Salt Lake County adopts 'monster home' rules

(Deseret News) A nearly three-year long struggle to craft regulations to curb the construction of "monster homes" in Millcreek Township came to a close as the Salt Lake County Council approved new zoning rules for the east-side community.

The council's 5-4 decision Tuesday followed party lines on the Democratic-controlled board, with freshman Councilwoman Jani Iwamoto taking a lead position as the representative for Millcreek residents.

Iwamoto proposed some modifications earlier this month to a Millcreek Planning Commission plan, but retracted most of those changes, saying the two years of work done by the commission resulted in the best solution.

"Initially, we were trying to come up with different alternatives, put in things to get greater height and included another option with the floor-area-ratio plan," she said. "It became clear that we were doing the work the Millcreek Planning Commission had already done."

Iwamoto did suggest some incremental height changes to the original commission proposal, but the plan is essentially the same, and one not likely to calm the rancor among township residents who have stood divided on the issue since it was first broached in February 2007.

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