Harrisville planners debate minimum lot sizes, design rules for housing-affordability overlay

Harrisville planning staff led a May 14 work session on draft ordinance 562, a proposed housing‑affordability overlay that would apply to the city’s residential zones and focus on single‑family detached homes.

Sarah (staff member) said the draft uses the state definition of affordable housing: “we just took the definition from the state, and that is our definition of affordable housing, which just means, purchase price, affordable to a household with a gross income of no more than a 20% of area median income.” Staff framed the ordinance as an overlay that could be added to R‑10 and R‑15 zones, with separate design standards to guide developers’ expectations.

The work session centered on whether to include a minimum lot size and how to set density. Staff presented examples from Ogden, Layton and Daybreak, showing lots ranging from about 3,000 to 6,000 square feet and house footprints commonly in the 1,800–2,000 square foot range on small lots. Sarah noted an example of “50 by a 20 feet. So 6,000 square foot lots here,” and explained how alley‑loaded and front‑loaded garage configurations affect usable yard area and street appearance.

Planners discussed specific numeric options under consideration: a 3,000‑square‑foot minimum lot size was shown in illustrations (3,200 was used in some examples); staff suggested 4,000 square feet as a possible starting point, and one planner noted a target density of roughly 8 units per acre for certain designs. Sarah said the state “is requiring 6 units per acre,” and added that “6 units an acre essentially doubles the the minimum residential single family density available in Harrisville.”

Commissioners and staff repeatedly raised management issues for compact development: on‑street parking availability and enforcement, the practical effects of homeowners associations (HOAs) on ongoing costs, and whether very small lot communities would require HOAs to maintain shared spaces. One staff speaker said HOA fees can affect affordability, calling HOA assessments “a cost burden that’s unpredictable.”

Design standards under discussion included limiting attached housing in this overlay (the draft would allow only detached single‑family homes in residential areas and leave attached units for mixed‑use commercial areas), setbacks and frontage limits, garage door percentage on front façades, required variation in lot and building sizes within the same development, and requirements for pedestrian connectivity and mid‑block trail crossings. Staff said they would ask developers to show “concept plans showing pathways to parks,” not necessarily require construction up front but to show how a project will connect to nearby trails and parks.

Staff also shared community examples to help the commission visualize outcomes: compact cottage neighborhoods with alley access, townhome clusters with visually varied façades, and master‑planned communities with larger shared amenities. The group discussed tradeoffs: smaller lots can deliver higher unit counts and some shared open space but often rely on HOAs for maintenance; larger lots provide private yards but reduce potential density and cost savings.

Next steps: staff said they will prepare recommended language and numerical ranges for the overlay and bring the draft ordinance to a joint work session with the city council, and they will continue to coordinate with the city attorney. Sarah said staff will also run numbers on alternative density and minimum lot‑size mixes to show what different combinations would look like in practice.