EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — Todd Panter and his wife wanted to cut their property in half.
Panter lives on 1.45 acres in Eagle Mountain. The house sits on one half of the lot. The other half is mostly pasture for two goats.
The Panters’ daughters are grown and moved out, and they want to downsize.
“We were hoping to do a subdivide and leave our home on one portion of that subdivide,” said Panter. “And put another home, ultimately, or sell to a contractor to build a home.”
All that would require asking Eagle Mountain to approve a rezoning. As Utah looks to solve what’s often called a housing crisis, people like state Rep. Ray Ward see subdividing lots as a way to create more space for building.
Ward sees subdividing as something Utah has long done, pointing to Bountiful as an example.
“We're on the block where my great-great grandfather had his family farm here in Bountiful,” said Ward.
“So, the lot that had one family on it before now has 45 homes on it,” he said.
He introduced a bill during the recent legislative session that would have created a process for dividing lots. While Panter’s experience in Eagle Mountain was not cited during the debate on the bill, Ward agreed he’s an example of the problem the proposed legislation tried to address.
“We ran into quite a bit of red tape,” said Panter.
He paid a surveyor to determine where the new property lines would be. Then he filed a rezoning application with Eagle Mountain.
At a city council meeting in 2023, Panter’s proverbial scissors hit the rock with Eagle Mountain City Council Member Brett Wright.
“I'm really hesitant to begin the process of spot zoning – is what I would call it,” said Wright.
Other council members concurred. They were concerned about how the neighborhood was originally zoned for lots of at least 1 acre. Panter’s rezoning application was denied.
Three years later, the lot remains the same size. Ward’s bill, HB184, was titled “Small Lots and Starter Homes Amendments” and comes as Gov. Spencer Cox has set a goal of Utah building 35,000 so-called starter homes by December 2028.
The bill would not have mandated cities to approve subdividing applications, but would have narrowed the reasons cities can deny them.
“What I wanted in that bill would still leave it up to the cities to decide,” said Ward. “But it would set up a process whereby a person could go in and ask to make a smaller lot.”
Housing advocates and builders testified in favor of the bill.
One of the people who testified against the bill; Ward’s own mayor. Besides leading Bountiful, Kate Bradshaw is also the president of the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
In an interview with FOX 13, Bradshaw said she doesn’t think the current subdividing process amounts to red tape. Cities would rather focus on property developments that add thousands of homes, condominiums or apartments at a time.
“We'd rather put time and energy into that work than to spot zoning,” said Bradshaw.
A legislative committee voted down Ward’s bill. The full Legislature never considered it. Ward said he plans to draft a new version for 2027 that might be more palpable to cities.
Panter and his wife are weighing their options, too, including whether to reapply to subdivide their lot. As far as the law goes, he thinks the housing crisis could be addressed with more “property protection.”
“Meaning I can do what I would like with my property,” said Panter.