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 includes a provision that any floor taller than 18 feet counts as two stories. The storefront and general-stoop building types will retain minimum and maximum ground-floor heights drawn from the ordinance’s original verbiage (ground-floor minimum 14 feet; maximums vary by building type). Large-format buildings (for example, big-box grocery or department-style stores) were given a main-floor maximum height of 24 feet that does not count as an extra story.

At the public hearing, resident Kevin Homer (5398 South 4000 West) said he supports mixed use generally but urged the commission to consider unintended consequences: “What I would do is suggest that you amend this proposed amendment so that there is some kind of maximum even on the tallest size building,” Homer said, warning that, depending on how tall ground floors and stories are counted, a building could exceed current 60-foot limits.

Commissioners discussed impacts, parking constraints and design precedents in nearby cities. Several commissioners said market forces typically limit developers from building excessively tall residential floors: one commissioner noted most residential stories are about 10 feet and that 14-foot residential stories are rarely practical except for special penthouse units. Commissioners also emphasized that the Downtown East district lies mostly on the nonresidential side of the freeway, citing nearby infrastructure (freeway access, grocery stores and restaurants) as support for a higher-story allowance in that area.

Commissioner discussion produced a specific amendment to the staff-drafted mapping: the commission asked that the Downtown East zone be allowed up to 12 stories (the amendment excludes large-format buildings). A motion to forward a positive recommendation to the City Council with that change passed on a 7-0 roll call. The commission recorded “aye” votes from Commissioner Hulbert, Commissioner Collins, Commissioner Felt, Chair Cowley, Commissioner Brand, Commissioner Bills and Commissioner Tanner. The commission chair said the recommendation will be placed on next week’s city council agenda.

Planning staff emphasized the story-based approach is intended to make the code easier to apply and to permit viable commercial-first floors (for example, 14–18-foot storefronts) without automatically reducing housing capacity above. The code retains a mechanism so that exceptionally tall ground floors count as multiple stories (an over-18-foot floor counts as two stories), which staff said prevents unlimited stacking of tall floors.

The commission’s recommendation now moves to the Roy City Council for consideration. If the council adopts the text change, staff said a separate development agreement sought by a private project (the Echelon) would become unnecessary; conversely, if the council delay or rejects the ordinance amendment, developers could still seek project-specific development agreements to secure additional height on individual parcels.

Less-critical details: staff indicated the mapping is intended to approximate previous intent (e.g., 8 stories ≈ 80 feet in Downtown East) and retained unique rules for storefront, general-stoop, limited-bay and large-format building types. The commission did not change the large-format building rules and kept the staff-proposed cap approach for main-floor heights.