Planning commission backs Bennett Farm master plan, adds condition for pedestrian river crossings

The Weber County Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to forward a positive recommendation to the county commission for the Bennett Farm master plan (formerly Gibson Farms), a proposed rezoning and development agreement that would rezone about 550 acres along the Weber River to a new Traditional Neighborhood (TN) zone tailored to the project.

Staff described the proposal as a form‑based, transect‑style master plan that would allow a mix of single‑family, attached housing, neighborhood commercial uses and open space. The application would create a project‑specific zone (proposed label: TN‑Ben) and set design standards, required connectivity and open‑space commitments. Staff indicated the applicant is offering roughly 90 acres of publicly accessible park and open space (which may be publicly accessible but not necessarily publicly owned), a network of trails and pathways, and backbone street connections. The draft development agreement also includes public‑realm and design code provisions, a paid town‑architect role, and phasing and trigger language for infrastructure.

Key technical items discussed included environmental constraints along the river (Army Corps wetlands mapping and 500‑year/100‑year floodplain extents), wastewater and culinary water expansion needs, and the need to secure funding or developer obligations for off‑site intersection and utility trunk improvements. Staff said the applicant included a volunteer provision to quantify and cover “extra” municipal costs if the development creates higher service demands than a standard subdivision.

Public commenters at the hearing raised concerns about density, the road pattern and whether promised open space would be usable. One commenter, Douglas Hansen, asked for clearer, more conventional street grids and expressed skepticism that renderings will match built outcomes. Another commenter, Susan Hancock, said the scale of the project felt overwhelming and asked that commissioners slow the process for further study.

Applicant representative Jeff Beck (Black Pine) said the project is intended to produce a walkable, mixed‑use neighborhood and that buildout is expected to be gradual: staff and the applicant cited a 30‑year buildout in the application. Staff also corrected an earlier transcript figure: the application caps residential units at 3,000 across the 550 acres (the applicant said 6 units per acre was the density target, yielding about 3,000 units over time). Staff and the applicant noted that many infrastructure elements will be phased and that some crossings and trunk extensions would be built as adjacent properties develop.

During deliberation commissioners focused on trail and street connectivity across the Weber River to the area west of the project. After debate the commission’s motion recommended approval of ZMA2024‑16 and ZTA2024‑7 and the draft development agreement, and explicitly added “the addition of two pedestrian bridges on the river providing access to the west side of the river” as an attachment to the staff report. The motion passed on a recorded roll call and will be transmitted to the county commission for final action.

Staff and the applicant will return to negotiate final development‑agreement language and technical exhibits (traffic studies, river and wetland mitigation plans, and infrastructure funding/escrow arrangements) before county‑level decisions.