The Tooele City Planning Commission recommended that the City Council approve an application from Perry Homes to create the Compass Point Residential Special District for a large section of property extending approximately from 1000 North to the Erda/Tooele City boundary and from 1200 West to 400 West and Berra Boulevard during the planning commission’s April 9 meeting at Tooele City Hall.
Lynsi Neve, on behalf of Perry Homes, met with the Tooele City Planning Commission to present a plan to create the residential special district based on plans they had recently brought to the planning commission on an earlier date.
The proposed Residential Special District will include the Overlake Golf Course and incorporate all of the undeveloped Perry properties in the area.
The process to approve a Residential Special District is almost identical to that of a standard Zoning Map Amendment except that the application also involves the adoption of a new zoning ordinance that will be applicable to only the area within the RSD zoning district, according to Andrew Aagard, Tooele City community development director.
Tooele City Code allows a developer to essentially write their own code for a specific development in the RSD, according to Aagard.
The RSD is a “tool” that Tooele City has held in its toolbox for a number of years but has never been used by a developer until now, he said in the staff report on the application by Perry Homes.
Compass Point will consist of 1,227 acres and will include the development of roughly 3,300 residential units. This will depend on the number of units permitted to Perry Homes based on the Overlake lawsuit settlement agreement.
While RSDs allow developers flexibility in designing the code for their development, they are not able to place themselves above state law, fire codes, or building codes.
With 3,300 residential units on 1,227 acres, this means there will be less than three units per acre, which is well within the density limitations of Tooele City’s Land Use Map regarding Medium Density Residential Designation, according to Aagard’s report.
The plans for this RSD is meant for a rezone so Perry Homes can build a “master planned community” with a variety of housing sizes and types based on different housing products, trails, an open space and amenities plan for the general community, and include architectural guidelines for the community as well.
The Compass Point development is intended to create a community that allows for residential housing for all stages of life within the same community, according to the application from Perry Homes.
The planning commission found that the Residential Special District will result in the development of properties in a manner that is not reasonably feasible under the terms of current zoning districts and that the proposed Residential Special District will result in the development of properties in a manner that will provide a substantial benefit to the City.
They also found that the proposed Residential Special District will result in the development of properties in a manner that provides uses, configuration, and/or product types that are unique to the community or address a documented deficiency in the housing market.
canderson@tooeletranscript.com
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