Spring City considers .5 acre minimum lot size

SPRING CITY—The Spring City Council continued to discuss lot-size requirements at its last meeting, except this time it put pressure on the Planning and Zoning Committee to come up with a recommendation on the issue.

The council asked the planning commission to answer the question: Should the city change its ordinances to reduce the minimum lot size within city limits from 1.1 acres to a half-acre?

Planning and Zoning discussed the question in its last two meetings in February and March, but didn’t pass any recommendation on to the council.

On April 3, the council voted unanimously to request the Planning and Zoning
Committee to officially present a recommendation by the next city council meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, May 1 at 7 p.m.

The lot size question and other land-use topics, including multifamily housing, have been debated by city government and residents for months.

Last September, Ken Krogue, current city councilman and then chairman of a citizen panel called the “Growth Committee,” gave a presentation during a joint city council and planning-and-zoning work meeting.

The presentation included data not previously compiled on lot sizes in Spring City and extensive information about city development and finances. But the Growth Committee did not make any recommendations on land-use issues.

Also during the April 3 meeting, the council unanimously approved the annexation of a 40-acre parcel into city limits, with an agreement that no more than 12 city water connections would be allowed.

In an interview several days after the meeting, Mayor Chris Anderson said the city had annexed land once before, but that annexation only covered a couple of lots.

The 40 acres are on the southeast edge of the city. The west end of the property runs along 700 East between 200 and 300 South.

As with all annexations, the Lieutenant Governor’s office must sign off on the change. Forty acres is about 4.5% of Spring City’s total current acreage of 883 acres. During the meeting, property owners and council members said the annexation had been discussed for numerous years.

One of the fears expressed by residents who do not want the Spring City environment to change has been that the city might annex large parcels in its buffer zone and then permit subdivisions with scores of homes on the annexed land. Then the city would be obligated to provide power, water and sewer to the additional homes.

That scenario does not appear to apply to the 40-acre annexation. Currently, there are three properties on the 40 acres. Two of the properties are already connected to the city’s culinary system. And the limit of 12 total water connections would foreclose the possibility of a major small-lot subdivision.