Midway council grants preliminary approval for Castle Court subdivision with conditions

Midway City Council on the evening’s agenda granted preliminary approval for the Castle Court Subdivision, a seven-lot development proposed for 800 North Pine Canyon Road.

Michael, a city planning staff member, told the council the 4.65-acre site is split between R-1-15 and R-1-22 zoning and that two lots fall entirely in R-1-15 and five in R-1-22. He said staff’s recommended conditions include documenting natural grade on the plat so future building heights are measured from true natural grade rather than from fill that has been placed on parts of the property: “We’re still gonna measure from the natural grade,” Michael said, summarizing the city’s approach after geotechnical testing.

The staff report identified 13.22 acre-feet of water demand for the development (7.62 acre-feet for outside irrigation plus 5.6 acre-feet for seven culinary connections) that the developer would need to dedicate. Staff also recommended the developer contribute $6,825 to the city’s trails fund to support construction of planned bike lanes along Pine Canyon Road.

Neighbors who spoke at the hearing raised safety and construction concerns. Tom, who lives adjacent to the site, said his “main concern is just the safety” of the existing uphill blind spot and asked that sight-distance and dust-control measures be enforced during construction. The applicant responded that construction fencing, dust-control measures and minor adjustments to the cul-de-sac alignment were planned to address those concerns.

Council members discussed technical map details — including correcting a side-yard setback shown as 12 feet where R-1-22 requires 20 — and whether the subdivision should be built to the normal local street cross section or the rural cross section available to half-acre lots. Staff said the applicant may request the rural cross section and the council may approve it as part of the final review.

A motion to grant preliminary approval carried after a second; the motion included the staff findings and conditions described above and asked that natural grade be noted on the plat and that the developer be sensitive to adjacent neighbors. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally for this motion; council proceedings moved on to the next agenda item after the motion and second were recorded.

Next steps: the developer must complete final plat materials and address the conditions placed by staff (including grading/natural-grade documentation and corrected setback and side-yard information) before final approval and recording. The city will use building permits and geotechnical requirements to enforce foundation and height standards during construction.