Ivins planning panel recommends ADU ordinance changes ahead of state reporting deadline

The Ivins Planning Commission on June 17 recommended that City Council amend Chapters 11 and 12 of the municipal code to update rules for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, part of the city's moderate-income housing plan the state requires by Aug. 1.

Council Member Sharon Gillespie, who led the rewrite with city staff, told commissioners she researched other cities and folded their feedback into a revised draft. "I took the notes from your last meeting and created a new document, sent it to you all, received some edits back," Gillespie said, adding the draft is intended to be workable for the state filing and for local enforcement.

The draft sets a 600-square-foot minimum and a 1,000-square-foot maximum for external ADUs, limits a lot to one internal and one external ADU, and ties lot-coverage limits to backyard area: "the lot coverage of an ADU shall not exceed 30% of the backyard area," staff said. Parking rules in the draft require ADUs greater than 600 square feet to provide two off-street parking spaces; internal ADUs are treated as part of the primary structure for building-code purposes but are subject to parking standards.

Commissioners and staff clarified enforcement touchpoints. The ordinance ties owner-occupancy evidence to the building-permit application; staff and several commissioners noted that once a building permit is issued there is no routine recheck of occupancy, and that enforcement against misuse (for example, conversion to a short-term rental) would be difficult without additional compliance checks.

Public commenters urged changes to several draft limits. Resident Ryan Kane, who said he and his wife recently bought a lot on Main Street, read the ordinance's purpose language and urged the commission to allow larger external units for families: "A thousand seems small to me ... I'd like to see that go up to about 1,200 or 1,400 square feet," Kane said. Realtor and resident Robert Bowler asked commissioners to reconsider prohibiting tandem parking and suggested permitting tandem or side-yard parking where physically feasible.

Commission staff said other specific rules were clarified in the draft: addresses for ADUs and primary dwellings would share the same number and use unit designators (A, B, C) primarily for fire and emergency response; accessory agricultural units would remain allowable; rooftop balconies and ADUs above detached garages are prohibited in the draft because of privacy and height concerns; kit and tiny homes are treated differently from HUD-regulated modular homes and will be further cross-checked with state definitions.

After discussion and non-substantive edits recorded at the meeting, the commission voted to recommend the ordinance changes to City Council, subject to staff incorporating agreed clarifications and editorial revisions. The roll call recorded Commissioners Waite, Brown and Clifford voting "aye," and the chair announcing an "aye" as well.

If City Council adopts the ordinances as recommended, the changes will become part of Ivins's codified standards and will be included in the version the city submits to the state to meet the moderate-income housing reporting milestone.

The commission also asked staff to add a clear legal definition of "backyard area" to the ordinance text before the Council submittal, since the 30% calculation depends on that definition.