Hamlet Homes asks West Valley City to reopen development agreement talks as builders cite falling single-family permits

Barry Gettleman, president of Hamlet Homes, and Sean Steinman of the Home Builders Association urged the West Valley City Council to reopen discussions about a development agreement for a 68-home project in the Western Field subdivision at 4100 South and 6800 West.

Gettleman said Hamlet Homes has repeatedly sought a meeting with council and described broader trends he ties to a 2015 ordinance that downzoned about 700 acres. He told the council that permitted single-family and townhome building has declined—from as many as roughly 275 single-family/townhome permits per year before the downzoning to roughly 30 per year recently—and cited 2023 figures of 35 single-family permits, zero townhome permits, and 645 apartment permits. He estimated those shifts represent about $5 million per year in lost permit revenue, or approximately $50 million over a decade, and argued those lost revenues reduce the city’s ability to fund services.

Sean Steinman, speaking for the Home Builders Association government affairs committee, asked the council to give Hamlet Homes a "seat at the table" to renegotiate the development agreement and to consider changes that would allow market-rate builders to build in West Valley City again. Both speakers framed the request as a way to increase housing supply and support teachers, first responders and workers who the speakers said are being priced out of the market.

Council did not debate the request at length during the meeting. The consent agenda for the same meeting included an amendment to a development agreement (as described by the mayor when the consent items were read aloud); the council approved the consent agenda by unanimous vote without separate discussion of each item.

What’s next: Hamlet Homes requested formal conversations with staff and council; no formal renegotiation was scheduled in the meeting record.