Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to Planning Commission on this June 25th, 2026. We will open with the Pledge of Allegiance by Commissioner Gregson. Please rise.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

I'll move to approve tonight's agenda.

I'll second it.

I have a motion by Commissioner Butler to approve tonight's agenda and a second by Commissioner Patten. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That passes. Do I have a motion to approve tonight's staff reports?

I'll make a motion to approve tonight's staff reports. I second.

I have a motion by Commissioner Patten, a second by Commissioner Nielsen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That also passes. Are there any declarations of conflicts or abstentions from commission members tonight? Seeing none, we will continue with the agendas that we have. We only have one agenda on tonight, and that is... Pleasant Grove City is requesting the approval of a code text amendment to create an ordinance addressing water efficiency standards with a purpose to conserve the public's water resources by establishing standards regarding the use of water, indoor plumbing fixtures, and outdoor landscaping. We will turn the time over to Director Daniel Cardenas.

Chair, commissioners, it's a pleasure to be here in front of you guys. I'd like to welcome everybody who's looking at us live. Hopefully there's not so many and they're actually watching the U.S. game right now. Commissioners, what we have in front of us right now is a code text amendment proposed by the city uh... to adopt some uh... water conservancy standards these water conservancy standards come from uh... central utah water conservancy district and we have amanda here with us that uh... she uh... so kindly came uh... and attend our invitation to be part of this public hearing I know there's not a lot of public, but this will be recorded for the public to review later. So let me show you, I have a small PowerPoint presentation, really simple. Like I say, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, they have some programs for residents. They have something called the lawn replacement, that candidly I call it for so long, flip the street. It's not even flip the street, it's flip the strip. But I... I don't know why I call it flip the strip for quite some time, but flip the strip, which actually is called the lawn replacement program. Sorry, it's right here. And then they have something called switch to drip. They come with really cool names. I like how you guys approach that. And they have something called a tree bait, okay? So those are programs, again, that Central Utah Water Conservancy District have that our residents can participate on those, okay? Right now, anybody of our residents can go and apply. Placent Grove City is one of the cities that is part of this program. If they apply right now, or residents right now are eligible for those programs, and if they apply right now, they'll get, if they meet the requirements of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, they'll get $1.50 per square foot. of lawn replacement on the strip. If they do switch to drip, they'll get 50% per square foot, kind of like a rebate, hence the name tree bait for the tree program that they have, okay? So Central Utah Water Conservancy District say, hey, cities, if you guys adopt certain requirements then we can double up the amount that the residents can be entitled to for these programs. So instead of 150 for the lawn replacement, they can get up to $3 per square foot. For switch and drip, they get $1, and for the tree bait, that one stays the same. Now, Central Utah Water Conservation District, they have a bunch of regulations and recommendations. It's important to mention that at this point, the staff is only presenting and adopting the requirements, not the recommendations at this point, but the requirements. Now, what are those requirements? I have them listed right here, okay? Requirement number one, and let me be clear on this. These four requirements are for new developments. This is not retroactive. By us adopting this or following the recommendation of approval or denial doesn't mean that it's gonna go and affect previous or already existing developments, okay, or residences. This is for any new residence. Now, the lot shall not be less than eight feet wide at its narrowest point. Number two, the lawn shall not be installed on slopes greater than 25% or four to one. Number three, lawn shall not exceed 50% of the total landscape area in the front and side yards of new residential construction and in commercial, and there's a caveat right there that says small residential lots which have no backyards in which the total landscape area is less than 250 square feet and in which the front yard dimensions cannot accommodate the minimum eight feet wide lawn area requirement. Those are exempt from the eight feet minimum width lawn area requirement and maximum 50% lawn requirement. In other words, no more than 50%, but if the lot is small, we can take a look into it. And number four, in commercial, industrial, institutional, and multifamily development, common area landscapes, lawn areas shall not exceed 20% of the total landscape area outside of active recreation areas. They're pretty simple. No, they're not simple. They're pretty straightforward. They're clear. So what we did is we went through our ordinance, find the areas of ordinance where we require landscape, and adopt those. And that's what you can see in the code. It will take me hours to go through every single one of them, but you guys have them right there. Now, I did something really demonstrative. I'm a very visual guy, so I like to map everything. So I found some new developments in our city, new homes, new residences, because the 50% is, I think, the one that's going to affect the most. So I look at those and we can see at this property, on purpose I didn't put an address or a property owner, but we can take a look at the great job they did with the landscape. Now, again, the 50% is for the lawn, for the grass, for that area, and if we take a look, the area where they have grass or lawn is this one right here that I'm encompassing with my mouse. See it right here? So that's what they did just recently without any requirements. So I can see that the tendency in many homes goes to below the 50% that we're already gonna require. So what I'm trying to show right here is that it's not gonna impact a lot or it's not super restrictive. It's very doable and you can have a great, fantastic front yard, okay? It's a brand new home following the new tendencies. This one right here is a little bit more. And, I mean, before I jump into that one, let me show you this one. There's some Xeriscape right here. You guys can see this. There's some rocks. There's some plants. I mean, they're working on it. I'm pretty sure they have some dripping systems right there. So this area is narrower than eight foot. So it doesn't mean that it just has to be left unattended. You can do amazing things with that. That's why I think I picked this one. Now, taking a look at this, the only area that they won't be able to put any grass will be, like, narrow areas like this. And... Amanda, you guys know I'm horrible with names. Amanda, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was demonstrated that a sprinkler is very inefficient to water on very narrow strips of land. Most of the water is wasted. I think that's the reason why they're asking for bigger than eight feet, to take advantage of the water, not just... Sometimes, and it happens to a lot of cities, when we drive around, we see they're watering the road or they're having a very well watered sidewalk. That's what we're trying to avoid with something, or what they're trying to avoid with something like this. Okay, the next home, 45%. And again, if we, anytime we have a chance to go, I mean, it looks like a fantastic landscape area. It looks like it was designed very well. You guys have this big area of grass right here, here, here, and here. And there's no landscape right here, but let me see in the next. YOU GUYS CAN SEE THEY DID SOMETHING DIFFERENT ALONG THIS AREA. SO THEY'RE WORKING ON DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT. IT'S MANAGEABLE. IT'S ACHIEVABLE AS WELL. I THINK I SHOW YOU GUYS, AND THESE ARE TWO NEW ONES THAT I DID, BUT DURING THE LAST PLANNING COMMISSION, I SHOW YOU THESE LANDSCAPE AREAS RIGHT HERE. THESE ARE OLDER ONES. THESE ARE NO NEW HOMES. THESE ARE OLDER HOMES. AND YOU GUYS CAN SEE HOW THIS ONE MISSED THE REQUIREMENT, THIS ONE MISSED THE REQUIREMENT, THIS ONE MISSED THE REQUIREMENT, THIS ONE DIDN'T BECAUSE OF THIS BIG AREA RIGHT HERE. BUT THE REST OF THEM, EVEN WITHOUT HAVING THIS Restriction, if you want to call it like that, they still meet their requirements, okay? There's a couple homes right here. This is our brand new one as well. One of them does, one of them does not. Now, look at this. This one does not. But again, we understand how difficult it's gonna be for the people to water this. If we eliminate, eight feet is gonna be this line right here. So this is less than eight feet. Probably that's about five to six feet. difficult to water, difficult to sprinkle and maintain the grass alive. If they do any other design right here, they'll be below the 50%. So the reason and the purpose of me showing you this is that the new, because it's a new requirement, Utah Water Central, Utah Water Conservancy District been working on the requirements and actually they changed the requirement. The past used to be 35%, now it's 50%, meaning you can have 50% having your driveway right there, having other type of landscape, native plants, rocks, different type of landscape that is not grass per se, and you still can meet the requirements and have a great front lawn and side yard, okay? That's what I have, chair and commissioners. I have Amanda here. Amanda, did I say it right? Point for Daniel. I have Amanda here with us. She's part of Central Utah Water Conservancy District. And if you guys have any questions, she's here to answer any of the questions. If you think that the public may want to have some answers. Again, these... This will go to city council on the second meeting of July. I already talked to my city recorder and we're planning on taking it. And by adopting these regulations, residents will be able to go to double up the rebate program that the Central Utah Water Conservancy District offers to our residents. But I wanna be clear that right now, they still can go and apply. They won't be able to get the full amount, but 50% is available at this point.

OK. That's what I have. Chair and commissioners, if you guys have any questions. Are there any other commission questions for Daniel this time?

So Daniel, I do have a question about these standards and the current requirements in the design review board specifically for commercial properties. How does it fit?

I mean, they're pretty close. They're pretty close because, for example, we ask 25 to 30, in some areas, 35% of open space areas, okay? Now, commercial developers are different than residential developers. Residential developers appreciate a backyard appreciate and we have requirements for a front yard. Commercial developers they want the best the most paying for their buck so they want to occupy more land usually commercial developers. This is not a struggle, but we as a staff, we gotta make sure that they provide the 25%. And out of that 25%, X amount needs to be landscape. Now we still gonna require landscape. There's still landscape and we have landscape requirements, but this only applies to grass. And to be honest with you, based on these last 10 years of experience here on Placent Grove City and four in Salt Lake County, now it's 14 years of experience, developers try to stay away from grass. I'm not saying stay away from landscape areas or from open areas. We're still gonna ask that requirement. We're just gonna change the amount of grass. And it's always staff pushing the grass on the commercial developers. If you guys take a trip or take a drive at the Grove, which is what I like to call, I know I call it wrongly because it's not the jewel of the crown. is the crown jewel, and now it's called the jewel of the crown, the crown jewel. You guys can drive over there, and you guys are not gonna see a lot of grass. However, the areas of grass that we have, we're trying to make sure those are well-maintained, and they're way below what the requirements ask at this point. Does that answer your question? Yes, okay.

Okay, thank you.

My pleasure.

Mr. Mendes, is there anything you'd like to present? Please state your name for the record, as this is a recorded meeting. AMANDA STRACHK.

Perfect. My name is Amanda Strachk. I'm the water conservation manager for Central Utah Water. I just wanted to point out that there are a lot of resources available to the public if they're looking to design a landscape or they're going to participate in the program. On the Utah Water Savers website, there is a tab that's called Resources. Central Utah Water also has a conservation page that has a tab that's for residential or commercial properties and various resources there and then we also have a lot of free classes that we teach. We'll go out into cities and teach them there with the city in collaboration with however the city would like to teach the class. Also we've got some available at our headquarters in Orem and so those are all free classes. They're recorded and so that can be a great resource for the public.

Thank you. Quick question that I have about the drip systems. So is it drip or is it emitters? Is it just drip or can it be emitters too?

Do you mean like the difference between inline versus point source?

Yeah.

It can be both of those types. So those are the two types that we allow within the program, is the point source emitter that's directly put at each plant, or they can do the inline that's built in, has emitters built in, and you can run it throughout the planting bed, kind of like a grid or whatever shape works best for the planting bed.

So if it's a separate emitter, so you put it into the piping and you have it going off, teeing off, and then it's a little emitter, that doesn't qualify?

It doesn't. So based off what you're saying, I'm assuming you're talking about micro sprays? Yeah. So anything that's spraying above ground, we don't allow. So it's directional.

Within the project area. It's directional, direct to the plant.

Yep, correct.

Okay, and then the tree program as well, that one, is it just residents, they bring the receipts, the type of tree, is there specific types of trees that are not approved?

Yes, that's a great question. So that one has to be in conjunction with another project. So if they're already participating in the irrigation conversion program or project, I should say, or the lawn conversion project, then the tree bait's an add-on to those.

Okay.

So they have to be already enrolled in the program to participate.

So it's not a standalone project?

Right. It's not. We've thought about that. But they do have to hang on to a plant tag. And just when we come for the final visit, they show us and they can get $50 per tree up to 10 trees per project. And we do have a list of ineligible trees that is on the Utah Water Savers website. OK.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Very informative. Thank you. This is a public hearing. We'd like to open up to the public. If anyone would like to come up and address anything. Okay, I see our one person of public is denied, so we'll close the public hearing and bring it back up to the commissioners for any discussions we have amongst ourselves and or a motion.

Well, I've been on the beautification committee for the last, I think, six years or so, and when they came and talked to us about We went through all of the city ordinances with those to try to match it, but then there was some reservations. I do know that a lot of the residents, when we would go around, a lot of them asked about it, so we would post some stuff and share. I think it's getting out more as more cities are doing it, and I think that's maybe where we're getting a lot more residents.

I also feel like,

I don't know. I know with the Grove District and everything, I know with the steps that they have to have a certified landscaper. So I don't really think that there would be having to add some more oversight on especially commercial, because you just lay it out. Here are the codes. Here's what they have to follow within the landscaper with the commercial and Grove Zone. But I also, I mean, I think $3 is really good to incentivize somebody to remove some grass and make some changes. So I've always been for this for the last two years ever since it came out, so.

It does a great job of helping the public. Think about it, right? So I worked at a nursery last year, and there was a handful of people that came in that were doing this program and visited with, I can remember one person from Pleasant Grove that they thought that they could, and they were disappointed when they found out that they couldn't. participating in the program under the previous rules. Because we want to try to help people change their behaviors. And there's always, money is one of those things that helps people change their behaviors.

I think what Daniel showed is that there was concern of what 50% means, but 50% is for 50% with whatever yard it is. But looking at a lot of people that built residents, their homes years back are still within that limit and that it goes for just new construction. I think it would be a good benefit and a good way to show our support for water conservation as a city.

The wells do run dry. Any other discussion or a motion? Carla wants to make a motion.

Sure, I move the Planning Commission forward a recommendation of approval to the City Council for the proposed amendments to city code section 10-15-28, water efficiency standards and amend sections of the code regarding landscaping and adopting the exhibits, conditions and findings of the staff report and as modified by the conditions below. There aren't any conditions below.

I just want, looking in the drop box, it's 10-15-49. Oh, okay. Is there a discrepancy that we need to be aware of? Okay, so it should be 28?

Okay. The motion was correct. Okay, good. I second that motion.

We have a motion by Commissioner Patton, a second by Commissioner Robinson. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes.

It was going to be 49, but recently we removed a portion of our code, so that is empty, so that's why it has to go on that side. Okay, thank you.

Okay, at this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the previous Planning Commission meeting.

I move to approve the minutes from the June 11th, 2026 meeting.

Motion by Butler. And a second by Commissioner Patten. All those in favor say aye. Aye. That passes. I move we adjourn. I move we adjourn.