The Ivins City Council approved a development agreement and a concurrent zone and land-use change for the 13.02-acre "Solterra" subdivision after negotiating several conditions addressing height, water use and drainage.

The developer proposed a zone amendment from RA-1 (residential agriculture, 1-acre lots) and a land-use map amendment from Medium-Density Residential/neighborhood commercial to High-Density Residential and R-15 (minimum lot size 5,000 square feet). In exchange the petitioner offered a design limited primarily to single-story homes, buffer landscaping adjacent to existing neighborhoods, street parking along 200 West and a dedicated detention area.

Council debated lot sizes, price points and the state's demand for "missing middle" housing before consolidating a motion that tied the zone change to approval of a development agreement. Key conditions the council required and the developer accepted were:

- A maximum building height limit for allowed single-story homes set at 20 feet (clarified to allow basements where soils permit);
- Adoption and implementation of the district's "Ultra" water-efficiency standards for the development;
- The southwest detention basin may be resized based on final hydrology; the council removed any provision allowing parking to be placed in the detention area (no parking in the SW basin);
- The zone and land-use change are expressly conditioned on the development agreement being approved and covenants in the agreement will run with the land.

Duane Shallenberger and other petitioner representatives told council the planned home prices were anticipated to start near $525,000, though the development agreement does not legally guarantee a specific sales price. The petitioner declined to accept a deed-restriction price guarantee, saying that requiring a sales-price deed restriction would make the overall project uneconomic and shift costs to other buyers.

Councilmembers weighed competing priorities: several members said Solterra's smaller lots could expand attainable options in Ivins and noted concessions the developer had already made to increase lot sizes at the project's north and east edges to better transition to existing homes. Others urged caution and proposed larger minimum lot sizes.

On a roll-call vote the ordinance and development agreement were approved 3-2: Councilmembers Anderson, Gillespie and Smith voted yes; Councilmembers Barton and Scott voted no. Council instructed staff to finalize the development agreement text reflecting the agreed conditions and return the signed documents for execution.