Planning commission unanimously recommends council adopt state-mandated WUI building code; residents raise insurance and fee concerns

The Salt Lake City Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council adopt a text amendment to incorporate the state’s Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) building-code provisions into city code.

The proposal would add WUI requirements — special building-code provisions that regulate roof and exterior materials, defensible-space landscaping, and building separation — for mapped parcels on the city’s foothills and along several creek corridors. Planning staff and the fire department said adopting the code is necessary to preserve eligibility for state reimbursement of wildfire response and to reduce wildfire risk to homes.

The measure matters because the city’s draft overlay focuses on foothill neighborhoods and creek corridors including Capitol Hill, the Avenues, the East Bench, Immigration Creek and Red Butte Creek. The staff presentation said the current draft map includes about 917 parcels; staff said earlier drafts included many more parcels and that the fire department coordinated parcel-by-parcel revisions…