CEDAR CITY —  Cedar City citizens could see increased opportunities to live and work in a more walkable, housing-friendly downtown in a few short years if the housing committee’s recent, long-term proposals come to pass.

Earlier this year, Cedar City Mayor Garth Green assigned a housing committee the task of evaluating current city housing and parking regulations to find housing-related deficiencies and suggest solutions, said councilmember Tyler Melling.

After meeting for approximately 10 weeks, the housing committee presented the council with five recommendations to help address the city’s housing needs. Melling told Cedar City News that the first four recommendations were changes that could be made in the next six months, adding that he hopes to work through them by the end of the year.

The recommendations so far include:

• Allowing for external accessory dwelling units, like guest houses to be used as rentals
• Enabling developers to map subdivisions based on building envelope and general plan density
• Permitting mixed housing types in larger projects
• Exploring owner-occupancy standards

The fifth recommendation proposed long-term, big picture solutions for the city’s downtown area and was presented by Mindy Benson, interim president for Southern Utah University.

The committee suggested encouraging the preservation of old structures while expanding opportunities for downtown living. According to the presentation, they’d like to see multifamily options on smaller footprints, which would allow for an incremental intensification of development. Additionally, the committee suggested exploring parking policies that encourage residential, retail and restaurant use near downtown.

Parking considerations

Discounting roads, 40% of the downtown area is devoted to driveways and parking lots. The city could utilize more parking garages, Benson told Cedar City News, adding that she doesn’t want to move parking into the community and that an appropriate plan should be made so less space is used for that purpose.

There’s a huge social cost to free parking, Melling said, adding that if the goal is to ensure adequate parking spaces, opportunities for living, shopping and recreating in the area could be limited.

He said that as the discussions shift from making downtown a more desirable place to live rather than a place to visit a couple of minutes at a time, citizens may see more parking garages or paid parking options in the area. If the area is more walkable and more citizens live there, fewer cars will need parking spaces; however, Melling said he wondered how this might affect shops.

Business owners have expressed an interest in renovating their shops, but current city parking rules have been a deterrent, he said. For example, if a shop owner decided to add residential condos above their business, rather than storage, the city requires parking spaces to be available to those residences. But if the surrounding area is already filled with asphalt, he said there is no way to improve the property or receive lending based on selling or renting those units.

A parking study is being conducted for nearby streets to collect data on parking regulations related to student housing and other types of higher-density developments. The results are expected back soon and Melling said the information will help the council make housing and parking-related decisions.

Incremental changes

In Cedar City, there is a lot-size minimum for multifamily units, which precludes them as an option for smaller lots. Melling said that being part of the housing solution is difficult unless a person has the means to buy multiple houses to tear down so a complex can be built.

Because of this, the committee suggested allowing for more options on smaller footprints, which could benefit middle-class families and those living in older neighborhoods, he said.

“And in doing that, what incentives can we provide to preserve old, historic buildings in the process? Because that is something we want to incentivize and not punish,” he said.

Melling said the city will consider ways to encourage more people to live downtown.

“At the end of the day, what we want is to be able to evaluate our downtown area and make it more friendly to people who want to create new opportunities to shop and live downtown because that’s the kind of investment we want to see downtown while still keeping the charm that it has,” he said.

Benson stressed the need for incremental change, rather than a major overhaul.

“I think our concern and our goal was to make something that everybody could be happy with,” she said.

Melling said that form-based codes, a style of zoning and building that focuses on the building’s appearance, size and footprint rather than its use, could create more opportunities for people to live and work downtown without necessarily needing to drive.

“And for older neighborhoods, that can be a really good tool to allow very small-scale, incremental steps toward improving people’s property without changing the character of the neighborhood,” he said.

Benson, who previously served on the Downtown Economic Development Committee, said the housing committee chose to consider goals originating from both committees, focusing on creating a “more walkable, more housing-friendly downtown.” Additionally, she said the committee’s goal is to draw in more people and businesses.

“I’m born and raised in Cedar, so I’m not trying to upset the applecart and change things too much,” she said. “But there are some fabulous buildings – historic buildings – in Cedar, that we’re using the bottom floor for retail but the top floors are absolutely empty.”

She said occasionally people can be seen on balconies during Main Street parades, and it seems like the buildings could be utilized for housing or retail but noted that, ultimately, changes will be decided by city planners and developers.

“The older, more wise, more mature people of Cedar City have one thought of what downtown should be and the younger people think it would be so cool to live down there and work down there and be able to walk to the grocery store and have a sustainable lifestyle,” she said. “And we need to meld those together and find the happy spot for everybody.”

Benson, who grew up on 300 West in a house that currently sits across from two apartment complexes, said she’s one of the few people who own rather than rent in her area.

“The neighborhoods are changing,” she said. “And they’re changing with or without us, so we might as well get ahead of it and say, ‘OK, what do we want our neighborhoods to look like?’ and ‘Where can student housing be?’ and ‘Where do the neighborhoods go?'”

Southern Utah University 

Benson said the opportunity for SUU to work with the city on solutions for growth was one reason she joined the committee.

“As the university grows, the neighborhoods grow, and right now people are just buying those houses and renting them,” she said. “And there isn’t a lot of planning on what exactly we’re going to do with those neighborhoods. The city has done a really good job in the last several years to get ahead of that and say, ‘Here’s the high-density housing, and here’s what we want in this neighborhood.’ And I think the more that we can plan for that together, versus just letting it happen, the better off we’re going to be as a community.”

SUU wouldn’t be what it is without community support Benson said, adding that the university can serve as an “economic driver” for the city by hosting the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Games and other events.

“We have to have that relationship where we are working together to solve these problems and convening the groups together to work to solve the problems in the best interest of our community, not just at SUU, not just Cedar City, but what works together,” she said.

SUU leadership has committed to the university’s continued growth, Benson said, noting it’s what the institution needs to do to remain healthy. However, face-to-face growth will be moderated at 3-5% to allow the city to “catch up” and make community and student housing decisions. SUU plans to grow its online offerings.

“And that’s part of the community partnership that we have,” she said. “We want to make sure that we’re good stewards of our community.”

Community involvement

Melling said one of the community’s biggest concerns is that future growth will mean only tearing down old structures and building apartment complexes.

Benson said she was nervous about relationships going into the committee, noting that the community wants a say over ordinance changes and what the future looks like, which is why she said it’s crucial to ensure citizens feel supported.

“Let’s make sure we’re taking care of the community and let’s make sure that people feel like they have a say in this,” she said. “And I think a lot of what we did was low-hanging fruit that will get the discussion started. It wasn’t anything permanent. It was, ‘Let’s get the discussion started of what this can look like, and here’s some thoughts about our future.’ And I urge people to get involved.”

The City Council is always open to input, Melling said, noting that it’s best to have discussions with council members, who can be contacted individually via email.

Next steps

Housing committee members were brought together on a short-term basis to offer suggestions to City Council. Proposed ordinances are being cleaned up prior to their presentation to the Planning Commission, then the City Council, Melling said, adding that the committee has completed its work.

The first recommendation, which suggested allowing for external accessory dwelling units has already been approved by the City Council. Next, they will focus on recommendation two, which suggests changes to the way subdivisions are drawn. Melling said that the way the council handles this item could impact how recommendations three and four ultimately look.

Once finished with the first four recommendations, the council will begin work on proposed solutions for the city’s downtown area.

Melling said the city needs to have a discussion on its priorities and whether the goal is for downtown to be a great place to visit or a great place to live.

“I think that discussion would fundamentally change the way we approach those issues and then going from there … our next steps will be much more clear,” he added.

To learn more about the Housing Committee’s proposed solutions, read their presentation here.

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