Committee debates requiring Swiss/European elements for new churches but takes no formal action

Committee members discussed whether the city should require Swiss or other European architectural features on new church buildings after recent proposals that did not include those elements.

Councilman Andrew Osborne (S5) raised the topic and asked staff to clarify what the city could require. "We don't have really anything we can do contingent to the conditional use because we don't have it currently in our code," he said, referring to the limits of the current development code for religious facilities. Staff (S1) confirmed that commercial buildings are required to follow the Swiss/European architecture requirement in the master plan, but said religious buildings are not generally classified as commercial under the existing code and that changing that would require a formal code amendment through the planning commission and city council.

Committee members discussed informal outreach — S5 said he was speaking with the state president about design preferences for a high‑visibility stake center on Michie Lane — but the committee did not take any motion to pursue an immediate code change during the meeting. Staff indicated it would be possible to prepare a code amendment for formal review if the committee decides to make a recommendation in the future.

The committee did not adopt any code changes at the meeting; staff reported that the particular religious project discussed had received a planning commission recommendation and will advance to a public hearing at city council.