Herriman's 6,000-square-foot lots still come with a four-space parking rule

The case Herriman makes for its two small-lot zones is the strongest argument any city in this valley has offered for smaller lots, and it deserves stating in the city's own words. Utah obliges Herriman to facilitate moderate-income housing where feasible and appropriate. The smallest lot the city can approve today, without a development agreement or a planned unit development, is 10,000 square feet. Anything smaller runs through an MDA or a PUD, which the city's own staff calls "a negotiated development tool without any assurance or legislative obligation of approval," one that "reduces predictability and increases costs" 1. R-1-6 would set a 6,000-square-foot minimum on a 60-foot width, R-1-8 an 8,000-square-foot minimum on 65. Staff designed R-1-6 so builders reuse the floor plans they already draw for 10,000-square-foot lots, the mechanism its report says "intends to help keep home prices accessible to moderate-income households" 1.

The city has put money behind the principle. In 2026 the state's Affordable Housing Infrastructure Grant Board awarded Herriman $50,000,000 for three backbone roads, on condition that 2,500 homes in Olympia be sold to owner-occupiers under five-year deed restrictions, at least 1,250 of them detached houses on lots of 5,000 square feet or less, capped at 1,400, 1,600 and 1,900 finished square feet 3. At most 500 may become rentals afterwards, and only with the council's written consent 3. Those homes are already entitled; the amendment increases nothing 3. This is not a city that refuses to build.

What the record does not contain is the rule that decides whether a 6,000-square-foot lot produces a cheaper house or merely a smaller yard. Parking is not part of the amendment. The staff report dated 21 October routes both zones to HCC 10-24, the existing off-street parking chapter, and keeps a 24-foot maximum driveway width for R-1-6 1.

The Planning Commission saw the problem in September. The current standard requires "two covered and two paved off-street parking spaces" per home, and on a 6,000-square-foot lot with a 60-foot frontage two commissioners argued that would "effectively consume a disproportionate share of the lot and conflict with the intent to enable smaller, more affordable homes" 2. Staff pointed to Olympia's own schedule — roughly 1.5 spaces per unit, adjusted by bedroom count — as a model 2. The Community Development Director agreed to explore a modified standard and bring it back on 7 October 2. The October report does not contain one.

Nor does any document say what a house there will cost. The closest the city has come is a staff remark to the commission in September: pricing in Olympia was expected to be "in the $500,000 range, which, while not deeply affordable, represented a meaningful reduction relative to current market pricing" 2. That is candour, and it should be taken at face value. It is also a price, and a price can be tested. At the 30-year rate Freddie Mac published on 5 November, 7.18 per cent, a $500,000 house with 10 per cent down costs about $3,050 a month in principal and interest before taxes and insurance 4. Carrying that at 30 per cent of income takes roughly $122,000 a year: near the 2026 area median of $126,100 for a family of four, and about a fifth above the $100,900 that marks 80 per cent of median — the line the city's own plan was written against 56. That plan, adopted in 2022 as Ordinance 2022-38, put a three-person household at 80 per cent of median into a $229,303 house, on a 4 per cent mortgage 6. Rates have risen more than three points since, which moves that figure down, not up.

The grant's test is looser: a for-sale unit counts as affordable at 120 per cent of area median income, and at that ceiling $500,000 passes 7. Herriman is entitled to call these homes affordable. It should also say which households they are for. "Moderate income" in Utah practice usually means 80 per cent of median and below; at $500,000 these are houses for buyers earning near the median.

The terms have also moved in ways the record does not reconcile. The commission was briefed that up to 40 per cent of the Olympia units could convert to rental after five years 2; the amendment adopted on 14 October caps rentals at 500 homes, one fifth, changeable only with the council's written consent 3. Townhomes were described as capped at 1,700 square feet 2; the text says 1,750 3. Neither is a scandal. Together they are why a promise cannot be checked against one authoritative document — and why this page asked for a price in October and was given a floor area instead.

Meanwhile the decision waits. The commission recommended both zones 5-0 on 7 October, adding that the city limit where they may be applied, "such as tying application of the zones to a General Plan amendment," to prevent unwanted infill 1. That amendment is required before either zone can be used on any property 1. Two applications queue behind it, one from Perry Homes and one from the city, both next to the Hidden Oaks development 2. The item sat on the council's work-meeting agenda on 10 November and was discussed without a vote; the next meeting is 9 December 8.

Our judgement concerns one decision and one body. The Herriman City Council should adopt R-1-6 and R-1-8 on 9 December, and amend the parking chapter first: scale the requirement to the lot, as Olympia already does at about 1.5 spaces per unit, and keep a single-car or side-loaded garage legal on 6,000 square feet 2. It should also write a number into the ordinance — the price and the income band the zone is meant to serve — so a smaller lot is judged against something better than an intention. A city that can cap finished square feet at 1,400 can state the household income that buys one.

Three things would change our mind. A published sale price for a new R-1-6 house at or below what 80 per cent of area median buys 56. Evidence from comparable Herriman streets that Olympia's parking schedule pushes cars into the roadway. Or a General Plan designation adopted alongside the zones, so the safeguard the commission asked for does not become the next year's reason for delay.

A smaller lot is the cheapest housing lever a city owns, and the easiest to waste: bolt a rule written for 10,000 square feet onto a 6,000-square-foot one, and Herriman will have redrawn its map without moving its price.