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OGDEN—Ogden officials have approved a zoning tweak to prevent apartment development along some of the city's busiest corridors as leaders rethink how the city should grow and evolve.
Numerous apartment and townhome developments have taken shape in recent years along busy roadways like 12th Street, Wall Avenue and Harrison Boulevard, in areas zoned primarily for commercial development. To reserve such spaces for commercial operations and prod construction of multifamily units in areas ostensibly more suited to residential development, the City Council approved a zoning amendment sought by Mayor Ben Nadolski.
Ogden Planning Manager Barton Brierley said the aim is to shift apartment development away from the busiest traffic corridors to "areas that have better walkability, parks and trails." Per the change, approved by the Ogden City Council in a 5-2 vote on Oct. 15, allowances in city ordinances for residential development in areas zoned "community commercial" or "regional commercial" have been largely removed, though a few exceptions remain.
Lack of housing has been a fierce topic of debate in locales across Utah, not just Ogden. But with more and more apartment buildings taking shape in Ogden, Nadolski, in June, proposed the change approved by the City Council, aiming to boost focus on single-family home development.
"General commercial zones are not designed to accommodate apartment living and lack features, such as parks, trails, schools, safe bike routes, quality transit stops and community gathering spots needed to create quality neighborhoods," reads a city staff report on the issue. Developing housing in commercial areas, it went on, could hamper the availability of land for commercial development.
What's more, Brierley said, there are plenty of other areas in Ogden suitable for multifamily development — the term for apartment buildings and townhomes — not to mention a seeming imbalance in multifamily versus single-family home development. Some 3,400 housing units in varied multifamily plans are under construction, approved for development or in review in Ogden, he said, compared to just 83 single-family homes.
"It's, like I said, about getting the right housing in the right place," Brierley said. Demand may be sufficient now for housing along busy roads, "but if there's ever a downturn in the economy, that's going to be the first housing that goes down. We don't want to end up with an oversupply of the wrong types of housing in the wrong place that just deteriorates and causes other problems with communities."
The zoning change doesn't address the relative dearth of single-family home development in Ogden, another point of concern for city officials brought up during the discussion on the issue. But Brierley said other, separate efforts are afoot to contend with the issue, though he didn't offer particulars.
"We're doing fine with multifamily," Brierley told KSL.com. "It's the single family where we need to put more attention."
To that end, at least in part, Mike McBride, spokesman for the Nadolski administration, said city leaders are in the process of updating Ogden's general plan, which guides development in the city. A public gathering is scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Union Station to get input on the process. A workshop in Spanish will be held Thursday at the Main Library in Ogden, also starting at 5:30 p.m.
"We want to make sure we're creating opportunities for folks who want single-family (homes)," McBride said. More broadly, he said, city officials want to make sure there's a balance of housing types to cater to the public's varied needs and demands.
