Roy planning commission backs changing downtown height rules from feet to stories, recommends 12-story cap for Downtown East

The Roy City Planning Commission voted unanimously March 11 to recommend that the City Council amend Title 10, Chapter 13 of the zoning ordinance to change how building size is measured in downtown mixed-use zones — switching from an overall-foot height limit to a limit measured in stories — and to allow up to 12 stories in the Downtown East zone while keeping large-format buildings on their existing limits.

The change is intended to preserve commercial viability at street level (taller ground-floor spaces for retail or restaurants) while not reducing the number of residential floors above. City planning staff told commissioners that measuring by stories makes it easier for developers to provide a taller, marketable ground floor without automatically costing them an upper residential story.

Staff presented the change as a corrective to language adopted after the ordinance was originally drafted in 2021. The staff recommendation keeps the same practical scale in most places by mapping story counts to heights (for example: Downtown East — 8 stories/80 feet, 6 stories/60 feet, 4 stories/40 feet) and…