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Growing Water Smart Briefing 1 April 23, 202
PLANNING DIVISION
DEPARTMENT of COMMUNITY and NEIGHBORHOODS
Staff Report
To: Salt Lake City Planning Commission
From: Nick Norris, Planning Director, nick.norris@slc.gov or 801-535-6173
Date: April 23, 2025
Re: Growing Water Smart (GWS) and the process for updating the city’s General Plan
General Plan Amendment-Briefing
REQUEST:
This is an introductory briefing regarding state code requirements.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Growing Water Smart is a project that is intended to merge water planning and land use planning
in Salt Lake City. The project is multi-faceted, with the first piece adopting policies into the city’s
general plan to comply with Utah Code requirements. Future phases of the project will relate to
implementing the adopted policies into Plan Salt Lake, essentially creating another chapter to the
plan.
Utah Code 10-9a-403 requires cities to update their general plan to include a water use and
preservation element by December 31, 2025. The code requires cities to address the following:
• The effect of permitted development or patterns of development and future development
on water demand and water infrastructure.
• Methods of reducing water demand and per capita consumption for existing development
and future development.
• Opportunities to modify the city’s operations to eliminate practices or conditions that
waste water.
The state code directs the planning commission to consider the following when drafting the water
use and preservation element of the city’s general plan:
• Applicable regional water conservation goals recommended by the Division of Water
Resources.
• The city’s existing water conservation plan (2020)
In addition, the commission is required by state code to make a recommendation for water
conservation policies to be added to the general plan and Landscape options within a public street
File Number 2 January 12, 2022
for current and future development that do not require the use of lawn or turn in a park strip. The
commission is also asked to make recommendations for changes to ordinances that promote the
inefficient use of water.
State code also asks the commission to consider policies related to the principles of sustainable
landscaping that include:
1. Reduction or limitations on the use of lawn or turf.
2. Promotion of site-specific landscaping design that decreases stormwater runoff or water
used for irrigation.
3. Preservation and use of healthy trees that have a reasonable water requirement or are
resistant to dry soil conditions.
4. Elimination of or regulation of ponds, pools, and other features that promote unnecessary
water evaporation.
5. Reduction of yard waste.
6. Use of irrigation systems best adapted to provide the optimal amount of water to the plants
being irrigated.
It should be noted that most of the items (1, 2, 3, and 6) related to principles of sustainable
landscaping have already been adopted into the zoning code and the city has a yard waste program
that diverts yard waste from going to the landfill and instead converts yard waste to mulch. The
only item the city has not addressed is item 4.
State code also requires the city to consider how implementing the land use element and water
use and preservation element may affect water supply planning, including drinking water source
and storage capacity; and water distribution planning (mostly infrastructure).
The state code also says that the commission may include recommendations for additional water
demand reduction strategies that include:
A. Creating a water budget associated with a particular type of development. For example,
the city caps daily water use for any single use at 200,000 gallons per day.
B. Adopting new or modified lot size, configuration, and landscaping standards will reduce
water demand for new single-family development. This is one of the issues addressed in
the R-1 study that led to the city council initiating code changes to the R-1 (and other low
density zoning districts) earlier this year.
C. Providing incentives to reduce water use for existing developments, such as modification
of landscaping and installation of low use water fixtures’
D. Adopted water concurrency standards requiring that adequate water supplies and
facilities are or will be in place for new development.
NEXT STEPS
This is an information briefing for the commission and no action is required. Planning and Public
Utilities are currently analyzing water use and land use data to identify policies to satisfy the state code
requirements. The anticipation is that the policies will be added to Plan Salt Lake and those updates
will be taken through public review before the formal adoption process. It should be noted that many
of these policies are already found in various planning documents, such as the city’s water conservation
File Number 3 January 12, 2022
plan, or have already been added to the zoning code and are requirements for new development and
additions over certain sizes.
The Planning Commission will be briefed on the progress over the next 3-4 months before a public
hearing and recommendation to the city council.
Helpful Links:
Water Use and Preservation Element of General Plan (Utah Code Requirements (10-9a-403)
Salt Lake City Water Conservation Plan:
Plan Salt Lake
Water Conservation Plans State Resources