Sandy officials launched a two-year project to overhaul the city’s land code, and local lawmakers ratified a framework to guide its housing policy along the way.

On March 24, the city council adopted the Building Our Future report for its housing strategy. The council developed the report through a series of workshops and lays out lawmakers' vision for balancing Sandy’s unique qualities with the goals of boosting homeownership and expanding the housing stock to meet the needs of all residents. 

The roadmap also suggests legislative tools the council can use immediately to address housing market issues, as the code rewrite is underway.

 “Every policy recommendation we are making within this final report, every strategy, every tactic, every tool is filtered through those two lenses: how do we achieve the vision…and how do we best address those prioritized issues,” Dustin Fratto, Council Office executive director, said to the council on March 10 when presenting a draft of the report.

Many of the prioritized issues listed in the report intersect. For instance, Sandy’s restrictive zoning code and lack of condominium construction contribute to the creation of “missing middle” housing.

Single-family homes make up 75% of Sandy’s housing stock, crowding out middle housing options such as duplexes, townhomes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), according to data from Utah Foundation cited in the housing report.

A number of the legislative tools in the council's current arsenal can be used through development agreements, in which the city offers incentives to developers in exchange for deed-restricted units. Fratto said those restrictions would be outcomes-oriented.

“It was made really clear to us early on that there wasn’t an interest in incentivizing housing in necessarily in a particular geographic location, and there wasn’t an interest in incentivizing certain types of housing structures, but there was an interest in incentivizing outcomes,” he said. “And what I mean by that is incentivizing things that would constitute a major public benefit, so an outcome might be housing for first-time homebuyers or housing for seniors."

Along with diversifying Sandy’s housing options, elected officials also want the middle housing to blend seamlessly with existing neighborhoods. The report lists requiring ADUs to be owner-occupied as one of the primary ways of doing that.

“An important part of maintaining neighborhood character you are maintaining the character of ‘hey, the people who own this property live here,’” Fratto said.

The council would like to limit detached ADUs to low-density neighborhoods, but they “might have to give a little” on that condition after the state legislature recently passed a law prohibiting municipalities from adding zoning requirements on some accessory units.

“We can [restrict locations] when we are talking about lots that are under 11,000 square feet under the current state statute,” Fratto said. “...But once you hit that 11,000-square-feet threshold, my understanding of what the law is that they are going to be permitted by right.”

While the new law gives Sandy’s elected leaders wiggle room in zoning ADUs, Councilmember at-large Aaron Dekeyzer said he’d be happy to “plop one down wherever you want.”

“I cannot wait for the council to pass an ADU ordinance,” Dekeyzer said in March. “It’s been over a year since we’ve been trying to do that, and there are dozens of residents chomping at the bit for this to happen, so I’m super excited that happened in the legislature.”

Updating the land code

The housing strategy is part of a larger plan to rewrite Sandy’s Land Development Code, or Title 21.

The code revision was prompted by the fact that the city’s current zoning code impedes the implementation of key features of Sandy’s master plan, according to a memo sent to the council authored by the Community Development Department.

“Furthermore, the last major update to the Land Development Code was almost 20 years ago,” the memo states. “Since that time, there have been a variety of code changes to address specific needs and state law changes; however, piecemeal code amendments have created structural and organizational challenges that need to be addressed in a wholistic manner.”

The city hired engineering firm Psomas to advise on the land code project. The housing report suggests two zoning tools to direct the consultants towards the council's goals: a Form-Based Code and Overlay Zoning.

Form-Based Code shifts the focus of zoning laws from specific land uses to the physical form of buildings. This would allow the city to enter into by-right development agreements, reducing developers’ costs associated with legal delays.

“By-right development agreement, I kind of view it like the self-checkout lane,” Fratto said. “It’s the ‘hey, here are a list of standards, and if you meet these standards, you can by right build this thing in this location.’”

Zoning based on a building's form would mark a comprehensive code rewrite. In contrast, overlay zoning is more “surgical in nature.” 

“So if we want to provide an incentive to a very particular location in the city, we may use an overlay zone,” Fratto said.

The code overhaul also aims to redevelop Sandy’s transportation and commercial hubs. And the adopted housing framework reserves low-rise apartments for the high-activity city centers.

Now that the council has adopted the housing strategy, the report will be handed off to Psomas’ consulting team to aid them in updating Title 21. The consultants will provide Sandy with a code framework proposal in June, according to the community development department memo.