County approves new rules for hunting preserves and shooting facilities, rezones acreage near Eagle Mountain

The Utah County Commission voted to amend the county Land Use Ordinance to establish clear standards for hunting preserves and shooting facilities and to rezone about 690 acres near Eagle Mountain to mining and grazing.

Brandon Larson, community development staff, told commissioners the amendments change hunting preserves and shooting ranges from conditionally permitted uses that require Board of Adjustment review to permitted uses that can be approved administratively. "If we clearly define what the requirements are, perhaps we can administratively approve," Larson said, explaining the change is intended to provide clarity and speed approvals when applications meet the new standards.

Commissioners added several stipulations before approving the ordinance. The board directed staff to explicitly allow certain camping facilities, adding "yurts" to the list of permitted camping and ancillary uses, and to include a provision that routine maintenance tied to shooting activities — such as periodic scraping to remove spent lead from ranges — be treated as permitted maintenance rather than requiring a mining permit. Staff agreed to draft a short maintenance provision for inclusion.

The commission also set a formula to limit kennel sizes associated with these facilities: 25 dogs per 160 acres, with the possibility of additional kennels on large properties. Staff said they will prepare ordinance language tying kennel counts to acreage and ensuring consistency with animal control rules.

Larson said staff and the planning commission recommended approval. Commissioners were told the rezoning serves as a buffer for Camp Williams by reducing the likelihood of denser residential development near the training area. The commission then approved the rezoning request to change portions of the zone map from RA-5 to mining and grazing.

Public commenters who addressed the items included Jim Smith of Wasatch Wing and Clay, who thanked the board and staff for the ordinance changes and said the facility expects to host youth competitions and regional shooters. "We felt that from the beginning we've been kind of an uphill battle and- and we just extremely appreciative that we feel we have an ordinance now we can be successful," Smith said.

The ordinances were adopted after motion and second; staff will return final ordinance language (including the kennel-acreage formula and the maintenance provision) for the minutes and formal sign-off at the next meeting.