Council adopts amended Lakeside Landing overlay, trimming density and commercial minimums (Ordinance 4-2025)

Springville City Council approved Ordinance 4-2025 to amend the Lakeside Landing special district overlay, a form-based code that guides development on roughly 200 acres on the city—s west side. The council approved the amendment after staff and the Planning Commission recommended the changes following negotiations with the applicant, Unified Business Alliance (UBA).

Planner Josh said the amendment alters the southern portion of Lakeside Landing to allow more single-family detached and attached product and reduce higher-density transect permissions. "The proposed plan has a maximum residential unit yield of 336 and a minimum commercial square footage of close to 40,000, representing a 35% decrease in residential units and a 43% decrease in commercial square footage," Josh said. He added that residential-unit figures are maxima and commercial square footage is a minimum.

Staff framed the request as market-driven: UBA told staff that financing and absorption of multifamily product in the near term are constrained, and allowing more for-sale single-family product improves marketability. The amendment therefore changes the regulating plan (the map) for the southern area rather than trying to relabel lot types within the existing transect.

Key code changes described by staff include:

- A reduction in the southern portion—s maximum residential yield from about 515 units to about 336 units (maximum figures).

- A decrease in the minimum commercial square footage in the southern portion from roughly 69,000 sq ft to about 40,000 sq ft (minimum figure).

- Addition of lot type 30 ("main street walk-ups over shops") to facilitate traditional narrow mixed-use buildings.

- Limits and requirements for building forms: compact townhouses in the southern area limited to two stories or 35 feet; compact urban townhouses must include a third-floor area of at least 500 sq ft; at least 20% of southern residential units must have total building floor area of 1,400 sq ft or less.

- Removal of a proposed prescription requiring a fixed count of residential versus mixed-use lot types (staff recommended striking that clause because uses are controlled by transect and the provision would have created unnecessary code complexity).

- Expansion of elevation-variety (block-face diversity) standards to additional transects, with a specific exemption for compact townhomes from the across-the-street elevation variation requirement.

Planning staff and the Planning Commission recommended approving the amendments after multiple rounds of technical edits. Josh said the Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the change. Council members asked questions about walkability, whether reduced commercial minimums would undermine a neighborhood—s ability to support local businesses, and whether architectural standards would be strong enough to prevent monotonous rows of similar homes. Josh and other staff pointed to the overlay—s street, landscape and shrub-point standards intended to create park strips, trees at a specified frequency and multiuse paths to soften the street edge. He added that while conversion from residential to commercial uses is possible as markets evolve, such conversions may require building-specific work.

After a brief final set of minor textual corrections, a councilmember moved the ordinance; the council approved it by roll call with recorded yes votes including Logan, Craig, Mindy, Mike and Jake. Staff said it will finalize text edits and publish the adopted code.

No conditions of approval or substantive amendments were recorded at the time of the vote.