Council briefed on Title 21 amendments to implement state'level boundary-adjustment law

Melissa Anderson, Sandy City zoning administrator, presented proposed amendments to Title 21 of the land development code on Oct. 28 to implement changes in state law known as Senate Bill 140.

Anderson said the state has redefined "property line adjustments" as "boundary adjustments" and distinguished simple boundary adjustments (which do not affect public rights-of-way, municipal utility easements, on-site wastewater systems, internal lot restrictions or create additional lots) from full boundary adjustments. Under SB 140, simple boundary adjustments do not require a public meeting; the proposed Sandy code changes would mirror that approach and update terminology and standards across multiple chapters.

The draft edits affect three parts of Title 21, Anderson said: Chapter 3 (land use authorities), Chapter 30 (subdivision review) and the definitions chapter (Chapter 37). The Planning Commission held a public hearing and gave unanimous approval to recommend the amendments to the City Council; Anderson said she will return to the council for a decision on Nov. 11.

Council members asked how director-level decisions and planning-commission authority would be reflected in the redline language and whether the director'level authority would apply to both simple and full boundary adjustments. Anderson replied that the director'level decision process remains in place: simple boundary adjustments would be eligible for director approval without a public meeting, while full boundary adjustments would follow the subdivision-plat amendment procedure and include notice and a public meeting as required by existing code.

Anderson also noted the city is updating definition text to be consistent with the Utah Code language for "boundary adjustment," "subdivision," "lot or parcel," and "subdivision amendment." She said the state-driven change simplifies many routine neighbor-to-neighbor adjustments and that staff expect these applications to be common in Sandy; she reported that four property-line adjustments appeared in one recent month during record review.

No formal council action was taken at the Oct. 28 meeting; the item was presented for information and scheduled for the Nov. 11 council meeting for a decision.