Salt Lake County's systematic downzoning of the eastern foothills has moved on to its third and probably most contentious phase yet, targeting valuable terrain from 5300 South to Big Cottonwood Canyon.
With the public hearings, debates and votes behind them in the downzoning of the hillsides from Parleys Canyon to 5300 South, the effort to extend the restrictions will get under way this week before the Planning Commission.Last week, the County Commission voted unanimously in favor of downzoning a mostly undevelopable, 690-acre swath of the hillsides from Mill Creek Canyon to 5300 South. The action limits future development to parcels covering at least five acres under strict slope conditions.
However, commissioners voted to leave the door open for one last major development in the area, a proposed 10-house subdivision on a 20-acre site owned by the Bernard Brockbank family.
With slopes under 30 percent and adequate access, the property appears to be suitable for development, commissioners decided. Also, the Brockbanks have offered to give the county about 114 acres of land adjacent to the site.
The downzoning began in July along what officials described as the least developable stretch of the foothills, 633 acres from Parleys Canyon to Mill Creek Canyon.
County planners recommended the downzoning program following a study that found the existing zones to be out of date and inappropriate given modern geological and engineering standards.
In a report to the County Commission, county planners called the current zoning "misleading to property owners." Though the foothills have been zoned for moderate density development since the 1950s, the new Hillside Protection Ordinance has put most of the land off-limits.
The planners recommended downzoning the area from R-1-8 and R-1-10 - standard single-family subdivision lot sizes - to the five-acre FR-5 to 20-acre FR-20 zones. In FR zones, each lot is evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the Planning Commission.
"This proposed rezoning will help preserve the aesthetics of the foothills because larger lots allow greater flexibility to place structures and roads on the most suitable terrain and maintain natural vegetation," planners said.
With most of the "relatively easy" land already gone, planners said developers have set their sights higher up the hillsides, where slopes range from 20 percent to more than 50 percent and geological and access problems are more severe.
Included among the concerns cited by planners were:
- "Development along the foothills has eliminated a large portion of the deer winter range."
- "The drought conditions of the last few years has emphasized the potential for major wildfires along the foothills and in the canyons."
- "The majority of the this area is above existing water tanks designed to provide service to future developments."