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Council approves DT-1 zoning tweaks to encourage for-sale housing, adds owner-occupancy timing language
Summary
The council approved changes to the downtown DT-1 zone allowing incremental height increases tied to percent for-sale housing, reduced average minimum unit size in parts of the zone, and added language requiring owner-occupancy (or rental prohibition) for the first year after each ownership change.
The Provo City Council on Jan. 28 approved amendments to the downtown DT-1 zoning to give developers limited additional height in exchange for providing for-sale housing, to extend reduced minimum average unit-size rules to University Avenue, and to add recorded deed/agreement language requiring individual for-sale units to be owner-occupied (or not rented) for the first year after each change in ownership.
Planning Supervisor Aaron Ardmore told the council current DT-1 height allowance is 100 feet (DT-2 is 80 feet) and staff proposed a stepped increase in allowable height tied to the percentage of for-sale housing in a project. The draft also would permit a reduced minimum average unit size (moving from 800 to 600 square feet) along University Avenue within the DT zone to increase flexibility for higher-density projects. The planning commission recommended approval.
Developer and architect Jeff Knighton addressed practical constraints: lenders and financing can make for-sale and owner-occupied requirements more complicated, and he described different construction and financing trade-offs that influence building form and feasibility. Knighton described conceptual project plans for a block-scale redevelopment with a mix of uses, estimating the full-block study could total several hundred units, with only a fraction of units exceeding the base height in exchange for for-sale product.
Council members pressed for enforceable language to preserve owner-occupied for-sale housing rather than allowing institutional investors to convert units quickly to rentals. City staff explained an enforcement approach that uses deed restrictions or conditions in written agreements with the city to prohibit renting the unit for the first year after each change in ownership; staff said the city would also refuse rental-dwelling licenses that would violate recorded deed restrictions.
Councilor Whipple moved and councilor Christiansen seconded an amendment to insert the phrase “after each change in ownership” into the owner-occupancy language; the council passed that amendment 7–0. The council then voted 7–0 to adopt the ordinance as amended.
Staff and the developer said additional implementation details—particularly deed language, lender coordination and any administrative enforcement steps—will be addressed in written agreements and project-specific approvals that follow the zone change.
