Planners thinking about traffic management, housing unit limits

Transportation/Land use

LINDON, Utah — One city planner has suggested the future development of autonomous vehicles may help alleviate the growing traffic burden in Utah County.

Lindon Planning Director Hugh Van Wagenen speculated during the Sept. 26, 2017 Planning Commission meeting that self-driving vehicles could help improve traffic flow.

Indeed, two days later a promoted Tweet by Bloomberg Media pushed the CA Technologies podcast series “The Last Adopter,” Episode 1, “The Computer in the Driveway.” Promo taglines included “Today’s Cars are Computers with Four Wheels,” “It’s all about the software” and “Driving has become the distraction …”

Driving, not mobile device use, is becoming the distraction in today’s personal transportation and digital-media nexus. According to a licensed agent I spoke with this week, auto insurance rates are rising because distracted driving is contributing heavily to more accidents and collisions that result in worse damage than before — due to no braking.

Evidently people’s digital connections are assuming priority over their need to drive somewhere safely. In the past, it was impressed on student drivers that their time spent driving was a “full-time job,” demanding their undivided attention.

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Topics on the Planning Commission’s agenda this week actually focused on future development within the Lindon Village Commercial Zone along 700 North, west of State Street. The commission voted to regulate by target percentage the maximum acreage any given land use can occupy within the zone.

(The 700 North roadway is also called North County Boulevard and designated as a section of Highway 129. With Utah Department of Transportation involvement, it will be developed as a major corridor to and from Interstate 15, Van Wagenen said.)

A highly desired outcome of development in the Lindon Village Commercial Zone will be to enhance sales-tax revenue for the city.

The meeting also included a general discussion of land use and density applying to Lindon’s residential development.

The city is approaching build-out of moderate-income housing, the planner said, but construction of properly permitted accessory apartments remains a means of achieving state guidelines for Lindon’s housing affordability mix, he said.

The Lindon Planning Commission is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays monthly at the Lindon City Center’s City Council Chambers, 100 N. State St. in Lindon.

—Gary Brodeur

Communities wrestling with cultural shift to short-term property rentals

Business/Land use

UTAH COUNTY, Utah — Neighborhoods and policymakers are wrestling with shifts in public acceptance of short-term property rentals that cater to travelers, tourists, vacationers and sightseers.

Like the popular preference of choosing Lyft or Uber transportation over established taxi or shuttle services, people can find cost savings and homelike conveniences in the rental of privately owned and operated host accommodations — booked online and on short notice — over traditional hotel or motel management offerings.

For homeowners, the concept can provide a lucrative alternative to property left unused while occupants are away on business or leisure. For investors, the per-day rates can substantially contribute toward the purchase of a house.

Typically, government authorities at various levels require licensing to pursue such an income-producing venture and may have limits on where or when that business activity may be conducted.

Also, mortgage lenders may be concerned with how a property they lend on is occupied and used.

For instance, the topic of short-term rentals of less than 30 consecutive days was discussed during recent land-use ordinance deliberations in Vineyard, Utah. Single-family residence owners presented reasons for allowing short-term rentals, which some said they were already conducting.

The town is expanding rapidly and attracting investors as well as those who seek a primary residence. Vineyard officials are firming up language in the town’s planning code. Vineyard is far from build-out status; what officials decide now will have far-reaching impacts for residents.

Also, a revision of the Real Estate Purchase Contract that is coming into use by Jan. 1, 2018 for Utah residential real-estate transactions considers existing long-term leases and rentals, as in earlier REPC versions, plus the addition of short-term rental bookings.

The town of Vineyard, Utah schedules (subject to change) its Planning Commission meetings at 6:30 p.m. on the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesdays of the month, and its City Council meetings at 6 p.m. on the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesdays at City Hall, 240 E. Gammon Road in Vineyard.

—Gary Brodeur