The Copperton Planning Commission voted on May 13, 2025 to recommend that the Town Council adopt a set of municipal engineering standards—sourced from APWA, AASHTO and the Utah Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)—to satisfy requirements introduced by House Bill 368 (2025).

Staff said HB 368 tightened the statutory requirement that municipalities adopt approved inspection and construction standards for public infrastructure. The commission’s recommendation asks council to adopt the named national and state industry standards and to make specified local exceptions to the APWA trench-repair provision (APWA 255).

Under the APWA provision, utilities that excavate a trench in a street typically must extend pavement repairs 48 inches beyond the trench and perform a mill-and-overlay. Staff told commissioners that Copperton’s current code is more stringent for newly constructed or recently resurfaced streets: the draft local exception would require a 15-foot mill-and-overlay in each direction for roads that are 0–3 years old or the full lane width, while for roads older than three years staff proposed requiring mill-and-overlay only when the trench length exceeds 300 feet.

Staff said the proposed mix mirrors practices used elsewhere in the region and balances the municipality’s interest in protecting recent pavement investments with the financial impact on local water improvement districts and utilities, which commonly perform long trenching projects. The commission discussed how the change would supersede an inherited county provision and noted the plan to draft a consolidated Section 14 for the Copperton code to replace older county-based language.

Commissioners approved a motion recommending council adoption; the recommendation was forwarded by voice vote with no roll-call tally recorded.

Staff will present ordinance language to the council for formal adoption; commissioners were told that without adopted engineering standards the town could not demonstrate an “approved standards” regime required by HB 368 when accepting public improvements for new subdivisions or development.