Planning commission reviews state-required moderate-income housing reporting, recent rezones and low ADU uptake

Planning staff told the North Logan Planning Commission that the city must report annually to the state on progress implementing the new moderate-income housing element and on specific action items, including rezoning activity and accessory dwelling unit (ADU) approvals.

Scott, the city planner, explained the state requires municipalities to include a moderate-income housing element in their general plan and to provide specific, measurable timelines for actions; the annual report is due to the state before Aug. 31. He summarized two rezone applications the commission reviewed in the past year and the accessory-dwelling uptake the city has recorded.

Why it matters: the state-mandated element is intended to spur production of housing affordable to households at moderate incomes, but staff told commissioners that not every local zone change will produce units priced within the region's affordability thresholds.

Rezones reviewed: staff listed two rezones between July of the previous year and July of the current year. One was a request involving the Susan Smart property near the 2500 North roundabout (rezone from RE-1 to R-120) to allow a future lot in a backyard; staff said a finished home on such a lot would likely sell in the roughly $700,000 range and therefore would not meet the county's moderate-income thresholds. The second was a rezone affecting six parcels near 1800 North and 8 East (rezoned to R-1-10 as a matter of record); staff said the vacant lot enabled by that change would likely produce a home in the roughly $450,000–$500,000 range. Scott emphasized these are market-price expectations and that the city cannot by zoning alone dictate sale prices.

Scott noted Cache County's area median income (AMI) is in the ballpark of $78,000 (approximate) and explained how typical mortgage and interest costs make many local new-build homes unaffordable to households at that AMI. He said, “Most folks that are buying a half million dollar home at 7 percent are paying $3,000 to $4,000 a month,” and that many households at moderate incomes would therefore pay a much larger share of income for housing than recommended affordability thresholds.

ADUs and owner-occupancy: staff told commissioners the city has permitted very few ADUs since the ordinance changed to allow them by right; staff reported one permitted detached ADU in the past year and several pre-existing, unpermitted accessory apartments discovered in the inventory. The ordinance requires owner-occupancy; staff said the city enforces that rule and recently addressed an instance where a homeowner rented both primary and accessory units to unrelated tenants, which the city treated as a conversion to multifamily use rather than a permitted ADU.

Commissioners discussed limitations to producing moderate-income housing through rezonings alone. Scott and others said land cost, building-material and labor costs, financing constraints for condominium products, developer investment strategy (rental-income versus for-sale), and required pre-sales for condo financing all affect what product types a developer chooses to deliver and whether those products will be affordable to moderate-income households. Commissioners asked staff to document the two rezones in the annual report and to include the ADU permit counts and a short explanation of why those rezones are unlikely to generate moderate-income units.

Next steps: staff will prepare the city's annual moderate-income housing report for submission to the state before the deadline and will include the two rezones, the ADU permitting summary, and an explanatory note on affordability outcomes. Commissioners noted zoning is only one of several levers to influence housing affordability and encouraged continued coordination with economic-development efforts and regional partners.