Need for affordable housing runs up against Utah zoning laws

By ZAKARY SONNTAG
Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A growing chorus of experts say middle housing, a class of multifamily housing options that falls between single-family homes and large apartment complexes, is a vital instrument in the fight against unaffordable housing. But the Deseret News reports that middle housing has a big problem: Zoning in most residential areas doesn’t allow it. That’s the big takeaway from a new report from the Utah Foundation, which challenges the wisdom of the prevailing 20th-century zoning practices that separate commercial and residential areas while catering to automobile-oriented development, making the case that zoning laws, predominantly under the jurisdiction of local governments, is hampering affordability.