Salt Lake officials promoting sustainability

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City's founders envisioned a compact, self-sufficient community. Instead, the city known as the Crossroads of the West is as defined by urban sprawl as any major metropolitan area in the region.

But that could be changing, thanks to an overhaul of city code spearheaded by Mayor Ralph Becker.

The city hopes to pass new measures that encourage residents to use solar and wind energy and developers to build near transit centers. They're also putting more money toward community gardens. Becker said the wide-ranging, long-term plan would likely put Salt Lake City at the national forefront of sustainability planning.

"This is a comprehensive effort that looks to achieve both short-term and future plans," Becker said. "It's a fundamental reworking that's aimed at recognizing both resource conservation and quality of life for this and successive generations."

Some ideas are as simple as allowing residents to put a rain barrel under a downspout, grow a few vegetables in their front yard or allow solar panels on historic homes. Other rule changes could rework complex commercial zoning rules and create new, eco-conscious requirements for new buildings, like limiting turf landscaping or mandating energy-saving designs.

Barriers to addressing both simple and complex sustainable practices were identified in a study conducted by Denver-based Clarion Associates, a national planning and zoning firm. Clarion managing director Chris Duerksen said much of the work is about recognizing and taking a common-sense approach to regulation, one that creates options and outperforms outdated code that may not apply to current circumstances.

"These changes will shape what this community is going to look like," Duerksen said. Clarion's evaluation will help "get the codes out of the way of people who want to live sustainably."

The changes will likely move through the municipal government process in batches of proposals at approximate three-month intervals. The first package, currently under review by the city planning commission, is aimed at transit-oriented development.

Salt Lake Councilman Carl?ton Christensen said while some groups have advocated a more profound "anti-planning" approach that would eliminate all zoning rules, that's an idea that doesn't apply practically to urban neighborhoods.

"Creating a bigger window of self-determination for property owners is a plus," Christensen said. "But we live next to each other, and there continues to be a need for some regulation."