Grand County hired SCJ Studio to prepare a comprehensive land-use plan – the first for the County – and audit its development regulations to ensure consistency between land use policy and zoning regulations. Grand County, home to Moab, Utah, is a typical “gateway” community. Increasing tourism, a growing vacation home market, and a declining agricultural sector transform the community’s economy and character. The result is an increased focus on access to the region’s natural outdoor recreational amenities and a drastic increase in land values as the market reacts to the demand for short-term accommodations.
The land-use plan’s primary objectives are to manage the various transformative influences, increase housing attainability for community residents, and redefine the shape, type, and character of land use development to better respect the area’s natural surroundings and the needs of those who have lived there for generations. The County elected to use “scenario planning” as its methodology, responding to the extent of land within the County under federal or state jurisdiction. Only four percent of the County’s land area is privately held, minimizing the County’s influence in determining its direction. Scenario planning recognizes that the region’s future context is largely beyond the County’s control, allowing the community to consider an array of alternative futures and then develop policy in response.
The land-use plan favors compact development patterns to make housing more affordable to local residents and narrows opportunities for single-family or other permanent housing to become part of the short-term rental pool. The scenario planning approach demonstrated that regardless of the future Grand County experiences, this development approach would be the most resilient while also corresponding to overarching community values. We then worked with staff to audit comprehensive plan policy and zoning regulations for consistency, targeting specific updates and establishing a framework for upcoming neighborhood-based planning.