Bountiful council adopts multifamily land-use code changes, defers several proposed revisions

Bountiful City Council on April 28 adopted Ordinance 2026-03, a comprehensive amendment to the city's land-use code that revises multifamily residential standards including vehicle access, setbacks, lot coverage, landscaping and open-space design. City planner Francisco Atorga presented staff's packet and the Planning Commission's recommendations before the council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance with a single typographical correction.

Atorga said the application, submitted by a private developer, initially proposed 12 changes and was trimmed to nine by the applicant and staff. Staff and the Planning Commission recommended adopting a set of clarifications while declining to support items that would change permissible lot coverage, reduce required landscaping, and alter certain density thresholds without a citywide review. On the key technical point of vehicle access, staff recommended consolidating multiple local standards by referencing the currently adopted International Fire Code (IFC) rather than reproducing individual IFC sections in city code; Fire Marshal Cole Fesler's review supported the staff approach, warning that applicant language might unintentionally conflict with the IFC.

Council members discussed whether the ordinance should cite particular IFC sections or simply adopt the governing code by reference; Atorga and councilors favored referencing the adopted code to avoid future renumbering or the need for repeated local updates. The council also accepted staff's recommendation to apply certain setback changes only to townhouses (using the International Residential Code definition) and to defer lot-coverage and landscaping percentage changes until a comprehensive general-plan and zoning rewrite provides broader analysis.

The council moved through the packet amendment by amendment. Amendments that staff and the Planning Commission supported (including a clarified open-space/access provision and the access standard referencing the IFC) were approved; staff'recommended rejections of several developer-requested changes (including amendments on lot-coverage increases for smaller parcels and reduced perimeter landscaping) were sustained. Council member Higginson identified and requested a textual correction (changing the misspelled "sideyear" to "sideyard" in section 14-5-105 B) before the final vote.

The ordinance was adopted unanimously. The council directed staff to proceed with the corrected ordinance and noted that broader code changes tied to an upcoming general-plan process could be considered separately.