carve out that made the proposal more family-oriented, like requiring homes to have three or more bedrooms, outdoor space or access to public schools, the proposal might find support. 

“There are always going to be people that just are not excited about change in any way,” Day told BSL. “But I think if people said this is going to grow our schools and this is going to put more kids here, I do think that we could probably get a critical mass of people to support that, because we’re just so concerned at families’ inability to move into the neighborhood, and to save you know the schools and connectivity that made it such a great place.”

One example of a small lot dwelling discussed during the council meeting Tuesday was a floorplan that consisted of 1,200 square feet of gross floor area across two floors, and the home included three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Salt Lake City senior planner Andy Hulka said during Tuesday’s council meeting that some people thought the home was too small, but he noted that a home of that size could still be family-sized — which is one of the stated goals of the EHO effort. 

Turner Bitton, executive director of Wasatch Advocates for Livable Communities, told BSL on Tuesday afternoon his organization strongly supports the EHO proposal — even saying some aspects don’t go far enough. He said that parking requirements are one factor that can bump up the price of a home, and he pushed for parking requirements to be eliminated for such units. 

“One of the things that we have found, for all of the housing types that are being proposed under the the policy, that parking can be one of the biggest barriers to making the missing middle and the small multifamily housing possible, as well as and in particular the starter homes or the small lot dwellings that the city is proposing,” Bitton said. 

Bitton said that if this proposal is implemented, changes to Salt Lake City would be gradual. He added the threat of large, institutional investors swooping in and gobbling up single-family homes to create multiunit properties is unlikely. 

“Quite frankly, I think opponents are playing up to kind of contribute to an environment of disinformation, but in reality, when you look around the country, big institutional investors are not interested in infill development projects,” Bitton said. “They are mostly interested in building 100 homes in a suburban-style development where they can hire one gardener, one person to maintain the development, and they’ve got an investment all as one cohesive portfolio.”

Inaccurate information surrounding the proposal was mentioned during the council’s talk Tuesday. Council Member Sarah Young, who represents the Sugar House neighborhood, said she’s heard presentations both for and against the EHO proposal that contained inaccurate information. 

“To me, what gives me pause is when we’re seeing misinformation out there. It just says that there’s more opportunity to clarify what is the actual intent here,” Young said.

Other council members agreed. They voted unanimously, save from Council Member Jennifer Napier-Pearce who was not in attendance Tuesday, in a straw poll to use city funds to send mailers to each address within the impacted zones.

Other members of the council had other concerns with the current proposal. Council Member Chris Wharton, who represents the Avenues, Capitol Hill and other neighborhoods, said he worries the EHO proposal undermines previous city housing efforts, like the city’s Affordable Housing Incentives and legislation regarding ADUs. 

“If I don’t have to build an affordable unit and I don’t have to occupy, why would I not just go with these options where I can turn both units, the principal and this the small, into two rental streams, and then use that money later to take down both of those and build a fourplex, and then make even more money,” Wharton said. 

Nick Norris, the city’s planning director, noted that not every property in Salt Lake is eligible for any of the three housing initiatives. 

“So the idea behind this is that if we have more tools that give people more options, it’s increasing the likelihood of us as a city getting more housing that provides people more choices based on their own needs,” Norris said. 

While the council didn’t vote on the EHO proposal itself Tuesday evening, the Salt Lake City Planning Commission is expected to vote Wednesday whether to give a positive or negative recommendation on the proposal to the city council. The city council will have the final say on the proposal, and it’s not clear when that vote could happen.

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