Days after Utah Governor Herbert declared Utah was in a drought, KPCW received an e-mail that a Kimball Junction business was installing grass in a sagebrush steppe.
Summit County Community Development Director Patt Putt says that the code for landscape planning is fairly broad.
“Every project needs to have a strategy and a plan for revegetation.” Putt continued, “In terms of what that vegetation landscape plan requires, the current code on the Snyderville Basin side is fairly broad. In terms of water usage, some of the feedback that we’ve gotten back from council, as recent as our last joint meeting between the council and basin planning commission, was to go back and take a look at our landscaping requirements for that specific reason and we’re going to be doing that.”
Although Putt did not know the specifics of why the Kimball Junction business was installing the grass he said it might be part of a revegetation plan.
“There’s no prohibitions on lawns at this point.” Putt explained, “There’s no specific criteria on the number or the types or the species of plants, but, again, I think we’re going to be going back as part of an overall sustainability review of the code take a look at that. One of the key hallmarks of that is going to be can we be more smart, wiser and efficient with our water usage.”
Putt says that the Basin Planning Commission will definitely be taking a look at amending the code.
“Years ago, when I was in Park City we had a specific xeriscape ordinance.” Putt said, “I think we’re going to go back and study what more water conservation landscaping objectives look like in the basin. There’s no question that we’re going to have to go back and re-work our codes to address that.”
