City planners are drafting a set of changes to downtown zoning known as the Central Heber Overlay Zone. If approved, they say the changes will make it easier for downtown to accommodate attainable housing, but harder for big companies to turn homes into short-term rentals.
City Manager Matt Brower said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Monday the primary goal of the overlay zone is to create more housing options.
“Generally speaking, the Central Heber Overlay Zone is intended to provide property owners in the downtown with more flexibility with their properties,” he said. “It's not a mandate. It's simply another tool that they can have to perhaps do an accessory dwelling unit, to maybe do a flag lot, a subordinate lot, to allow for maybe some small amounts of mixed-use, such as townhomes or twin homes.”
Accessory dwelling units are small, detached homes or apartments, often in the backyard of a single-family home. And flag lots break one big piece of land into two properties, with one long driveway leading to the back property, creating a flag-like shape.
Both development styles are examples of how downtown property owners could add more homes without significantly increasing density. Brower said city leaders think it’s the right balance of development for central Heber.
“We think the best place to do that is the central districts, because their infrastructure is there – the water lines, sewer lines, storm drain lines – and of course, the roads are there as well, which means the cost to develop this housing would be much, much less,” he said.
Planning commissioners have said the proposed changes could prove to be important tools to fill the gap of “missing middle” housing in the Heber Valley. Those are homes that are a step above income-restricted affordable units, but lower in cost than most detached single-family houses.
Brower said in most cases, adding a unit or two to an existing property would also require owners to live in one of the units.
“We believe that would be a big deterrent for these large [conglomerates] who are coming in and buying large numbers of homes for investment purposes,” he said. “By having an occupancy and an ownership requirement, it would reduce, we believe, that risk.”
Some other options the city is considering for “infill” density are mixed-use buildings, with a business downstairs and an apartment upstairs, and mansion-style apartments, which put three or four units inside what appears to be a large, single-family home.
The overlay zone would also prohibit short-term rentals in two sections of downtown: the central neighborhoods district and the transition corridors district. Combined, the two districts run from 500 North to 600 South, and between the 600 block and the 100 block both east and west of Main Street.
The Heber City Council and the planning commission will discuss the proposed changes during the work session Tuesday, June 3, at 4 p.m.
After that conversation, the council will dig into the details of revising the code. Brower says the council likely will not vote on the Central Heber Overlay Zone until July.
Heber City is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
