The first half of 2025 will be focused on issues related to affordable housing, as the Cottonwood Heights City Council needs to update their Affordable Housing Plan before August. The council could decide to make minimum updates to the plan based on the current state of the housing market, or they could opt to implement more significant changes to accommodate more moderate and affordable housing within the city. 

Typically, the conversations about moderate and affordable housing throughout the state and local governments are categorized and defined using the mathematics of the AMI (Area’s Median Income). Per the State of Utah’s guidelines, affordable housing should be available to those who make 80% of the community’s area median income. 

For example, the median household (family) income within Salt Lake City’s metro area has been reported at $115,500 (in 2023). Eighty percent of $115,500 results in $92,400. That $92,400 would be the affordable basis for the area. 

“Housing is considered affordable when the overall housing costs do not exceed 30% of the overall household income,” said Community and Economic Development Director Mike Johnson. 

In Cottonwood Heights, the median household income has been reported at $110,197 (in 2022). The median home cost with the city has been reported at $770,100. Eighty percent AMI, averaging throughout the city’s areas, results in $88,157. Breaking that down even further, housing costs that are deemed as affordable within Cottonwood Heights result between $2,448 and $3,061 per month. 

Constrained households are defined though the state’s guidelines as having housing costs that exceed 30% of the household income. In Cottonwood Heights, 27% of all the households can be considered constrained per that definition. 

“If we want working people to be able to live here, we need to be looking at the household averages in Salt Lake County,” said Councilmember Ellen Birrell.

The Cottonwood Heights development team reached out to property owners and developers with the city in response to these numbers with the intention of gathering some preliminary research to grasp how much affordable and constrained housing is realistically within the city. 

The Santa Fe complex (1550 Fort Union Blvd.) was the only one to respond with useable information.  Out of their 492 housing units, they deed-restrict 173 units at 50-65% AMI. 

“They do have a few other apartments set aside (for affordable housing too) but not as a deed,” Johnson said. 

Luckily, the city’s development team members have been keeping track of the plans for affordable housing within upcoming high-density developments. The gravel pit’s construction plan (northern) will keep 15% of all their total developed units for 80% AMI with an additional 40 units on top of whatever the 15% amounts to be. Additional upcoming developments plan to keep 10% of their total units slated for affordable housing too. 

Per the State Code (10-9a-480), municipalities need to update their Moderate Housing General Plan every five years. The code does include a menu of 26 different strategies each city can opt to adopt. Each specific municipality is required to adopt at least three different strategies from the menu. However, municipalities are incentivized to adopt five or more of these strategies by promising prioritization on different funding opportunities through the state like TIF (Transportation Investment Fund). 

Currently, Cottonwood Heights has four of those specific strategies implemented into their plan to help accommodate for affordable housing within the city. One of the city’s development team’s main recommendations to the council is to develop varied and detailed implementation plans within each strategy. 

For example, one of the previously identified strategies is to zone or rezone for higher density or moderate-income residential development in commercial or mixed-use zones near major transit investment corridors, commercial centers or employment centers.

“Mixed use is the vision for most of the areas within the city,” Johnson said. “I think it’s key that mixed-use housing options continue to be codified in various non-residential zoning districts. It’s a trend in land use for placemaking to mix uses within areas.”  

The council could opt to include an implementation plan of ensuring mixed-use housing options are codified in various non-residential zoning districts. 

Another one of the previously-identified strategies references ADU (Accessory Dwelling Units) conversations and policy decisions from years prior: create or allow for, and reduce regulations related to, internal or detached ADUs in residential zones. 

Narrowing in on detailed implementation plans regarding ADUs might include developing some pre-engineered building plans that can expedite review times and expenses as well as streamlining regulations for detached ADUs within the city. 

Currently, the Cottonwood Heights City Code does allow for internal ADUs but they have to be permitted (which requires a license and inspection). Detached ADUs are also permissible within the city’s boundaries but they are conditional and require approval from the city’s Planning Commission. 

“It might be an onerous project so people might not be doing it the legal way,” said Councilmember Matt Holton.  

Only 15 ADUs have been licensed through the city so far. Johnson speculates that some of the hurdles required to get permitted or approved are creating a boundary where ADU owners do not want to go through the process of getting those legalized. 

The two additional previously-identified strategies are written toward developers. Since including affordable housing is typically a risk or outright loss for developers, the city planers suggest some incentives to counterbalance that risk: implement zoning incentives for moderate-income units in new developments and demonstrate utilization of a moderate-income housing set aside from a community reinvestment agency, redevelopment agency, or community development and renewal agency to create or subsidize moderate income housing.

In other words, the synthesized version of the recommendation here is to consider local financial incentives for development of targeted housing types. For example, the city could deed-restrict some of the areas within housing projects so TIF could be incorporated in new home investment properties. 

“It’s not on one entity alone to try to solve this burden. It’s not the development companies or the state’s,” Johnson said. 

Of course, the city’s development team highly encourages the council to identify two additional strategies to incorporate into their plan so they can have that minimum of five to be prioritized for funding opportunities. Two of which directly relate to how vital this interconnectedness of different markets, municipalities and partnerships is. 

Team members would like to be able to help the city council identify development strategies to utilize private resources, public-private partnerships, and other state and federal level programs to implement goals in addition to proactively working with private sector/nonprofits/adjacent municipalities on creative solutions.

“Partnerships with multiple sectors and levels of government is key,” Johnson said.

Additional recommendations forward to the council target the burden of rising housing costs on the homeowners and residents. The city council could explore programs/policies to assist with ongoing housing expenses (like neighborhood improvement funds).

“The cost of maintaining and keeping up existing housing is so costly,” Johnson said, mentioning how some homes within the Cottonwood Heights boundaries date back to the 1930s. 

As Johnson anticipates the related follow-up conversations to be rather detailed and lengthy over the next few months, he highly encourages the city council to be coordinating. 

“If you have ideas, or if constituents bring up things they are dealing with, pass those along,” Johnson said.  

To view the full Cottonwood Heights Affordable House Plan, and related annual reports, visit the city’s website. Once there, hover over the “City Servies” tab until a full menu appears. Navigate to the “Community Development” header, and click on the “Adopted and Special Plans” link. 

Residents can find the contact information for their city council representative through the city’s website. Once there, hover over the “Your Government” tab until a full menu appears. Navigate to the “Elected Officials” header and click. 

Cottonwood Heights City website is www.cottonwoodheights.utah.gov. λ