League staff updated LPC members Oct. 20 on a multi-year effort to define methodology for Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) studies, reporting progress after a recent meeting with one major stakeholder and announcing that legislative research and general counsel were drafting formal language.

Why it matters: Utah cities lack a uniform statutory methodology for TUF studies. A clearer, shared methodology could reduce disputes, standardize appeals and provide greater predictability for developers and property owners. The League described the work as a multi-year effort intended to provide parameters for traffic-based assessments rather than using property-tax proxies.

Details from the update

- Stakeholder engagement: Staff said they recently met with a major stakeholder — identified in the meeting as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and refined language to ensure any TUF approach would avoid affecting property-tax-exempt status for religious institutions.

- Proposed methodology: While the existing code does not prescribe study methods, League staff said the proposal would emphasize traffic counts and trip-generation data by reuse/land-use category and include an appeals process similar to other city-code appeal mechanisms.

- Next steps: Legislative research and general counsel are drafting model language; staff expect to circulate it to the LPC in the coming weeks for review.

What officials said

Justin (League staff) thanked working-group members for their time and said the effort has been ongoing for roughly two years. "We're seeing some light at the end of the TUF tunnel," he said, noting additional work remains to produce a legal draft.

Ending

Staff will circulate drafted language when available and bring the item back to LPC for review; members were urged to share local experiences with TUF methodologies to inform the appeals and category definitions.