Moderate Income Housing Requirements in Salt Lake County, Utah

A 2021 state law requires this, and Salt Lake County has to report on it every year

In 2021, the Utah Legislature passed a law requiring counties and cities to update the Moderate Income Housing element of their general plans. Under Utah Code, moderate-income housing is defined as housing occupied by households with a gross income at or below 80% of the area median income (AMI). To comply, Salt Lake County had to select at least 3 of the state's designated Moderate Income Housing strategies (5 strategies to qualify for priority consideration on state grant funding) and build a concrete implementation plan for each one -- not just restate the requirement in general terms.

The state reviewed and found Salt Lake County's plan both compliant and eligible for priority funding status in 2022, and starting in 2023 the county has been required to submit an annual progress report to the state on how its selected strategies are actually being implemented. Failing to comply, or falling behind on the required reporting, puts the county's eligibility for various state housing and infrastructure grant funding at risk -- which is part of why this isn't a plan the county can quietly shelve.

The specific strategies are already changing unincorporated county rules

Some of Salt Lake County's selected strategies have concrete, dated commitments attached rather than vague goals. As one example, the county committed under one strategy to complete more than 5 active transportation projects in unincorporated Salt Lake County by the end of 2023. Under a separate strategy, unincorporated Salt Lake County launched an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) survey in July 2023, specifically to identify the barriers property owners face when trying to build an ADU, with results meant to feed recommendations back to the county's Planning Commissions and Council -- a direct signal that ADU rules for unincorporated land are an active policy target, not settled.

Most relevant for anyone planning a subdivision or new residential use: the county's planning staff, working with county legal counsel, began a comprehensive revision of the county's Zoning and Subdivision Ordinances in spring 2023 specifically to meet the state's Moderate Income Housing requirements and bring the code into better conformity with the county's adopted general plans, including the Moderate Income Housing Plan itself. That means Title 19 (zoning) and Title 18 (subdivision) of the Salt Lake County Code -- covered on our subdividing-land page -- have been under active revision for housing-related reasons, and provisions in place when a listing was written may not match the current code.

What this means if you're evaluating a residential-capable parcel

Because unincorporated Salt Lake County's day-to-day planning and zoning runs through the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD), not a conventional in-house county department, MSD is the right first call to ask two specific questions: first, whether the zoning and subdivision ordinance revisions tied to the Moderate Income Housing Plan have changed density, lot-size, or ADU rules applicable to your specific parcel since it was last listed or assessed; and second, whether the county's current annual progress report (filed each year since 2023) shows any strategy specifically affecting land in your area, such as a transportation project or rezoning tied to housing goals. Don't assume a zoning classification or ADU restriction you find in an older document is still current -- this is one of the more actively moving parts of Salt Lake County's regulatory landscape right now.