Emigration Canyon planning panel debates setbacks, pet limits and references to overlay rules in forestry-zone rewrite

The Emigration Canyon Planning Commission on Sept. 24 debated wording and cross-references in a draft rewrite of the forestry and recreation zone that staff hopes will replace parts of the Foothills and Canyons Overlay Zone (FCOS).

The discussion centered on three practical questions: where to put site-development standards now scattered between FCOS and several code chapters; what explicit setback and stream-buffer distances should be listed in the new zone; and whether the code should set or change limits on household pets. Commissioners also flagged a discrepancy between two height provisions in the draft and asked staff to reconcile the draft with the more stringent FCOS language now in effect.

Commissioners and staff said the drafts should keep the stricter existing protections while making the code easier to read. Land-use counsel Claire said the draft can identify a new chapter — 19.46 in the proposed numbering — as applying to all underlying zones so that the overlay is not required to remain in force as a separate zone. "We don't need to keep the overlay zone; we can just identify in 19.46 that it applies to all zones," Claire told the…