Salt Lake City is weighing new zoning rules that would allow property owners to expand housing options on their land, Axios reported.
The city aims to make it easier for residents in lower-density neighborhoods to build townhomes, duplexes and small single-family dwellings on their properties to combat the state’s housing shortages and rising home costs.
Those types of housing options, known as “missing middle housing,” can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a typical single-family home. Some of the new rules would increase building heights, remove lot width requirements, and raise building coverage in key residential zones.
The changes would apply to about 33,500 properties in the city. Around 35% of those properties are large enough to accommodate an additional small lot, the city estimates.
However, some residents and community councils say the new rules could diminish a neighborhood’s identity, overwhelm infrastructure and lead to parking congestion.
“If density was the solution for affordability, New York would be cheap,” resident Lynn Schwarz said during a planning commission meeting last week.
A group of residents called the Neighborhood Housing Alliance is circulating a Change.org petition urging the city to hit pause on the zoning proposal.
The proposal is designed to minimize potential impacts that homeowners have expressed concerns about, including privacy and neighborhood character, Alicia Seeley, a principal planner for the city, tells Axios.
She says “there will always be trade-offs when adding more housing stock to existing neighborhoods.”
The median cost for a single-family home in Salt Lake County hit an all-time high of $645,000 in the second quarter of 2026, per the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.
About 91% of Utah renters cannot afford the average monthly mortgage payment, according to a new study from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
The proposed rules come after the Salt Lake City Council initiated a study in 2023 to explore changes to single-family residential zoning districts. That year, the city relaxed rules for accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
The Salt Lake City Planning Commission is expected to vote on the new rules on Sept. 23 for City Council recommendation.
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