Eagle Mountain Growth – 2017

Eagle Mountain continues to see growth. In 2017 Eagle Mountain surpassed the number of building permits in every category besides commercial over the last 12 years. 2017 showed a decline in the number of commercial permits and churches permitted as compared to 2016. In 2017 the city issued 10 commercial permits, compared to the 12 year high of 21 permits issued in 2016. Eagle Mountain issued 1,536 permits through out the city in 2017. Those permits included 920 new residential buildings. The building department performed 9,294 building inspections an increase of over 2000 inspections done in 2016. Permits included the 220 basements and another 386 permits. Those 386 permits included solar installations, accessory buildings, and other building projects that require a permit. Melissa Clark, a newly elected member of the City Council was asked during the primary election, “What are your goals for the City in regards to Development?” Her response was the following:

The reality of development in a city is we have to have the right blend of industrial, commercial, and residential–within residential we have to have a mix of family farms, single family dwellings, and even high density. The real issue is making sure we have the roads and infrastructure to support each, and, most importantly, that we have each kind of development in the correct place within our city. Development has to happen to increase the tax base and allow us to provide basic infrastructure and the added perks of parks and amenities, but that development has to make sense. When it comes down to it, businesses will come to Eagle Mountain because we are the 3rd largest city in Utah by land mass and within 18 years we are projected to have 120,000 residents; having that kind of potential in location, workforce, and customer base is exactly the incentive to develop that business owners are looking for…”

According to the building department, there are currently 8,859 permitted building lots. Lots in Eagle Mountain vary from 5+ Acre base density lots to multi-family dwellings. The largest number of lots are those zoned Residential Tier II. Residential Tier II lots account for 73.2% or 6,487 of the total permitted lots. Tier II lots are defined by a density between 1.61 and 5.20 dwelling units per acre. City code says that, “It is expected that Tier II residential developments will be single-family neighborhoods with medium-sized lots and are characteristic of traditional suburban residential neighborhoods.” Multi-Family units account for 14.3% of eagle mountain lot development. At the end of 2017 there were 1,349 multi-family permitted units in Eagle Mountain. Multi-Family units fall into Tier III and Tier IV residential zones. These two zones have a building density between 5.21 dwelling units to 22.7 dwelling units per acre. City codes defines Tier III, “residential developments will offer more dense development and may allow for cluster homes, garden courts, patio homes, apartments, townhomes and condominium construction.” Code restricts Tier IV to “apartment, townhome and condominium construction.” The remainder of the roof tops consist of 146 (1.5%) 5+ acre agricultural lots and 877 (9.95) half acre Tier I residential lots. The majority of the 5+ acre lots are zoned Agricultural and is the default zoning for areas that were annexed into Eagle Mountain. Donna Burnham, an Eagle Mountain City council member, made this statement in June 2017 about development in Eagle Mountain, “Development should be carefully considered to ensure that the impact of new developments on current residents is properly considered. Developers should be required to fix problems that new houses and traffic patterns will cause. The city, on the other hand, needs to review problems that already exist and either add them to our impact fee plan or find ways to partner with future developers to fix them outright.”

Additional Resources

Building Department (City Website) Building Forms – Permits, etc