Planning commission declines to recommend upzoning for Old Farm/Cascade area after extensive public comment

The Cedar City Planning Commission voted not to recommend changing the city’s general plan designation from medium density to higher-density R‑3M for a segment of the Old Farm/Cascade Springs area near 2530 North and Commerce Center Drive.

The hearing drew detailed engineering, policy and neighborhood testimony. The applicant described the proposal as a modest step to permit three-bedroom, two‑story townhome-style units in place of duplexes. An engineering review submitted with the application said sewer and water had been studied and that the project would not generate the threshold number of vehicle trips that would trigger a separate traffic study.

Commissioners and residents debated the request’s consistency with the city’s adopted master plan and with state housing guidance. Carter Wilkie, a Cedar City council member who addressed the commission in his council capacity, described the process that led the city to “choose some of these items” in dialogue with the state and said, “We chose that item as a planning commission, and then the city council chose that as we will try to upzone where possible.” Anne Clark, a nearby resident, told commissioners she was troubled by repeated master-plan changes and said, “The state is sounding a lot like the federal government to me where they blackmail you.”

Neighbors raised site-specific concerns. Rodney Forsyth, who identified himself as an owner of two adjoining lots, sought clarity about prior north-end development, fence lines and drainage. The applicant’s representative said the current team had not been involved in the earlier work and offered to help protect neighboring properties where feasible.

Commissioners discussed 'feathering' and transitional zoning where high-density parcels abut lower-density homes and debated whether the request constituted an acceptable, narrowly tailored change. After public comment and deliberation, a motion to recommend keeping the designation at medium density failed; a later motion to recommend the change to high density failed on recorded voice responses (two commissioners voting Aye and three Nay), so the commission did not forward a positive recommendation for the general-plan amendment and rezone under consideration.

The planning commission’s recommendation is advisory; if the applicant chooses to pursue the rezoning again, the matter would next be considered by the City Council in its legislative role.